# 2008 C6 Corvette Coupe - Seas, JBL, Exile, Cerwin-Vega, Pioneer



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Hey Guys,

Just wrapped up work on a 2008 C6 Vette coupe. It’s a car that I have a love/hate relationship with it in general. I love the fact that the doors, once properly sealed, form a cavernous cabinet that produces awesome midbass, as well as the huge expanse of cargo space for a high performance sports car; yet I hate having to peel the factory vinyl inch by inch off the stock pillars, and the cheap clips that GM continues to use throughout their vehicles!

anyway, let’s get to the goals of this project:

1. to achieve a high degree of SQ at a very considerable volume level - the owner stated that the car is driven around a lot with the roof off, so the music needs to overcome the noise of open-air highway driving.

2. to keep the install in the back as low to floor as possible, and maintain the two storage bins at the backend. This means no corner fiberglass sub enclosures.

3. just achieve in general, a laid back, clean and classy look.


so...let’s get started.


For signal source, the customer provided me with a Avic-Z120BT double din navigation headunit, it is installed along with a slew of adapters and modules, such as XM radio, steering wheel retention, IPod, onstar-bose adapter etc etc, in the stock location: 










prior to bringing the car to me, she had a rear view camera license plate, painted to match the car and installed on the vehicle:










and here is the z120bt accessing the rear view:










For tuning purchases, we are using a JBL MS8, and the goal was to keep the controller completely out of sight. So after some searching, I found a way to mount it in the glove box so it’s high and tucked away, still leaving plenty of space for the usual documents and papers. And since the MS8's remote control operates on RF instead of IR, having it there doesn’t affect the signal reception at all. 










As per the customer's instructions, I also ran the Pioneer USB/IPOD cable into the center armrest, coupled with the iPod adapter, this gives her the flexibility to run either an iPod/iphone, or a USB storage device.










The front stage consists of a pair of Seas Lotus Reference 8" midbasses and the RT27F tweeter. the tweeters, as usual, were molded into the stock A pillars. A location that has worked well for me in past C6 projects.

so here are the finished results, wrapped in black vinyl:


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

onto the build pics. as I said, doing a set of C6 pillars is gotta be one of the biggest PITA things out there. The stock leather has an adhesive foam backing that sticks to the plastic, and it fights you tooth and nail to come off. and leaves a trail of residue for you to scrape off even after they come off. Here you see the pillars stripped down to bare plastic, with the rings aimed and attached. but you can still see a ton of glue residue on the plastic itself that will require further attention:










next, grille cloth was pulled to form the pod shape, resin applied, allowed to cure, and then reinforced from the inside via the mixture of duraglass and resin. and then, the edges of the grille cloth were trimmed. here you still see the residue from the stock adhesive:










then, all the glue residue was scraped off with my thumbs  little by little, as I didn’t want to damage the plastic with goof-off or other chemicals. then I applied filler and smoothed out the entire shape. for once, the actual sanding portion of this job was the easier one.










then, black vinyl was wrapped around the entire shape, the stock vents and on-star mic snapped back in, and the Seas tweeters wired up and ready to go



















the tweeters were then installed into the pillar, and now these are ready to go back into the car:


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

moving onto the doors. compared to the pillar, the C6 doors were a breeze to work on. starting with the passenger side, the first order of business was to apply damper to the surfaces, and run new speaker cables into the door:










next, I build the blocking plate for the back section of the door, and the speaker baffles for the Seas Lotus 8" woofer:



















and coated them with black truck bedliner for protection against the elements:










then, these two pieces were installed onto the door, forming a somewhat sealed enclosure:










and the Lotus wired up:










and secured to the door:



















the plastic door card also received its share of dampers to reduce rattles and buzzes:


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

the same process was then repeated on the driver side:























































To take advantage of the MS8's surround capability, I decided to utilize the stock center channel location of the Vette. I know it’s not anywhere near the frequency capability of the 8" woofers in the doors, but from doing the GTi a few weeks ago, I feel it will contribute to overall listening enjoyment.

So I swapped the center driver with a JL TR 3.5" coaxial, and high passed it at 120hz with a 24db slope, it is driven off the internal amp of the MS8. here you also see the two sat antennas for the Z120 and the XM radio under the stock grille:










Moving back, I also wired up the stock rear speakers to play off the Side channels of the MS8's internal amp, here you see the driver side wiring bundle traveling back, with the rear speaker rewired:










I utilized the stock grounding point on the passenger side (as there is very little metal in the hatch cargo area):










and also wired up the passenger side rear stock speakers:


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

so that it for the interior, and moving to the heart of the system, the hatch.

As mentioned before, this wasn’t going to be a full fake floor, but sorta a half floor, or more like, 2/3 floor. the goal was to still retain the two bins and also some stock carpeted trunk to throw things into. The roof, of course, still needed fit perfectly. 

