[simplicityinsound]

over the years, we have worked on quite a few Gti of the mk5 and mk6 vintage, but this is actually the first time we have touched a Golf R/R32.

The customer approached us initially for a full sound deadening job to kick down the cabin noise level while driving, but after some discussions and also a quick demo, it was decided that we would also do a full SQ build at the same time.

I approached the design of this system the same way as i did a Gti, which in the end, turned out to be both correct and incorrect read more later.

anyway, goals:

1. fully sound deaden the car using a combination layer of products to reduce interior sound levels and resonance

2. establish a nice level of sound quality

3. maintain a fully usable cargo area and oem floor height

lets get started, first a look at the car itself:

for the signal source, we went with a pioneer 4100NEX double din unit, installed via a best kits dash kit that has been blended together and repainted by jesse:

i also installed a Rydeen rear view camera:

a quick shot of the wiring organization behind the headunit by jesse:

I also added a Compustar dash cam for him, which consists of a front main cam with screen, and a rear facing camera. here is his rear facing cam:

and here is his front cam, showing both screens at the same time:

two quick pictures showing how the rear camera's wires are done, it is ziptied to factory wires and goes through the factory loom and forward, ziptied all the way:

so now we get to the sound proofing pics. basically, this was a "windows down" project. first, jesse stripped the entire interior out, and laid down GP audio composite damper on all the surfaces. this composite cld and foam damper saves us time in having to do only two total layers versus one:

then, a full layer of mass loaded vinyl (MLV) was laid down, the seams and joints bonded with strips of foam:

and then the factory juke and rubber pieces went back on, followed later by carpet:

the rear quarter panels also received the same treatment:

lets move onto the front doors. first jesse ran new speaker wires into the doors and laid down a few strips of STP cld damper around the speaker opening:

next, he traced out the proper shape needed to cover the door panels fully, and cut it out of a piece of GP composite damper:

then he cut out a matching piece of CLV and secured the two with nuts and bolts:

on the sticky side of the GP audio damper, foam square cover the screw heads to prevent buzzing:

this was then secured to the door panel:

jesse then fabricated a set of spacer rings, coated them with black bedliner to protect them against the elements:

and the illusion audio c6 midbass was wired up and installed:

the outer door card also got some CLD treatment as well:

 

[simplicityinsound]

this same process was repeated on all the other doors, except the rear doors had the speakers deleted:

the final piece of the sound proofing puzze was the rear hatch...and again, it was done the same way via a combination of GP audio damper followed by MLV:

moving onto the rest of the front stage, which consists of a set of illusion audio C3cx molded into the A pillars. here they are with the grilles in place:

popping off the press fit grilles reveals the little point sources:

some quick build pics of the pillars by jesse:

first he made the mounting baffle rings and aimed and secure them to the factory pillars:

then mold cloth was pulled, resin applied, and the pods reinforced from the inside via a resin/filler milkshake. then filler was applied and sanded smooth. then the pillars were painted with a quick black coat to prevent filler color from showing through the grille cloth. and then the pillars were wrapped with graphite colored grille cloth, a finish most resembling the oem finish:

i then dyed the pillars to be darker and closer to the oem color:

the c3cxs were then wired up and secured to the pillars pods:

and the grille rings were also painted black and wrapped in grille cloth and dyed:

next comes the wiring pics, wiring this car was a bit easier than most as the entire interior was stripped out, so you can see where all the bundles go, ziptied and organized along factory bundles every few inches:

 

[simplicityinsound]

okay, onto the hatch. remember i said before that i approached the design like the car was a Gti, which turned out to be both correct and incorrect? well, the correct part is for the main interior, as it is virtually identical to all MKVI golfs...but when it came to the hatch, once i pulled it all apart, i realized that due to the dual exhaust and the AWD, the rear floor is at least 3 inches or so shallower than a Gti, and even with the shallow illusion audio C10 sub, the ONLY place the subwoofer can fit that still allowed the top floor to be oem heigh was in the rear passenger side corner. where an empty blanking plate gave me an extra 2" of depth. but having the sub smushed allt he way into the corner presented a different challenge. there was virtually no way of placing all the gear in a cosmetically pleasing manner. so after some thought, i decided to go at it in a whole different way. and that is, do a top trim cover that partially obsecures the equipment below and instead, this cover beauty panel will be the main cosmetic atttraction, versus showing off the amps and sub themselves.

so here is the hatch in normal view, with the oem cargo mat in place:

remove the cargo floor and you see a new fake floor panel with a big center cutout grille:

pop that grille off and here is what you see. a symmetrical shape with two cutouts on either side covered with black mesh, and a center round cutout with a piece of trim with a raised Golf R emblem. the camera actually shows the gear under the mesh better than to the naked eye, but you can see the illusion audio c10 on the right bottom corner, and an arc audio xdiv2 600.4 and a 1200.6 on the driver side. again, pretty different then most of my builds on these cars in the past, but i think its a better solution than showing the gear due to where the subwoofer had to be mounted:

onto the build pics of the hatch.

first, a quick look at the floor stripped bare. you see what i mean by having very little depth between the actual floor pan and the loading floor. with the little part with the right amount of space available being the bottom right over the little metal plate (which basically opens into nothing, i think its a cover for some other cars that may have a battery in the back)

the floor was then sound proofed with mostly GP sound damper, with the area around the cover plate done in just CLD since we will need to tape and lay glass in that area, and tape do not like to release from foam.

