# 1998 Audi A4 (B5) Budget SQ install, pics and plans!



## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

So, ive got a 98' Audi A4, came with the Bose system from 14 years ago when i got it. It sucked. Swapped out the head unit right away when i got it, cheaper JVC unit, decent-ish, and put in some speakers i had around just to hold me over while i figured out what i wanted to do.

I thought a bunch and decided how much work i wanted to put in, and how much money i wanted to spend, and came up with a plan for a better system.

Phase 1 will be running the 6 channels of RCAs, some 2 Ga power wire i had laying around, along with pertinent speaker wire. I'll also be building a nifty little combo sub box/amp rack that will bolt up to the underside of the deck and hang down in the trunk 8" or so. The sub will probably be an 8" Alpine Type R. The amp will be a Clarion APX600.5

Phase 2 will be building some kick panels, and installing some still un-purchased mids in them, and tweeters in the stock locations. They will be running active straight off the Clarion APX600.5

Rear fill off the head unit perhaps.

So anyway... Lets get to the building.

My amp was about 16"x9"x2". I wanted to get a box around .6 Cubes, ported, tuned to around 33-35Hz, and i wanted it all to fit in my trunk with very little space sacrifice...

So i started looking around in the trunk and decided i was going to try to put it on the underside of the deck. I figured i could fit my sub enclosure, and amp all in a fairly compact package up under there. So i started planning and designing:

Ill spare you the whole process, but i ended up here:

This is a screenshot of the design in inventor so you can see that the ports actually extend into the chamber a bit.









This is what it will look like roughly when i'm done, I'm planning to bedliner it black, that silver thing is a rough mockup of the amp... should fit right in there:










So lets build!
I cut the whole thing up(with a skill saw!) and mocked it up to make sure it looked kosher:









I used a hole saw to cut out the 4 holes for the ports... the fit is nice and snug, and they line up good. I also used a jigsaw to cut open an opening that i could get to the adjustments on the end of the amp so i wouldnt have to unbolt the whole thing to change my gains:









Then i went ahead and glued it up and screwed it together and test fit the tubes:









Fits good! lets glue them badboys in!... I roughed up the spots where the glue would go with some sandpaper and used epoxy and just twisted them in. I inset the ends about a quarter inch to give me some bondo room:









That's as far as i got today... next up is cutting those 2 pieces to close up the box, cutting the hole for the sub, Bondo, sand, bondo, sand, and route off all the edges with a quarter round. Then bedliner....

Other note: I plan to use a somewhat fancy mounting system to both isolate the whole thing from the car, and to isolate the amp from the sub enclosure... rubber washers, through bolts... haven't worked it all out yet, but just in case you were wondering...


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## m3gunner (Aug 6, 2008)

Nice... I miss my B5...


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## hybridamp (Oct 10, 2006)

Very interesting design, love it so far!


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## hurrication (Dec 19, 2011)

I'm watching this thread.. I just got a '98 a4 avant and am planning out a nice system also, so it will be interesting to see what you end up with up front.

Do you think you will have enough room in the kicks for 6"+ mids? I am 6'6" with a size 15 shoe, and the thought of there being any less space down in the kicks as is makes me cringe.. Because of this, I'm just going to stick with 5.25's in the doors and do everything I can to dampen/seal the doors.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

hurrication said:


> I'm watching this thread.. I just got a '98 a4 avant and am planning out a nice system also, so it will be interesting to see what you end up with up front.
> 
> Do you think you will have enough room in the kicks for 6"+ mids? I am 6'6" with a size 15 shoe, and the thought of there being any less space down in the kicks as is makes me cringe.. Because of this, I'm just going to stick with 5.25's in the doors and do everything I can to dampen/seal the doors.


Well, ive already got some Dayton RS-180's in the mail (7"), and started moving all the wires out of the way yesterday, so i dang well hope i can fit them in there, and im going to do my best to not intrude on my foot-room too much, but we'll just have to see how it goes. Its an experiment after all...!

In case you haven't seen... here's a semi-usefull A4 kick panel thread...
Fiberglass Kickpanel Tutorial - AudiForums.com

I say semi-usefull because i have no idea how he moved all of those wires that far out of the way. I did my drivers side yesterday and it was at least an hour of cussing, and "wtf am i doing" moments, and my results are not as good.

