Aftermarket stereo install finished (56kkiller)
 

Here's some pics and some tips from what I found out.

The before... note the crappy paper speakers. Take the front seat out... takes 5 minutes and will save you much stress.

Attachment 10552

I put in a 36sq ft "bulk pack" of dynomat extreme. Good coverage on the exterior surfaces, then just randomly put some on the interior sheetmetal layer. They want you to think you need to cover it wall to wall, but you get 95% the benefit with 50% the coverage. Take care with the plastic film on the doors - you can reattach it with the same goopy black sealant that is on it.
Attachment 10553


See the inside? There's another bigger hole on the bottom half of the door (under the plastic in the pic), so it's really not that bad to get inside. The outer sheetmetal is pretty much one big open space to cover with dynamat.
Attachment 10554

Speakers
 

I don't know why my pictures are tall and skinny, but oh well.

Speakers both front and rear are really good sized for deep 6.5". I just made spacers to bring the overall height from the mounting surface up to match that of the original plastic speaker surrounds. Then I put on the grills and some adhesive neoprene. This mated up to a ridge on the inside of the door panel that formed a very nice seal - as well as preloading the panel against vibration. It worked very well, and it's very quiet with very good bass response. The only thing I DIDN'T do, would be to construct closed boxes out of the doors. The holes in the doors are huge, and the door panel sticks into the hole. It would take more skill than I have to box them in. It might be worth it though.

Rear door Inifiniti Kappas (I later decided not to even power these)... but the're there.
Attachment 10548

Front A/D/S A6is. Not the good space for the crossovers. Big crossovers might not fit, but these were perfect.
Attachment 10549


Showing the neoprene gasket I was talking about.
Attachment 10550

And of course, tweeters. These may have been able to hide inside the pod, but it would have been pretty tough to mount solidly. I think they look pretty good, even with the overlap on the stock grill/holes. Looks better in person than closeup with flash.
Attachment 10551

Wiring
 

Wiring went OK. I spend 80% of my time wiring in a JL Audio Cleansweep, which I wasn't happy with, so I pulled it out.

Main amp wire.... run through the grommet with the A/C hoses. I just cut a little slit, then soaped up the wire and slid it in. Went through easily, but finding it behind the dash took a little contorting. Be very careful if slitting it, not to cut your a/c hoses. I ran it down the drivers side, and it tucked in nicely (4gauge).

NOTE: I got a 20' wire and it was BARELY long enough to go to my amps. It's a big car. Don't get the 17' kits off ebay if you are going as far back as I am.

I had tons of noise problems with the signal wires. I have pretty high gains and decent power on the fronts, so it really blows things up. I think the fuel pump power runs down the passenger side sill, and this was causing noise. You may do better on drivers side, but I had already run power and wasn't redoing it. There's a big wiring harness running side to side, under the passenger seat. That seemed to make noise for me too. I ended up running it down the center console, then up over the rear seat A/C duct (which brought it 3" up over that wiring harness), then made a groove in the styrofoam in the rear seat floor. This ended up pretty quiet, and tucked away safe.

The Aux in plug in the center console comes out in one of the plugs to the oem radio. So I tied into that and fed the aux in on my head unit.
Attachment 10544

Attachment 10545


See the bundle ziptied to the A/C duct?
Attachment 10546

The Aux in from the center console comes out here... Sorry for the crappy picture (and info), but the key wires are Red/Orange/Brown. I just checked continuity on the plug till I figured it out. I can't remember which is which, but orange and red were next to eachother, so it seemed like brown would be ground - but it wasn't ;) I think orange (75% sure). I just tinned my wires and stuck them in the connector. It works well. This is all I listen to.
Attachment 10547

Head unit
 

We've all seen the saga of the head unit by now. It came out OK, and I will make it look a little cleaner in weeks to come - or replace with double-din at some point. Here's a pic showing the old dash peice lined up in front of the head... bummer!

Attachment 10541

Attachment 10542

Attachment 10543

Amps and heat
 

I put the amps in the rear. I had the crappy 3rd row seat, which made it come out not as clean (carpet cutouts). I'm not really into the show though, and I cover it up anyway.
Soundstream Reference 644s
Zed Audio 'The Duece"
BTW, the head is a Nakamichi CD400 with a dead CD player that I'm just using as a preamp for my mp3 player (iRiver H140)

Had to cool the enclosure as it's pretty tight with that second amp being much larger than I anticipated. Two 80mm cpu fans... I can barely hear them if I mute everything and try really hard. They are on a relay and turn on with the amps. I'm not a wiring nazi, but everything is secure. The loose speaker wire is for the sub which I move around alot. The computer connector in the center is for the fans (on the lid). Yes, BTW, those are sparkles in the felt - not dirty. LOL.

So here's the rest and some finish shots ( I'm going to clean up and finish that plywood cover and maybe paint the fan leuvers gray next weekend). That grate is very sturdy and will screw down to the plywood cover - so cargo area is perfectly useful.

Overall, I think it sounds excellent and I'm very pleased. It was a bit of a pain, but turned out OK.

Attachment 10537

Attachment 10538

Attachment 10539

Attachment 10540

RE: Amps and heat
 

Wow that is a lot of work!! Looking good though. I guess you may have forgot... but HOW DOES IT SOUND?? ;)

RE: Amps and heat
 

Awesome job but why slack on the house vent?? I seen you said you were going to paint it but its killing me.

RE: Amps and heat
 

Awesome job man, very well done :) is the dynomat any useful? ive thought about getting it bout i had some doubts

RE: Speakers
 

Congrat!You put some hours into!
I understand you like the Nakamichi unit,but the Alpine new unit without cd looks so much better .Or maybe you want to keep the old cd player as theft-deterrent!:) Plus,using usb connection to the mp3 player would benefit I guess in regards to the noise you encountered.

RE: Speakers
 

Heh... yeah the heating vent is a little bummer. I was going to have smaller cutouts on both sides - but the silver amp was soooo thick that I didn't think much air would go over it. This blows right down on the amps and cools really well. Maybe I can get a carbon fiber grill ;)

Abercrombie - It does sound great ! Boxing the doors would help a little, asI can feel the door panels move under real heavy mid-bass (front woofers). That only happens beyond showoff volumes anyway... and it would be very hard to do. I can set it loud enough to hear perfectly clearly on the highway with all windows open and it's still very tight.

Kaede - the dynamat definately made a difference. I ranout (36sqft) before the floor, and it could probably use a little there, but the side panels were the worst (very big flat sheetmetal peices). I only really hear road noise over coarse pavement with the 18" wheel/tires. Not bad though. It would be interesting to do an A-B comparison to a stock one to see how much quieter the dynamat made it. The doors sound cool when the close though - thud [8D]

Cutenoua - I'm definately into the USB player! I would buy the current kenwood double-din, except the connector comes out the front. I want it inback so I can put in a hard drive in the glovebox. Pioneer has a good one, but only single-din. Also, they all (alpine and eclipse too) are fairly new with the usb controlling software, and I think the next generation will be improved (delay times with big libraries, sorting, playlists, etc). I definately want a double din for looks, but don't want a touch screen (or to pay $1000 for dvd/nav)... kind of limits the choices. Maybe next year though...