My Weekend Of Hard Work!

[HuH]

Well it's been a really long and irritating process, but all my car audio gear is now in the car and fully functional! It's a good feeling.

The components are:

- Pioneer DEH3050UB Headunit

- Hertz ESK-165 6.5" Splits (Front)

- Kenwood 6x9s (Rear)

- Alpine MDR-450 Amplifier (4x70 RMS)

- Kicker CVR12 Sub & Sealed Enclosure

So I bought the headunit and replaced that a few days ago after first buying the car, just so that I had something that looked like it fitted in with the rest of the car. It's got the right coloured lights to match the dash. I didn't take any photos of that, as it was straight forward and we all know what it looks like.

I actually haven't taken as many photos as I should've. The wiring for the amplifier was pretty well done, if I do say so myself. But alas, there's no pics. Anyway, you'll get the idea.

First up I had to make the mounting pieces to go on the doors to hold the splits up the front. Didn't take too long as I based it on the diagram found here. The mounting points are different for every car and even further they're different from passenger door to drivers door. Reason being, I think, is that they're just drilled in roughly the right area with self tappers by whoever happens to be building the car in the manufacturing plant. Anyway, cut them out and mounted them up.

Next I had to run the wiring to the door through the standard loom. I cut a couple of corners here and just ran them through the rubber grommets next to the loom. Saved a lot of time and cursing and works perfectly well. Then I mounted the tweeter behind the wing mirror at the top of the door aimed across at the drivers seat (the way it should be done, with the drivers side tweeter aimed at the passenger).

Then drilled the holes for the woofer and mounted it up in the new spacer plate that I'd made earlier.

Repeated this process on the drivers side and then ran some dodgy ghetto backyard specialist wiring to give it a test run.

All working sweet, so I put the door trims back onto the doors having used split pins in the lugs on the backs of the speaker grilles to make sure they wouldn't pop out. So far so good, it all went back together without too much trouble (a little tricky with the tweeters on the corner pieces behind the mirrors, but definitely doable). Here's a pic of the drivers side completed. You can only tell because of the tweeter being there.

Next up I wanted to mount the amplifier. I didn't want to mount in the boot like I normally would. Instead I opted for under the drivers seat. There was enough clearance and it makes a nice change for me. I ran the power cable in through the wheel arch from the battery, the wiring for the splits ran down the middle under the centre console and then under the carpet to the amp. The RCAs did the same (with the extra length coiled and secured under the centre console). I then grounded the amp with a short length of cable to a filed down spot where the seat mounts to the floor. It all works an absolute treat now that it's tuned and I don't need to touch it! It's powering the front splits and the sub in the boot, with the headunit powering the rear speakers in the parcel shelf.

Finishing touch was to run another length of cable under the carpet and up into the boot for the sub. Easily done and capped it all off nicely. The sound from the whole setup is top notch, in my opinion. Very pleased with it.

All in all, a satisfying days work. This is probably the most attention to detail that I've ever given to an install, and it's given me good piece of mind about. I know that everything is mounted properly and secure, and that it's not going to stop working anytime soon!

Thought you guys might like to check out my progress..

[siddr20]

Very nice dude

Hertz ESK-165 6.5" Splits (Front)

Few bucks more you should have got the HSKS!!!

I love mine Great midbass and tweeters sound awesome!!

Also any reason as to why you got 6*9s in the rear?

Edited May 24, 2008 by siddr20

[infamous_t]

Congrats, its very satisfying to do your own work

[HuH]

Very nice dude

Few bucks more you should have got the HSKS!!!

I love mine Great midbass and tweeters sound awesome!!

Also any reason as to why you got 6*9s in the rear?

Thanks mate. I've had the ESKs for a long time (~4 years?) and love them. The only thing I'd get to replace them would be a set of HSKs, but they were out of my price range at the time. There was a set going cheap on here that I nearly bought, but I'm satisfied for now.

My preference is not to have 6x9s in the back, but I don't have much choice with this install. They were in there when I bought the car and the parcel shelf was badly cut to fit them in, so I've just left them and tuned around them. I hate overlapping bass from 6x9s and subwoofers, but it's not too bad with the current tune.

[bloodsword27]

so took you like two whole days? sh1tz.....gna take me ages to mount splits, new deck, 2 amps, 6x9's, sub and also make a custom box in roughly 36hrs.... looking good mate!

[HuH]

Hah! No, no. It wasn't 2 whole days, it just ended up spreading across both. You could do this in a day easily. I was taking my time getting it done well, just so I had peace of mind.

That's a pretty big install you've listed. Best of luck with it mate, get some pics up once it's done.