As far as progress on the subbox/amp rack.... Its still underway! i got it sealed and rough bondo last night, and i have the day off today, so ill be sanding that, as well as running my RCA's & speaker wire down the passenger side. I ran my power wire from the battery, and one speaker wire fro the front door down the drivers yesterday. What a pain! Gotta love audis...

More pics hopefully tonight


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## hurrication (Dec 19, 2011)

That is a nice setup that guy made! I guess I was hung up on not having enough airspace and the hood latch - I wasn't sure how I'd be able to divorce it from the kick panel and it still be functional.. but that guy's is still there. I had no clue there were that many wires behind it though!!! Mine is a tiptronic, so I might go take out the foot rest and see how my huge feet fit. 
My original idea was to glass a ported enclosure using the map pockets and put a pair of NS6 mids close to stock location. If I could get .3cf, I could get a fb of 65hz with a 2"x5" port.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

hurrication said:


> That is a nice setup that guy made! I guess I was hung up on not having enough airspace and the hood latch - I wasn't sure how I'd be able to divorce it from the kick panel and it still be functional.. but that guy's is still there. I had no clue there were that many wires behind it though!!! Mine is a tiptronic, so I might go take out the foot rest and see how my huge feet fit.
> My original idea was to glass a ported enclosure using the map pockets and put a pair of NS6 mids close to stock location. If I could get .3cf, I could get a fb of 65hz with a 2"x5" port.


Yeah... Ill probably make mine a little different. Ill probably do the rings and fleece method and cut speaker rings rather than using an MDF baffle like that. Then bedliner them to match the sub box. 

I think ill plan on making mine sealed. I know my low end will suffer some, but i considered that when I chose my drivers, and I modeled the RS-180 in a 2-3L sealed enclosure, and the response down to about 80 or so didn't look terrible.

I think at this point I'd rather have my midbass a little strangled by a sealed enclosure than worry about rattles in the doors, or cutting into the floor and venting them into the fender area. I'd rather cross my sub a little on the high side and have a clean, controlled powerful setup.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

First task that got done... getting the 2 Awg power wire through the firewall. I ended up drilling a hole into the box that hold the ECU, and dropping the wire right down behind the carpet... worked nicely. Then i sealed it up with a generous amount of silicone.








I started to dig into the wires on the drivers side. There is a huge bulky connector filled with other huge bulky connectors and i spent forever disconnecting every one, removing the connector-housing, and reconnecting. You can see the 2Awg wire coming through the ECU area into the cabin.









Right about here i got to a "WTF am i doing?" moment:








Got them all disconnected and out of that black plastic cage:








Passenger was pretty much the same but without the deadpedal to hide the wires and connectors under, it actually worked out better:








Drivers side with wires as moved as i could get them, with some tape for now to keep me from messing with the connectors with my feet not very satisfied with how far i got them moved, but i really dont see a way to improve it for now, i think it will work:









Anyway, so I got my power wire run, along with the run of speaker wire for the kick and tweets, then moved to the other side and ran the speaker wire and 6 channel RCA (i only got a 12'er... its to short. I guess ill just use some extensions. Stupid.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Ok... so anyway, back to the sub box project:

I sealed it up, cut the hole, sanded some, then bondo'd then sanded some more...









Then i test-fit it in the car... it fits! I picked some mounting holes that were already existing, drilled them and countersunk them.

Im working on a combination of hardware that will suspend the box a bit down from the deck, and isolate it from the deck, i found some rubber stoppers, drilled holes in them, and will use them in conjunction with 1/4" bolts, nuts, washers, and pieces of sound deadener turned into "washers" to mount it, hopefully rattle-free.









Then i primered it:









Then i used spray bedliner from wal-mart (7.50 a can or so) I used 2 cans

















A few regrets about this bedliner: 

1. It doesn't cover near as good as i thought it would. I would have sanded A LOT better if i would have known that it would show off my laziness as bad as it does:

2. Its really touchy stuff. You want to get it on there thick, but if you go too thick, it will start running. I learned a little too late to hold the can further away and do lighter dustings. 

3. Ventilation! I did it in my garage with the big door open, and with one coat of primer, and 3-4 coats of bedliner, my floor had a dusting on it, along with everything else in the garage. Plus my head wasnt feeling to great. Haha. Its probably a good thing i dont do this type of stuff all the time.

