Hey all, its been a while since i last posted anything, working on a project for CES, coupled with being sick and parents visiting sorta prevented me from doing anyhting new

but over hte last week or so i managed to squeeze an install, its my first ever full custom install in a E46 M3

goals:

1. excellent Sound quality, but retain stock locations

2. stealthy trunk install and save as much space as possible.

3. when covered pulled off the trunk, there can be a bit of flash

4. revert the car from stock NAV to non-nav. whcih is kinda different, but the car is going overseas where the stock nav would have been useless...but it sure took a bit extra work to do

lets get started.

upfront, a pioneer 5900 flipout dvd player is housed in the stock location. the stock nav headunit was removed, and various bmw parts were ordered to return the car to non-NAV configuration



the front stage consists of a pair of DLS Iridium 6.2 two way comp sets. the tweeter was installed int he stock midrange location...whcih is behind a factory grille, so here is the best pic i can get:



while the midbass was installed int he loewr door. This was quite a PITA. the stock bmw speaker is a 5.25" and installed to the PLASTIC DOOR PANEL, whcih obviously is crappy for SQ. so, a hole had to be cut in the metal door behind it, and a bracket fabricated that would hold the speaker and mesh with the plastic door panel. i also used a foam baffle to seal the space around the spealker so it only breathes to the outter door cavity.



thats about it in the trunk, a pair of DLS 425 component coaxials reside in the stock location in the rear deck as per customers request.

moving to the trunk, here is the normal covered up view:



as you can see, the floor is only raised by about 2 inches or so over stock and i cut a piece of new carpet to go over the install.

pull the carpet off an here is the new fake floor, the entire floor is trimmed out of ebony CF vinyl, with three cutout windows sorry for the poor lighting, the CF vinyl looks much better in person:





remove those covers and you see the equipment. inthe back, a DLS A7 5 channel amplifier runs the entire system, active on the IR and 600 watts to the subs. two Image Dynamics IDQ10 version 3 subs are int he middle. and a logo plate upfront.

the sub install was quite a challenge becuase the m3 does NOT have a spare tire, so there wasonly a very limited amount of space avaible in the tool well...but it turned out okay, a little over 1 cub feet is the internal air space.

the sub and the amp are trimmed in white suede, and if you look closely at the well of the amp, you can sorta see that each side wall of the amp rack well is three pieces, a piece of sueded mdf on the bottom, a strip of plexi in the middle, and a nother sueded mdf strip on top the two forward wells also have flush trimmed plexi glass below the floor.









obviously, the reason for all the plexi is that each piece of edge lit with blue LEDs, making for a pretty bright glow





lets see it at night in darkness









thats about it...i gotta say, it sounds quite good, the stock location for hte tweeter isnt ideal, but its not bad, and the solid nature of the BMW IMO benefits the overall effect nicely

two more shots for ya:

the stuff below the floor:



and i also put in a cap on the driver side, again as per the customers requiest, quite fun routing power wires back and forth lol

 

Man Bing,,you did a fantastic job. That looks really good. I am not a big fan of Neon's, but overall looks great. Prop's!!!!!!!!!!(as usual)..<G>

 

looks amazing!

 

thanks trust me when i say this, the lit up pics look horrible compared to seeing it in person hehe...i need someone who knows how to take night time pics may 8 year old sony digi cam aint cutting it lol

 

great job as usual bing. I cant think of a better installer who works solo like you do in the entire bay area. if you dont mind me askin was the ball park cost figures for that type of job.

 

^^ +1

 

well, this car is quite a pain...you gotta factor into the labor:

conver the car from stock nav to non nav (a LOT of work)

front door speaker mount whcih honestly took me about 1.5 days

and all the other stuff you see...

labor on this car i charged about high 1k range, close to 2k, the cost includes all dampening and all wiring

a similar install on Z would be quite a bit less, maybe by about 3-400 bucks...

 

How much would a full install (1 sub), speakers, amp cost about in a Z? I want something like this done but I don't know what a good price is. Ive been looking around but I don't know where to go around here...

 

Very Clean Install.

 

that varies by quite a bit, the craftsmanship level, how fancy it looks, it could vary by quite a lot...

try hereL

www.streeteffectz.com and ask for Ron, they do some good work in jersey

b

 

I'll second this.

Ron and the other guys @ streeteffectz do nice work. They did the system I had in my Z.

They are near Rahway.

 

BTW... install looks nice, Bing.... as usual.

 

wow...awesome install...sleek as hell....deff a nice job...

 

damn it move to NJ

 

simply amazing

 

Awesome craftmanship when seen in person. Great job again, Bing.

 

back from the dead

16psibrick-- i have been searching your installs. Question for you

The panels over the amps, are they resting on a lip or on the amp, i cant see a lip.

what class amp is that (if you remember)

thanks

Kevin

 

they are DLS Ultimate series amps