Well, I have decided to turn my hobby/obsession into my new profession. I have started High Definition Mobile Audio in Omaha, NE. I will be featuring high end products such as: Dynaudio, Rainbow, Hybrid Audio, Tru Technology, Arc Audio, Image Dynamics, Digital Designs, etc. I have decided to build a new demo car to showcase a factory integrated system aimed at being as good or better than my firebird, which placed in “Q” at USAC World Finals in 2009.

The demo vehicle is a white 2004 Aucra TL that I purchased in August 2010 with 48,000 miles. I will add that this is a demo car, but the family had some requests for the car, which I honored. I am hoping to complete the install by the 1st or 2nd week of February and will try to update this log daily. I am open to suggestions as well as this build will go fast and I may overlook some things.

System Plan:
Factory HU (Pioneer DEH-P01 Incase I have problems with the factory HU)
MS-8 Processing
Dyn 102 Tweeters
Dyn Esotar2 650 Midrange/Midbass
Dyn Esotar2 430 Midrange (if I decide a 3-way is necessary - but isn’t a 3-way always necessary....lol)
Dyn Esotar2 1200 Sub (IB or Aperiodic)
Dyn Esotar2 430 for center channel (will attempt a 162GT) and a Dyn tweeter
Dyn System 240GT (102 tweet and 162GT MR/MB) for Rear Fill
3 ARC Audio 4200 SE Amps
Alpine touch screen monitor (TME-S370) in dash that can control Nav and Video
Alpine Navigation (NVE-M300)
Pioneer 6-disc DVD 1 din DVD player (XDV-P6) – Kids Request
2 5” Headrest Monitors (Clarion WMA570) – Kids request
Cascade sound deadening
IXOS Wire

I will update this as I go and I promise I do not have ADD, it has turned very cold here (as it does every winter, -25 wind chill last week) and this build is taking place in my non-heated garage. Therefore, my decision on what I work on, on a daily basis, will be determined by the weather.

Please let me know if I have left anything out!

 

Here are some inside pics of the car before any system construction:

 

Pics after tear down:




This car (since it has the tan interior) comes with Tan carpeting. I have to kids (age 5 & 9) and tan interior + kids + winter = a whole lot of mess to clean up and stains that do not come out. With that said, I ordered black/graphite carpeting from Acura that will replace the tan after the sound deadening is complete.

The next thing I had to do is get rid of that fake wood trim. A pet peeve of mine. So, I decided to go with a low cost option of 3m Di-Noc carbon fiber wrap. This stuff is extremely easy to use and provides a very nice finish.



Before:


After:

 

Okay, My TL is a Non-Navi version. Many TL owners have tried different things to implement Navigation. One method is to purchase a conversion kit (at a cost of $1700 from a private party) and then another $150 piece to "hack" the navigation display to show DVD video from an external DVD source. After researching this thoroughly, I decided to go a little different route. I am installing an Alpine TME-S370 in the dash with an Alpine NVE-M300 Navigation Unit.

This touch screen has a nice looking interface:



I plan on installing this where the factory navigation is and move the HVAC/Radio Display to where the pockets are below the radio. So, first, I had to cut the bezel to fit the screen:


My Dremel is my friend...lol!


I used multiple cutting and sanding tips to provide the best finish possible as to not have to refinish or paint the bezel. I then wet sanded all the cut edges to make it as smooth as possible (2000 grit was the final finish).

I used the factory metal box that contained the HVAC/Radio information screen to install the screen in and cut/modified the box to attach the screen.





The box was completely sound deadened (just to be sure)

I screwed the screen to the metal box and lined everything up with the plastic front bezel.


Before:

After:

 

Since it is still very cold out, I worked next on extending the wires for the Head Rest Monitors so I can run the wire inside the Head Rest pole. I cut the wire and located the power, ground and video wires. These are the only ones I extended for my particular installation.

Head Rest and monitor pic:


Pic of the wires being cut:



The wires were soldered with heat shrunk applied:


Final Pic:


I will test the monitors and then install them in the head rests.

Thats all for today!

 

looks like a great install in the making!

 

Nice.

I would've went with tru amps, though.