So here is the view with everything covered up. a black vinyl covered rack with three cutouts. the entire shape rises only 5" or so from the stock floor height, the covers are wrapped in breathable carpet, note the harness bar that in the car:




























here is the view with the roof panel stowed in the trunk:










and the view from the inside to show how little vertical space the entire structure took.










remove the three covers and here is what you see.

two Exile Audio Xi 800.4 amplifiers are at the flanks, in the middle, there is a Cerwin Vega Smax12 ultra thin 12" subwoofer, and the JBL MS8 sits behind it. all the equipment is highlighted in titanium grey vinyl, matching the stock black/titanium two tone look of the interior.

special attention had to be made to allow fitment of a grille over the SMAX's inverted motor. The subs sits in a sealed enclosure that around .7 cub feet, it is very wide and long but very shallow. 

If you want to learn more about the SMAX12, check out our review here:

Cerwin Vega Stealth SMAX 122 Woofer Review - Subwoofer Reviews - Car Audio and Electronics


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

and here is the view again from inside the car:



















so the power and signal configuration for the system goes like this:

Front tweeter: 2x 125 RMS - 800.4
Front midbass: 2x400 RMS - 800.4 bridged
subwoofer: 1x400 RMS - 800.4 two channels bridged 
center: MS8
rear sides: MS8

so, some quick build pics:

here is the trim piece:










and then wrapped in titanium vinyl:










and here is the top fake floor piece, note the little raised corvette logo I did on the back, though with my camera it was very hard to show up in previous pics:










and wrapped in black vinyl:










and here are those cover grilles before and after being wrapped in black breathable carpet:



















and finally, a shot of the structure and wiring underneath it all. 










Once again, I am quite pleased with the auto-tune feature of the MS8, the only thing I had to do was to do the autotune with the subwoofer channel's gains down a bit, and then bring it back up after it was done, or else the default subwoofer volume setting is a bit too laid back, especially for top-off highway motoring. 

The overall ambience is quite nice for such a small cabin, image is nicely centered and extends to the edge of the pillars, the stage is very deep, and hovers about 6" above the dash. midbass impact, as usual, is awesome in the Vette.  overall, just a nice balanced sound that I am quite happy with.

cheers,

b


----------



## six2six (Mar 25, 2007)

Amazing build as always. Always an inspiration to go redo my build after seeing your work.


----------



## Shelbrain (Mar 1, 2008)

You did a great job with the limitations imposed on you. Excellent work as always.


----------



## Bluenote (Aug 29, 2008)

Bing, that is just beautiful! Good work!


----------



## twing (Dec 21, 2007)

Bing, great work :thumbsup:as usual. How do you like the sound of the Cerwin Vega?


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

i think next to the Si BM, this could be my favorite reasonable priced shallow 12" sub  I am pretty much in agreement with the reviewer on the link i posted


----------



## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Bing - excellent job!
I have a question: how do you secure top cover to the amp rack itself?

Thanks.


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Mless5 said:


> Bing - excellent job!
> I have a question: how do you secure top cover to the amp rack itself?
> 
> Thanks.


there are four screws that go into the front and rear edges of the top board, whcih secures to the biege covered platform underneath. which itself is secured to the main subbox amp rack structure. 

the pics were taken before those screws and screw caps went in. if you look at the pic of the main wrap before being wrapped in vinyl, you will see where the two back screws go into, the fronts were at the mirrored spot 

b


----------



## rjorge (Feb 12, 2008)

Awesome work! Gotta love your close attention to details! It definetly sets yourself apart from a lot of installers out there! 

I have a question, on running the rear speaker and center out of the jbl, how did the jbl-ms8 match the speakers running off dedicated amps to the ones that are only getting 20w? Don't you think it limited the ability of the system to get loud? Or was it loud enough?


----------



## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Thanks Bing, I saw them, but wasn't sure. 
Great job as always!


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

rjorge said:


> Awesome work! Gotta love your close attention to details! It definetly sets yourself apart from a lot of installers out there!
> 
> I have a question, on running the rear speaker and center out of the jbl, how did the jbl-ms8 match the speakers running off dedicated amps to the ones that are only getting 20w? Don't you think it limited the ability of the system to get loud? Or was it loud enough?


well, thats a question i think better left to the MS8 masters out there...but for me, the MS8 auto matched the volume pretty well after auto tune.

remember that the rear channels in logic 7 only plays what is out of phase in the recording, and the center channel plays only what is recorded in exactly equal volumes present in the front left and right...so to me, i dont htink they are being pushed all that hard.

i went with stock power on these speakers after speaking with Andy...and to be honest, i didnt think these held the system back at all. 

just my opinion  infact, on initial setting as the speakers were doing the sweeps, i had to turn the ms8 volume down a bit becuase the internal amp powered speakers were too loud.

i dont think loudness is a problem at all here...this is actually perhaps one of hte loudest cars i have done, i took it for a drive down the 101 here with the top down, about 80mph, still can hear hte music fine (sans the details of course)

b


----------



## jimp (Jul 12, 2009)

again, very nice work, you got skillz!!!!!


