# 2014 CTS-V Wagon build



## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

OK, I'm not as far along as I'd like, but I'm going to start this anyway.

BBradyC5 contacted me some time ago about doing his Opulent Blue Metallic CTS-V Wagon. He dropped it off on Saturday.





And this is the plan:



(Hybrid L3SE's in the dash, L8's in the doors, a 12TW3 in the left rear quarter panel, and a Rockford 360.3. He has a JL XD700/5, but I'm trying to get an XD200/2 to run the 3's and then I can bridge the 4 channel portion of the 700/5 to run the 8's.) 

I've been working on the box, but the weather hasn't been cooperating, and we had the tinter at the shop today, so I couldn't cut/grind anything in the garage, nor could I work outside because of the rain.

Here's some random pics so far:







It looks like I could add some volume by the computer, but because of the drain tube for the sunroof, it doesn't leave me enough room to make a difference.



Spent quite a bit of time stripping the stock carpet off the panel. I'm planning to blend the profile of the box on to the panel, so when it's recarpeted it will look stock.

Front door speakers will be installed with ABS spacer/adapters to avoid moisture problems in the future. 

There will also be a heavy dose of Hushmat in the front doors and rear area around the sub.

Anyway, that's where I'm at so far. Hope to make some more progress tomorrow.

Jay


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Woah, I didn't know they still made these monsters for 2014. Looking forward to seeing what gets done to this. Keep up the good work.


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## REGULARCAB (Sep 26, 2013)

They make a fracken wagon?!?


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## deeppinkdiver (Feb 4, 2011)

Absolutely amazing driving machines right here! A buddy of mine took me out not long ago to show me just how rediculous these things eat up black top.. It would be an easy choice for me (if I could) to grab this 556 HP animal over the $20,000 more M5 with similar #'s. AND I love wagons.

Tuned in for sure on this build!!


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## shutmdown (Aug 24, 2008)

sub'd, cant wait to see more.
i have a love/hate relationship with Caddys. The CTS-V wagon and sedan are one of my favorite though!


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## jnchantler (Apr 11, 2012)

Did I miss something or are there no tweets mentioned? Will the L3SE's play high enough?


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## shutmdown (Aug 24, 2008)

jnchantler said:


> Did I miss something or are there no tweets mentioned? Will the L3SE's play high enough?


Yes sir to 18.5k


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## jnchantler (Apr 11, 2012)

Impressive. Do you by chance know what they will play down to?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

deeppinkdiver said:


> Absolutely amazing driving machines right here! A buddy of mine took me out not long ago to show me just how rediculous these things eat up black top.. It would be an easy choice for me (if I could) to grab this 556 HP animal over the $20,000 more M5 with similar #'s. AND I love wagons.
> 
> Tuned in for sure on this build!!


This one is 620+ at the wheels now, and is getting Nitrous this summer.

Jay


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

jnchantler said:


> Impressive. Do you by chance know what they will play down to?
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk


As always, YMMV, but I plan to start in the 300Hz range for the high pass and see what we get. My much cheaper Tang Bands did that all day long.
300-350 seems to be a good starting point based on several build logs running fullrange 3's.

Jay


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## jnchantler (Apr 11, 2012)

Thanks Jay. 

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## 6APPEAL (Apr 5, 2007)

Love the V Wagon. sub'd


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## casey (Dec 4, 2006)

that thing is badass. Cant wait to see the build


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## mrmill (Feb 11, 2013)

Boss wagon. There's a slammed one at my building, it gets triple takes every day. In for moar pics


Sent from under your mom's bed


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I've caught sooo many people jocking it HARD. I was going to make a sign for the garage that just said "Necks Broken:" and keep a running tally. lol

I got the dash speakers in today, had to space the driver's side up about 3/32" to clear the cast brace under it. Passenger side all but dropped right in.

I got the driver's door done, deadener, speaker adapters, etc. I made the adapters for the other door at the same time. Going in tomorrow before the Sevendust Acoustic concert to work on the rear trim and other door.

I've been holding off on starting the amp rack a little, waiting to see if the other amp is going to come in to play.

Jay


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

OK, made a little more progress, but not a lot to see, really.

L3SE's in the dash (in case I forgot):



Had to space up the driver's side a little to clear the bracket in the speaker hole.



Replaced the Bose 9" with L8V2's:





Lots of Hushmat:





Speaker adapters made from plastic to avoid weather issues in the future and attached to modded factory mounts. Hushmat added inside and out.





Start of the panel to blend the box into the side panel:



360.3 controller in the "ashtray"...it's actually bolted in from behind, so it won't just pop out or anything.



That's where I'm at so far. I have the door panels back on (but not bolted on in case there's a problem). 

I also stopped on my way home and picked up an XD200/2 from a local distributor for it.

So here's the layout:

75x2 @ 4ohms to the L3SE's.
200x2 @ 4ohms to the L8V2's.
300x1 @ 2 Ohms to the 12TW3.

