Newsome79

iTrader: (3)

Ok if any of you followed my attempted repair of my BOSE system or you ever attempted to repair anything BOSE its HELL. So I decided my time and money was better spent replacing the door speakers with components and replacing the BOSE tube with a Damonb style subwoofer setup.

The parts:

Alpine type R 6.5 inch components
Kicker ZX700.5 4 channel + 1 sub channel
Already installed JVC Arsenal HD radio with 1 front channel and one sub 5V RCA preouts
Kicker 4 gauge amp wiring kit (extends the amp warranty to 3 years)
Kicker L7 8 inch square subwoofer.
The plan:

First, upgrade the big 3.

In parallel with the original wiring

Install new 4 AWG power wire from alternator output to battery/fuse box

Install new 4 AWG ground wire from engine to ground point under accessory fuse block.


Install new 4 AWG ground from ground point under fuse block to battery ground post.

Second:
Run amp power and ground wires,

Run 4 AWG power wire from Battery/Fuse box through firewall and into car cabin and route to final amp location just behind the cargo divider attached to sub box.

Route 4 AWG ground wire to closest chassis location possible and connect it using star washer.

Since I want to be able to easily take out this beast of an amp along with the sub for racing events Im going to do this

Install 120 AMP Anderson Power Products Power Pole connector to the power and ground wires.

I'll stop there for now and ask some questions about routing cables and connection points.

Where should I connect the amp power wire? Battery post with Kicker inline fuse. Or fuse box output side through OEM 120 Amp fuse no kicker inline fuse.

My amp input power will be on the passenger side of the car and I dont want to route the power wire near the turbo (heat) Where is a good point i can route the power wire through the firewall? I looked around and did not see an obvious hole in the firewall to run the wire.

Where is a good point on the engine to attach a ground wire? Maybe the location of the original ground point? Where is that point?

Where is a good point to ground the amp on the passenger side near the rear cargo divider without drilling any holes?

LikeThunda

iTrader: (1)

hmmm.i think there are a few screws that go into the Body...probobly good grounds..i have ground cables on my passenger side bin..

Newsome79

iTrader: (3)

bump anyone have suggestions for cable routing

Newsome79

iTrader: (3)

Ok I finally found where someone said there is a hole in the inner fender on the drivers side that leads to another hole into the cabin of the car.

Does anyone have a design handy for the front speaker brackets to replace the BOSE. The alpine type Rs are 2 5/16" front mount depth. Im wondering what material would be best in this situation. 1/4" mdf or maybe some ABS plastic or even maybe 1/8" sheet metal. any suggestions pros cons of the materials sound and durability

Newsome79

iTrader: (3)

Here are JPEG images of the box I'm about to build. I have access to a plotter so i had it print out all the pieces so i can use them as a templates. I may modify the speaker baffle using a cardboard template to have it match the contours of the rear strut tower plastics.

Newsome79

iTrader: (3)

Last picture plus Microsoft Visio, .vsd file drawn at full scale zipped to make it uploadable

SinSFDream

iTrader: (9)

That was my initial design as well. Angles are a lot harder than i expected. Hope you have a good table saw. Mine wasnt as precise as it needed to be (Harbor Freight cheapy) and nothing lined up. Ended up being a waste of time and good material. My plan was for a single ten but I just went bigger and did two 8's instead in a rectangle box.

Newsome79

iTrader: (3)

Ok so I built the box. I decided to go with a rectangle for the speaker baffle and I am cutting custom curved decorative pieces that i will attach to the sides to mount flush against the strut tower plastic covers. I cut the whole thing with a jig saw. The key pieces are the two side pieces. You really want them to be close to perfect. I used wood insert nuts to mount the sub and the amp. Those are very tricky. I suggest using the screws an the mounted object to screw in the insert nuts. I used #6 X 2 inch drywall screws for the assembly and pre-drilled the holes. I suggest using a size 7/64 or 1/8 for the drywall screws. 7/64 is tight and 1/8 a little easier to strip. So I would use 1/8 on the end pieces and 7/64 on the long panels. The end pieces try to crack because they end up with like 8 screws going into them. The screws are there mostly to hold it together to let the wood glue between the joints cure. Next step is to cut the hole for the speaker terminal and stuff the box with about 50% polyfill and put on the speaker baffle and seal it all up.

Newsome79

iTrader: (3)

Ok so I installed my speaker terminals and installed the sub and amp for a quick test. Did not sound that great on kick drums, kinda rattly. I was not done yet though. I removed the sub sealed the inside of the speaker baffle with Silicone and filled the box to about 50% of very loose polyfill from a craft store(I pulled it apart to make it very loose) . Reinstalled the sub and wow what a difference. The kickdrums sound great. The low bass from rap is very nice as well. The sub is not broken in yet and will probably take months to break in in this small sealed box. The SPL is not likely to make your ears bleed but it sounds fraken fantastic compared to the SNAKE. I wired the bose door speakers up for now since installing the Alpines is gonna be a whole project in itself. This weekend I will probably finish cutting my decorative pieces and carpet the box and the pieces. I was thinking of attaching the decorative pieces with something like this

http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/gr...%20Flushmounts

So they just slide lock on and easy to take off when removing the box any suggestions other than these.

Also what should I use to mount the Alpines in the doors? MDF, ABS, Sheet metal. Any suggestions or feedback on what the different mounting materials sound like would be appreciated.

Newsome79

iTrader: (3)

Ok so another update. I went last night and bought a 3' X 6' roll of black automotive carpet that is produced by spectra. you can get this at Kragen or Pep Boys. I wrapped it around the box starting on the bottom spraying (with 3M 77 general adhesive) the box and the carpet one side at a time and rolling the box while the carpet laid flat on the floor. I wrapped it all the way around then I cut and folded the excess carpet from each side (36'-27.5')/2 back and front onto the sides and cut them so they all mate together. The seams are pretty obvious if you look from the sides. However, it doesn't matter since when the box is installed you cant see the side anyway. I cut out the hole for the speaker and terminal along with finding the amp bolt holes. and cutting out a small bit of carpet there to allow the screws to go through. The trickiest part of the carpeting was the speaker hole since i had to make the carpet sit flush against the outer frame without getting under the gasket and leaking air. Im going to borrow my roommates digital camera and take some pictures soon with the box out of the car and installed.

The amp I have is almost the absolute max width you could have and still get it under the strut bar while still attached to the box. The kicker has red illumination which is cool since is matches the interior lighting decent.
A word on amp selection for those without battery relocation. If you want to make your power and signal wiring easier with this set up make sure the power is on the right side and the signals come out the left. I had to route the power wire through the channel the runs under the rear bins then to the amp since to battery and hole in firewall are on the drivers side. then i had to route my signals through the trunk to get them to the driver's side since you never want your signals running parallel to the power wire. If had a choice of two equal amps i would choose the one with the better configuration for wiring next time.

The box I built is .52 cubic feet of airspace. Which is about halfway between kickers recommendations of maximum and minimum. Maximum give you better SQ minimum gives It a better punch and quicker response for fast music. I listen to mostly metal and rock so it sounds really good for me. A nice compromise.

Holy hell this thing is heavy has to be double the weight of the bose snake assembly. I would estimate 40-50lbs. I designed the box wiring so i can take it out in about 30 seconds for racing events or extra room. I will not have loose 4 gauge power wiring trying to arc and spark in my trunk. Anderson Power Pole connectors. They are great I love them.