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volt's 2006 mazda 3 hatchback worklog (lots of pics)

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#1 · (Edited)
NEW WORKLOG since I didn't plan properly for the 72 hour edit time limit

Hey all, my name is Brian, and I go by volt. You may remember me as GCAdidas13, a regular of good old CarAudio.com. (~2,500 posts from Nov 04 thru somewhere in 07)

WORKLOG INDEX: Click Here For Worklog Index (Google Docs)

So, let's start with the car!

2006 Mazda 3 Hatchback
Automatic transmission
Purchased Feb 17, 2011 with 83,xxx miles (currently 87,xxx)






Please admire the handmade custom tag. Wasn't pulled over for it! :)





Now let's list some equipment. This is what I have on hand from my last car, and is subject to change, but I am planning on using what I have.

Head Unit / Media Source: Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC
Sound Processor: Alpine PXA-H700 with RUX-C700 Controller
Highs: Image Dynamics CD2 Horns w/ Minibodies
Mids: B&C Speakers 8NDL51
Subs: 2 x Ascendant Audio Avalanche 15s, DVC
Highs Amp: Precision Power PCX440 (40 x 2 @ 8ohms)
Mids Amp: Precision Power PCX4125 (250 x 2 @ 8ohms)
Subs Amp: Precision Power PCX2200 (200 x 2 @ 4ohms)
Mids Enclosure: Fiberglassed kicks (sealed/aperiodic)
Subs Enclosure: Sealed @ ~5 cubes OR Ported @ ~7 cubes @ 27 hz w/ 110 in2 port area (if it will fit)
 
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#2 ·
So let's look at the little bit of work I've done so far:

PART ONE: Running 0awg Power Cable


What I'm working with.


Battery and lots of plastic engine trim removed.


Mazda left a 3x3 in square hole in the firewall plugged up with this plastic piece. I took it out and drilled a 3/4" hole in it to run the wire through.


Before I ran any wire I washed what I took out of my previous car. Cleaned up nice!


I didn't remember ever buying such nice cable :x


Took some work but I got the wire against the floorpan. Lots of insulation and carpet to get under in this car.


Drilled another 3/4" hole in the battery container to run my 0awg through.


Trunk with all floor panels removed. Gonna have some big plans here.


And here's the engine bay with the wire ran. I plan to get some bolts to fix the fuse holder to the stock fusebox (right now it's just resting there). Also I will be doing Big 3 and a HO alternator.

So that's it for now. I won't get into any more details unless you ask :)

Here's a quick question for you, to start discussion:
Considering it's a hatchback and I'm NOT doing a stealth install, what tint should I put on the car? Currently the windows are not tinted at all. In my state (Ohio) the legal limit is 50% on fronts and no limit behind the B pillars.
 
#3 ·
That is definitely cool. And I was thinking about putting handles and junk on the box and making the amps and such easy to disconnect so it'd be easy to pull on the extremely rare occasion that I'd need more space than the back seat.

I mean, come on. We basically filled the trunk of my Camry with subs and amplifiers and the only thing I ever used the remaining space for is a jackstand and jumper cables. I even took a week-long vacation for two and we had enough room to fit our stuff in the back seat.

IMO 2 ported 15s on 1600 watts.
Here's what I'm modeling: (in the lower two pics I added a model of the precise measurements of the hatch's interior)



Turns out being like 6.8 cubes tuned to 27 with 110 cu in port area.

The other day I made a cardboard faux box and it fit into the car decently, looked pretty cool.

Also planning on inverting the subs if you can imagine that...

 
#4 ·
Well, a note to req and everyone else for that matter - work will be slow. Right now my work schedule is something like:
M-F 7a-5p at job 1 (45 hrs)
F 6p-1a and S 10a-9p at job 2 (18 hrs)
That means I'm working ~63 hour weeks.

Then the M-F work is 40 minutes away, so I get home at 5:40 on non-friday weekdays. that and i'm free all day sunday. With DST time changing recently it's staying light out a bit longer so a lot of my weekday evenings will definitely be spent on this!

What's my next step?
Mounting horns, then fiberglassing some kickpanels.

I'm making the kickpanels for the B&C 8NDL51s, which are not round but octagon, so I might do some sweet stuff with regards to the baffle.

I have 0.5" MDF and a miter saw, and access to a router. I modeled something like what I would like my baffles to be, if I have sufficient woodworking skill, which I think I do. It will be two baffles - the one in the back will have a circular cutout and octagonal outer diameter, and the one in front will be octagonal on both edges. Like this!



Then I may decide that it's better to run the fiberglass into the gap between the baffles instead of stretching it over top. any thoughts on this?
 
#5 ·
first twice? :uhoh:

then um. oh yea, so the baffle. make sure you give yourself 1\8 inch extra between the speaker and the flush mount baffle because if you wrap it with vynl, or whatever you will have issues :)

cool beans though!
 
#8 ·
So I'm making kick panels.

[NOT MY PIC but shows what I'm working with]


Question: Should I glass the kicks and NOT do any permanent modification to the plastic stock kick panel, OR should I try to glass to the stock panel and possibly dremel sections of the panel out to get more volume?