i then made this main foundation plate with spacers, and wrapped it in black carpet, since i want all black surfaces showing through the top trim opening:

then i installed four rivet nuts into the main floor, and bolted in the foundation panel:

i then built a partial enclosure, with a bottom cutout to match the opening in the foundation board, and formed the shape with tape:

then i laid down 5 layers of fiberglass to form the bottom of the enclosure:

when that cured, i pulled it out, and topped it with a mounting baffle, recessed for the c10's front magnet:

and then covered it also with black carpeted:

this was then bolted to the car:

and the amps were also wired up and installed:

i also made a cover panel to go over the spare tire hump so again, an all black surface can be presented:

and here is all the components installed and wired up:

here is the main cosmetic trim panel in bare mdf:

here are the two aluminum mesh cut to fit, and then painted black:

and here is the center trim plate with the raised R logo before and after black vinyl:

and here is the main trim panel after vinyl, and after the mesh and R trim plate has been secured to it:

and then it was bolted to the car via bolts and threaded inserts installed onto the spacers:

and here is the top floor panel before and after carpeting:

and finally, the main grille before and after carpet:

so thats it...how does it sound?

well firstly, since i dont have much experience with the car, i couldnt tell how much of a change the sound proofing made...i just new that while test driving the car, it felt extremely solid.

but the customer emailed me a day later, as he had taken a measurement with his phone while driving before, and then again after, and he reported a whopping 10 db drop in average noise level while driving on the highway. That is quite significant and prolly the highest we have recorded with this type of sound proofing, with most of them coming in at 6 to 8 or 9 db.

also, with all this sound proofing, this car is probably the most solid sounding golf we have ever done, no rattles, no buzzes, no resonance what so ever...this is so evident on the midbass and bass outputs that i was quite amazed at the difference between the stock car and this one.

with the c3cxs up high, imaging on this car is very very good...very believable center and wideth is pillar to pillar wtih depth at the windshield. height is about half way up the windshield on most cars...but compared to most other golfs we have done, the ability to place 350hz and above high up really makes a difference in how it sounds...just a lot more realistic imo.

the c10 also does a great job of filling the car with bottom end...and again, i think the sound proofing really helped here...

overall, for sure one of the best sounding golf platforms we have done and easily the quietest

cheers,

Bing

 

[Audiophilefred]

Awesome job, love seeing a new build log from you guys

 

[sicride]

When I win the powerball tonight I will be sending you at least three cars for this type of treatment. I imagine that is the only way I would ever be able to afford it.

 

[#1BigMike]

Sick! So happy to see this build.

 

[simplicityinsound]

When I win the powerball tonight I will be sending you at least three cars for this type of treatment. I imagine that is the only way I would ever be able to afford it.

i can already hear jesse grabbing his back and limping back home

 

[Se7en]

Thanks for showing Bing!

I just picked up a 2016 R a few weeks ago, so I liked seeing what you did with this car!

 

[simplicityinsound]

Thanks for showing Bing!

I just picked up a 2016 R a few weeks ago, so I liked seeing what you did with this car!

you still around here?!

the 16 R i checked out in person at the SV auto show this past weekend, very different front of the car and dash, but that floor looks a lot friendlier than this one

 

[optimaprime]

I really like what you guys did here.

 

[Catalyx]

Stellar job as usual guys! I'm getting really excited for my MKV GTI build you're doing in May and the timing of this build log post is perfect because it clarifies some issues I was pondering.

 

[Se7en]

you still around here?!

the 16 R i checked out in person at the SV auto show this past weekend, very different front of the car and dash, but that floor looks a lot friendlier than this one

Yeah, well technically back as of a year ago. I went back to Austin for work for about 18 months. In that time, sold the V, picked up a Cayman S (which I loved but isn't right for my commute), and traded that towards the R on NYE.

I work in San Mateo now, so I'm pretty close to you guys. I owe you a visit!

 

[atownmack]

Im glad I found this thread. I am about to start a build in my 2010 VW Passat, and I want to do pillars, but was unsure of how they would look with the vents in the pillars, but yours look good. Ill use this as a model of how to do mine. With the grill cloth? is it difficult to strech around the curves of the pillars?

 

[Shapin]

WOW, Amazing job.
My next car will be a Gti MK6 Too, ill get myself a gp deadener like you guys used for sure!

 

[MANUTD]

VERY nice work

 

[eddieg]

As allways, Outstanding craftsmanship!

I don't know about the R model of the MK7 but I do know the MK7 GTI and when that car is stock, unmodded - it is a very quiet car to begin with, it really takes to thrush the engine in order to make the exhaust noise fill in the cabin - but in a way, this is exactly what should have not been isolated in such a car IMHO, unless of course the owner wants it that way.

Impressive results according to what the R owner reported to you.

 

[Babs]

Beautiful as always!
Those grill rings.. You guys like to press fit them or do something like the little neo magnets?

 

[simplicityinsound]

Usually press fit

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[JoeHemi57]

you still around here?!

the 16 R i checked out in person at the SV auto show this past weekend, very different front of the car and dash, but that floor looks a lot friendlier than this one

They have changed to the MQB platform on the Mk7 and the hatch has multiple levels for the load floor so you can put stuff underneath. I haven't measured but should be more room in the GTI for sure and probably the R too. The haldex awd system is more compact i believe also.
They Mk7 Golfs in all varieties are really great cars, i think the base GTI S with Performance Pack, Lighting pack, and DSG is probably the best new car you can for $30k.

Great install as always!

 

[rockinridgeline]

Great work as always!