# My 2014 Toyota Camry Build (Daily Commuter)



## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So I finally after over a year of collecting and messing around have all my gear and 99% of my install supplies. So here comes the install. I originally wanted to keep the subs on one side of the trunk and the amps on the other but there just isn't enough room. After going over some things with friend, we decided to do one sub fiberglassed on each side and then the amps, crossover and the Kinetik battery in a 2 level amp rack in the spare tire well. 

Here's a list of the gear

-Head unit
Kenwood DDX-6903s

-Front Stage
6" Alpine SPX-177A Midbass (Door)
5" Alpine SPX-137R Low Midrange (Door)
3" HiVi B3s High Midrange (Dash)
1" Alpine SPX tweeter (from the SPX-177A)(Dash)

-Rear
Focal 690CA1

-Subwoofers
Rockford Fosgate P3D2-12 (2)

-Crossover/processor
JBL Power GTX47 (Front stage only)

-Amps
Alpine MRV-F357 (Left:Ch1/2 Bridged 3" - Ch3/4 bridged 5" - Ch5 6")
Alpine MRV-F357 (Right:Ch1/2 Bridged 3" - Ch3/4 bridged 5" - Ch5 6")
Alpine MRV-F407 (Ch1/2 Tweeters - Ch3/4 6x9's)
Phoenix Gold Tantrum 1200.1 (2-12" subs @2ohms)

-Wiring
All my 0 gauge is Phoenix Gold Zero Point. 
All my 4 gauge is Stinger
Using a mix of Stinger and Streetwires RCA's

Here are some pics of the gear and a couple diagrams I drew up. 

System Diagram









Power Wiring Diagram









Gear laid out on my floor last weekend









Looking the other way at all the wiring we were picking through









Front stage 









Front Stage Crossover/Processor









Subwoofers









The Whip


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## dallasneon (Nov 3, 2005)

Wow! Can't wait to see the front stage implemented!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## Truthunter (Jun 15, 2015)

Just posted in your other thread but figured I'd put it here...

Interesting plans. Nice system diagram and I like the old school stuff.

Those doors look all too familiar to me... just about finished up with mine.

Can you explain your reasoning for running 2 mids per side - the 3" & 5"?
It will be interesting to see how the 5" and 6" woofers will fit in the doors together.

Also, I assume you plan on using the 6x9s in the rear deck & the subs in the trunk. Any plans to isolate them from the pressure the subs will be creating in the trunk?

Happy to see another Camry build thread!

:snacks:


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Truthunter said:


> Just posted in your other thread but figured I'd put it here...
> 
> Interesting plans. Nice system diagram and I like the old school stuff.
> 
> ...


So the 6/5 I'm using really because I already have them. And I'm hoping by separating then frequencies I can get some more volume out of the speakers without distortion. I have a set of older 8" midbass' from MBQuart but when we pulled the door panel to check, they won't fit without modifying the door panel, which I don't want to do. I pulled the door panels off last week and checked everything out. The 6" will go on top and the 5" on bottom with a slight angle up for the magnet to miss the bottom edge of the window. Also I have some foam baffles for the 5" so they won't be acoustically coupled to the 6". Same with the 6x9's in the rear deck, I've got the foam baffles for them.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Got some pictures from when we pulled the drivers door off to check clearances. I was debating using a set of OG MB Quart 8" mids but they just wont fit.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So for some of the peeps who have never done an install, I'm going to list all the supplies I acquired for this install. I haven't worked In the industry for about 6 years so I had to go out a get pretty much everything. This all nickel and dime'd the hell out of me. Ebay has been my best friend for about a month. Not all of this is absolutely necessary but I'm trying to do it as clean as possible so this is what I got. 

25ft of 1/2" techflex 
5gal of polyester resin
10yrds of chopped fiberglass mat
20 0ga ring terminals 
8 4ga fork terminals
16 T-nuts 
16 screws for t-nuts 
4ft red 1" heat shrink
4ft black 1" heat shrink
Miscellaneous clear/red/black heat shrink
Threaded inserts
Screws for threaded inserts 
2 15" sub grills 
5pack/ea 30/50/80 amp maxi fuses
2 ANL fuse holders
2 300amp ANL fuses
Quart of MEKP
MEKP dispenser
Scosche dash kit
Toyota wiring harness
Toyota back-up cam T-harness
Toyota factory USB adapter 
4 rolls Tesa tape
24pk 2" chip brushes 
12"x24"x12" sheet of HDPE
PAC LC-1 bass knob
5 dual row terminal blocks
20pk misc plastic snap grommets
40ish feet 0ga wire
20ish feet 4ga wire
60ft 16ga speaker wire
60ft 14ga speaker wire
20ft 10ga speaker wire 
1/2 sheet 3/4" birch plywood
1/2 sheet 1/2" birch plywood
4yrds non-backed trunk liner
2 cans spray glue
Misc. spade/fork/butt crimp connectors 
2 0ga-4ga distro blocks
1 4ga fuse holder 
6ft RCA
3 17ft RCA's
8 3ft single RCA's 
1 king sized fleece blanket 
24"x24"x1/4" ABS sheet
1000pc bag of zip ties
10rolls of electrical tape