----------



## Boostedrex (Apr 4, 2007)

Meh, not bad.



LOL! Nice looking work Bing. Wish I had been around before the owner took delivery. I'd love to have heard those 8" Lotus drivers!


----------



## seddon (Apr 1, 2008)

Great install Bing. Question for you, is there any midbass cancelation with this car being a vette I know it can get loud?


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

seddon said:


> Great install Bing. Question for you, is there any midbass cancelation with this car being a vette I know it can get loud?


if you mean just road noise naturally overcoming midbass...sure, any car thats this loud on the hwy will diminish midbass a bit, but this car has got midbass output in spades...so when i test it on the hwy, i never felt that the car lacked that portion...its usually the details that gets lost in the rushing wind and the tire noise


----------



## seddon (Apr 1, 2008)

simplicityinsound said:


> if you mean just road noise naturally overcoming midbass...sure, any car thats this loud on the hwy will diminish midbass a bit, but this car has got midbass output in spades...so when i test it on the hwy, i never felt that the car lacked that portion...its usually the details that gets lost in the rushing wind and the tire noise


Thanks I am starting my build on my 2010 camaro SS and was wondering about frequency cancelation


----------



## BigTDogg (MA) (Sep 13, 2010)

Super clean work, very impressive. I actually worked on the OEM system for that car. I was the test engineer for the 10" front, 5.25" rear and center channel (80mm IIRC). I bet it sounds about a billion times better now!


----------



## bertholomey (Dec 27, 2007)

Boostedrex said:


> I'd love to have heard those 8" Lotus drivers!


Echoing what Zach said - would love to hear those 8's. I think you mentioned that you were hoping / expecting the center channel to be an adequate bridge between the tweets in the pillars and the 8's in the doors - did that work out pretty well? Is the upper midrange fairly smooth? 

Fantastic work - I really like how you accomplished the amp rack / sub enclosure.


----------



## stangman67 (Apr 8, 2009)

Now that is one clean build!


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

bertholomey said:


> Echoing what Zach said - would love to hear those 8's. I think you mentioned that you were hoping / expecting the center channel to be an adequate bridge between the tweets in the pillars and the 8's in the doors - did that work out pretty well? Is the upper midrange fairly smooth?
> 
> Fantastic work - I really like how you accomplished the amp rack / sub enclosure.


hey bud,

no no, i didnt mean i wanted the center channel to bridge any gap...what i meant is..

I believe the common notion is that its best for a MS8 equipped center channel to be able to play down to a similar frequency as the left and right channels...this was never going to happen with the vette, so i hoped that it would still benefit things a bit despite having the doors highpassed around 60 to 70hz, and the center at 130hz


----------



## scooter99 (Dec 21, 2008)

DAMN IT BING!!!! Would you do a ****ty job one time please so the rest of us can feel good about ourselves! Man seriously great job. You always inspire me to do more and do better. Love watching your stuff!


----------



## bertholomey (Dec 27, 2007)

simplicityinsound said:


> hey bud,
> 
> no no, i didn't mean i wanted the center channel to bridge any gap...what i meant is..
> 
> I believe the common notion is that its best for a MS8 equipped center channel to be able to play down to a similar frequency as the left and right channels...this was never going to happen with the vette, so i hoped that it would still benefit things a bit despite having the doors high passed around 60 to 70hz, and the center at 130hz


OK - I got it (basically laziness on my part - didn't scroll back up to where you had explained it ).


----------



## mumbles (Jul 26, 2010)

Nice work as always!! Why did you choose Exile Audio over some of the other brands out there?


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

well, when ever i design a system, first come budget, then i look at what fits within the set constraint that provides as much power as possible, the comes the decision about the amp that fits in the space constraint well and within the design theme i envioned well. then usually at that point, i am down to basically one or two choices  

in this case, it was between the exile or the zapco Iforce, as most of hte budget was swallowed up by the front speakers and the MS8. so affordable clean power with lots of juice...and with a little flashiness of the lit logo...made the decision to go with the Xi800.4s a breeze


----------



## mumbles (Jul 26, 2010)

simplicityinsound said:


> well, when ever i design a system, first come budget, then i look at what fits within the set constraint that provides as much power as possible, the comes the decision about the amp that fits in the space constraint well and within the design theme i envioned well. then usually at that point, i am down to basically one or two choices
> 
> in this case, it was between the exile or the zapco Iforce, as most of hte budget was swallowed up by the front speakers and the MS8. so affordable clean power with lots of juice...and with a little flashiness of the lit logo...made the decision to go with the Xi800.4s a breeze


Thanks for the response... I don't know much about the quality of Exile stuff and some research didn't turn up too many places selling them.


----------



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

they are started by a few ex-PG guys, and having used their amps a dozen or so times now, i am quite happy with them.


----------



## Lancejoker (Aug 14, 2009)

Incredible install. I will be in contact about some work on my C5.


----------

