# Orange on Orange: 2013 Subaru Sti SQ build - Illusion Audio, Mosconi



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

I myself am a loyal subaru owner, and it is always a pleasure to work on another one. especially one as cool and rare as the spercial edition Sti trimmed out in orange and black.

having said that, i do think the newer generation impreza platform, its its two tiered trunk floor, is among the more difficult ones to pull off a fake floor install in. 

so the goals:

1. achieve a nice level of sq throughout

2. maintain a somewhat stealthy appearance in the interior

3. maintain 100 percent of the trunk space and oem look in the trunk but with a lil bit of clean show factor.

so lets get started:

first, three shots of the car, completely stock except its lowered and the front lip, the exhaust and the interior boost guage you will see later are dealer installed SPT options. 




























as the norm Joey built a metal bracket that securely mounts the fuse holder infront of the battery, but being absent minded, i forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but here is the mounting bracket itself lol














































the signal sources is a pioneer z150 navigation unit, supplied by the customer, mounted in a JDM bezel also supplied by him:










with a mosconi 4to6dsp controlling the system, all tuning can be done from the front seat via a BT enabled laptop:










the customer also gave me a pioneer bc6 rear view camera, which i installed, here ist he view looking back:










the camera is installed in the middle on the panel that also has the opening for the license plate lights:










no holes were drilled on the exposed exterior surface of the vehicle, instead, i took the entire panel of to mount the camera, and put in a hole with a grommet on the panel behind it:



















the wire is sandwiched inb etween the panel and trunk, and entire the inside of the trunk lid via the hole and is sealed off with silicone caulk:










the cable is then ziptied to factory wiring throughout and ran back into the interior:



















at the same time i applied some sound proofing to the trunk lid:










moving back upfront to the front stage, which is a set of illusion audio carbon C6 component set. first, new speaker wire were ran into the door, some blackhole tile sound proofing laid down, and the wire is secured to the metal so as to not flap around and catch on a window:




























next, the door received a layer of STP foam and BOMB cld damper:










spacer mounting brackets were precisely match routed from the oem speaker, and coated with trunk bedliner to protect them against the elements:



















these spacers were then secured via oem mounting points and the illusion audio driver wired up and secured:




























the outter door card also recieved some CLD treatment from STP:










the same process was also repeated on the passenger side:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

from previous experience, i did the carbon tweeters off axis in this car, to maintain as clean of a look as possible, and knowing they would sound pretty good this way. i found a vinyl that matches the oem color almost perfectly. so here is the finished view. the oem pillars were a lighter color than the dash, so to see the finish match, look at the SRS airbag cover and how it is the same color as the rest of the pillar 























































a quick look at them from the back seat:










a few quick build poics of the pillars. first, the rings were aimed and secured to the oem pillar, which has been rough sanded with a hole cutout for the tweeter:










next, cloth was pulled ,resin applied, allowed to cure and then reinforced from the inside with duraglass/resin mixture:










next, filler was applied and the entire shape sanded smooth and blended in:



















graphite vinyl was then wrapped:



















and the illusion audio tweeters press fit in place:



















next comes the wiring pics as the loom travels from the front to the back of the vehicle, ziptied and secured every few inches. the speaker wires cross under the back seat and enters the trunk together.






















































































































the none vented rear deck of the new impreza sedan is a bit source of rattle, so i popped it off to put cld damper on the metal and foam on the shelf itself, i also wrapped the back edge of the third brake light with felt/flock tape and the bottom side of it with foam to minimize its rattling:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

thats it for the interior, moving to the trunk...so here is a shot of a totally stock impreza/sti trunk










as you can see, it has a step in the middle, and the top and bottom sections are not actually parallel, it is also in a darker color carpet than the side walls.

so here is our car's view when you pop the trunk. as you can see, 100 percent stock with the factory cargo mat in place:




























remove the cargo mat, it still looks pretty much stock, with a new fake floor out of mdf in two sections, and a large cutout towards the back:










pop off the cover and this is what greets you. two illusion audio carbon C10 subwoofers and three Mosconi ONE amps are trimmed in a orange vinyl similar to the exterior. everything is lined up with the floor including the upward kick towards the front. a ONE 120.2 in the middle powers the tweetrs with 120 watts a piece, a 240.2 sends 240 watts to each midbass is located on the left, while the new ONE 1000.1 mono block sends a kilowatt to the subs.

there is also a rasied SIS logo in the middle to give it that extra touch 
































































though this looks pretty simple, space was quite at a premium down there...and the stock floor pan was anyhting but flat. so lets look at some build pics.