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Got some time today, goal was to get the radio installed and front speaker wires and RCA's ran back on the passenger side. Got most of the way there. So I got the stock radio out. Found out I had the wrong back up camera T-harness and I forgot to grab the antenna adapter. I started by soldering the normal Toyota harness also soldered some power/ground reference wires, remote and ignition wires onto the harness to go back to the amp rackwhen ready. I tested the stock radio and found the 6v camera power and video signals, soldered a rca lead onto the video and the 6v reducer was soldered into the harness with a 5a fuse. Tested my factory Aux in the pocket below the radio and soldered a headphone jack in so the stock aux will work. Wired up the steering wheel controls (PAC SWI-RC) into my harness and left the three interface wires ready to soldered into the car, this one had a ground, a analog data wire that soldered direct into one wire and through a 150ohm to another, then one more control wire. I ran the mic up to the windsheild and there is a GPS Aamtenna that went up to the top front of the dash under the defrost vents. I had the adapter for the USB in the pocket and the second USB went into the glove box, there was a light on a little panel that popped out, I took a file and notched the panel and the USB ran through it nicely. Lastly I wanted to drop everything I would need so I wouldn't have to pull the radio again, front rear and sub RCA's were dropped down to run back. I also ran 2 14ga wires over to the drivers side kick, that will eventually go into the door for the 6"/5", and a pair of 16ga wires to that dash spot for the 3/tweet. These speaker wires will be running across the dash and over to the passenger side to run back to the amp rack. The RCA's the power/ground/rem/ign wires and the speaker wires are coiled up under the center consol ready to in back when I get some more time. I feel like I did my best to keep things clean, but there's just so much it will looks a little "rat nesty". But the deck did go in well, I tested the reverse camera and setup/tested the steering wheel controls before mounting the deck into the stock brackets. Everything works and I'll play with it more tomorrow took me most of the day with a 4hr break for lunch with my wife and some friends. Have some pictures I'll throw up. 

Pulling the dash apart and 









Factory plugs, all of them 









Back of the stock radio 









Popped the hood to unhook the negative terminal, there's a airback light in the heater controls, ended up laying everything out 









Steering whee control harness, all extra wires cut at different lengths then taped up so no touchy touchy









Main harness all soldered up 









Wider look with the steering controls and wires running to the amp racks 









Voltage reducer soldered up and set to 6v









Voltage reducer all heat shrinked up and labeled 









All Tesa taped and read to get into the car









Steering controls soldered in









Here was the harness just before the radio went in, like I said I tried but still a little "ratty" IMO. 









2 runs of 14ga running down to the kick (for the door 6"/5") these got coiled behind the kick for now 









2 sets of 16ga in the dash for the 3/tweet









Everything coiled under the center consol for the next time I get to work on this









New radio in with the dash kit 









The factory USB and aux


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So on to running the speaker, RCA and reference wires back. Went up and over the glove box with everything from the center console. Grabbed the dash dual 16's and the door dual 14's on the way down and along the sills with the factory wiring. Plenty of before and after picks below. 

Got the glove box out 


















The factory wiring along the sills









Rear door sill and B-pillar









The wiring running over the glove box


















Front right dash wires









Front right door wires coiled and ready for the door later









Front sill with the wires ran









Rear sill and B-pillar


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

The RCA's coming from the sub out and the RCA's going to the rear, these are in the center console area ready for my PAC LC1 bassknob.









Few of the wires being ran back


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Did some work on the amp rack today, this is the bottom amp rack there will be one above it with 2 more amps.
Some mocking up with cardboard 









Picked up some 1/2" Brich plywood, had them cut two 30" sections for me so I don't have mess with a full sheet. Left me with 2 30" and about a 40"









Rough cut out my cardboard copy 









I put it in and put a small amount of strip caulk on the spare tire nut. Then pushed it down to get some transfer. Drilled a hole in the middle so I can put a screw through to it and hold the piece in place.









Laid everything down on and traced it all out, marking mounting holes for nut inserts. 









All marked up and the battery hole cut out. 