Some parts turned out ok, others you can see my construction flaws (i cut the whole thing from scrap wood i had laying around, and with a skillsaw) So all in all, i think it looks OK, it will serve it purpose for now, and look mediocre doing it, and that's fine with me. I may end up re-doing the whole arrangement later on.


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

I wish you luck with the kicks, I started down that path and got upset, frustrated, and pissed. But damn it did sound really good with mids in the kicks and tweeters up high in the far corners of the pillars/dash..

Here's my build.. http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/build-logs-project-install-gallery/102730-99-audi-a4.html


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

AccordUno said:


> I wish you luck with the kicks, I started down that path and got upset, frustrated, and pissed. But damn it did sound really good with mids in the kicks and tweeters up high in the far corners of the pillars/dash..
> 
> Here's my build.. http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/build-logs-project-install-gallery/102730-99-audi-a4.html


Dang nice build man! Looks great.

What part of the kick project got you frustrated and pissed? So that i can avoid that part... haha.


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

all of it, if you follow the tutorial on audiforums you should be good to go.. The wires will give a little and you can move them out of the way.. you can make it extend into the floorboard for more volume if needed. 

If I do it again, I'm going to use the door panels and door instead for the midbass and do the pillars only..


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

brandontw said:


> Ok... so anyway, back to the sub box project:
> 
> I sealed it up, cut the hole, sanded some, then bondo'd then sanded some more...
> 
> ...



Thanks for the tips. I'll be using Dupli color bedliner spray on my enclosure, read good things about it. How many layers of bedliner spray did you use and how many minutes did you give it 'til you added another layer? I won't be using anything other then Deft wood sealer on my MDF enclosure, hope it goes as good i expect it. Thanks again.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

adrenalinejunkie said:


> Thanks for the tips. I'll be using Dupli color bedliner spray on my enclosure, read good things about it. How many layers of bedliner spray did you use and how many minutes did you give it 'til you added another layer? I won't be using anything other then Deft wood sealer on my MDF enclosure, hope it goes as good i expect it. Thanks again.


Yup I used the duplicolor stuff from Walmart. With the first can, I pretty much used the whole thing in the first coat. But I realized I was putting it on too thick and it was running. Use thin coats. Hold the can far away.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Well, i got a bit more work done on saturday, then an sudden ski trip got in the way of further progress, but i got a little work done on the amp rack (no pics yet) and got the initial lay-up done for the kick panels.


Tape job:









Gooped:









Tape peeled off and speaker mocked up just to look at. they are big drivers! its gonna be a squeeze!









Passenger side similar:









A lot more room over here... less wires to move, no deadpedal, and no hood latch. this one should be no prob. 









Well, thats all for now, this week im hoping to make some speaker rings (I may have to jigsaw them  thats gonna be fun. and finish the speaker pods.

Then ill be figuring out the mounting for the tweeters, and hopefull will be fully installed, finished, and operational by next sunday.


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## hurrication (Dec 19, 2011)

Have you tried taking the dead pedal out? It would free up some space since it will have no use once the enclosure is done.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

:worried:


hurrication said:


> Have you tried taking the dead pedal out? It would free up some space since it will have no use once the enclosure is done.


ya... I tried it... I guess my biggest problems are that the dead pedal gives somewhere to hide all those wires, and its sortof how the carpet is attached there. I couldn't figure out a way I could hide and secure all the wires, and keep the carpet legit without leaving the dead pedal or modifying heavily. Plus is like to keep it so that I could ditch the pods and reinstall the factory kicks quick if I need to.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Well, im back at it... Put in entirely too many hours on the kick panels last night.

Disclaimer... This whole this isn't turning out quite how i expected, as expected.

So far my biggest disappointment is how bulky they are gonna be. I knew they were gonna be big, and i chose big speakers, but dang! the things i do for good sound...

Smaller dissapointments are my build quality. Ive never done a project like this before, so im not being to hard on myself... but F! this fiberglass stuff is pretty hard sometimes. The initial layup went pretty good. Trimming it down was a nightmare. I ended up using a jigsaw, combined with my (useless) harbor freight dremel tool. 

