TL-Ridaz96

Just wanna see if anyone in here got custom trunk. I remember one guy did it, look pretty clean, but didn't get to see where he place his amps.

So if you got it, show us some pics so we can drool.

TLBaller

you talking about the car with 2 12w6v2 subs?

TL-Ridaz96

i forgot what it was...

TLBaller

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ighlight=local

TL-Ridaz96

NIcE!! So glossy and shiny Sucks that he barely gets any trunk space cuz our trunk is weird lookin

TL-Ridaz96

NIcE!! So glossy and shiny Sucks that he barely gets any trunk space cuz our trunk has weird design.

TL-Ridaz96

Enjoy!!

TLO03

great job!! i see alot of work there. it's a little much for my old man taste, but do your thing. i have only one suggestion, get those hinges powder coated black or buy some different ones, they draw the eyes away from all your other great work..

theloweman

Dude, i hope you have good tailight seals...our first gen TLs have major water entry problems in the trunk....

thA hiPnoTiC

damn that trunk is crazy! nice job bro...and u managed to still have a lot of trunk space left...GREAT JOB

HQuakers

Sick job. Looks great and I love the fact, like Mike said, that there is a lot of space still left in the trunk.

98_2.5_TL

I have 2 Kicker 2-channel amps, with Alpine mono for my JL sub, mounted on a custom amp board.

I'll post some pics pretty soon here

TLBaller

TL-Ridaz96: thats f*cking clean dude!!! What are behind those doors (2 doors beside the sub)? I'm trying to figure out how or where the box from the first 2 pictures go into the final setup.

TL-Ridaz96

thanks guys. Those 2 doors are just extra compartments for junk stuffs (oil, tools, etc). The way I design this trunk is so that I can lift the whole system up and have access to my spare tire. hehe...it's kinda useless if my tire blows up and I have to wait for AAA to arrive.

Oh, thanks for the advice about painting the hinges black. I'll do that when it stops rainning.

TL-Ridaz96

If you look at the second pic closely, the bottom left corner near the power cable, there's a piece of black tape on the carpet. That's how far the box goes out where I can still lift up the cover for the spare tire. You'll have to take into account what volume your sub recommend to get the best result and whether or not you gonna use your spare tire or not. Good luck bro!

TLBaller

seriously, have you had any experience in audio setups? I know this is not your 1st time doing this! If so, you did a great job and the work looks clean. no visible wires, glue looks organized and you used mdf and built the box to spec! Could you take a pic of you holding up the amp rack while showing us your spare? Just to see..?? I give you much props dude

Adam_Schwartz

I actually sound deadened my trunk and took out my tails to do this. Afterward, I noticed water was seeping in, so I added some clear silicon to the factory seals and that cured the problem nicely - no more leaks!

Adam_Schwartz

BTW, that is a sick setup TL-Ridaz96 - very nice work. Makes my low-level "custom" job look like crap.

TLBaller

post pics!

TL-Ridaz96

I'll post some more when the weather is dry. But here are some for now.

TL-Ridaz96

Well this is the first. My dad built it without the car being present all the time, so he told me that it's not "perfect" the first time. But to me..daymne...i don't think any custom shop can build it like this. Took him 1 month and a half to get it done. But if he's doing it for the second time, it's definitely be better than the first in less time being experienced that he is now. Everything, materials wise cost me nearly $400. Bottom line, it's the quality that I wanted. No rattles.

I don't know if it's legit for saying this, sorry if it's not, but if any of u want one like this, or have your own design. PM me and I'll get my dad to work on it for u.

Adam_Schwartz

If you are talking to me, my setup is merely an amp rack that I built and a single sub box for a 12" Solobaric. So not really as involved as TL-ridaz's setup.

Here are a few pics of my general audio install, not just the trunk:

The floorboard with all its sound deadener



The driver side door sound deadened



The JL Audio tweet and mid in my driver side door - I put the factory grilles back on. The tweet actually has really good imaging sitting on that part of the door - it is pointed pretty much at my head.



The factory mid vs the JL mid



The sub and amp rack in the trunk, before all the carpeted walls were re-installed. As you can see, it's nothing crazy, but gets the job done. I built the rack and box and used a textured paint with enamel gloss. The holes are access holes to tweek the amps, plus to allow better ventilation. If I did it again, I would just drill some 1/2" holes in a nice pattern for air flow and now put any access holes in.

TL-Ridaz96

hey Adam, when you install the after market speakers, did u have to do any modification for the 2 front doors to get it fit?

Nice work on the sound defening. That's a lot of work there.

TLBaller

holy sh*t thats a lot of sound deadening. I'd hate to ask how much you paid for the deadening alone. what brand is that? RAAMat? Dynamat Extreme?

As far as your components go, it looks nice. I just don't like how the tweeters are really really visible. I was thinking of installing the tweets in the kick panel at the footing area (where the lever to open the hood is at).

UnsanePyro

How much difference did all the sound deadener cost? Was it worth it? How much of a difference did it make?

Adam_Schwartz

Thanks man - it took me a damn long time, but it was worth it. I commute a lot, so it was good to cut down on the road noise, plus eliminate any rattles from the sub. I am going to do my wife's Civic with some leftover material I had, plus some liquid deadener I want to test out.

Re: the front mids. I had to make baffles out of MDF since the JLs were so much deeper than the stock mids. Basically, I used the white plastic housing to get an initial template and cut out a 3/4" MDF ring. From there, I drilled some holes for the stock mounting locations and mounted the ring - I had to counter sink the holes just to be safe.

That was when the REAL fun began. I put the door panel on to see where the high spots were on the MDF ring and marked it. I then took my sander and started knocking down the high spots - thankfully MDF sands down pretty easily. I had to do several fits to make sure the door panel could go back on correctly, but I had just enough room. Last thing was to paint the MDF with some black spraypaint for protection from the humid Houston weather.

