Pimpin out my ride

Completed Phase one

The New Stereo System

It all started when I decided that I would finally replace the antenna mast that was broken about 5 years ago when a certain now ex wife drove the car through a car wash without pushing the antenna down. To replace it, I needed to get behind the carpet in the trunk.

So I decided it was time to clean out the trunk of my car - no small task since the car has a huge trunk, is 10 years old, and I don't think I have ever cleaned the trunk out down to the carpet. I had about a foot thick layer of miscellaneous junk in there, receipts dating to several years ago, clothes, file folders, a million used golf balls, a wrapped present, an unopened 12 pack of grape soda, and some golf hats. I layed the hats out for a picture - I count 27:

While I was at it I decided to clean the interior - I Armor All'd everything except the carpet and seats and got it top notch. During this short period of intense cleaning motivation, I noticed this big console thing behind the seats that I never use. In one of the bays was the owners manual - never moved since the day I bought the car. So I decided that console area might be better used holding some speakers. Half an hour or so later it was all ripped out and the area gutted, and I now had an unplanned major project on my hands. Here is a picture of the console deal I tore out:

That's right, I straight up tore it out of the car.

Next was what I thought would take an evening or two but turned out to be a major chore. I picked up some 5/8 MDF from Home Depot and built a box to spec for interior airspace dimensions for two ten inch subwoofers with the box shaped kind of like this | \. I got it to within a sixteenth of an inch under the width and height of that plastic console deal so it was a perfect tight fit.

Then with a jigsaw I cut out two holes for the woofers, two mid range speakers, and two holes for ports. Then with a hole saw on a drill I made holes for two tweeters, and two speaker wire connecter plugs things. Then a neighbor came over and said "what cha doing?" and insisted that I put in a third woofer in the middle. All right, who am I to argue, I'm just making it up as I go along clueless anyway. So I add another big hole for a third speaker and another port hole in the back of the box to give it some extra airspace.

Then I went to a stereo store and bought actual speaker box carpet and contact cemented it on, and cut all the holes out. My neighbor volunteered to solder all the wiring inside the box for me, crossovers, etc all soldered!

This box took about a week of evenings to get done:

That is the only visible wire anywhere by the way (it tells the amplifiers that the stereo is turned off so they can stop draining power from the battery) And the wire is not really visible except from this floor level.

So yeah, about wires - lots of them. I ran a huge red cable from the trunk all the way to the battery. It is routed all funny like that so that I could mount a fuse where I could get to it. Had to drill a hole in the engine compartment firewall to get through

I also ran three pairs of fat RCA type cable from the tape deck to the trunk and two sets of speaker wires from the trunk to the tape deck and one ground wire from the trunk to the side wall of the trunk

All those wires run through the passenger side of the car (under the carpet at the door threshold thing) and are not visible at all. We're talking wire almost the width of a beer can here - tons of cable.

Wait, did I say "tape deck?" That was what I had initially but decided after all this work I earned the right to get a cd / MP3 player. Picked up the cheapest one I could find in town. Now I can burn a hundred or so songs on one CD and hit random play just like the big boys do. I put this thing in and then took it back out, put it back in about 10 times to get every thing just right - no planning a head here - measure once cut twice I always say ;)

I also decided to get two new speakers for the doors since that blue amp had way too much power for the stock speakers that came with the car.

So there it is - a total of 3) 10 inch subwoofers, 4) 6 1/2 inch round two-ways 2) 4 inch midrange and 2) tweeters for a total of eleven speakers. Holy cow that is a lot of audio for a little two-seater convertible.

Oh yeah, I did end up replacing the antenna as a final step. And yes that is the paint all faded out. It just seemed to happen last summer. Paint job is phase two of pimpin out this car so I don't have to park it in the far corners of golf course parking lots to hide it (bling bling chrome wheels = third and final phase)

And yeah, so far, the stereo sounds fantastic no matter which kind of music I play. Something similar to a big home stereo set up I would guess.

Here are some close ups of the hats - recognize any?

Check out phase two - the paint job