My first 2008 Subaru Impreza STi :)

[simplicityinsound]

well, its always exciting to work on cars i have never touched before, espeically if its a relatively new and exciting model and a subaru (my own car's brand) at that

its a world raly blue 08 Sti, fresh off the lot from Socal, with about 1k on the ODO...hehe...

the goals:

1. install avic-z1 navigation into the car
2. stealthy in the back
3. a good blend of sound quality and classy looks

lets get started, as mentioned before, an avic-z1 was installed into the factory location, its not the cleanest of sources but navi was a requirement and this unit was already avaiable. note the voice recognition/BT mic install to the left side of the headunit, right next to the guage shroud:



the car features Zapco DC reference amps, and the tuning USB cable comes out of the glovebox to plug into the laptop for tuning:



front stage consists of a pair of Seas Lotus Reference 6.5" two way components, the midbasses were installed in the stock lower door location via 1" spacers, and the door dampened:









and the tweeters were molded into the A pillars firing across at each other.

first the mold:



then sanded smooth:



and finally, covered in matching vinyl:



and the final result:









and the front as a whole:

[simplicityinsound]

the rear door speakres were kept and hooked off hte headunit and mainly faded full forward.

moving onto the hatch, this car turns out had a lot less space than we thought. the spare tire well was shallow (5" or so), and the distance from the original floor to the hatch opening was even shorter (3"), also, the car had two large triangular structural braes in the well, toward the front, whcih effectively eliminated the front left and right quadrants of the well...and we have large pieces of gear to fit in, but after some mocking up and measuring, i managed to get it work

here is the view fully enclosed, thats just a temporary carpet i cut to cover the install, a darker custom one can be made down the road, as you can see, nothing is visible:



remove the carpat, and the new floor is shown, with two covers for the two amps and a center grille for the subs, the floor is two tone blue suede and dark grey vinyl.



pop offall the covers and here is what you see, two image dynamics IDQ10v3s sit in a blue suede topped enclosure of 1.3 cubfeet, and two zapco DC reference amps are shown under cutouts, a DC1000.4 for for the front stage, and a DC1100.1 for the subs. note tha all the openings have a layer of routed, clouded plexi border







flick a switch and the plexi edges lit up blue to match the car:







and lets see that in the dark:







and finally, here is the car:



and the far away view from the back:



i forgot to take wiring and below the floor pics for this one.

overall, withoutmuch tuning, it sounds decent, MUCH better rattle and outside noise wise than the old Sti, gonna take it down to LA on friday and tune it a bit more with Eng.

overall, a pretty easy car to work on, though next time, i would prolly prefer to do a single sub and smaller amps hehe

[Bclark281]

Very nice.
I've been kinda eyeballin' one of these myself.........just not the STI. The salesman kinda gave me an odd look when I opened up the back of the car before I popped the hood.

[simplicityinsound]

if you are considering it for stereo, its not bad, other htan t he slightly lack of space i mentioned in the back, the rest of hte car is cake walk and very easy to take apart much beter built than the old ones too...

[Bclark281]

Originally Posted by simplicityinsound

if you are considering it for stereo, its not bad, other htan t he slightly lack of space i mentioned in the back, the rest of hte car is cake walk and very easy to take apart much beter built than the old ones too...

The main reason I'm considering it is because my Crew Cab Chevy and my Yukon are killing me......$90-$95 to fill each one up. Plus, I have always liked the WRX, and I absolutely love the new body style.
I drove one about a month ago and the salesman is still calling me trying to get me to buy it.

[MaXaZoR]

I LOVE your installs!
Any pictures of the build?

[machinehead]

Very nice! Man i wish i had a router, just can't make those cuts with a jig saw

Do you have any fans on the amps?
What did you use to light the plexi?

[BlackSapphire]

Bing... when you're making the a-pillars:



What holds the tweeter in place? Pressure fit? Bracket/backstrap on the back side? Is there a cup I don't see?

Awesome job!

[mfenske]

Damn Bing, yet another amazing install. You're in nor-Cal right? We just moved to Oregon and I love your work. Hmmmm.

[simplicityinsound]

answers:

1. the zapco have built in fans that cycle air from one end and out hte other, doesnt get too hot at all even after an hour drive

2. i use LEDs attached on the outside of hte plexi edge to light up the inside.

3. pressure fit with a bit of hotglue

[Kenny_Cox]

all the builds look very similar from car to car... the good part is, I LOVE EVERY ONE OF EM. Great work Bing, wish I could have an installer to trust in my area, instead I will have to hack away at it myself (see my door panel thread hehe) keep it up!

[simplicityinsound]

thanks to me thast the challenge...working with different interiors and gears, yet having hte overall restrictions and theme the same to me always presents vastly different challengs hehe and i do enjoy it as well

[azngotskills]

Nice, clean work as always

Just wondering, how many hours/days does it take you to do an install like this?

[simplicityinsound]

if you count everything, hmmm i would say from start to finish, not ocunting washing the car and tuning it...about 40?

i dont know, i dont quote by the hour so i have no idea hehe

[Ianaconi]

Great job sir!

My trunk is gonna be "similar". I am gonna be using a similar layout, the difference are my amps are two 4200SE, and I only have one subwoofer.

Awesome installs like always!

P.S: Any build pics of the trunk?

[BlackSapphire]

Originally Posted by simplicityinsound

3. pressure fit with a bit of hotglue

Thanks! What's the best online source for high strength or industrial hot glue sticks? The 'general purpose' stuff for sale everywhere doesn't stick to plastic so well. Sorry for the hijack.

[simplicityinsound]

i just get norm hot glue from my warehouse, it sticks fine, cuase its not relaly there to literally hold sometihng in, but just to sorta grab it enough, the pressure fitting is what really secures it. over hte years, i have yet o have anything attached with hotglue fail on me, then again, i dont attach anyhting bigger than a tweeter with hotglue, and never attach it if its upside down and gravity works against it

b

[simplicityinsound]

sorry no build pics, i never really have the time to snap build pics on allt he cars hehe, i will hve a log of my own car's build soetime soon, when i have time hehe

an ever more SQ intensive install is coming next week though

b

[garvinzoom]

Another beautiful install! Going to ask a stupid question but does having the tweets fire at each other make a good front stage? I am still trying to understand imaging.

[captainobvious]

Thats a very clean install. Very well done. How are the Lotus' sounding up front? How would you say the acoustics are in that vehicle?
I agree that this body style is FAR better than the last generation.

[simplicityinsound]

IMO tweeters firiung across sounds fine, versus on axis i think you trade tonality for imaging/staging depths?

but maybe i will have Eng make a post after we tune it friday hehe

b

[jonnyanalog]

love the new STI and great install!

[edwelly]

I never get tired of looking at your install. I was the head installer for a shop about 15 years ago. Granted things have changed a lot, but I still do all of my own work.

For what it is worth, you are the first person I ever wanted to work on my own car

[FrankstonCarAudio]

Another very nice job!

Your client should be more than happy with the result...

Mark

[kpozr2]

looks great!