first, the entire bottom of the well was sound proofed and then tapped off, and the bottom part of the fiberglass enclosure was built usiing 7 laters of mat topped with a single layer of cloth:



















next came the difficult task of trimming this mold so the upper edges reprsents a surface that is full paralell to the ground, on both axis; and at the correct height so all the stuff can attach above it and i end up with a flat floor with the right height... this took a LOT of measuring, cutting and retrimming, and about 3 hours went between the last shot and this picture haha










once it was trimmed, i laid some blackhole foil on the inside to reduce resonance:










andt hen the box was topped by a piece of 3/4" mdf, the two holes cut upfront are so i can grip the enclosure after test fitting it in the well: the sides were sealed with duraglass and then front the inside via more duraglass/resin/chopstrand:










the sub mounting plate was then test fitted, and the holes cut out at the right places, and now this enclosure, whcih i guestimate to be around 1.8 cub feet, is ready to go back int he car:



















being the way this floor is, i decided to wire up the car before going any further on the floor fabrication. so here you see the enclosure in the floor, it is secured via a bolt in the oem spare tire tie down plate. and the amps were then wired up. this is the last look for some of the wiring as once the sub rack is secured, it will hide some of that. but as you can see, things are quite tight 










next, i finished building the sub well rack, took a few tried to get the angle and location of the upward kick to be precisely where i want it to be, then i took it apart, wrapped it in orange vinyl, and secure it all back together:



















this is the main trim panel piece, with its chamfered openings and raised SIS log, before and after vinyl. the kick is blended smooth with filler:



















here is the main floor piece before and after carpet, the sides are not jointed other than with carpet so it can pivot up and the entire piece can go into the trunk opening:



















this is the frontal floor board before and after carpeting, it is press fit and held down by a bit of velcor for easy remval and reinstall:



















and here is the angled breathable grille cover, before and after carpeting:




























and finally, some shots of the wiring again up close before the top layers of trim and floor went back on:





































so thats it  i actually really enjoy the way this car sounds and in a lot of ways, reminds me of my old subaru legacy wagon. very balanced tonally with very nice height and depth, width is decent and center is pretty good and can be better with a dash mat. midbass is very impactful and clean. and the two C10s provides a large amount of bass and extension despite the fully sealed trunk. it also blends in very well when you turn the volume down 

this is perhaps also my favorite fake floor install in a new legacy to date, the gear just fit, but becuase they take up a good amount of real estate, i was able to fit in a just a good amount of orange trim. 

overall, very pleased with the outcome of this car 

cheers,

Bing


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Let's hear it for us Subaru owners lol. Once again a fantastic job, and thank you kindly for sharing it with us.


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

Man, that is some pretty orange vinyl!


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## quietfly (Mar 23, 2011)

another impressive install


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## strong*I*bumpin (Oct 3, 2005)

Feel like a freshly squeezed glass of orange juice.Good job guys.


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## bafukie (Nov 23, 2007)

Nicely done.... Amazing build


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## charliekwin (Apr 22, 2012)

It might not be the showiest or most advanced of installs, but damn, that's a nice looking trunk. Definitely one of my favorites that you've done -- really nice work!


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Super nice bing . What are the rcas you guys use? And you gonna do a zapco build with the new stuff?


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## .69077 (Aug 24, 2013)

Hopefully the boys at Soundwaves in Tampa can do something this amazing in my Impreza Hatch (doubtfull, lol)

Fine work again guys


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## cnut334 (Oct 17, 2009)

Nice work!


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

m249saw said:


> Hopefully the boys at Soundwaves in Tampa can do something this amazing in my Impreza Hatch (doubtfull, lol)
> 
> Fine work again guys


They can! Tell them you need the OttBot to hook you up!


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## sebberry (May 1, 2008)

Project: Pumpkin. Just in time for Halloween!


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## .69077 (Aug 24, 2013)

[email protected] said:


> They can! Tell them you need the OttBot to hook you up!


That's who I had looking at my car to figure 3 way placement. Plus they have Bit Tune so I'm gonna let them mess with that. 

They had good things to say about you as well.


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

Is there any advantage to using the 4to6 over the 6to8? I see you guys using it a lot more and I was just curious. Great job!


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## Alives (Sep 3, 2013)

Another amazing install!!

I'm curious... how does the bass sound with and without the mat over the subs? Does it flutter/vibrate a lot?


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

BlueAc said:


> Is there any advantage to using the 4to6 over the 6to8? I see you guys using it a lot more and I was just curious. Great job!


its cheaper  and for a two way active and sub, thats all you need


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Alives said:


> Another amazing install!!
> 
> I'm curious... how does the bass sound with and without the mat over the subs? Does it flutter/vibrate a lot?


virtually zero difference with mat in place or not, dropping the back seat does bring the bass in a bit more since its a fully closed trunk 

in some cases, heavy rubber amps have been known to make the bass sound better, like in the case of my previous vehicle


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

fix that sig line, yo..


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Very nice guys! Looks great!


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