mike_mds

FINALLY have everything done...well, almost. Need some wiring moved around a little behind my rack to accomodate cargo mat that got put in today, but other than that, I am cooking!

When I first posted on the forum a few months back to inquire about hooking up a subwoofer to a stock Bose system, I should have known better...audio mod fever immediately bit me, and I went completely over budget to build an entirely new setup... :o

Here's what went into the system:

Kenwood Excelon KVT-815DVD
Kenwood KCA-iP500 iPod Control Interface
JL Audio ZR650 CSi (front component speakers)
JL Audio XR650 CXi (rear speakers)
JL Audio Stealthbox subwoofer
JL Audio 450/4 amp (chrome finish)
JL Audio 500/1 amp

My installer cut some custom mounts for the front component speakers, but other than that the speaker grills and mountings have been untouched. I wanted a completely stock appearing speaker installation. The 10" JL subwoofer in the stealthbox is covered with the vented cargo cover that JL provides with the stealthbox.

The amp rack was a beyotch, or at least my requirements for one were. I wanted something that would show the chrome JL amp to best effect, but it had to work with the roll bars already in place, plus I wanted to retain my cargo mat and be able to store the top in the cargo area. I think having it mounted where it is makes the best of a really tough situation, and the matching job my installer did on the black and silver vinyl to match my front seats and mats kicked some serious butt. I like it a lot more than just wrapping plain black carpet around the box. I also wanted the crossovers for the speakers put somewhere that I could get at them to adjust settings to my taste, so they got put in the rack as well.

If you take a look at the pics of the rear cargo area, you can see that I had the cargo mat custom tailored. I had the section over the JL stealthbox's driver removed, and I had the notches in the side where the roof mounting points are enlarged to accomodate the rollbars. Managed to find a local upholstery shop that does all sorts of cool stuff...check out http://crazygarage.com/. She did great work on my cargo mat, and on my front floor mat that needed modification to fit around the 5th point of my rollbar (you can see this in the one picture below). I want to send some big props out to one of our forum vendors, Jim at Southern Auto Parts, who I got my Lloyd's cargo mat from originally. He contacted Lloyd's for me, and got them to send me some silver binding that matched what was already on my mats. Big time customer service on both companies parts! The pictures below show that cargo mat and the grill covering the subwoofer as different colors, but that's just the camera flash. It looks seamless in person.

The custom head unit mount / faceplate was done by Dave at humount.com. Awesome guy to work with, even when you change to a lighted mount at the last minute and need it shipped out overnight. I told him I wanted the text on the plate to match my license plate, so I sent him a high res shot and he duplicated not only the actual letters, but the font on the license plate as well. The thing looks great lit up, and I am having matching red LEDs put in the amp box to match it.

Last but certainly not least, props to my installer Dave at Audio Dreamz in Gettysburg. He put in some serious hours getting this thing installed for me so that I would be done before Carlisle. He was also the one stuck figuring out what the hell a previous owner's car phone installer had done to the wiring... I got the kickass but low-key system I was looking for, and it still looks like an adult owns my car! I'm posting up his contact info in the installer list here in the audio forum.

The system sounds awesome...blows away the stock Blose system. I don't know how you guys with the bigger subwoofers do it...the single 10" JL I have in there feels like it is sucking all the air out of the car when the windows are closed!

My apologies for the picture quality. I need to have Flatout take some shots for me so I have some decent ones...everything looks much better in person than it does in my crapola pictures.

0TheRadioFlyer97

That amp rack is sick. How is it mounted?

mike_mds

It's held in place almost entirely by its own weight and the angle that it sits at against the roll bar struts...its actually a little bit off where it should be in the pictures I took because I moved it today to put in the cargo mat.

There is a "safety" strap that goes from the center back of the rack and wraps around the lower portion of the roll bar behind the seats. What's really cool about that is the strap looks exactly like a miniature version of my 5 point shoulder harness straps, which wrap around the same bar about a foot away behind the driver's seat.

When the car is under violent acceleration, the angle of the amp / weight distribution and the strap keep it in place. Under sudden de-acceleration, the roll bar struts keep the rack from moving forward. I will probably use additional temporary straps when I go to the drag strip just to be overcautious. It's plenty strong enough for normal, spirited street driving.

My installer has ordered some red LED lighting to go with the red lighting behind the head unit bezel...I'll be posting up some night shots after I get that added in...the inside of the amp rack is painted with some sort of special paint that should look cool with the LED lighting shining on it. Once this is done the rack should end up in its final resting place since I won't be fiddling with it again.

I think what I like best about the rack is the way the color and style of the rack complemented my seatcovers:

mike_mds

Did forget to mention that the corner protective pieces that are going on the rack are not in yet...if you look REAL close, you'll see a tiny bit of seam in the close up shot. That'll be gone this week...