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      08-18-2016, 11:09 AM   #45
carlr
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Hi folks!

A small update on what has been done in the recent days. There will be a short period now during which I will be unable to work on the build due to various reasons (e.g. work etc.)

I have continued with the speaker wiring. I put together two cable lenghts containing the wiring for the midbass, midrange and tweeters per side, in the trunk these were terminated using quick connectors to enable lifting out the rack if necessary:



Both cable lenghts (excluding the right midbass) are then routed in the sill on the driver's side. Bundled and secured to existing anchor points or existing cabling approximately every 10 cm:









And on the passenger side:







I then continued running the rca's from the processor to the amp rack, started out by labelling the indvidual pairs:









The next challenge was to solve the securing of the amp rack in the tub. I made two new angled end pieces that I secured in existing mounting holes in the rim around the tub:





Not that these parts will ever be seen, but not the final finish here. With all of this in place so far I testfitted the amps. Unfortunately I did not have enough speaker cable and techflex, so will redo the speaker wiring from the top amp to the quick connects.











With the amps test fitted I can now start measuring for covers and also reinstall some trunk panels etc. Following this, I will need to mount the midbass speakers unde the front seats, run speaker cable into the doors and also mount the midrange and tweeters and also some small stuff

Cheers!
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      08-18-2016, 04:18 PM   #46
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coming out great i must say !
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      08-19-2016, 12:43 PM   #47
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coming out great i must say !
Getting there, slowly but steadily
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      08-20-2016, 01:51 PM   #48
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Hi folks,

Weather wasn't great today, so had to focus on stuff that could be done indoors, more on that in a later post.

Got the last few bits and pieces sorted in the trunk and decided to remount the panels to make the trunk usable again:









I reinstalled the OEM floor but this will be replaced with custom made panels/covers later on. If I wrap the sub grill in carpet i guess this will be a quite stealthy install?
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      08-21-2016, 06:58 PM   #49
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carlr View Post
Hi folks,


Had aftermarket audio systems in most of my other vehicles and never considered having it done to my GC since I ordered it with the HK BUT this has me re-considering!

carlr....if want a plane ticket to the Hawaii to do an install, let me know! LOL Keep up the great work!
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      08-22-2016, 11:52 AM   #50
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MidLifeX View Post
carlr....if want a plane ticket to the Hawaii to do an install, let me know! LOL Keep up the great work!
Where do I sign?

I have always chosen to go aftermarket. I haven't always competed, actually I had a twenty years long hiatus from the whole scene, but still had decent aftermarket systems in my cars. I only just recently picked the interest to compete back up with my previous car in which I did a full SQ install and took some events. Hoping this install will be finished before the season ends so I can get it judged at least once. That will give some pointers on what needs to be tweaked and optimized during the winter break.
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      08-26-2016, 02:22 AM   #51
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Hi folks,

A small update, the last one in a while since I wont have the possibility to work in the build for a couple of weeks.

I have had a clear vision on the location and mounting of the DRC for the 6to8 since day one of this build. For me it is important with a proper location so that it can be managed safely and easily.

I decided to mount it below the AC controls in the center stack. This being an OEM build, vision was to make it look stock but also be 100% reversible, so an OEM cover panel was sourced from BMW. This obviously also gave the bonus of providing the right basic shape but also the mounting locations. In addition to the panel I fabricated a frame of two layers of 16mm MDF that were glued together:



A hole mathching the size of the frame width was made in the panel and secured to the center stack after which the MDF frame was angled and secured with hot glue:





I then moved on to build up some softer shapes using a few rounds of Rage Gold, did a test mount again in the car to see if it played out well with the center stack:







Pleased with the overall shape and angle it was sanded a few rounds and then primed before a final light sanding:



Of course the DRC must be secured from the back as well. I also wanted to avoid stress on the cable and made a small cut out in the back:



Next up in the process was vinyl, something that turned out not so easy but result was alright given my poor wrapping skills:



And test mounted in the car (the DRC is just slotted in, not secured):





Feels good to have this squared away
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      09-04-2016, 02:19 PM   #52
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Hi folks!

