Time to get the FD ICEd up...

[elford_tim]

Started working on my stealth ICE install in my FD last weekend. I\'m mostly at the head scratching stage at the moment but in order to document it, I\'ve started a thread over at TalkAudio where my sort is tolerated . Sorry, I\'m a tad lazy and really don\'t have the time to update it in two places.

Anyway, I\'m trying to go for a SQ install[1]. Nothing fancy, no PS3s, widescreen monitors or any of that stuff.

The current plan is to fit a set of high-quality component speakers into the doors and A-pillar covers, the amps under the rear strut brace (still working out exactly how), replace the rear joke, err, seat with bins and put small 6.5" subs into the bins. Actually I\'m tempted to try and see if I can squeeze 8" subs in there instead as JL Audio makes both 6.5" and 8" subs that work with very small enclosures.

Everything should be hidden - I don\'t like having this stuff on display as to not tempt the scrotes - and sound "pretty good" to keep me entertained on longer journeys.

[1] That\'s Sound Quality install, ie something that sounds really good as opposed to something loud enough to wake up the neighbours. The latter would be a really bad idea \'cos next door is a cemetery :rolleyes:. In other words, I\'d try to ensure that I\'ve got more kW under the bonnet than in the boot.

[LRP]

be iteresting to see how you get on as i struggled to hide things in the rex every spot seems to be spoken for get some progress pics up

[LRP]

be iteresting to see how you get on as i struggled to hide things in the rex every spot seems to be spoken for get some progress pics up

[elford_tim]

The thread on TalkAudio is exactly that, one for progress pics and all that...

[elford_tim]

Well, I\'ve decided that given both MRC and TalkAudio are using the same bulletin board system, I should be able to do a C&P jobbie between the boards. So from hereon I\'ll update both this thread and the one on TalkAudio. Unless I forget .

Here\'s today\'s installment then

I was one of those weekends where you don\'t make any progress on pretty much anything so in order to at least get somewhere I tried to mock up the mounting position of the amps.

The main points here were obviously to ensure that they stay hidden unless I want them to become visible and also not take up too much space that would be useful otherwise. So no false floor in the boot in this case!

Fortunately it looks like there is just about enough space under the rear strut brace to get the amps in, at least when I\'m using my SM60 as the ST100 hasn\'t shown up yet. I hope that it\'s not that much wider compared to the SM60, otherwise the power distribution block won\'t fit anymore.



It\'s not that easy to see in the picture but due the way the rear seat slopes, the amps actually do disappear under the strut brace so I\'m not loosing too much boot space.



Of course the cables would be routed in a slightly different fashion . The only part I don\'t like very much about this mounting position is that the Miniblock is actually touching the boot carpet. There isn\'t much space, especially not with the substantial connectors on the KnuKoncepts RCA leads I\'m using, as is visible in this picture:



I guess I could turn the amps a little so they\'re not parallel to the floor, like the Miniblock to the left and the ST100 to the right but unfortunately that\'d move the clearance issue to the ST100 unless I turn both to the left a little. May look a bit odd, though.

I\'m not quite sure yet where to mount the subs. I\'ve just picked up a set of rear bins that replace the rear seat. The bins themselves look fairly big and may just hold enough volume for me to mount something like a pair of JL Audio 6.5" subs in them.

We\'ll see, at the moment I still have to work out how to mount the amps without setting fire to the carpet when the rear seat is folded up.

Unfortunately I won\'t have the car next weekend so I probably won\'t be updating this thread for a couple of weeks until I get it back with.

[elford_tim]

Finally, some progress again. After cunningly preparing for today (mainly by buying some 6mm MDF and some 12mm plywood), I set about the speaker install again. That\'s getting more urgent given the ugly purpleness of the existing speakers (not to mention that they\'re broken anyway):



Anyway, I pulled out the original mounting baffle. Part of the problem is the weather protection cover on the back of it as this severely limits the mounting depth:



Mr J. Hacksaw made short work of the cover and full of anticipation I tried the PHD woofer. Unfortunately with rather annoying results:



So I went back to the JL Audios I had in my CRX, which were indeed a much better fit:




Unfortunately after trying to mount them it became obvious that the magnet was touching the window:



So I set about to make a set of MDF baffles to get the necessary clearance using my usual method of jigsawing not very round circles. Actually, make that two sets of baffles - brainiac here had kind of overlooked the little detail that it\'s a lot easier to go and cut out the inner hole first if you\'re using a jigsaw, but pretty hairy if you\'re trying this after cutting out the outer shape. I really need to go and buy a circle cutting gadget for my router. Anyway, even if they\'re not quite circular and after another trip to Wickes to buy bigger mounting screws, the speaker finally fits:



