One more MKV Gti to keep you socal guys company :)

[simplicityinsound]

After 3 long weeks, I just finished another MKV Gti.

This is perhaps the BEST sounding car i have done in a while. From the very beginning, the owner expressed a taste for SQ music and a desire to compete in IASCA. Versus most of my other installs, which basically is either the car came out sounding good and so we decided to compete with it, or i tell the customer, hey, you should compete in IASCA after we are done. This is the first one where we mutually planned for the car to compete from the start

So...the goals:

1. Create a very nice sounding vehicle capable to competing in IASCA.

2. Adhere to IASCA rules in terms of installation

3. still make the build very clean, stealthy, and with a bit of show factor, but we are willing to make certain sacrifices for SQ, namely, on axis aimed front stage and loss of hatch depth.


Lets get started, oh i also bought a new camera, so i took the finished pics with it, but haven’t quite figured out how to work the lighting and color...so some of the pics look a bit werid


The signal starts with an alpine F1 status set. Included are the DVI-9990 headunit, the TMI-M990 monitor, and the DAI-C990 D/A converter. The DVI and the TMI were mounted in the stock location via AI dash kit.





The AI dash kit actually is a two piece snap in, so i molded the two pieces together:



And painted it to resemble one solid piece:

[simplicityinsound]

Front stage for the system is a pair of Seas Lotus reference set. As usual for my SQ Gti installs, the midbass are housed in door pods molded and attached to the front of the door. As the stock midbass is at the back of the door.

For this car, i did a few things differently. The first thing is to aim it further back and up, putting the driver as much on axis as possible with the listener. This does result in a more protruding pod of course, but is one of the concessions we made for pursuing SQ While i was playing around with ideas and designs of an angled pod, i realized that a normal round baffle really would stock out a lot, looking like a tumor, where as if i followed the general dash's shape of angles, lines and trapezoids, it will look IMO a bit cleaner. As a result, i built a trapezoid baffle for the midbass.

Here is the finished product on the driver side door, with grille attached:



And grille removed, showing the lotus 6.5" trimmed in white vinyl:



Looking straight down on the pod:



Straight at the pod and speaker:



One more shot:

[simplicityinsound]

And the same of the passenger side:











A coupla shots from inside the car with the doors closed:

[simplicityinsound]

Here are some build pics of the pods:

First, the door was trimmed and the initial back mold was put on:



Once that was cured a layer of duraglass was put in to ensure it keeps it shape



This was allowed to dry over night, then they were popped out, trimmed to the correct size and any rough edges and protrusions sanded down. A vent hole was also cut into the back of the mold and also correspondingly in the door card.





Then, the bridge section in the back, where the pod has to sit over and around the ledge of the stock pocket, is molded and attached.





The molds were then treated to a thick layer of sound proofing



The speaker baffles were then aimed and secured to the back mold:

[simplicityinsound]

Mold cloth was pulled, resined, and then the pods were heavily reinforced from the inside via chop strand, and duraglass.



Then filler was applied and the pods sanded smooth:



Then a layer of modeling clay was stuffed into the walls of the kicks for resonance reduction:



Followed by a layer of sound proofing for additional resonance reduction and to securely hold the clay in hot weather:



Meanwhile, the metal door panel received their own share of sound proofing, and new speaker wires were run into the door:





And the back of the door cars also received a lot of sound proofing so kill any rattles and buzzes:

[simplicityinsound]

Back to the pods, here is the bare pod with the trim panels



And then after they received their corresponding vinyl:



The trim pieces were then attached to the pods:



And then fastened to the door card:

[simplicityinsound]

Moving to the tweeter location. As usual, i molded the tweeters into the A pillars, however, again for the sake of SQ, we decided to aim the tweeters on axis firing at the opposite listener. We agreed to remove the vents on the A pillar to accommodate a low profile on axis mold.

Here are the pics as taken from the front seats:









And some quick build pics:

Initial mold done, and reinforced from the inside via duraglass:



Fillered and sanded smooth:



And then wrapped in vinyl, a bit of a pain since its more on axis, but came out okay.

[simplicityinsound]

Here are some more shots of the entire from of the vehicle, again sorry i couldn’t quite get the lighting right.






The vehicle features zapco DC amplifiers, so the tuning cable comes out of the glove box for easy front seat tuning:




thats it for the front of the car, moving towards the back, just two quick shots of the wiring bundles running back, both wired tied every 6" or less for IASCA rules:

[simplicityinsound]

Moving to the hatch area of the car. Again, the goal was to achieve a high level of overall SQ but still keep the system hidden when needed.

