(note: these are the pics I have as of now, I've got more on my camera, and I'll add to this later...)
The car started as a bone stock 04 USP w/bose/symph II.
First thing I did was the RNS-E retrofit, using the sharkfin gps antenna.
If the RNS-E didn't have low-level outputs, I would've never bought it. I modified the adapter harness to tap in a set of RCA outputs, didn't want to have too many connection points, so I just made the pigtail about 2ft long to reach the AC overdrive behind the glovebox. (please ignore the mess of wires)
I was told the RNS-E had roughly a 2v low level output, which is just about right, as I really didn't have to turn up the line driver very far.
I'm a big fan of single-amp systems, and this car is no exception. I would've preferred the pro650 since it has the charcoal finish, but the polished pro6800 still looks nice. I'll either paint it, tint it, or cover it in grille cloth...this will be the last part of the system I actually "finish".
Here's a piss-poor picture of how it looks currently. I cut the factory rear deck around where the amp is. It sits roughly 1" higher then the cover...so the goal is to lower the amp as much as possible to keep it flush with the factory rear deck cover...again, still up in the air on this part.
After looking at both sides of the rear fender wells, I chose the driver's side for the sub, as I liked the size of the door, and there weren't any components I may need access to in the future (i.e. gas door actuator). Here's the bare driver's and passanger side trunkwells in case you've never seen em...
I didn't take too many pics of the build-up of the sub-box. I usually had resin on my hands and kept going back and forth between the sub-box and the kickpanels... Here's a shot of the enclosure mid-fabrication:
Not sure what the total airspace is...we'll just say it's "enough". The sub is an IDQ12v2. I removed the door and made my own grille for the sub. The grille itself is mounted to the enclosure, and the trunk panel sits flush against it from all sides. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, aside from the 4 slots on the bottom where the door was attached, and the latch on the top...I haven't lost any sleep over it. Here's the finished product:
I ran separate 4 ga power and ground leads from the battery to the passanger-side trunk well. There was just enough space for the capacitors...(3) LA 24v .5 farad with the triangle bus-bar. I bought these back in '00 and just now got a chance to use em
Now onto the front stage...There was no question in my mind that kickpanels were the way to go, with mid-bass residing in the doors. The doors currently house a/d/s 346is drivers in the OEM door housing, modified/sealed. I'm very pleased with them as-is, however there's room in the doors for 8s...so I may revisit this later-on...
Kickpanels weren't too bad to fab in this car. I did a better job of documenting the build then the box
The first thing I had to do was remove the plastic plug housings and re-arrange all the connectors in each kick to create enough space:
Once there was enough space available, I taped everything off:
Then began glassin'. Don't mind the different colors, I usually buy remnants from jo-ann fabrics...
Here's a shot of the baffles. I based these around a 5 1/4" component set I had from a previous install.
Here's a shot after trimming, and before any finishing:
At this point, I was doing all the work on weekends, and I didn't have a stereo to listen to during the week...my patience level was running short, so I wrapped them pretty quickly in vynal and tossed em in. They could still use a bunch of finishing work to look the way they should.
I've had the a/d/s 346is components in my s2k for the past year, and after listening to those, I really don't like sound of this component set (Kicker resolution RS5) and I'm building a new set of kickpanels around a set of a/d/s 344is components. I'll post pics of this build-up as well.
The kicker component set will be on ebay soon (if you're a fan of rap/techno or really in-your-face tweeters), and if anyone's interested, I'll be selling the 5 1/4 kickpanels as well. Like I said, they need finishing work to look pretty, and after I bought the other a/d/s set, I stopped all work on these. If there's no interest on here, I'll ebay-em as well.
If y'all have any questions let me know... This may give peeps some ideas
/half-assed_writeup
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Originally Posted by Arclight
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