With the tape deck dead and the CD changer on its way out, I figured it was time to drop off the RL with my good friend Jamey Rawlings to get started on the audio upgrades in my RL.
First was to strip the center stack of the factory nav and radio to fit in a blank plate and custom mount an Alpine iLX-309 Halo 9 headunit


Get the doors stripped and cleaned of 20 years of build up for sound deadening

Focal Access 2 way components going up front

Focal Access 4" coaxials going in the rear doors in a custom baffle

Hybrid Audio 6x9" woofers going into the rear deck... again in custom baffles


Clean wiring work. This is what I pay for.


Tru Technology M1 and M4 custom mounted into the original Navi DVD drive bracket




Had the rear door inserts reskinned since the previous owner installed some cup holders by way of some self tapping screws straight through the leather. Also had the previously mounted tweeter disconnected and grill dyed to match the factory door color


USB and HDMI input in place of the original cigarette lighter


Running and testing. Waiting for the weather to warm up to start fiberglassing the custom stealth box to house a 12" JL W3



I figured while the rear speakers were out, it would be a good opportunity for me to get in there myself and get a fresh set of KYB shocks in there (the original KYBs in there had the lower bushing fall apart)

 

Had a Pioneer AVH2400NEX head-unit and with back-up camera installed last year in my 2000 Acura RL and went with a 120 watt self-powered 8" sub-woofer under the front passenger seat. Had them run the USB port into my center console lower storage box and have all my music on a thumb drive that I plug in there. It was a necessity with the problematic CD changer in the trunk and only basic controls for balance, fade, bass and treble on the original system. I'm very satisfied and it's nice to feel the music in the seat of my pants when driving now.

 

I guess one thing that made it easier for you is that you have a non-navi model where a dash kit is available. Mine had to be a all custom mounting solution. Can't wait to get the car back, but it's been too cold and wet to lay fiberglass for the custom stealth box

 

I was very fortunate a "non-nav" RL model, it's extremely difficult to modify your car but your doing it the right way and it will rock when your done.

 

Thank you. Not my first rodeo. Doing it right the first time is a hell of a lot cheaper than doing it over multiple times. That's why my personal projects tend to take time because I'm very methodical on what and how I'm going to execute a specific modification. However, with the uncooperative weather, I'm probably going to roll in the car until spring with the subwoofer in a generic box so things can warm up out here and be good to start laying fiberglass.

 

 

Looks great!

 

From what I have seen so far it looks damn near impossible to have a aftermarket radio in a rl with navi!

 

Well, with my car, it's proof to show that it isn't. Lots of extra work, yes, but not impossible.

 

my Navi screen is on the top of the dash and it looks like yours is at the bottom. How did you mount your radio? Is it custom or a kit?

 

Had my audio installer do custom mounting bracket and then put in a blank to fill the hole where the original navi screen was.

 

Ok I see

 

Wow looks amazing!

 

I'm waiting on an adapter to start step one, getting head unit in and everything working with original OG equipment.
Next year will be ripping out all of that BS Bose tuned stuff.

I would do it now but i was out of work for 2+ months, the previous month to that sucked and now it sucks even harder (i'm a server). PLUS i'm in FLA. and the general public and the idiot govenor can't seem to grasp containing this thing and i'm guessing we get shut down again soon. We are talking half a year of earnings just GONE. But i digress...

....Soooo...... does your audio guy have molds for those subs in your trunk? what does he want for a set raw and/or finished? that would be a very cool head start.

Also, i'm used to a 4.1 system. how did you wire your speakers? i see you disconnected the tweets but you have 6 speakers with the doors and back deck. i'm assuming the M4 stands for 4 channel and i was surprised you did not use a six channel amp. They seem to be older units (looked at the website) so i'm assuming you had them kicking around.

Speaking of the amps, mounting in the Nav DVD tray was cool, i don't have NAV but if i happened to be lucky enough to nab one from a junkyard i imagine it would bolt right in to my car. Then it would be a matter of finding amps that also fit into it. It's an idea to play with.

Cheers!

 

I hear you on the dumbass Governor part. Not a whole lot better here in CA. We're pretty much on lockdown 2.0. Haven't been at work since mid-March. As far as the sub-box, no molds. This was pretty much a 1-off built in the car. So, the fronts are Focal Access US 6.5" components and they come with their own crossover network which takes up CH 1 and 2 on the M4. the rear doors are Focal Access 4" coaxle that take up CH 3 and 4 on the M4. The rear deck and the sub are powered off the M1. The Tru Technology amps are very underrated amps in terms of power on a spec sheet. If I were to have gone with a single 5 or 6 channel amp, I wouldn't have had the power I needed per channel (M4 is suppose to be a 105wx4 @ 4ohm, mine scopes out at 143w x 4 @ 4ohm, drastic difference). Most 5 or 6 ch amps on the market are pushing about 75w x 4 + 300w x 1. Focals LOVE power and just sound better when you can give it to them. But least to say, this is a "simple" setup, but difficult to get tuned right since the rear deck and sub are being powered by the same amp, but have about 3 feet of distance between them which makes time alignment difficult.

Least to say, this was a "cheap" build by comparison to my 2014 Silverado which runs: Alpine ILX-209GM head unit, Audison Bit One HD, Audison Voce Quattro with AV Bit In, Audison Voce 5.1k with AV Bit In, Speakers on active setup with: 6" Scan Speak Revelator mids (front), Scan Speak Discover tweeters (front), 5" Scan Speak Revelator full range (rear doors), 12" Alpine Type R slim sub. Oh, and about 300 lbs of sound deadening (2-3 layers from firewall to rear bulkhead, floor to roof).