hey guys...spent the last two weeks completely tearing out an old install that was a bit subpar, and redoing a brand new install.

First up, is the previous install. Whcih quite frankly shocked me a bit when i tore into it. All very high end gear was used, but poorly installed, so as a result, the car sounded

HORRIBLE imo when i got it...no midbass, super harsh highs and very little bass as the volume is raised...basically, they seemed to sell him a ton of high end gear to make the

cash, but put it in pretty badly so it sounded horrible... the entire install, plus an alarm and a radar detector custom install, cost around 15 grand...

here are some pics of the old install for your viewing pleasure there are quite a bit of other things i found wrong but these are the ones i took

first up is the "center channel" they did. TWO MIDRANGES?! a 4" and a 3" dome...they cut the vents and secure the speakres, with a lot of dampening as well...i kept these in

place, just disconnected them cuase removing them may do more damanges to the vent...



here was the old install...as you can see...its didn hold up to well, the customer reported that when he acceleraated hard, the hwole thing went sliding backwards... you can

sorta see two big zapco amps above and below the subbox





here is the stuff with the seat removed...the picture speaks for themselves i think:





here are the caps, note hotglue around the edges to secure it to the wood:



here was the old subbox, note metal straps that came out so the amps can screw into them...



top amp wiring:



here was the poor bottom amp, whcih pretty much in a sense held up the entire structure...it had tons of scratches and huge chunks taken out of it:



both interior side carpet trims were hacked...not sure hwat for...but we had to get all new carpet to replace them:





here is the passenger side kick panel, exactly as delivered...i later found out ALL the spekaer and signal wires were run down that side, no wonder why it wouldnt fit back in

place



here is what i found behind the door panels, the stock white film was duct taped back in place, and the dampening was on there relatively loosely, and gashes abound where

there are openings in the door



a better view of hwa ti am talking about with the dynamat hanging where there is an opening in the metal door panel



the driver side molex plug, as i found it:



wonder why its like that? note the wire that comes out of hte boot and into the metal door? how can a plug fit after that?



here is how the rear components (top of hte line zapcos) were installed...cneter tweeter...hmmm



and finally, what i found behind the passenger side trunk carpet



15 grand?


anyway...onto the new install...we simplified the system down, becuase he certainly had the gear to get a superb sounding system. instead or three zapco dc reference amps with 14 channels and running 11 speakres actively, we instead used just two amps:

Zapco DC reference 650.6 for the front channel and a 1000.4 for hte two subs.

lets get started

Front stage consists of a cusotm 3 way zapco comepetition set. a 4" midrange and tweeter were installed into the kicks, aimed on axis at the opposite listender, each mid and tweet is run active with 50 watts from the 650.6











the previously installed zapco comp midbass was left int he stock lower door location, i went over the dampening with a roller and sealed up wthe holes with some edead v4 foam, the midbass recieve 120 watts a piece active from the 650.6





thats it for interior speakers moving on to the trunk...we decided to do a full stealth install...so here is hte view with the top cover on, the floor was raised about 4" to accomodate the amps.





remove the top cover, and here is hwat the install looks like, the two zapco amps and two zapco SQ 10" subs sit in a red suede lined well, with clouded plexi dividers...there is a also a top plexi piece, that has been routed and poilshed. all wires pass through grommits











flick a switch and the two dividers light up:



perhaps its better seen at night





so thats about it...i have to say, this is by far the best sounding stock headunit system i have ever done, by tapping before hte stock amp, the signal is pretty much flat, whcih travels via simblink to the amps...the dc refernece amps has all the processing on board, so we just plug a laptop into it and can tune precisely

here are a few behind the scene pics as usual:

wiring going back









the bottom of hte amp/sub rack, wiht all the wires bundled



the hybrid mdf/fiberglass box i built...i originally was going to build a full fiberglass bottom box, but since the subs need to be in individual chambers and i have had some difficulties in the past doing perfectly divided chambers with a full glass bottom, i chose this option instead



the wiring below the floor:



and finally, a lot of you hvae asked how the bass gets through, well, the top cover is always vented the carpet is also without backing so it is full breathable



cheers

 

Great save of what appears to be a hack job Bing!!!

 

Bing, when I saw that last night, I was just appalled. Hot glue and cut out OEM vents. Not even a big box store would do to an expensive speaker. Hell, the panel wouldn't even stay put when you pulled it out.




Overall mang, it looked great in person.

 

Wow Bing,,,,man you did that guy a favor. Great Job! I am sorry he spent 15K on the first install for such shotty work.

I know he is happy now,,,and props for saving those nice, nice amps.

Awesome..............."as usual"...LOL
Now, as I have been saying for the past 1 1/2 year's...COME TO ATLANTA and spruce up my Z...j/king

 

Nice Job!

How does it sound?

 

its souds really good acutally, and its not close to fully tuned yet...i was skeptical with the stock heaunit, but realized that when you tap before the stock amp, its pretty flat...and with the gear used...pretty darn good, i still prefer spekares like morel, dls seas or avi to the zapcos interms of sonic signature, but i cant deny they are very nice speakres

b

 

that is what you get when mexican day laborers do your install.

 

If I could do my install all over again, and ship Bing to San Diego, it would be done.

 

BlueBoxer,,,if you ship Bing to San Diego,,,,,let me know when he is finished so You can ship him to Atlanta,,,just pay the shipping up front and I will reimburse you...LOL

Bing,,,YOU ARE WANTED!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

lol...did you ever call jeff smith in the ATL?

b

 

Bing,,,actually I did call Jeff,,,I never was able to talk directly with him. Everyone else I talked with, seemed to busy to listen to what I had in mind.

My complete install turned out ok for me. I did an Alpine W-200,,,2 Alpine amps on interior matched amp rack in Driver cubby. Zenclosure 2 10's,,(alpine). I ended up doing Diamond Audio seperates in the front (stock location) and Alpine 6.5's in the rear powerd by the headunit.

After a few weeks of tuning, I have really enjoy the set up for the past year. Again, being 37yrs,,I was not trying to break the spl record,,,just wanted a smooth, even all around sound. Everyone that has listened to my set-up has commented on how even and smooth everything is and how well is sounds.

Thanks to everyone here and a lot of your post/photos,,made it possible for me to do the install myself. Although,,I am sure working for Freeman's Car Stereo in Charlotte NC, during my college days didnt hurt either. LOL

Thanks to everyone..

 

wow great job on the save Bing. its always cool to read your posts on each job and the hard work behind it. Its scary to think that there are still some real hack job shops out there that are just out for the money and would try to sell a refridgerator to an eskimo. Let s call them this particular shop the "VRT of car audio".

 

how much did it cost him to fix all that?