All the insert nuts in and ready to carpet. 









So I missed a couple pics of the carpeting, but here it is carpeted and all components mounted. Not to shabby


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Got the rears in today, also got the top amp rack built. Here are some pics 

Got the rear all apart









All deadened 









Speakers in, they're mounted in foam baffles. The foam baffles have some deadener in them.









Mocked up the top layer of the amp rack. Carpeting it.









All finished, terminal block for speaker wires, push/pull fan setup for the lower amp rack.









In the car


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Sorry it's been awhile. Got my sub rings cut out with the flush rings, first time I used my jasper jig, worked awesome. I got the trunk floor and sides sound deadened. Started some wiring, mostly mocking things up. Built a tray to hold the crossover and a relay for the remote turn on. Also soldered some leads on my fans. Tried to get as many pics as I could. And here we go.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)




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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Also picked up a bolt/lock washer/flat washer for a factory hole in the frame for the rear battery ground. Wire brushed off some paint and got it all secured. I did spray some paint over it when I was done to protect it, forgot to grab the pic of that.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So I finished wiring up the amps, got my relay and fused distribution all installed. Got some nice 8ga going up to a distro, then off the distro to the fused distro. To run the 8ga a little more seamless I had to move my 4ga amp wiring over one, you’ll see in the pictures. The 8ga is fused with a 50a Maxi for catastrophes. Fuses are running 20a to the relay for all the remote turn on and the fans. A 5a to the crossover, which has a 3a in it. And then a 5a that is hooked up to the power reference wire coming from the head unit, fused to protect the wire in case of catastrophe. Cleaned up all the wiring on the bottom amp rack. Soldered all the fork terminals on. Threw in some zip ties with eyelets on them to hold everything in place. And here are the pictures. 

Mocking everything up, looks pretty bad, its gets better.









See, much better.









From the other side.









8ga coming down, and the other side all cleaned up









The whole thing all finished up.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Got the speakers in, tackled the 3/tweet in the dash first. 

used some cardboard to mock up a template









Then cut it out of some ABS, and molded it to fit with a torch and some panel tools


















Covered it in foam, so no rattles


















Then cut all the excess off.









I did solder in a 22uf 100v cap to protect the tweeter form any unwanted lows should be around 1800hz on a 4ohm tweeter, crossover point is 3.5k









I was really hoping to just drill out the perforations that were already there but it went horribly bad, so i cut it out and wrapped the whole thing in grill cloth. looks nice still.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Now onto the doors, both doors got a nice dynamat treatment, inner and outer skin. the panels got a dynamat and foam treatment. I cut a few different rings to see what thickness I needed to keep the speakers off the window. I ended up only needing the 1/4" plate and another 1/4" spacer. I cut them to fit close together then glued and screwed the spacer to the plate. Three coats of bed liner later they were ready. I foamed the mounting hole on the door. then foamed the back of each speaker. 

Inner skin









Little ABS with some foam to cover the big holes









Outer skin









Cut the stock speaker plates, then needed them a little bigger so had to cut new ones









Spacer rings


















Cut to fit the speaker 

















5.25









6.5 







them


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Glued and screwed together









3 coats of bedliner 









Foamed the mounting holes









Plate and speakers mounted









Got a foam gasket made up so no sound gets out









Door panel with the dynamat treatment









And the foam









I pulled all the clips off the door panel while test fitting for the speakers and foam gasket, these little clips have a usage life from what I've seen


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## Truthunter (Jun 15, 2015)

Looks great man.
Impressive adapters you made for the dash and door speakers.
And the harnessing in the trunk is a work of art. :thumbsup:


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Truthunter said:


> Looks great man.
> Impressive adapters you made for the dash and door speakers.
> And the harnessing in the trunk is a work of art. :thumbsup:


Thank you.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So onto tuning. I used an O-scope along with the JL Audio Clean sweep setup disc to set all my inputs/outputs and gains, making sure nothing was clipping. unfortunately the JBL crossover doesn't like the full 5v input from my Excelon deck. It clips at about 4.6v which is 36ish volume on the Kenwood. and I checked the output of the JBL with the "front gain" up and down, the out put always clips over 4.6v input. So I'm going to tune the system at 30 on the Kenwood volume, to give myself some head room. Even though the Alpine manual says they will only take 4v in, doesn't seem to be clipping at all with almost 6v in, so that's nice. So all my gains are set. The JL test disc has 50/200/1k/8k sign waves all at 0db. I set the High pass filter on the fronts to 60hz @ 24bd on the radio, that should cut all the real lows form the 6' midbass. On the JBL all the crossovers are 12db, the tweeter is set @ 3.5k, the 3" mid is 1khz to 3.5khz, the 5" is 200hz to 1khz and the 6 is set at 300 and down. (my amps only do 200 and down on the 5th channels.) Over all I had to turn down the gain on the 3" and Tweeter, they were just a little to bright compared to the 5/6.