Plan for tomorrow is to build the amp rack and finish the trim panel on the left side. I may even get some wiring done. But after spending 7.5 hrs at work on my day off, and still being up at almost 2am, I don't expect to stay late tomorrow (technically today, now) so we'll see how far I get.

Hope I don't run into trouble matching the carpet.

Jay


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## rdubbs (Sep 26, 2012)

looking great so far Jay!


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## damonryoung (Mar 23, 2012)

In for the finale!


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Should be done tomorrow. All the fab stuff is done pretty much done.
Mainly just wiring and tuning left.

Jay


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

OK. Got it done, and it sounded great. I feel like Scott Buwalda will get some of my money in the not too distant future. lol

Amp rack:



Sub Box/trim panel





Nothing too flashy, but I'm pretty happy with it.

For signal I grabbed the front door woofers and the front dash speakers and let the 360.3 combine them. As far as I could tell, that got me a full range signal. I forgot to get a picture of the EQ curve after normalization but it didn't take much to flatten it out and there was no crazy boost on the high end like it was trying to make up for lack of signal. 

I ended up running the sub 20-63, the 8's at 63-450 and then the 3's run 450 and up. I think all the slopes were 24dB, except the sub, which was 12dB. I delayed the left front full range by about 1.7ms to help center the image after I disconnected the center channel. (This is all from memory, but I'm sure I'm very close). 

The 8" Hybrids cleared the window by about an 1/8th of an inch, with a spacer of about 7/8". I didn't notice them hitting the door panel/grill, so I was pleased with that. 

I sat in the car for probably 2 hours just listening to stuff. It sounded pretty good with the hybrid 3's at 300-350, but when I played Madonna's Ray of Light, her vocals were pulled down to the doors some, so I went up to around 450 and that took care of it.

It sounded pretty good, and it should only get batter when the speakers break in.

The sub box is a little on the small side. If I had to guess I'd say probably .67-70. They recommend .80 cu ft (with a QTC of .9ish?) but I just didn't have the space. Frankly, I think it sounds pretty good but if I weren't running 400 watts to the 8's, it might be more noticeable. 

Oh, and here's a pic of the car again:



Jay


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

Love that car


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Damn damn that's one fine ass car my friend. Install is nice to!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## HardCoreDore (Apr 30, 2014)

Nice ride man! I love that color. Pearlescent + Blue = SEX. My past 2 vehicles have been a similar color.


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

Badass car... LOVE the V wagons!


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I like the normal CTS-V OK. But this car was something special. Every CTS-V I see is Black or Silver. The fact that this blue AND a wagon step it up a notch.

Jay


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## 6APPEAL (Apr 5, 2007)

I believe there will be a V wagon in my future. The V cars are what the turbo Buick guys seem to migrate to.


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I thought about something...I think I misspoke about my crossover points. I started in the 350 range, went up to 450 and came back down to 350 when the female vocals were drawn downward.

Also, I don't remember hearing the chimes anymore after putting everything together. Do they normally come out of the center channel? I think it was Se7en or Rsutton hand said that some people with CTS's tapped the center channel to get a full range output, but I'm starting to think that it was to retain the chimes instead.

Customer hasn't mentioned it yet, so I guess he doesn't miss it. lol

Jay


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## evilb (Jul 3, 2014)

Hi Jay. About to rip everything out of my wagon also. I believe you do have to tap into the center for the chimes.

Do you still get the beeps from the rear parking sensors?

Brad


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I don't know, it isn't my car. He hasn't contacted me to let me know otherwise. If it did and he lets me know, I'm sure we can work on it...or I can plug the center channel/rear surround speakers back in. I left them hooked up at the amp, and just unplugged them at the speaker in case we had to hook them back up for that.

Jay


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## Bbradyc5 (Apr 12, 2014)

Hey Jay, I actually just found this thread. I wanted to thank you again as the system is everything I wanted it to be....great sounding, retains factory look and volume controls. Evilb....I assume same evilb from Ctsvowners forum. Parking beeps work without center no issues at all. To anyone in Michigan area, Jay is a true professional installer and will deliver what you want your end goal to be and will make recommendations for improvements where necessary.


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Glad you're still enjoying it. I think we might still have your spare tire cover panel. Ooops. My bad. I just saw it today, and your PM made me think of it.

Jay


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## Bbradyc5 (Apr 12, 2014)

Ok thanks, I'll swing by one of these afternoons and pick it up


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## Yaadman_69 (Oct 24, 2014)

Jay...can you share how you wired up the Rockford 360.3 to get the inputs from the factory harness? I will be undertaking my install in a 2012 CTS-V Sedan and I want to retain all of the stock functions just with better sound.