Could get cracking at the install again yesterday, so made progress on the midbass install

I started by removing the front seats and then the OEM underseat "sub boxes" (look at those monster magnets )


With speakers out I started on dampening the boxes. These boxes are vented into the sills but also into open air it seems:


With the boxes dampened i started fitting the baffles and mouting rings in order to maximise the use of the available depth of the boxes:


I glued the baffles and mounting rings together and also rounded the backend of the baffle to ensure proper breathing for the speakers:


The MDF was coated to protect it from the elements followed by speaker cables that were sleaved as all other cables:




And with the midbasses (Gladen Aero******* and grills mounted:




And refitted in the car:


And with the OEM grills remounted:


Since the new speakers are deeper I had to use longer screws to refit the OEM grills and use a few square washers under the seat brackets. Another part of the build squared away
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      09-14-2016, 01:55 PM   #53
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carlr View Post
Where do I sign?
Just say the word and we can make the arrangments BTW, if you don't mind, can you PM what the total cost of equipment would be for something that you are doing? Or you can post it up here in case others are interested

Quote:
Originally Posted by carlr View Post
Hi folks,

A small update, the last one in a while since I wont have the possibility to work in the build for a couple of weeks.



Feels good to have this squared away
Outstanding craftsmanship!!
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      09-16-2016, 12:03 PM   #54
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Hi folks,

I figured I should summarize the completion of the front doors and routing of speaker cables. This is one of the parts of an install I don't enjoy that much, especially in modern cars. The running of speaker cables, especially if you want to be somewhat serious, is often quite a challenge through very tight molex connectors

I will cover of the drivers side door, but the same steps were of course applied to the passenger side door with one major difference. On the passenger side there is a large electronics box mounted in such a way that it makes it difficult to access the inner door molex plug. On the drivers side, just unmounting the bracket for the hood opening will give enough space. Other than that the procedure is more or less the same.

Started out by removing the interior panels and the bracket for the hood release followed by removal of the door panel:


OEM midrange and tweeter housing:


Once the door panel is off, the sail panel tweeter housing can be removed. The OEM tweeter is quite neat and shallow and snaps into a mounting ring from the back of the panel. The Aerospace tweeter is a lot bigger, especially depth wise, mounting it from the back was not an option:


I discussed a bit back and forth with my shop guy and we agreed it had to be mounted from the front. For this, the sail panel needs to be disassembled completely:


In order to get the tweeter angled properly I had to dremel out parts of the panel:


The tweeter was fixated using butyl and the back of the panel reinforced before the individual panel parts were mounted back together again:


With the tweeter mounting squared away I jumped on to the next step, routing of speaker cables...

The molex connector was separated from both sides to be accessible. There was a nice little hole at the bottom of the connector which looked promising but turned out to be too narrow to pass the cables through:


Well, fortune favors the brave


I won't say it was nice and easy to get the cables routed through but eventually they were through Cables coming from the back of the car properly labeled:


Cables going out to the door:


The cables were terminated and secured using zip ties up under the dash:


Before mounting the baffle for the 3,5" Aerospace, i applied some dampening to the door sheet metal:


Tweeter cable termination. Transparent heatshrink to isolate the connectors:


Midrange cable termination:


And cables secured and everything fitted:
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      09-26-2016, 02:17 AM   #55
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Hi,

Well the build must go on even though I have a lot of challenges right now. The system plays quite well but requires further tuning and I have an issue with channel 7+8 out from the 6to8, so the way things are configured right now I have no level, EQ or time alignment on the sub

I managed to almost complete the trunk over the weekend. I have had a fairly clear view of what I wanted to achieve from the start and I got pretty close in the end.