now onto the RTA, I am using Audiocontrols Mobile Tools app on my Iphone, and I picked up a Dayton Audio IMM-6 calibrated mic. Cheap little way to RTA but my line on using a Audiocontrol RTA was severed when my buddy changed careers. So I took screen shots of the RTA, started with the EQ completely flat, Using the JL test disc "1/3 Octave Uncorrelated Stereo Pink Noise". Started with full test, then when to each speaker individually making sure the crossover was doing its job correctly. then messed with the EQ on the deck a bit to try and flatten it out. Just wanted to start flat for a good base to start ear tuning to my liking. All RTA’ing was done with the fade to the front only, no rears. 

First full RTA









Tweet only









3" only









5" only









6" only









Full RTA after EQ'ing a bit









Here's the EQ settings from the above full RTA









From there I sat in it for a little but and played some tracks I Like, I ended up with the EQ pretty much back at flat, with the 16k down 3notches and the 10k down 2notches. I'll keep playing with it as I drive and listen to it, but i'm really liking it so far.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So I was playing with the JL test disc and I popped my pass side tweeter. :-( I guess that's what you get for messing with the setup while running active. Only the right one blew so I'm wondering if there was possibly an issue with the tweeter anyway, all this gear is used. So I know I have a set of older Infinity Kappa Perfect tweeters. I'm digging through all my stuff trying to find them. finally found them and I was testing to make sure they work real quick before I put em in. Nope, one of these is frozen up too. so I went on a search through all my local car audio buddies, stopped at a few local shops that I know people at seeing whats out there for a deal. I like metal domes. So I was looking for a set of Focal's preferably. One shop had a set of JL ZR series aluminum domes, but they wouldn't sell the tweets alone. On the way to work I stopped at an old shop I used to work at, they don't even carry Focal but why not see what they got. One of the installers in the back had a set of newer Phoenix Gold Elite.CS1T's, they're a soft dome, but I traded an amp I had for them and I was into the amp next to nothing. At least there a matching set and now I don't have to pay a ton for a set of Focal's, I can wait for a deal on a nice set. So these PG's will be going in first thing in the morning.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So I got the tweeters all installed. I had to put them on a little ABS spacer to keep them off of the 3". The alpines were a little smaller and fit without hitting the 3". First impressions, they sound pretty good, a bit louder than the alpines but not quite as crisp. I'm going to keep my eyes out for focal or metal domes. 

All installed, wrapped some foam around them and the spacer under them keeping distance from the 3".









Grills back on


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So I started my side panels for the subs, taped everything off, threw down some plastic over the amps. 2/3 layers later I've got some nice molds. I pulled them out and I'm going to go over them and make sure all is close to equal, would like at least 4 layers. Then I'll mock up the rings and get some fleece stretched over it all. Here's the start. 

Some supplies 









Sides taped 


















Plastic down









Glassing 









Molds pulled









After pulling tape off for an hour, can't even tell, lol


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So laid some more layers on the molds, once they were out it was easier to see where the thin spots were. 


















Let them cure overnight and cut the excess off the edges, put them back in for fitment, and now just need a little bit of edging with some sand paper and we'll be ready to stretch some fleece


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So I upgraded my crossover, form the JBL GTX47 to the JL Audio TWK88. I watched a million videos on them and after getting a great price form a friend where I used to work. it was a no brainer. I got it all installed and set up. I did go back in and tweek the crossover points and EQ a little more, and probably will again just getting it all tuned in. Here are some pics


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

Here are my RTA pictures from before and after tuning. I must say the JL Tun software was extremely easy to use. 

Before









After 









Car running, and the fans on the amp rack running, they have a nice hum. 









Tweets









3"









5"









6"


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So I mounted my rings, stapled fleece to them and then stretched it over. Resin’d it then did some mat over it to get it nice a strong. Went and used a buddy’s shop and a few sanding discs on my die grinder, get them all smoothed out. Now I’m just waiting on weather to cooperate so I can Bondo the edges in the car and smooth the front panels out a bit. Here are the progress pics so far.


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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)




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## caraudiopro1984 (May 16, 2016)

So I drilled some holes, through in some bolts washers and lock washers. Taped around the sides and kitty haired the edges of the box, put a little Bondo on the front to smooth it all out.


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## Chris12 (Sep 20, 2018)

I’d love to see how the finished product turned out!


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