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So my customer came in last week with his '05 350Z and asked me to put together a nice system for around $4K. So here is what I came up with:
Head unit supplied: Pioneer AVIC D3
speakers: Polk Audio MM6501 components
amp1: Digital Designs C4A 4X 100 watts
amp2: Digital Designs M1A 1X 1350 watts
subs: 2X DD 2510 DVC4
Sound deadening: Hushmat and Fatmat
Wire: Streetwires 1/0 guage power wire, Streetwires ANL 300 amp fuse holder at battery, EFX RCAs. Streetwires 14 ga speaker wire through the doors.
Other: Tinted Lexan, high grade carpet, whisper black vinyl
I started off my using plenty of Fatmat for the trunk and trunk floor. The product does NOT stick very well and I had to use a heat gun to apply it. It is tar based but I wanted to try it out. In this case it worked well but I will not be using it again:
I used hushmat for the hatch area and doors. Hushmat is 100X better for adhesion, low odour and its much more maleable:
Because of his budget I wanted to use the stock sail panels for the tweets and EQ them afterwards. I wasn't happy with how the tweeter cups looked:
So I decided to spend more time on flushing the tweeter cups into the sail panels:
I used Icing (which is like a much finer body filler), sanded down to 400 grit and used primer filler to smooth it all out:
Pretty happy with how they turned out:
Tweeters were angled properly afterwards (anybody know what kind of car in the background?)
Now onto the box. It was made to be sealed and shared for two DD 2510's. Volume was about .8 cubes per sub:
A little sexy vinyl as a front plate:
Top panel to finish it off
Subs mounted with vinyl insert
Sub area completed. Simple amp rack fabricated out of 1/2" MDF. Wires run through the floor and grommets used to finish it off. Raised 2 1/4" off the floor:
Amp rack panel cut out and rounded off where the plexi goes:
finished product:
Back of the box was carpeted, trim was made to finish off around the arch and new floor panel was made to cover up the front area of the trunk floor.
It sounded very good! Tight and clean bass with plenty of warm mids and highs. The customer was very happy with his new budget custom system.
__________________ - Certified IASCA judge - Pro car audio installer for 19 years
not bad but for 4k, i would expect more for some reason. Some things doesn't look like perfect craftsmanship. Still decent job.
Ouch, that hurts a little bit. I don't think you can judge the amount of work done though because you can't see all of the sound deadening I did. The car does not rattle one bit. Also, if it were going to be a show quality system he would have paid at least twice that amount and I would have taken about a month on it. I also would have done a lot more fibreglassing and used much more expensive materials as well. Funds are in Canadian so its about $3500 US give or take. All cuts made and assembly techniques are about as perfect as it gets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chi-TownWarrior
Nice work
quick question...is the amp rack just sitting there or is it secured some way?
The amp rack is bolted to the floor so its not going anywhere. Also, the enclosure is bolted at the front and rear to make it all secure. The top panel front and rear are pressure fitted and the sub face panel has hidden tabs that secure it.
__________________ - Certified IASCA judge - Pro car audio installer for 19 years
__________________ 2004 Honda CBR 600RR current 2009 Suzuki DL650 V-Strom current 2009 Subaru WRX - current 2011 Nissan Pathfinder 4x4 current 1975 Datsun Fairlady Z RHD Project 2004.5 Nissan 350Z (gone, but not forgotten) 2008.5 Nissan Titan(Goodbye my monster truck)
I actually thought this was one of the more "thought-out" builds I have seen.
I like the remaining space/design. Craftsmanship seemed acceptable too.
If the system sounds good, does not vibrate the car to pieces, and holds
up better than stock - good value.
not bad but for 4k, i would expect more for some reason. Some things doesn't look like perfect craftsmanship. Still decent job.
If that was including the cost of equipment along with installation and materials, I'd say that was a pretty good deal. The sound deadening alone isn't cheap.
Everything looks good but for 4grand, I would be tripping for using fatmat. Raamat at the least IMO, I love the hushmat stuff. Should of set him up an active setup with better fronts.
Everything looks good but for 4grand, I would be tripping for using fatmat. Raamat at the least IMO, I love the hushmat stuff. Should of set him up an active setup with better fronts.
hard to do when a customer gives you a max budget and wants all high end in the bass department
How much would you say the installation piece was alone? Just the install portion minus all the equipment. I had a guy quote me 5,000 dollars just to install all my equipment in the Z. Totally ridiculous, but I didi find someone else to do it waaaaayyyy cheaper, and I had the entire car deadened with Damplifier pro and that liquid stuff you put on top of that.
Last edited by 350Zrida; 02-28-2009 at 07:40 PM.
Reason: added photos
3-day build! *PICS*