Notes:
Behind the kick panel are some door wiring harnesses that can't be moved too far.
The bottom part of the kick panel clips under the adjacent trim panel under the door.
The top part of the kick panel clips over the adjacent trim panel in the doorjamb.
The round clip that you see is a center-push snap fitting, and is supported by a plastic piece that sticks out 3" or so from the car frame.
 
#9 ·
Looking good so far.

As for how to make the kicks, it really depends on if you may ever want to put it back to stock for resale. If you have the space to fit the drivers in front of them, just use the OEM panels as the back of the mold and glass over them, making the kicks removable.

Take the stock panels out if you have to, but I think cutting them is a last resort. If you decide to do that, pick up another set at a boneyard and use those to fabricate with.
 
#10 ·
Looking good so far.
This is what I was thinking. I just don't know for sure how likely I am to find an 06 Mazda 3 at a boneyard.

I know there's a driver side kickpanel on ebay right now for $20. And that's unfortunate that there isn't a passenger kick panel. I also would like to divulge that I have cracked the stock passenger side kick panel while trying to remove it for the first time. But alas, I cannot find a replacement passenger kick, only the driver side.

I'm also concerned that if I don't remove or replace the kicks, the kickpanels will extend a bit too far into footroom. A bit less space here than in my last car, a 97 Camry.
 
#11 ·
Here's a thought:

It's a little trickier, but you can use the OEM panels to make what will become the back of the mold for the kicks, then remove them entirely.

Cut through the glass to create more depth for the speakers, using whatever you can find that will fit into the space behind the stock panels. Depending on how you need to build it, small sonotube or maybe some of those plastic hemispheres from a craft store can work.

Then, just build up the "front" part of the kick that will hold the baffles, and you're good to go.
 
#12 ·
That's a really good idea. My only concern at this point is the interface between the kick panel and the adjacent trim panel under the door. They kind of snap into each other a bit, and they're a pretty tight fit as you can see in the pic. Do you have any suggestions as far as that goes?
 
#13 ·
if you are concerned about that then you dont have to attach the wrap fabric to the edges. you can connect it wherever you please. like in this picture from mattyjman's bmw install.



post 55;
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...gs/97245-2008-bmw-e93-335i-convertible-3.html

see if you can get on a mazda forum and source some new panels. personally, i would snag that kick panel on ebay for 20 bones, and then worry about the other side later in life. but thats just me.

:)
 
#14 ·
req, Chaos's idea is to recreate the kickpanel without desecrating the stock ones, and my question was how to best recreate the interface between panels without using the old panel.

But yeah, I am leaning slightly towards buying replacement panel(s) / worrying about passenger side later on. maybe scan online shopping outlets every few months til i find one. or post in a mazda forum / etc
 
#15 ·
Nice work so far. Looking forward to your build. I have the same car but its an '05 that Im currently building also. There is a site that sales OEM replacement parts for just about any part of the car. When I find the site Ill post the link. Im not sure how much the scuff plates would be but I purchased the sail panels w/o the tweeter hole for $10 each and they are brand new from an actual mazda dealership.
 
#16 ·
Awesome dude please dig through some old emails or something and find the site! I think on that note I'll be fine to just fiberglass directly to the stock kick panels, it will end up looking a lot better and I get to cover up the crack I put in the passenger side.

I don't see myself selling the car or anything for years unless I get a huge spot of bad luck (knock on wood) so I'm sure I'll eventually come across a new kick panel.

Thanks!
 
#17 ·
Yea I have the link at home on another computer, so Ill post it tonight. I am currently trying to figure out how I want to build my kick panels, they will be housing hybrid audio L6 and I had kick panels in a prelude that took up alot of leg room. So I want the 6s to be more vertical and appear stock but with the space behind the scuff plate itll be interesting.
 
#18 ·
If I were to get different mids than my B&C they would be Hybrid L8s.

And yes, it seems to me that you can get a bit of extra volume if you can utilize the space behind the trim panel. A few of those connectors can be easily moved to a less intrusive place closer to the floorboard. At least for the passenger side... not sure about the driver side though.

My daylight time is booked for the next few days unfortunately, but on Sunday I'll have just about all day to work on mounting the horns and, if i'm lucky, starting the fiberglass (or at least making plans, depending on how the horn mounting goes)
 
#20 ·
Online Mazda Parts

Theres the link to the site with the OEM parts. Looks like the scuff plates(kick panels) are about $22 each. They can be hard to find on the site so after selecting your vehicle; go to "Pillars rockers and floor" > Interior Trim > Scuff plate > front and then click on view illustration and you can see a drawing of them. Hope this helps.

Im off to finish the baffles for the 5 1/4" for the front doors and take pics of the door install.
 
#21 ·
Hey man, thanks a lot for the link! Are you sure that the "scuff panels" are the same as the kick panels? It's just that I've never heard them called scuff panels before.

