[simplicityinsound]

So after much delay, I am very proud to present this build log to yall. As some of you know, I have always been a huge fan of attention to detail; precision fit and finish, detailed overlays, inserts and well organized wiring impresses me far above superficial flash and awe.

For the last decade or so, using my limited skill set i have tried my best to adhere to those values, but since having Joey come on board as a partner, I truly feel SiS's potential has been taken to a whole new level. Luckily for us, we were able to hook up with a SUPERB gentleman from Vancouver that had the desire and means for us to flex our muscle and build the coolest system we can up to now. Some of you have met J.J. at our open house and I am sure you can all agree he is one of the nicest people we have ever met.

The project started...shall we say a bit more innocently over a year ago, and the original idea was to build a nice custom system that sounded great and can be taken to car shows and sq competitions...over time, it sorta evolved into something a bit more extreme

Before i get started, i would like to thank the following parties for their invaluable support in making this project come to life:

1. J.J. aka Lunchbox12 for allowing us to work on his prized possession
2. Scott our rep aka Pdqwrx for always helping us
3. The great folks at ORCA for their support and technical feedback
4. Gladen Audio Europe for their prompt shipment of equipment
5. Various members from DIYMA and the 12V community that gave us advice and tips throughout the build.

So...first the goals...which as i mentioned, was an ever evolving process...but in the end:

1. Achieve a superb level of sound quality utilizing Gladen Audio Products

2. Integrate an aftermarket Headunit into the dash (we did not find previous examples of this in our search)

3. Ensure all wiring are up to Competition standards (color coded heatshrink, techflex, laberls)

4. Zero Screws used in construction (other than factory matching supplied hardware for midrange and tweeter)

5. A somewhat subdued interior but a wild trunk design - Joey, in constant communication with J.J., came up with a sci-fi "star wars"-esque theme

6. Above all else, the highest level of ATTENTION TO DETAIL paid to every aspect of the build.

Joey did most of the work on the car, while I did the wiring, sound proofing and front stage fabrication.

Due to the sheer number of pictures in this log, it will be broken down a lil different than normal. I will first present all the finished pictures (and a video), and then we will go over the build pictures divided into specific stages.


So, lets first take a look at the car...it came to us already fully modified, pumping out over 800 WHP and features all sorts of goodies...but the most striking aspect of the exterior is a full body vinyl wrap job. It is the cleanest wrap we have ever seen and we believe the entire car was taken apart to wrap all the panels. I will let JJ fill in on the mods later but overall, the car definitely has a sinister, powerful appearance.

Moving onto the interior, and starting with the signal source. A decision was made early on to try and adapt an aftermarket headunit into the mix for the best possible sq. The main issue is that the oem headunit, residing at the bottom of the center stack, also houses the brain for all the display functions in the car. To that end, it has to be kept plugged into the vehicle. The other challenge is that the source unit fascia is at a different angle and orientation than the rest of the center stack, and to line it up like before requires a lot of play on angles and mounting points. but here is what Joey came up with.

A custom routed acrylic fascia sits in the stock location, housing a Pioneer DEX-P99RS (used only for its purity of signal) and a Mosconi RCD controller. This gives JJ full control of the signal, sub volume and presets at his finger tips. One additional note is that the knob of the Mosconi controller has been modified to have the same silver ring at the top as the P99.

For such a unique car, we were able to, through the great folks at Orca and Gladen, obtain a set of Gladen Audio Aerospace 165.3 3 way component set to use a a front stage. Little known here in the states, this set is considered one of the best high end speaker systems across the pond. After looking at various mounting points and options in the somewhat less than optimal interior of the GT-R, we decided on a on axis mounting of the tweeter molded into the factory sail panel, a semi-off axis mounting of the midrange into the A pillars, and the 6.5" woofer went into the stock location at the lower door. of note is that the factory midrange location behind the door handle has been wrapped with oem matching vinyl, and the Bose emblem was removed from the factory door grille, the grille hammered flat (used to have an indentation for the bose sticker) and recovered in grille cloth; the a pillars also have a slide guide molded onto it to reduce reflection and blockage and to able to recessed it a bit further.