Thanks,

Franz


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## Lunchbox89 (Sep 4, 2014)

Damn. Ctsv wagon is one of my favorite cars of all time. Good sheet


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Yaadman_69 said:


> Jay...can you share how you wired up the Rockford 360.3 to get the inputs from the factory harness? I will be undertaking my install in a 2012 CTS-V Sedan and I want to retain all of the stock functions just with better sound.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Franz


If I remember correctly, I grabbed the front L+R speakers on the dash, and the L+R Door speakers and used the Rockford to combine them into a full range signal. I did not use the center channel. I disconnected the rear surround speakers (at the speakers, in case we wanted to hook them back up.) I believe I might have left the rear door speakers hooked up to the factory amp, but it's been a while so I'm not 100% sure.

Jay


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## Lunchbox89 (Sep 4, 2014)

I used an audio control dq61. Really good quality and great sound. I haven't hooked up my subs yet but the t/a control was on hit. And it gives you very good control over your components


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## Lunchbox89 (Sep 4, 2014)

It doesn't have a computer regulated tuning option but if tuned right can make your audio sound sexy as he'll


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## Yaadman_69 (Oct 24, 2014)

Copy Jay. Did you tap the high level inputs before or did you use the outupts after the Bose amp?


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

After the amp. The signal before the amp is more like RCA level, but it is fixed. Volume control happens inside the amp.

Jay


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## cmac06 (Aug 22, 2014)

After I stop drooling I'll look at the audio stuff.


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## Yaadman_69 (Oct 24, 2014)

Thanks again Jay!


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## lwdwn1 (Dec 11, 2014)

Did anyone ever figure out the chime. did it still work without the center channel plugged in or does it have to be plugged in. If plugged in would this change the way the system sounded?


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

We tapped after the amp, and I unplugged the center and rear surround speakers. IIRC, the chimes still worked.


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## xxx_busa (May 4, 2009)

Now, That's a Super Slick Ride !


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## mklett33 (Dec 7, 2009)

Cool build, thats a pretty unique looking car


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I would have liked to recess the sub into the side panel, but there wasn't enough room since we used a 12TW3....but I really liked the car. And I wouldn't mind doing another one with a little higher budget, and maybe a little flashier. Vinyl instead of carpet, maybe try some new techniques I've learned since then. But, had to leave room for the dual tank nitrous set up. lol


Jay


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## Karch (Sep 17, 2014)

Awesome wagon, and a great owner. 
BbradyC5 is always helping us guys out on CTSVOWNERS.com. 
He knows the blue wagons are the best of all. 

I say this and don't have a blue wagon but a gray sedan.


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. Really liked this car.

BTW, here's the pics of a CTS a co-worker has. He moved the stock controls/radio/etc. in order to add an aftermarket nav and iPad.



JayinMI said:


> I had to go searching, but here's the CTS I was talking about:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Karch (Sep 17, 2014)

I've got to say, that is some really cool work.

Mind if I post it on ctsvowners? A lot of guys would jump on it as we can read engine parameters on the ios iPad and be all over it.


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

[disclaimer] Just to be clear. *I* did not do this dash conversion. One of the guys who works (now in Part-time sales) at another location did on his own car.
[/disclaimer]

You could use an Android tablet (which come in some sizes that might make the conversion easier) and run Torque. That would be sweet.

Jay


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Karch said:


> I've got to say, that is some really cool work.
> 
> Mind if I post it on ctsvowners? A lot of guys would jump on it as we can read engine parameters on the ios iPad and be all over it.


He said it'd be OK, if you link it to his Instagram account. lol

His name is Dan. He works at the CarTunes in Berkley, MI.

Jay


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I talked to him again, and he said it would probably take 3-5 days to do again, he had to cut out quite a bit from the dash and rework the ducts.
Just so nobody thought it would be cheap. lol

Jay


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## Bbradyc5 (Apr 12, 2014)

JayinMI said:


> We tapped after the amp, and I unplugged the center and rear surround speakers. IIRC, the chimes still worked.


Sorry for late post, yes all factory chimes and Bluetooth works normal with the way Jay wired it.


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## Bbradyc5 (Apr 12, 2014)

And why my spare tire well was not used for sub enclosure.....








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## Karch (Sep 17, 2014)

Well done!


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

So, had it on the dyno yet? Is there a number you're trying to hit?

Jay


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

Love those cars! Very nice and simple install. Love that one with the pad in the dash. That was some serious work to move all the controls and fab all that up. Damn.


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## John B (7 mo ago)

JayinMI said:


> I thought about something...I think I misspoke about my crossover points. I started in the 350 range, went up to 450 and came back down to 350 when the female vocals were drawn downward.
> 
> Also, I don't remember hearing the chimes anymore after putting everything together. Do they normally come out of the center channel? I think it was Se7en or Rsutton hand said that some people with CTS's tapped the center channel to get a full range output, but I'm starting to think that it was to retain the chimes instead.
> 
> ...


Hi Jay, 
I recently installed a Alpine head unit in my V model coupe. I’m very unhappy. Can you help me with this?


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