And I can now even fit the doorcard properly and it will just clear the speaker. Looks like I need to grind off a little plastic from the bottom of the speaker grille to ensure it stays that way. It\'s not particularly easy to see but this is with the doorcard bolted back on, as opposed to having a 6-7mm gap as on the first picture with the speaker fitted:



After spending a lot of time thinking about how to mount the amps I decided that putting them onto the back of the rear seat upright wasn\'t that much of a good idea - it\'d prevent me from loading longer items in there and with the seat back in the upright position the amps would be rather vulnerable to any kind of stuff flying about in the boot.

So I decided that I was going to mount them in the boot, at an angle to give them some protection so in contrast to most boot builds, the amps are angled outwards and not inwards. After some measuring and scribbling on plywood, I ended up with a bunch of wedges that looked promising - I had mocked up a sensible elevation of the amp in the boot to ensure that everything would work as intended before I cut the wedges:



Some more plywood cutting, glueing and screwing and we\'ve got the first amp mounting platform, shown here in its intended location:



Rinse, repeat and we\'ve got a Genny mocked up on the other side of the boot:



Both amps in their rough positions - they\'re not bolted to the mounting platforms yet as the platforms still need some work:




I need to go to Wickes tomorrow and get some thin-ish plywood so I can make a floor cover that I can bolt the platforms to. That way, the amps should be secure enough and not move about in the boot. Of course there\'s the small matter of the spare tyre so I\'ll probably have to make the floor part out of two pieces of ply that I can separate if I need to get underneath.

[elford_tim]

I had realised this morning that had never bothered to check if the RCA cables are actually long enough to reach the amps in the back of the boot as I originally intended to mount them on the back of the rear seat. Fortunately they are long enough...

First, I made a cardboard template of the shape:



Not looking too shabby, amp platform seems to fit reasonably well, too, but there isn\'t a lot of space in the corner. Oh well.



At this point another trip to Wickes was necessary as I didn\'t have enough plywood left over. Got some 9mm for the floor, should be strong enough and I have to leave enough space for some foam backing to stop it from rattleing.

Anyway, I measured, cut and noticed that as expected that it wasn\'t possible to get the new floor in in a single piece. So I measured again, cut the floor in half and ended up with this:



You can see that I made it a little bit too wide but that was actually a good thing as I was in for a workout with my plane file to get all the corners right. After several attempts of planing, trying and planing again, the floor fit (well, I also had to cut off another 4mm but hey):



Bolted the amps to the platforms to determine exactly where I can put them, then glued and screwed the platforms to the floor, resulting in this:




I think it\'s pretty decent for a first attempt although I\'m not a 100% happy with the way the platforms fit - I could measure all I want but still have the impression that they\'re not really parallel to the rear of the boot. It doesn\'t look this bad in reality as the wideangle lens on the camera exagerates the \'crookedness\'. Oh well, I\'m not doing a show install here and as already mentioned this is actually the first time I\'m doing this much woodwork on an install.

So far I\'m pretty pleased with the progress although I would\'ve been a lot more pleased if I hadn\'t managed to drop the Miniblock on one of the Feed carbon fibre sill covers and chipped the cover :reallymad.

[elford_tim]

.. and another progress update, pics to follow tomorrow hopefully.

I fitted the speakers to the doors and the tweets to the A-pillars (in a provisional manner at the moment) and then wired up the ST100. Took a little while as I was also doing other stuff (as you do) but got it all wired up eventually.

So I\'m sitting in the car playing a little with the tweeter position until I found one that does sound good enough for me (quite high up actually, but then again the instrument binnacle is in the way). At the same time I\'m fettleing the gain on the amp to what I\'d consider a safe setting as per Genesis installation instructions. And to check on the progress, I\'m changing CDs from time to time. As you do.

Keep in mind that I just had the headunit back from Alpine a couple of weeks ago as it had problems loading CDs, which they repaired. It hadn\'t even been out of its box until I put it in the car earlier today.

This time, it ejected a CD making a slightly funny noise. Pressed the eject button again to see if it would make the same noise again, nope. So I put in another CD, which went in smoothly...

Only that the h/u now doesn\'t recognise the fact that there\'s a CD in there and with hindsight it probably went in a tad too smooth. Hey ho, back to Alpine we go. Which is especially annoying given that I just sold my spare Alpine and have to drive the car to Switzerland in a fortnight...

[Teighto]

Look good mate looking forward to the finished Install pic\'s