PLUS, the mid set just right so the foam surround or the cone would not hit the door panel or factory grill. So besides the tweeter mounted on the panel, the look is completely stock. I would like to do kick panels, but there is not enough room, so this was the next best option. So if any of you want to add aftemarket mids, you can at least use the height of the JL XR650 as a benchmark.

I also removed the rear speakers to eliminate any phasing issues - but these JLs provide more than enough mids and highs.

Adam_Schwartz

I actually debated where to put the tweeters, whether or not I should do a flush mount or a surface mount, etc. I decided on doing this mount mainly because it gave me MUCH better imaging than putting the tweets vertically into the door. The combination of that part of the door panel being sloped plus the JL tweeter mounts having some slope gave me some versatility in getting some great imaging. I can see how the appearance might turn some off, but 99% of the time I am the only one in the car, so I figured I would go with what sounded best to my ears

Like you, I thought about kick panels, but I simply did not have the patience to do it on my own and they would have cost too much at the time for a shop to make them. So I went with this option instead - so far it has worked well, but I won't be entering any "pretty install" contests anytime soon!

As for the sound deadener, I used Second Skin Audio - when I was researching what equipment I wanted, I ran across a 50% off group buy for this brand and bought a shitload of deadener products. I read nothing but good things about their products, esp compared to the other big names, so I decided to take the plunge. But I also read that for the install I wanted, I was going to need some deadener in my car. Check them out sometime - I recommend their products. They may be a little pricey versus some others, but their products are VERY high quality. www.secondskinaudio.com

Adam_Schwartz

I spent $500-600 on deadener with the 50% off group buy, if that is what you are asking. But that was deadener for both my car and my wife's Civic. (not enough to do her car as hardcore as mine, but enough to hit critical spots)

The deadener made a huge difference, esp in the performace of my stereo system. For the JLs I put in my front doors, I pretty much HAD to add deadener to create an enclosure, so adding the mat to the front doors killed 2 birds. But road noise was greatly reduced after I added mat.

If you don't want to go balls to the wall with deadener, there are some critical spots you can focus on. These include the wheel wells (inside and out) and the front doors. Another key spot would be to add deadener along the fire wall behind the dash down to where the floorboard flattens out. This is where a lot of road noise from the front wheels, as well as engine noise, enters the cabin. You can always remove the carpet and any plastic panels to add as much as possible without taking out the dash.

Our cars have SOME sound deadener in them, but not as much as other luxury cars.

TLBaller

I was thinking of buying components (diamond hex s600a) and install the tweeters here:



Hey, if i asked you to make me a copy of your mdf speaker spacer since you already have a "blue print" copy, would you do it? I'll pay you...? we're in the same city.

HQuakers

Related question: if I were to get a set of component speakers, where should I install the tweeters? Do they have to be up high, or can they go down low there on the "kick plate?"

TLBaller

i was thinking of mounting my tweeters where I circled in the picture above. You can mount them anywhere you like, really. I think I read that down low is probably better since the distance to the ear, if you had it up high, is not too symmetrical. if you know what i mean..? like if the tweeters were mounted up high, the distance from the tweeter on the driver door is less from the door to your ear compared to the tweeter on the passenger side to your ear so the sound wouldn't be balanced. its up to you though. also too close to my ear is just asking for a headache

Adam_Schwartz

Most manufacturers recommend you install the mids and tweets no more than 12" from one another since your ears would start receiving the sound at different times, which is what you pointed out (albeit a few milliseconds, but enough to take away from the sound).

My suggestion to anyone is to play with the tweeter location using some double stick tape and extra speaker wire so you can move the tweet around. I did that and it helped me eliminate bad spots. More than anything, you want to get the best imaging as possible, which is why kick panels are so nice. They direct the speakers more directly at your ears, but they also cost $$$.

Adam_Schwartz

Actually, I don't have a blue print - I used the white plastic housing that the factory mids are seated in to determine a starting point. From there is was all trial and error to make the door panel fit properly. To be honest, it was not too difficult to do it, but I have access to the right tools to make it easier.

What kind of time frame are you talking about? I wouldn't charge a crapload if I did it, just enough to cover a case of beer PM me and we'll get in touch and see what we can work out.

TL-Ridaz96

How come no one wants to install the tweeter where our stock tweeters are at? At the front windshield? Because I have component, and my aftermarket tweeters don't fit that spot, so I had to take out the Midrange speakers up by the front dome light and put my tweeters there. I got Focal speakers and they did a good job with the cross over. I could easily adjust the amount of output without going back to where my amps is and without killing my ears with the treble since I'm sitting directly below it.

As for the modification on the front speakers, I had to cut out the frame a lil bit and use a 3/4" rubber as a spacer to avoid rattling.

HQuakers

What size speakers fit up near the windshield? If the component speakers fit there, they aren't directed towards the driver and passenger..is that a problem?



<---- Audio dumbass

TLBaller

From what i read on here the dash are 1" tweeters and the dome are 2" tweeters?

Adam_Schwartz

Again, there are imaging issues to deal with depending on where you put the tweeter. Sound bouncing off the windshield is not necessarily the best option.

TLBaller

you know? I have a sub that I am planning on putting in and since our seat don't fold down, I was going to have a ported box built so the ports are pointing upward through the 6x9 grill (planning taking out the 6x9s). It will shoot through the grill, onto the rear windsheild into the cabin of the car. Either that or have the port shoot through the ski slot. Which do you think?

HQuakers

Thats what I was wondering..maybe if I do get components I'll make a housing that's directed towards the driver and passenger. Hmm.

TLBaller

yeah but where? I'm thinking the best place is here