[IBcivic]

As stated in the title, the customer wanted a reasonably priced 3 way + sub installation.
The requirements were not to cut any metal and the door trims had to remain stock looking.
Fiberglass piller-pods were requested.
And the trunk work had to display the amps, processor and subwoofers...but get rid of the traditional rectangular sub enclosure, for something that would look "custom" w-out expensive labour costs.
The subs and amp-racks had to be individually removable, to easily access the fuel pump and shock mounts, that reside right underneath thefalse floor,right behind the seat backs.

The equip. list:

Eclipse 5030 h-u
CDT drt-26,es 03, es 06 front stage
Audison Bitone.1
Elemental Design nine1,nine2,nine4 amplifiers
2 x 12" Soundstream VGW-12, 600w subs

All the stuff listed above came from the customer's previous ride

Day 1 (before pic)

 

[IBcivic]

The first thing I did was build the pillar pods for the cdt tweeter and 3" driver.
One requirement was that it could be easily modded to accept a 4" midrange, so I used the same template as the pods that are in my personal ride.
A boost gauge pod was also incorporated. The reason the gauge pod is that large, is that the gauge that is pictured , will be upgraded to a larger one, in the near future.

 

[IBcivic]

Next came the doors. I used the oem plastic baffle and added 5/8" of mdf to get the proper clearance, for the cdt es-o6 mid-woofer. The underside and support legs were beefed up with f-glass and treated with rubberized undercoating to protect the mdf from moisture.

 

[IBcivic]

Next, I attacked the trunk.
The 3rd row seats were yanked and chucked in the trash.
The whole trunk floor was repaired and re-carpeted. One of the rear shock absorber mounts had broken in the past and poked right through the, oem plywood, false-floor. Once I stripped the original carpet, I was left with splinters, so I resinned the plys ,back together and re-shaped the area with bondo-glass. Once painted and carpeted, it looked factory fresh.
Amp racks were made for the E-D nine.2 and nine.4 amps, on either sides.
Angled Mdf sub enclosures were made to mount the S-Stream Tarantula twelves.

 

[IBcivic]

The Bitone.1 and ED nine.1 were to be displayed in the center.
But I felt that the tiny size of the processor vs. the large amp, looked odd... so I scored a d.o.a. nine1 carcass and mounted the bitone inside
I had to router a slot for the Bitone logo to show and carve out the inside of the heat sink, extensively to creat space for the 8 rca's that exit the processor.
There were some led strips that came from the previous build, so we re-used them to add a tiny bit of "bling". They come on, only when the tailgate is opened.

 

[IBcivic]

Tomorrow , I will be making some beauty panels to fill in some voids in the trunk and hide the wiring.

 

[Notloudenuf]

I like this. Good work.

Your avatar makes me sad....

 

[IBcivic]

Thanx!
I am presently like the kitten.....broken hand. So making all this stuff takes twice the time.
The guy in the pic is the customer, wiring his gear, 'cause I couldn't (crippled)

 

[IBcivic]

Here is a close up shot of the Bitone hiding behind E-D clothes

 

[scooter99]

BEAUTIFUL! Nice work my friend!!

 

[IBcivic]

I've got some build pics, but my hand is too sore to type, tonight....more to come.

 

[IBcivic]

Thanx, mate!

 

[wdemetrius1]

Very nice. Any pictures of the headunit installed?

 

[IBcivic]

Very nice. Any pictures of the headunit installed?

The volvo will be back tomorrow, I'll snap a few pics,then.

I didn't bother with the h-u, since, it was already installed, from day one.

 

[scooter99]

Sweet! What type of head unit is it? I don't remember you saying. Oops nevermind I didn't ready correctly, hukd on foniks dident werk 4 me! :laugh:

 

[IBcivic]

lolz @ hooked on phonix

 

[IBcivic]

Here are a some pics of the sub enclosures being built. There were some compound angles, on the front face 22.5deg. tilt and 45deg. in relation to the tailgate.
Since I presently do not own a table saw(yet), I just did straight cuts and filled in the gaps with bondo glass + screws. All the "easy" joints were done with elmers poly-urethane glue, which expands as it dries, and screwed every 4 inches.
I rounded off all the corners with a 1/4" radius router bit.

 

[IBcivic]

The enclosure volume is just a tad over 1 cu.ft. (each) as measured from the previous sub-box, that these drivers came in.
The owner was happy with how the subs sounded before, so he insisted that I replicate what was an already proven recipe, but with a sexier shape.

 

[IBcivic]

The door mounted mid-woofers, were much deeper than the oem plastic framed drivers.

The door is solid metal, right behind the mid-woofer, so the rubber magnet covers were discarded, to permit the driver to fit in the oem door speaker depression in the sheet metal.

The grill was temporarily removed to adjust the oem opening to the new driver and a bit of the grill was ground off for clearence, so that the cone does not hit during full excursion.

Having the woofers use the door trim as an enclosure, may have worked for volvo, but does not provide enough volume for the cdt es-06 to reproduce low frequencies, properly. There is a trap door that opens up to the inner part of the door, but it isn't anywhere near the backside of the driver.
I suspect back wave reflections are also killing the woofers ability to sound as it should.
I'll give volvo a big thumbs up for making the doors that solid....there is not an ounce of deadner in the doors and they seem to be rattle free.
That may soon change , if I can convince the owner that he needs to open up the backside of the woofer to expose it to a much greater volume of air, the woofer may start rattling the door, once it starts breathing right.

 

[JayinMI]

How long have you been unemployed? I always thought (by the way you changed your locations---always thought they were airport designations) you traveled alot.

So are you doing installs for people all the time now?

How do you find your customers? Kijiji, word of mouth, or ???

Nice work on the Volvo.
Sorry about the arm.

Jay