In the center console arm rest we wired in two switches that control LED lighting in the car, and also the control box for a Stinger intelligent power supply housed in the vehicle that allows the car to be plugged into any wall socked and remain charged during listening sessions. Joey also modified the oem USB plug to accept the cable connecting to the P99RS.

Additionally, the rear subwoofer grille was also modified the same way as the stock door grilles, in that the bose logo plate was removed and the mesh recovered in grille cloth. The panel is now removable and allows access to power distribution (as you will see later in the log)

 

[simplicityinsound]

Moving onto the main attraction: the trunk. So again, its all about DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS. The trunk lid has a molded panel house two ipad airs for visual presentation of the build and/or video playback. in the trunk, three Mosconi Zero amps power the entire system, a zero4 powers the mid and tweeter with 200 and 100 watts or so RMS, a zero 3 powers the midbasses with 270 watts a piece, while another zero 3 powers the subs with 1850 watts RMS.

Speaking of the subs, they are a pair of Gladen Zero pro 10" drivers, optimized for small sealed enclosures. they are mounted upside down into two side enclosure.

a Scifi styled truss like theme runs throughout the install. it features triangular openings that have a blue trim piece and textured plexi behind it. it links all aspects of the build together. as you will see in the later build pics, each one of these panels is actually comprised of several layers, each painstakingly fabricated to the most precision dimensions to fit together perfectly. Words really wont do this justice so i will just let the pictures do the talking:

flick a switch located on the passenger side rear panel, and all the textured plexi pieces are backlit by vlue LEDs, including the small opening on the ipad housing:

press another switch located on the same panel, and the entire amp rack assembly motorizes. (see video) the rack actually moves on two axies but through some clever usages of cables and pulleys, its all driven by a single actuator. The amps first rise and after reaching a certain point, starts pivoting forward in unison until they are stacked vertically front to back. This not only offers another dimension to the build cosmetically, but also serves the practical function of allow us to reach and adjust the gains on the amplifiers.

when the amp rack is in the up position, it also reveals the finished board below that houses all the relevant speaker and turn on cables on a barrier strip system. They allows for quick trouble shooting diagnosis if the need arises. a plexi top go overs the strips to prevent accidental shorting.

When the amp rack reaches its apogee, a contact switch flips on a blue LED floodlight located on the back of the trunk trim piece and baths the entire structure in a blue glow.

again, lets just take a look at the pics, again pay attention to all the detail work and fit and finish throughout the build, even the aforementioned switch panel which feature the same precision crafted blue trim and has been molded to fit the factory trunk panel:

With a time shortage we forgot to snap night time pictures of the trunk, so i guess we will have to wait for JJ to provide us with some of those This is the only picture we took (prior to the ipad holders) in the dark...sorry

and lastly, a pretty fitting picture taken by Joey, i call it "a man reflected in his master piece" hahaha

and finally to sum it all up, here is a video overview of the entire thing:

So thats it for the finished pictures and video. Prior to it leaving, we didnt have a huge amount of time tuning it, but those who heard it at the open house knows its a nicely balanced system throughout.

center is well placed in the middle of the dash with very nice height and depth. Width is sail panel to sail panel. the midbass output and extension on these gladen drivers is something else...and i truly believe that on some songs, if we allows them to run lower, you would not miss a sub at all. Overall, the sonic characteristic of this set is one of smooth airiness, with a lot of authority and good detail. its not bright nor edgy, but just well balanced throughout. If i had more time spent with these, i can give a more thorough impression, but those are my initial thoughts. The zero pros also a great job of blending in with the rest of the system...i see them as a pretty typical high end european style sq woofer, good output, nice impact, good extension and transience. Overall, i am quite happy with how it sounds and with a bit more tweaking, it will only get better

so...lets now move onto the build pics...