 

Will definitely be visiting this thread often to check out the progression! Are you leaning more towards aperiodic enclosure or IB?

EDIT: Would also love to hear about your experience with the MS8 in the TL's cabin space!! My understanding is that you're pretty much dependent upon its autotuning capabilities without THAT much "tinkering" potential as opposed to a bitone, 3sixty, etc. .... or I might be wrong lol

 

I have Tru Billet amps in my other competition car. A Billet B4100-s (Upgraded Brown-Burr 2604 OpAmps and plexi bottom) & a Billet B475-DS (Pre-amp card removed, no gains, no crossover, no OpAmps = pure sound quality, with plexi bottom).

Right now I am 50/50. I will get a little more output with the IB, but the Aperiodic (which I will hand build myself) would give me a smoother response without having to eq so much. I have a P9 combo in my other car and I am, honestly, a little concerned with the auto tune, but willing to try it out. I have a Pioneer DEH-P01 as a backup plan and willing to go BitOne as well. Most likely I will keep the MS-8 until the new ARC processor comes out in April/May, even if it is not my favorite. All you can do is apply a little eq after the fact.

 

Very impressed with what's done so far =)

 

Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

Very nice. Would love to see how the factory display looks in the lower pocket.

 

Nah you're right

Hate that darn thing lol

 

awesome, awesome work. i love it when people do their own installs, rather than pay some joe at an audio shop to do it. anyone with money can go out and get a system installed at a high end shop. its the ones with skill and know how that impress. wheres the pioneer DVD player going? ive got the same one in the rear armrest. i love it.

cant wait to see more progress pics, so far looks great!

 

Hey Jerry, I've spoken to you on DIYMA before.
I know you said you were going to upgrade the stereo, but this is going to be amazing. Good luck with the new business.

 

Where do you think I got the idea . I loved your so much I hope you take copying as a form of flattery! Rear armrest, here it comes. Although, I did change 1 thing....I have 2 kids, so cup holders are a must. I drove a loaner TL (2010) when my dash was getting replaced and the rear cup holders are in the top armrest part of the armrest instead of the front like ours is, so I bought the cup holder assembly (for a 2010 TL - dealer acted like I was crazy or something) and plan on installing it in the exact same spot as the 2010 TL.

Thanks, I hope not to disappoint on the build and hope this can kick start the business as well.

 

Great thread and great work. Very interested to see your progress.

 

Subscribed

 

Nice setup, can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Nice work Niebur. Best of luck with your new business venture. I'm anxious to see the final product too.

 

Subscribed

Can't wait to follow your progress.

 

cant wait to see more progression

 

 

enjoying the show...

 

this looks sweet

 

Bookmarked

 

Update time....

Well, not real fun stuff to look at today, but I did get some things done that needed to get done this weekend.

First off, I forgot to post this pic of the Carbon Fiber wrap I did around the shifter to cover the fake wood there:


Next is mounting the headrest monitors. This is always a point where you better be sure you measured twice (or maybe 3-times or 4-times) before you start cutting.


I found that using the dremel with the cutting disc works great for shaving the inside foam....makes a huge mess, but works really well.


Huge Mess.


Some metal that had to be cut and I had to cut a hole in the metal pole to run the wire inside.


Screen bezel in place:


Wire connected and screen snapped into bezel:


Tested to make sure everything works:


More to come....

 

I ran across a thread by SRT-11 here at Acurazine detailing the repair of the front center console armrest. On these generation TL's the armrest looks like this after a little while:




So, I decided to fix it quick while I had the thread open and all the stuff ready. I did use some different methods that worked really well.

After removing the armrest, this is what it looks like.


I then used a heat gun to heat the glue and the leather pulled off easy with my fingers and no stress to the leather.


I scraped the "goo" that used to be padding off and replaced with some batting. I used spray glue to hold the batting in place with I shipped the leather back on.


I then used hot glue on the edges of the leather cover.


And here is the result, mounted back to the center console.



A couple more pics on the way....

 

Just a few pics left, then back to work. I started on installing the Pioneer DVD changer into the rear armrest. Here is my progress so far.