Then getting my rings into position was even worse... they had to allow the speaker to fit without hitting bottom on the fiberglass, clear the door closing, clear the hood latch handle, and not look to retarded... I dont mind them too bad, but they arenet pro quality whatsoever. I guess we'll see when i get them finished.


Ok, pics:

Cutting out my rings, trusty ole' jigsaw and sand. I didn't worry a ton about the inside and spent more time on the outside edge.









Mocking up the rings... i used hot glue and chunks of paint stir-ers from Home depot. Trial and error, and error, and trial:









What i finally ended up with:
Driver-








Passenger-









I chose bright orange fleece. Not sure if it was best for the job of not... but it stretched fairly nicely, except for one spot where i noobed it.









Slime them up and hit the sack










This morning they were hard and sturdy. On tonights agenda is adding fiberglass. I was thinking i'd try to do it all on the inside so i can keep my semi smooth surface... we'll see.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Got the inside fiberglass done last night and bondo this morn... they are starting to look like speaker pods!









Sanding, trimming, and painting tonight! Along with jamming the Morel mdt-12s into the factory locations. 

And tomorrow... install all day!

Is anybody watching this? Haha


Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk


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## hurrication (Dec 19, 2011)

Yeah, I'm following!


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Ok... well 10 hours yesterday and another 3 today and its done... for now.

Im just gonna trow some pics up real quick and bail. im headed to the ocean for a victory lap/ tuning trip.

They should be fairly self explanatory. Ive got a few more pics of the install process and ill answer questions if there are any later on.

Anyway.. let me know what you think! and ill let you know how i think it sounds in a bit when i can wrap my head around it.

Dirty sub from underneath:









The seats still go up!









You can see it with the seats down...










Passenger mid view from drivers seat:









There are Morel MDT-12s hiding back there in the stock locations









Left mid:









Left mid with my big foot in there next to it. Its definately less roomy than before but i think i can live with it. I definately need to get some grilles figured out or im gonna trash those speakers tho.









Amp rack and sub from the back:









I sure was wishing i gave myself an extra inch in the design when i was making these connections:









Amp from underneath:










Ok, thats all for now... it works! That amp leaves a bit to be desired... my left side wasnt working at first, and i had to get in there an mess with the switches on the back of the amp untill it started working. :/ Future upgrade opportunity? i think so...

Initial impressions. sounds good. ill let you know later.

To the ocean!


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

At least you continue with your kicks.. See now you know what I had to deal with.. Didn't turn out that bad..


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Subscribed....


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## hatemi (Dec 23, 2011)

Nice work on the kicks. I had a wish I could mount my HAT L8 in the kicks of my 2003 Passat, but there just isn't any crumple space to vent the kicks to. I drilled some test holes but none of them were usable. The space just wasn't sufficient, or it would get serious dirt and water from the wheel well. And these speakers are meant for IB.


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

Not sure on the passat, but in the B5 A4, the carpet has so much padding that you could quite possibly create a big enough enclosure in your kick where you could barely fit your 8, but have the rest of the enclosure extend into the space underneath the carpet.. take a look.


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## hatemi (Dec 23, 2011)

Passat is pretty much the same in that regard. I might have to take the interior out once again


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Ok... more from me again.

I'm calling this install failed for now...

The Clarion amp has some sort of little quirk where i cant get the left side to work properly when the bandpass filters are enabled.

The switches are on the back... And the back of this amp is VERY hard to get to in this install.

Im just going to go ahead and give up on that amp for now. 

But the problem is, the options on that amp (BP crossovers) allowed me to go active, And i dont have any other way to process the signal right now... im just using a cheap JCV HU.

So, my Revised plan is thus:

Sell of the cheap JVC HU, Replace it with JVC Kd-sh1000 that i just found on here from a member last night. This is an active capable HU that i got for a great price from a member here at just the right time.

Sell of the iffy clarion amp (make me an offer if you want it, its supposedly a decent amp, ARC guts, its just need fiddling that i cant handle right now.)

Purchase a different 5 channel... and with the space restrictions ive created for myself, that pretty much limits me to some of these new full range class d amps. So, im in the process of looking now. Hopefully i can get this install working sooner than later...


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Coppertone said:


> Subscribed....