 

[simplicityinsound]

First up is the wiring from under hood to the back seat area:

A theme you will see throughout the build is that all the audio related cables have been wrapped in blue techflex (a color theme that was already present on the car), terminated by color coded techflex and labeled at each end. first, to provide adequate current for the system, two runs of stinger 0 gauge a able was routed into the battery compartment via the oem grommet. here the cables with the stock battery setup:

Joey utilized two factory mounting points for securing the fuse block, here you see the metal bracket after bending and trimming to mold to the two oem locations:

here is the stinger dual in dual out quad mini ANL fuse holder being test fitted:

the metal bracket was then grinded, hand sanded smooth, primed and painted black.

the bracket was then bolted to the car:

we also augmented the stock grounding cable with another Stinger 0 guage, the head of the ring terminal was ground down in one side to fit to the oem grounding location:

The short run between the battery terminal and the input of the fuse holder was then created, note that the wires have been fully soldered into the ring terminals. these were then of course techflexed and heatshrinked and everything was then bolted together and secured:

Then it was time to install the replaced XSpower D5100R battery, it is generally the same size as the stock battery but it is a little bit wider front to back and a little bit taller. So joey modified and extended the stock battery hold down to fit this new piece:

and finally, here is the fully completed battery compartment with the new battery and all the cables labeled, secured and routed:

moving onto the interior, here is a sample of all the speaker wires that have been techflexed...all audio related wires have been done the same way:

 

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now comes a bunch of pictures showing the wiring bundles as they travel from the front of the car to the back. on the driver side was the RCAs, the driver side speaker cables DSP controller cable and remote turn on wires, while the power cables and passenger side speaker wires went down the right side.

both bundles are ziptied and secured to the car every 3 inches or less:

All the power and ground cables terminate in the stock bose subwoofer location. the stock enclosure was removed and a new L shaped wrack was built that bolted in place via rivet nuts. it features a slew of thread inserts that secure three distribution blocks, various ziptie hold down blocks and very importantly, a Stinger 40 amp power supply. This piece, used in conjunction with the smart controller, allows us to plug the car in, and it will either trickle charge maintain, rapid charge, or full on supply, automatically, depending on the situation. We had her playing all day during our open house with no issues. the extension cord for the power supply is routed to the gas cap filler area and allows the car to be plugged in with ease (more pictures of this later)

Basically, this was an exercise in routing a crap load of wires neatly, and still within the confines of the stock center trim panel and the seat cushions.
I kinda like the power nerve center skynet look when it was all done

here you see it with the stock bose woofer trim panel on:

when the car is completely back together, the front grill panel of the subwoofer piece can be snapped off by hand, allowing easy access to the fused distribution blocks:

So thats it for chapter 1, moving on.

 

[simplicityinsound]

Headunit/DSP controller Mounting Fabrication

As mentioned before, integrating an aftermarket headunit into the GT-R was a pretty interesting process and aside from some rumors that a few guys in asia had done it and basically extended all the wires and tucked the factory unit under the dash, we couldnt find any prior examples of this being performed...so maybe we are the pioneers?

anyway, so first, the dash area was taken apart, and here you see the factory headunit at the bottom of the center stack, thought its hard to see, its actually at a slightly different orientation than the dash it self:

here is the view with the front fascia removed, showing the actual size of the unit itself and the mounting points:

What joey did then was to completely disassemble the factory headunit, removed the cd player mechanism and the sat radio board, and what he ended up with a much more compact single din sized module, well a series of boards really...he then built a new chassis aroundt he boards out of ABS, so now we have a smaller brain module that is much easier relocated:

the P99RS was then bolted to the stock bracket after some careful measurements and drilling and test fitted to the oem opening:

next, a template of the oem fascia was fabricated and a opening that precisely matches the P99's trim ring was routed out:

then the opening for the Mosconi DSP controller was also routered out of the template board:

this shape was then transferred onto a piece of 1/4" black acrylic that will act as a front snap in cosmetic cover. meanwhile a support piece was glued to the MDF template piece and once again it was test fitted:

next, the mdf piece got the support straps attached for the DSP controller, it was painted back, and neodymium magnets recessed into the front face, these magnets will grab onto matching magnets on the back of the acrylic top cover and locate it in the correct place, this whole structure was then test fitted once again:

next the acrylic top plate was polished and test fitted:

here you see the knob for the mosconi controller being turned on a file to create the shinny ring effect identical to the knob on the P99:

next, the wires coming from the bundles and the headunit is prepped and plugged together:

the headunit was then secured, the mounting plate secured and the mosconi controller wired up as well:

here you see the matching neodymium magnets attached to the back of the acrylic cover:

and voila, everything together in the vehicle:

 

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Next up:

Front Stage Fabrication:

First up is the door midbass, I kinda went overkill on the sound proofing lol

here is the raw door panel itself after the weather stripping was taken off:

next, on the outter door skin went 25 pieces of blackhole tile...the basic end result is that if you knocked on the outter door skin, its uh...quite dead.

next, two sets of techflexed stinger speaker cable was run into the door via the stock molex...tight fit but got em to go:

and the openings were completely sealed with a layer of Focal blackhole BAM XXXL composite damper: while some blackhole foil went on the surface surrounding the speaker mounting:

next, i fabricated a pair of spacer baffles for the Aerospace midbasses, and coated them with 5 layers of truckbedliner for protection from the much wetter elements of the pacific northwest, note threaded inserts used at the mounting hole locations:

and bolted the baffles to the door using oem bolts and mounting points, the edges were also sealed with butyle rope:

next lets take a look at this Gladen aerospace 6.5 midbass, its got a pretty cool design and motor cover unlike anything i have seen before, just very esoteric and have superb fit and finish. I didnt know it by looking at it but this has got to be one of the most beefiest 6.5" drivers i have ever used interms of midbass impact and especially extension. it also comes with a nice cosmetic trim ring that you can show off should you choose to mount them in a more visible manner:

the speaker wires for them in the door was also heatshrinked and labeled, and the speaker wired up and bolted in place:

meanwhile, the plastic door card was smothered with blackhole Foil CLD damper to eliminate resonance:

while the now useless midrange grilles was wrapped in factory matching vinyl and reinstalled:

No way we wanted the surface of the speaker grille to still say bose, so the grille was taken apart, the bose emblem removed, the grille mesh hammered smooth, grille cloth attached and then reassembled and installed back onto the door:

next, the same process was repeated on the passenger side:

 

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next up are the tweeter pods. here r the stock tweeter pods after sanding and prepping, the oem tweeters remoted, and new mounting rings for the Gladen tweeter fabricated:

nexting, using some stubby laser pointers, I aimed and secured the mounting rings for the tweeters

next, mold cloth was pulled, resin applied, allowed to cure and then the pod was reinforced from the inside via duraglass/resin mixture, then it was rough sanded and grinded:

then i sorta forgot to take a pic but basically, you know what happens next i laid on the filler and sanded them smooth. then the two pods were primed and texture coated, then dyed via a custom mixed batch to match the oem color:

here is a quick look at the Gladen Aerospace teeters, again, it follows the cosmetic and quality standards set by the midbass...i also took the time to techflex and heatshrink the factory wires:

the tweeters were then mounted and secured, and the pods snapped back in place, and the wires connected and the junction point labeled and heatshrinked:

Moving onto the A pillar midrange fabrication.

Here are the stock A pillars before and after stripping them of the factory vinyl:

and lets take a look at the aerospace 3" midrnage, what stands out is the pretty unique phase plug on it...but again, super build quality and unique look:

these units originally did not come with grilles, but the folks are Orca and Gladen were nice enough to airship us a pair along with the grille adhesive and we attached them together:

then, a set of baffle rings with flushmounting walls made from low heat plastic was fabricated:

next, since i wanted to recess the midrange as outboard as possible, i made a matching cut above the mounting point of the baffles so that portion will not present a blockage and reflection surface:

next, mold cloth was pulled and using a stack of rings as a press, i was able to create the necessary concave shape in the cloth after resin was applied and allowed to cure:

then i reinforced the shape from the backside with both duraglass and the resin/duraglass mixture:

then several layers of filler and hours of sanding ensued, and i ended up with a smooth shape:

then, i wrapped both pillars in a factory matching premium vinyl, which was uh..kinda fun lol

and the speaker wires were labeled and heatshrinked, the pillars snapped in place, and the gladen midranges wired up and installed:

 

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Moving onto Misc Interior Stuff:

this is a bunch of random stuff in the interior that doesnt really fall into any of the other categories.