Removing the leather from the armrest:


After removing the large plastic insert for the cup holder in the foam, I was able to test fit the DVD player.


Next, since I can't have a car with kids and no cup holders, I bought the rear cup holders out of a 2010 Acura TL (dealer thought I was a little off, since mine is a 2004) and I am installing them in the top of the armrest (where they are located in the 2010-up TL's). This also stops me from having to tell rear passengers where the cup holders are, since they always asked previously.



That was it for last night.....had to go take care of some "business" with the wife . I should finish mounting the DVD player and cup holder today!

 

Awesome work. Don't think I've ever seen the 2010 TL cupholders so I would be greatly interested in how close to stock this will look in the end!

I am actually in the process of trying to relocate my front cupholders as well since I used the space for an ipod holder

 

Your bandwidth is exceeded
Should use Imageshack

 

More updates....

Today was a "warm" day by our standards, so I spent most of the time I had working in the garage. The TL is prone to bad door lock actuators, so with the fact I will be sealing the doors tighter than fort knox, I decided to replace the front actuators before starting the sound deadening...no pics, since this was just a mechanical fix.

I did get a chance to finish up mounting the DVD player in the rear armrest.

Here is a pic of what has to be removed from the inside to get rid of the old cup holder. All this for just a crappy cup holder???



I next ran the wire inside the armrest and put the leather cover back over it.


Next, I cut the leather to match the opening I already cut in the foam part of the armrest to mount the cup holder.


Cup holder is mounted. I hot glued a piece of plastic to the foam underneath the cup holder, and then hot glued and screwed the cup holder to the plastic. Here are pics of the new cup holder opened/closed.



I then mounted the DVD player using the same method as before on the cup holder and started working on trimming the front cup holder bezel to fit the DVD player.



Here is the finished product.




That was it for yesterday. Today I am planning on spending some time testing the DVD player with all the screens just to make sure everything will work correctly before installing. I then plan on working on relocating the factory HVAC/Radio LCD. Today is supposed to be a high of 11....ouch!

 

lovin' the progress

 

 

Another update....

I tested the video setup to make sure everything was "talking" to each other correctly before installing. Here is a pic of the video:



Next...I worked on mounting the HVAC/Radio Display to the lower part of the console where a few useless cubbies resided. The trick here is the lower section has two different curvatures going on at the same time.

Here are pics of the relocation:

I first trimmed the bezel to take out one of the curvatures.



Then I cleaned up the inside edges.



Here is the piece I made out of low temp plastic to bridge the gap.


Covering the piece in the carbon fiber wrap.



I hot glued the piece to the bezel.


More.......

 

Next was to attach the display to the bezel. I had to get a little creative here and use a few different methods.

I used 3M double sided industrial tape to attach the plexi front to the bezel and the plexi front to the display.


I then used low temp plastic to screw the display to and the plastic is then screwed to the bezel....I did trim the edges flush when I finished (not shown in pic).


I then made a final mounting bracket out of the plastic to secure the bottom of the display.


Here is the final pic of how it looked when finished!


That it it for today. I will see if I work at all tomorrow (supposed to by a balmy 15 degrees outside).

 

You make it look so easy!


HOLY DOUBLE JOINTED THUMB BATMAN!!

 

hahahaha

my GF always makes fun of me because my thumbs are double jointed like that

 

Hahaha I was about to post that same thing! How hard would it be to have the center console redone and re-padded? I'm wondering if I could do it myself but you've got a heat gun, etc so I'm thinking I might have to pay someone for something like that. I've got a few little nicks/small gashes in mine and I'd like more padding + new leather. Looks great so far though!!


One question...would it be possible for us with factory navigation to put in a double din like you have and still retain all the factory climate control, etc?? I've always wanted to throw a nice double din in there since I'm about to have to send mine off to Alpine to get fixed.

 

The center console padding was VERY easy. It only took me about 1/2 hour to do. I used a heat gun just to warm the glue on the edges to make to peal up as easy as possible so it wouldn't tear.

I believe you can do the double din Head Unit, but you would need to keep the board from your Acura HU in order to run the navigation. I think other have just buried the board in the dash.