I think the scuff panels you're talking about are the below-door trim piece that resembles a step plate.
http://onlinemazdaparts.com/partloc...7680&callout=6&catalogid=2&displayCatalogid=0
(Should also be the link to the stuff I'm supposed to be buying)

Is it possible you're talking about "Cowl Trim"

Also I'm posting because my evening just cleared up and I'll have a few hours of work tonight! I'm mostly going to focus on hanging the horns tonight so I can fiberglass all day Sunday. I am excite!
 
#22 ·
Yes sorry, the kick panel is #5 in the illustrations. Not sure where my head was yesterday calling it the scuff plate, anyways. The black one is listed under the cowl trim panels. You can always email them and tell them exactly what your looking for. The description of "Black left hatchback hatchback" doesnt really help.
 
#25 ·
yeesh, last night was a train wreck.

Basically all I did was cut away some plastic material under the dash that was in the way and found a spot (on both sides) for my horn to go.

There is, at the moment, only one spot that the horn will fit on either side.

So then I went to Home Depot to look for stuff to mount the horn to the dash with. I bought two of the 5-7" tightening bands (those strips of slotted metal that tighten with a flathead bolt) and tried to get one around the horn and tied up into the dash.

That didn't work so well, so I found some zip ties and managed to get the passenger horn strapped to the dash with a single strap. It's by no means secure or final, but it's in the exact place I want it so I can't complain.

I have to strap up the driver side soon and then maybe even pull apart my dash to look for better ways to mount the horns.
 
#28 ·
Definitely love the PPI PCX amplifiers. They are quality stuff, but I did have a PCX2200 crap out on me and it's awaiting repairs. For the last 3 or so years I have been running one PCX2200 when I was always planning on running two. Kind of sucks.
 
#27 ·
by the way brian, i took the glove box out to mount the passenger side, and i took the knee bolster panels under the steering wheel to do the driver side one. i strongly suggest you do the same. it makes it a billion times easier.
 
#29 ·
So, let's start with a few nights ago. Basically I had a few hours to start looking at the underside of my dash and seeing where the horns will fit. So I started with the passenger side.


This is the stock look.


The white thing in the last pic is a main board/fusebox for the dash electronics. If I swing that down, this is what I see.


Decided to cut away some of the flap that says 12727


After I cut an arm off of the main board/fusebox. You can see where the horn will fit snugly between the fusebox (at left) and the wheel well (at right).

Fast forward to Friday night. I don't yet have a plan of attack, I'm just looking and trying to figure out how things will work. I go to Home Depot and grab two of the 5-7" tightening band, usually used on rubber hosings. I had hoped to use it to strap around the motor and then up around some part of the dash.

As I said a few posts ago, I didn't get much done because I didn't want to get in too deep with taking the dashboard apart until Sunday. So basically I was thinking hard for a long time and not really doing anything. All I had to show for it is this one picture of a zip-tied horn on the passenger side.



From here I basically figured that the horn was too far up into the dash and too far back. But there is NO room for the horn to move left/right or front/back, but a little freedom up and down. On Sunday I came up with an idea to fix that.

[CONTINUED IN NEXT POST]
 
#30 ·
So after a little bit of digging online, I found out how to take apart the passenger dash.


Removing the glove box cover and trim


Removing the glove box (DAMN it's a deep glove box) and you can still see my horn ziptied there


The idea I came up with is to cut a piece of 0.5" MDF to insert between the horn and dash, to give a little spacing and help me mount the horns. This is cardboard in roughly the shape of the wood I want to cut.


Cardboard on wood


Shape to cut


Cut out with a jigsaw


Intended setup


C-Clamping the horn to the wood while I use some screws to mount the MDF to the horn body securely.

I made a similarly shaped piece of wood for the driver side.

At this point there was a bit more dry fitting and I basically had a plan of attack: use a tightening band around the horn's motor and a single bolt on the other side, through the MDF and a piece of dash.

[CONTINUED IN NEXT POST]
 
#31 · (Edited)

I cut a hole in some plastic around the glovebox where I knew it wouldn't intrude and fed the tightening band through.


Here's the horn hanging out, held by the tightening band. At the time of this pic I hadn't drilled it yet, but somewhere on the left side I drilled a hole through the MDF to pass a bolt through for alignment and holding the left side up.


After putting that bolt in and tightening the band, here's where I stand.


On the driver side I did the same thing but I had to get a little creative. I drilled two sets of two holes to pass the tightening band into one and out of the other to hold the horn motor up.


I put the glovebox back in to make sure everything still fit together right.


Same as above

And now, both horns are mounted PLUMB, and the horn mouths are on the same plane. Also the horns are mounted solidly!









[FINISHED]
 
#32 ·
i know you have mounted them brian, but the further outboard they will go the better they will stage. also making sure they are level with eachother, and not pointing up\down. i think the pictures look like the horns are slightly angled downwards.

im glad to see you are getting things done though!
 
#33 ·
I will double check the mounting next time I get a chance.

But as far as putting them further outboard, it isn't possible as the motors are already against the wheel wells.

It's rather unfortunate, plus I'm having a little bit of an issue with the driver side horn being kind of in the way of moving my foot to the brake pedal. Definitely not down with that, and I'll have to see if there's anything I can do to fix it.
 
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