first up is Joey's modification of the stock USB slot and securing the pionner USB end into it:

next up are the various wires for the two switches and the stinger power supply controller, as they are routed around the center console and hooked up to various points in the car:

here are some pics of what i did to the facoty bose woofer grille, previously it was attached to the main trim panel itself, i cut out the plastic mesh, took off the bose logo and removed the metah mesh, covered that in grille cloth, and reattached it to the front fascia. there are metal washer epoxied to the locating pin openings on the main trim panel and neodymium magnets secured to the locating legs on the fascia, so the entire panel is held down by magnets but still easily removable for quick access to the fuse distribution block:

We also did a full compustar two way paging alarm and remote start with Drone tracking in the car, but for obvious reason, we are not going to show the actual alarm install...but joey made sure it looked completely oem interms of wiring and hid it in a pretty ingenius spot that is almost impossible to find. but here is something thats pretty cool, he hit the alarm's antenna and LED in the factory rear view mirror, so you dont see it from the outside and its in a pretty ideal location:

and finally, a few pics of the full sound proofing of the rear deck, with BAM XXXL on the metal shelf and open cell foam decoupler on the rear deck cover:

 

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Now onto the trunk lid Ipad mounts:

this was somewhat of a late addition to the project...but we wanted to bsure that the overall finished matched the angular sci-fi theme in the trunk, and that the ipads are both solidly mounted yet easily removable.

So joey came up with a system where the ipads slide into a grove and the open end is capped via a magnetized cover to covered everything and prevented the ipads from moving.

first the two ipads were laid out on the trunk lid cover and two pieces that they will slide into are fabricated:

the mounts will be bolted to the factory carpet and they inturn will secure via the dozen or so mounting clips, but joey installed an additional rivetnut to serves as the main securing point for the rack:

skipping a few steps as it was pretty late in the build processor, joey made a back mold off the carpet cover, attached a front panel, sanded it smooth and blended it intot he shape of the carpet. attached the two sliding panels at a slight angle, and then fabricated an angular top cover panel.

a triangular theme was then routered out of the middle of the top cover inline with the shapes present in the trunk:

and all the pieces primed and painted, while the pieces where the ipads will slide in got what we call "Simpliciflock" material, which is a very thin suede like adhesive backed material to increase traction:

once everthing is in place, and the bolt secured to the rivet nut. two blue LED strips were installed to give the cutout the same type of lighting as in the trunk:

and there you have it, the finished product, with the ipads secured and the lighting on:

 

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Finally, saving the best for last, the complete trunk fabrication:

some of this will not be in the right chronological order but i think it works best to follow the entire build process

Joey started by sound proofing the bottom portion of the trunk floor.

next came the main metal frame that will house all the amp rack related pieces. this was built out of pretty heavy 1" bar stock, here it is being constructed on our welding table and then test fitted in the trunk

next mounting tabs were welded onto the frame that will allow it to be bolted secured at four points via 5/16" rivetnuts and bolts:

then a mock up of the moving amp rack was made out of wood and tested to ensure that the idea would work:

and the real mounting frames for the amps was contructed out of 1/2" bar stock. one of the frames, where a hook and cable will attache for the two stage movement, was further reinforced with a triangular truss:

next came the side pieces that makes up the frame portion which tilts up and down (the rectangular amp racks pivot within them), which are made out of 1/2x2" bar stock, with the pivoting points secured to them by ways of a a round section of tubing inserted into the bar stock, the front arm that the actuator attaches to is also welded to the frame at this point.

here you see the intricate pulley and cable system that will allow the three amp racks to pivot in unison once the outter frame has reached a certain point of elevation:

these are the side pieces that are welded to the individual amp racks, with threads tapped into them, so basically, a bolt via nylon washers can be inserted through the holes on the outter frame (mentioned and shown earlier), threaded into these holes, and allow the frames to pivot around that point:

perhaps a better way to see what i mean is by looking at the assembled movable amp rack:

the pieces are then individually primed, and painted:

moving to the subwoofer enclosures. first, mounting rings were fabricated for the two zero pro 10s and the thread inserts installed. becuase the mounting holes were pretty close to the edge, the inside of the mounting rings were slightly chamfered to give more material for the threaded inserts to bite into:

next, the sides of the factory trunk trim was tapped off, the amp rack assembly bolted in place, and two mdf quater boxes were fabricated and positioned next tot he amp rack:

the edges of the mdf pieces were then filled and extended to the tape:

then the whole area was maked off and fiberglass laid onto the side carpet and the wooden portions:

once the glass cured, the two side pieces were removed and as you can see, now we have a combo fiberglass/mdf back mold that lines up perfectly with the amp rack, the ring baffles were then aimed and attached:

 

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next, using some adjustable curves, joey routered out two top cover pieces that attafch to the mdf portion of the enclosure, and then pulled puppy love mold cloth across the entire frame, thus forming the outter shape of the enclosurse:

once that cured, the boxes were reinforced from the outside via more fiberglass:

using the stevemeade impedance and resoance meter and a math formula, joey was able to determine the interior volume of the two enclosures, he then glassed in a filler board into the bigger of the two enclosures so that the two sides are virtually identical at .86ft^3 unstuffed and 1.0ft^3 equivalent with blackhole stuff, verified again by the SMD test meter:

the, the top floor cover piece was fabvricated that went around the amp rack and sub enclosures:

the attention as then turned to the cosmetic trim ring and extension arm around the subs...here is the ring:

and the basic outter shape of the extension arms fabricated:

then Joey, using strips of wood and the right outer bit, created the triangular cutouts that will be present across the install:

these shapes were then translated onto a snap in trim insert and test fitted to the two subwoofer arms:

next, the curved ends of the arms had filler applied and sanded smooth, with a curved cutout at the attachment point to the rings to make it a smooth transition:

next, the trim panel that will reside towards the front of the trunk was fabricated in a similar fashion:

then joey made the two flanking arms that will reside next to the amp rack to give it a sunk-in modular look are fabricated in a similar manner:

and the back portion of that shape was also fabricated:

the single led floodlight idea was there from the beginning, and joey and jj came up with an "imperial tie-fighter cockpit" kind of design to house the flood light, and this was the drawing joey came up with prior to some very dilcate router work to make it into a 3D shape.

here you see that routered out section sitting in its own holder that has been attached to the back portion of the amp rack surround:

the whole shape was then filled with more wood and filler until its a solid section with a holder:

all the arms and pieces were then put back into the car for a full test fitment:

then comes the other pieces that attach to the arms (yes i said more pieces lol), first are these trim pieces with 1/8" smaller openings that will be secured to the inside of the arms, these will be painted blue later to form the thin blue border trim:

then a whole bunch of threaded inserts were installed onto the inside of the main arm panels, these will be used later to bolt down both the painted inner trim panel and the edge lit textured plexi glass panels:

 

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next a whole bunch of mdf strips were cut that will serve two purposes, one is to create a channel on the back of the arms that will allow the LED strips to go into, the other is that they will have magnets embedded in them that will allow these pieces to drop into the arms and bond securely to matching magnets embedded in them (yes i am confused too lol but it works)

for the inserts inside the triangular openings, originally joey was going to use grille mesh, but a random sifting through a parts bin at a local plastics store revealed these textured acrylic sheets that would give us a unique look and pass the led lighting a whole lot better. If you are wondering, these are usually used for ceiling lighting fixture covers anyway, here are the pieces of plexi test fitted to the backside of the arm inserts, attached via the previously installed threaded inserts and bolts:

next, main floor board was filled and matched to the shape of the oem trunk:

ever the perfectionist, Joey then decided that the rectagular led holder did not match the triangular shape and cutsouts, so he then made a new holder in a trapezoid shape and mold a new holder into the back portion of the trim panel:

Joey then wanted a bit more texture and color than a flat carpeted floor so he designed and made two more two piece trim panels that will attach to the main fake floor:

here you see them being test fitted onto the main floor, and also the effect they will have once the main surrounding trim panels and arms are in place above them:

next, all the arms had their corners reinforced with a bit of fibertlass, and additional filling and smoothing of the ends.