Well, you might be a bit late... all the good stuff is done. Maybe ill try to put up some pics with a real camera at some point.



hatemi said:


> Nice work on the kicks. I had a wish I could mount my HAT L8 in the kicks of my 2003 Passat, but there just isn't any crumple space to vent the kicks to. I drilled some test holes but none of them were usable. The space just wasn't sufficient, or it would get serious dirt and water from the wheel well. And these speakers are meant for IB.


Thanks! Yeah they turned out OK... thats good enough for me for now. haha

Yeah... there really isnt a ton of room in the kick areas... especially on the drivers side.



AccordUno said:


> Not sure on the passat, but in the B5 A4, the carpet has so much padding that you could quite possibly create a big enough enclosure in your kick where you could barely fit your 8, but have the rest of the enclosure extend into the space underneath the carpet.. take a look.


Just speaking from the perspective of someone who just did a kick project in one of these.... i would not plan on putting 8's in there. Especially if they require any sort of airspace. 7's were a stretch, and im still not loving the diminished foot room.

There is a lot of padding under the carpet, but not so much that you might be able to use it to gain a bunch of airspace. Unless you got mad skillz. which you very well might.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Oh, well i've got a JVC KD-SH100 In the mail, ordered a Kenwood XR-5S Refurb for the amp.

Sold the Clarion amp to a member here for cheap, and requested an RMA from crutchfeild for the cheap JVC i bought from them last month.

So... total additional investment: More than i wanted, but less than i feared.

Now the waiting game, and another install day to come...


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## hurrication (Dec 19, 2011)

Have you ever thought about a Minidsp to use for controlling the active front stage?


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

I did think about that... and honestly, its still on the list for future upgrades.

But for now, I was able to return my old HU to crutchfeild ( just bought it) and get that jvc kd -sh1000 for 110 shipped. That let's me have active control. A minidsp would have been more than that and I still would have had a crappy hu.

I'm taking the path of least cost and work now. Lol


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Well, an update... I got my JVC sh1000 and my XR-5S in the mail last night. So after work i got in there and wired all that stuff up (somewhat sloppily) and got it working.

A bit of a sigh of relief was had, because everything worked, and sounded fairly decent on my initial test setting, and slightly more decent with another 5 mins of tweaking... When i can get in there and do some serious tuning I think ill be pretty happy with the setup.

Also... i'm working on getting some custom speaker grills for the RS-180's made.

Heres the thread for those if anybody wants to chime in:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...tom-speaker-grills-help-me-choose-design.html


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## duro78 (Dec 24, 2011)

brandontw said:


> Well, an update... I got my JVC sh1000 and my XR-5S in the mail last night. So after work i got in there and wired all that stuff up (somewhat sloppily) and got it working.
> 
> A bit of a sigh of relief was had, because everything worked, and sounded fairly decent on my initial test setting, and slightly more decent with another 5 mins of tweaking... When i can get in there and do some serious tuning I think ill be pretty happy with the setup.
> 
> ...


How do u like the sh? I finally decided to install mine but my opinions are a bit mixed. It was very detailed and sharp but I noticed I experienced listening fatigue after a short time. I like the sound but had a minor headache after each listening session. All settings were the same as when I had my 9887 in. What did you think?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

duro78 said:


> How do u like the sh? I finally decided to install mine but my opinions are a bit mixed. It was very detailed and sharp but I noticed I experienced listening fatigue after a short time. I like the sound but had a minor headache after each listening session. All settings were the same as when I had my 9887 in. What did you think?
> 
> Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


Well, Ive only really had under an hour of listening time on it so far...

I think i like it. The menu system and controls are still causing me some trouble, but im sure ill get used to it.

The display is good in some ways, and kinda lame in others.

As far as the sound goes... It sure sounds better than the cheap JVC i had before, and a broken amp with on board crossovers for the active front stage.

I havent even had enough time to really give it a tweaking, but im having a bit of ear fatique issues in my setup too... i sort of assumed its my tweeter setup, crossover points, Gains, and lack of EQ adjustments... but i guess time will tell.

I had similar problems with the last, brief setup. I assume my tweeters are just a little overzealous. Im hoping i can work it out.


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## brandontw (Jan 21, 2012)

Figured i'd add the speaker grills i got made for them to the build log...

Drew them up in Inventor and got them laser cut from Stainless Steel. 30$ for the pair....


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## Mirage_Man (Jun 29, 2007)

Those are very cool man, good job! :thumbsup:


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