So here is the normal view. I had a custom thick trunk mat made for him, so when it’s in, the car still looks very much stock. Only people who are very familiar with the MKVs will know the floor has been raised. I couldn’t get a good shot of mat, but it does look very stock in person



Pop the trunk mat off and here is what you see, a vinyl trimmed fake floor with a single, large cutout in the middle. I made a grille cover for the opening. With dual vents done in grille mesh and mesh cloth, and a center section for a GTI logo.







Remove this panel cover, and you can look into the install itself. I think this may be one of my proudest works. I wanted to come up with a design that takes my "simplicity and classy" look to the utmost. Meaning a design that doesn’t scream at you when you first see it, but you want to keep on looking at it and see all the small details in the long run.

So in a very shallow well, you see two ZAPCO 1000.4 amplifiers flanking a single seas lotus 10" subwoofer, and the alpine F1 D/A Converter. Every piece of equipment has their own vinyl flush trimming border around them. There are also two clear plexi glass tubes acting as cosmetic dividers between the amps and the sub/DAC combo. On top there is a piece of 1/2" plexi glass, with a polished center cutout:

[simplicityinsound]

Aside from acting as a visual divider within the well, flicking a switch will also passes a white light through them, giving everything a very soft glow at night. This is not meant to illuminate everything, but just adds a little extra lighting.







Now here are the build pics for the back.

First is the subbox. Because of the shallowness of the well. The box for the subwoofer had to be very shallow but very wide and long to get the correct air space.

As a result, a box with about .85 cubft of air space was built but was only about 2" tall. Here is the bottom:



Here is the top attached with the spacers for the top well. This is so the equipment will be flushed once the top well is attached:

[simplicityinsound]

Here are the various components of the top well. Each border trim had to be made individually and routed/sanded.



Here is a shot after everything had vinyl applied and secured together:





And the two plexi rods inserted and secured to the well:



Here are the four LED spot lights and the spacer rings i made for them, so they can be installed into the sides of the well and shine directly into the rods:



Here are two shots of the well with all the leds installed and the wires secured:

[simplicityinsound]

And finally, a few shots of the wiring and equipment. You can see the sub is sitting on stacked rings to space it up. All the equipment were secured by panhead screws, all the wires ziptied and neatly organized throughout.









And finally, the well attached plexi secured, ready for the top fake floor section:




After some tuning with Eng, I think we both agree this may be the best sounding car i have taken down to socal for him to tune. The center is very solid and precise with great height and good widths. Depth is not too bad but hard to match something like a new civics’ interior. Tonality is also very nice and balanced.

With some more tuning and resolving a slight background hiss issue (i think we need to swap in a new amp), it should be ready to go. This car will be at Mr. Marv's BBQ and comp, along with other comps throughout Cali in the future.

[videsh]

you sir are a god among men

awesome job as usual

[simplicityinsound]

i resized the pics to give 56k guys a fighting chance hehe

[strong*I*bumpin]

[johnya84]

Do you put sound deadner in the spare tire area?

[BodegaBay]

Without a doubt your best built to date. Three weeks for this car is some serious time.

[SWINE]

GREAT!

[Tonyguy]

once again a beautiful install. My picky ass wouldn't change a thing.

[dual700]

HORRIBLE pictures compression!!!
Car sounded awesome!
With a lot of power on tap, really brings the dynamics of the sound. I usually hate VW due to their stupid speaker placements, but this car actually has an open front area, I am impressed!
Seats can go down very low and very far back, good!!
No rattles, no buzzing, nothing for me to kill with EQ, which is a big plus.
Staging is wide, though I can use some more depth, but no complains.
Center is one of the best one I've listened to.
Overall, one of the cars that required me to go back to mine and made me check my system all over..

[HondAudio]

He does it again! Another winner!

[nepl29]

Awesome work!
Quick question, did you replace the oem battery with a better aftermarket one?

[TREETOP]

Bing, it seems like this has been asked before but I can't find the answer, what do you use for the flush rings on your door pods and kicks? The blue plastic looking trim part. I've normally used wood, layers of veneer, or ABS, but wood is thicker and ABS has to be heated to get the right shape- it looks like your blue stuff is soft enough to take shape without heat yet rigid enough to keep its shape..

Thanks in advance.

[baggedbirds]

your work is always a treat to view.
When I am in Campbell visiting family I would love to listen to what ever you are working on.

[avences]

Amazing install!!!!!!!

Just curious....does car keep spare tire?