and then it was time to wrap the outter pieces in dark graphite vinyl:

while the inner inserts got a layer of primer:

and all the peices were once again test fitted into car with the fit and finish tested on the arm inserts:

jumping back in time a little bit, here is the fabrication process of the front wall of the trunk, this has a vent in it to allow bass to flow into the cabin, and also sides the back wall, the actuator and the dsp. the various trim pieces attach with rivet nuts while the grille trim panel can be easily removed for access to the dsp and the actuator by ways of more neodymium magnets:

 

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next the back panel around the amp rack was painted and vinyled, and some testing of the plexi attachment was made:

next, the front wall of the trunk was masked and painted black, so no silver would show through the front grille mesh and throw off the look of the trunk:

and crap load of trim pieces were painted in black or blue:

the top of the enclosures were then carpeted with black carpet, and the exposed part of the factory carpet was also rewrapped in the same material:

the orignal back of the zero pro sub's motors were shiny and kinda stood out, so joey repainted them textured black to match the rest of the trim pieces.

the sub enclosures were then stuffed with blackhole Stuff, and the subs bolted in place. here you see the silver ring that held the gladen zero pro etchings were removed, they were rotated so the letters would line up correct and mirror each other:

next, joey fabricated various filler pieces that go between any gaps beteen the outter frame of the amp rack and surrounding trim, and wrapped/painted them. the smaller pieces are at the front that hides wiring under the floor:

next the front wall was carpeted and painted, here you can see clearly where the embedded magnets are that allow the front grille to snap on:

here all the led strips are secured in the channels and wired in place:

and all the led wires along with the techflexed speaker cables are now routed to their respective place.

 

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and here you see how the arms serve an additional purpose in allowing the subwoofer cables to flow across without being visible, they entire into the arm via a single grommet located right next to the terminals of the subs and is then routed to behind the back wall and down into the barrier strip platform:

next, mesh and plexi was attached to the led holder ,the led floodlight was fitted and wired up:

and finally, the painted front grille panel was assembled with a mesh backed by black grille cloth, with close ups showing the precision of fit and finish, this ist he piece that has magnets embedded in it to snap into the front wall opening:

now some misc pieces in the trunk. first is the mounting board for the mosconi 6to8DSP, it is a piece of mdf with spacers on the back and threaded inserts on the front. here it is before and after vinyl, along with test fitment in the car:

and here is fully wired up, with techflexed wires and labels, before being bolted into the car:

here is the little switch panel that houses the actuator controls and led switch, it is finished in the same type of precision as the rest of the trunk, the outter shell is back filled to fit perfectly onto a spot on the oem rear trunk sill panel, with the little snap in insert is painted blue to match the rest of the install:

here is the grommet drilled that allow the extension end from the power supply to be routed into the gas cap area, so the car can be plugged in for extended listening. normally there is a cap on the end the connector as well and the only time it will see electricity is when the extension is pulled out a bit and hanging on the outside of the car:

and here is the floor panel that houses all the barrier strips and wiretie hold down squares, under each of those red circles is a #6 threaded inserts, so everything is bolted in place:

and a quick shot of the plexi piece i made before it got painted on the border that protects the barrier strips from accidental shorting:

and here is are some shots of all the techflexed, heatshrinked and labeled wires as they are organized on the amp rack, while still leaving enough slack in them to account for the movement of the rack...was quite non-enjoyable doing this

okay...so thats it and my fingers and hands are just about dead so i will keep the sumary brief.

overall this is the coolest project i have ever been involved in, i used to think that i am pretty anal about attention to detail, but seeing what joey accomplished is truth astonishing, and i have a hard time imagining doing the same repetitive thing over and over again to achieve the same level of perfection...

i really wish people can see the install up close to appreciate the fit and finish thats present, but for now, i guess these pictures will do.

now gonna take a few days off and celebrated Chinese new year...

cheers,

Bing

 

[simplicityinsound]

k let me go back and fix some of the missing pics

Edit: DONE!

 

[[email protected]]

FINALLY!!!!!

 

[REGULARCAB]

That just happened!

 

[Hoptologist]

 

[iasca judge]

WOW! That is amazing work guys!

 

[Midwestrider]

Nice work here.... A+ as always from you guys.