Started out by transferring the shape of the OEM trunk floor to a sheet of MDF and also butchered (very nice and easy to allow for remounting ) the brackets and handle which were routered into the MDF piece:


Test fitting the piece in the car:


I then planned and sketched the layout onto the MDF:


Since I wanted to achieve some depth and also be able to fit additional covers for an OEM look, I chose to fabricate an additional MDF sheet that mounts from underneath:


Just like in the Q7 I wanted some LED lighting effect in this build as well, so I proceeded to route a clouded acrylic surround which was mounted to the lower MDF sheet to allow for an edge lit effect:


The pieces together, difficult to see the acrylic in this picture:


Right about here, I figured the lower piece was a bit dull / lacking imagination, and since I don't have any smart templates from mobile solutions or anything like that, I simply routered some parallell grooves hoping it would give the piece a more fabricated look


Not sure why i didn't document any of the following steps, but probably pressured for time and what not Anyway, what was done and not documented was:
  • The upper piece was upholstered in trunk liner
  • The lower piece was upholstered in vinyl
  • LED strips were cut to length, soldered together and fixed to the acrylic surrounds
  • I had already from the start prepared for the LED lighting, so had already ran power and ground which was hooked up and fused

And finally this is how it turned out in the car, as mentioned in a previous post, the colour matching is better IRL than comes out in the pictures. It is more a different texture to the mat which captures the light differently. Apologise for the crappy low light pictures, iPhone as a camera during night time is not a good solution but at least it glows nicely


What remains to be done in the trunk is to fabricate the grill for the sub and then upholster it in the same trunk liner mat.
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      09-26-2016, 06:10 PM   #56
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WOW WOW WOW. You have some serious skills!
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      09-26-2016, 10:47 PM   #57
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Love those Zero Amps! Awesome build log! You should post it in Diyma if you haven't already.
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      09-28-2016, 06:56 AM   #58
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STFU

Nice job

I have been looking for some nice quality vinyl like you used here.
Could you please share where you bought it from?

Thanks
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      09-28-2016, 07:15 AM   #59
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fooljam View Post
STFU

Nice job

I have been looking for some nice quality vinyl like you used here.
Could you please share where you bought it from?

Thanks
I by all my upholstery stuff from Top n' Trim Shop in Helsingborg, Sweden. They seem to ship internationally as well:

Top n Trim Shop

The vinyl I normally use is called "Superstretch" and be purchased here. The article number is: 08x1273. It is really nice to work with and a good match to BMW interior leather.
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      09-30-2016, 12:14 PM   #60
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Nothing more rewarding than doing it yourself. Beautiful.
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      10-01-2016, 01:19 AM   #61
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Quote:
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Nothing more rewarding than doing it yourself. Beautiful.
Thanks!
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      10-01-2016, 10:55 AM   #62
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Hi,

Quick update on today's progress. Protective grill for the subwoofer was today's objective. Started by taking some key measurements from the subwoofer baffle and then proceeded to rig up some spare pieces of MDF i had to router the grill ring:


The routering resulted in an MDF ring with a routered groove on the front face for mounting the grill material, here testfitted in the baffle:


I then cut the material for the grill and mounted it to the MDF ring using AC glue:


The whole thing was sprayed to protect it from the environment before being upholstered in the same carpet as the other trunk parts:


And the finished product fitted in the car:

That's all for now
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      10-02-2016, 08:37 AM   #63
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Amazing attention to detail!
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      10-02-2016, 12:35 PM   #64
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Amazing attention to detail!
Thank you sir!
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      10-03-2016, 02:39 AM   #65
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carlr View Post
And the finished product fitted in the car:

That's all for now
If you ever decide to mass produce this sub box, let me know....I'll be the first one in line! Great job. Love the way its coming together.....clean and classy!
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      10-03-2016, 12:22 PM   #66
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MidLifeX View Post
If you ever decide to mass produce this sub box, let me know....I'll be the first one in line! Great job. Love the way its coming together.....clean and classy!
Given the amount of work that went into it I highly doubt it

Thanks for the kind words on the install, appreciated.
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