# 2011 Golf 2.5L 4 door steath install & stickerbomb



## req (Aug 4, 2007)

hey there everyone. this install is almost totally done. i didnt take as many pictures as i should have, but oh well 

the car is a 2011 golf 2.5L automatic. its a sweet dark blue color. she is mostly about looks than anything else, so will will mostly focus on that aspect - because she is a hippie and likes to save the planet - so good gas mileage too.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

here we have the door install. basically this is kind of a step by step procedure on how to take the doors off the mk6 golf, and how to pop the old speakers out - as well as me putting the new speakers in.
here is the door after i have taken off the trim panel. it has a hook up forward with some plastic snaps, and some metal clips under the thicker area. start in the lower middle section at the corner and pry toward you.

























there are four screws to remove, three under the panel you just took out, and one on the bottom middle there. they are all a T25 torx i think.

























now, i usually start in the bottom inboard corner near the speaker, get your fingers behind the door panel without scratching the paint, and pull really damn hard. there are a bunch of VW clips that are stubborn as crap the first few times. they look like this, and pop in "seated" and out "removed" - make sure they are in the removed\extended position *AND LINED UP PERFECTLY* when ready to put the door panel back on or they will most likely bend or break.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

now you have this stupid speaker, that is RIVETED in. not only its riveted like you would think, but it has almost like two rivets - one to hold the speaker, and one under the speaker between it and the door. so once you drill out the first one and get the speaker loose, then you need to remove the rear one, and fish them all out of the door. i think a chisel would have come in handy. i used a combination of a dremel, a hammer and a punch, a flat head screw driver, and pliers to get them out.



























































once the speaker is out, here is the kind of depth you are looking at.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

here are the speaker ring adapters from *www.car-speaker-adapters.com*. i modified them slightly, i put in PVC glue on all the joints to make sure they "weld" together in case they decide to start to shimmy apart after 10 years... they are very solid, and made from plastic. there will be zero moisture damage, and they come ready to fit - im sure if you needed, the speaker hole could be modified to fit something like an 8" speaker in a 6" hole if you contact the website and explicitly request them to make something like this. these rings are about $22 shipped. compared to buying the wood ($11 for a 2x4 foot sheet of plywood, similar price for MDF), and spending the time to measure, cut, and fit properly, $22 is not a bad deal in my book! so i went with these - and i can not rate them high enough. awesome product! and if you need a product they do not have, they will work with you to make whatever it is you need - and maybe work out some kind of other deal as well! but please email them for further details!


















here is how they are fitted together

























then i got some well nuts, wich are captive brass nuts suspended in a big rubber tube\washer. this goes between the mounting surface and the item to be mounted - it acts very much like a rivet. it works as a small vibration dampening structure, and will not fall inside the door, is rust resistant, and just plain awesome for sheet metal. so, door, well nut, speaker, washer, stainless screw!

























ok, so now the wire got ran through the door. there is a grommet in the door jamb that has those bulkhead connectors. basically at the bottom of this, where the little "tooth" locks into the receptacle, VW left enough room to put two sets of speaker wires AROUND the connector. the rubber boot sits over top of this whole thing, so its still inside the rubber, and no cutting\drilling\etc needed!









then my lovely wife started slabbing on the Duct Seal. its a high-mass sealant used as a moisture\air\critter\etc barrier between bulkheads and walls where wires run through. I found it when i was on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on deployment with VFA-143. the electricians for the boat used it to seal the wire runs between bulkheads so there wouldnt be smoke travel if a space was on fire and such, maybe even flooding. the boat was made in the 70's and i went on deployment in 2009 - so this crap has been there for over 30 years. it was still sticky and soft under the layer of dust\paint that coated the surface - and the boat was in the persian gulf where its easily hotter than the south west and only rains once in a long time - i was out for 7 months and it rained one time. so yea - this stuff wont melt. plus, when we went through the atlantic, it was cold as **** - and it was still soft and not brittle. the stuff is super resilient! so she slabbed 1lb on each door in between the speaker adapter to seal it up tight and add a bunch of mass around the speaker to lower the resonance of the door panel.









*CAREFUL! CLD TILES ARE SHARP!!*









































we also put down a few CLD tiles, but i didnt take any pictures of that. sorry!









oh yea, stock speaker size in case you are wondering - all the speakers are the same size and model in this car


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

ok, so the doors go back on - and now im going to work on the trunk. first thing i did was remove all the junk from there. it all comes out fairly standard - didnt take a picture. the wife and i taped off the area with painters tape and aluminum foil. its best to make two layers. the first layer nice and snug and lots of tape, the second layer on top of that use less tape and more foil so there is less "sticking" to the car surfaces - that way when you remove it - it comes out super easy and there is not a whole bunch of pulling.

i apologize, but while our hands were covered in resin it was impossible to take pictures of the glassing procedure - its been covered plenty of times - but if you dont know - imagine paper mache with strips of cloth and glue instead. thats about it. so we did that all up - and i made a 10" baffle for the subwoofer and mounted it at the angle needed, and wrapped some super stretchy lycra material over the whole thing, and used CA glue around the whole edge to secure it in place. yes. the rug is from ikea.

























again, no pictures of the glassing, but basically i covered it in resin and applied fiberglass to the INSIDE after it cured. this means i had to do zero sanding before i carpeted it. in order to mount it to the car, there was a square peg christmas tree plug holding in the carpet in this area - i simply pulled it out, bought a well-nut that fit into the hole, a nice fat screw and some rubber and steel washers, and plugged it in spot. i filled it with some reticulated foam and dropped the speaker in there!


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

and now for the amp rack. or lack thereof! i was able to use the stock foam insert under the stock floor trim to install the arc audio xdi805 amplifier, thanks to its super tiny size. all i did was *CAREFULLY* using a razor knife, i trimmed the extra foam away so that the amplifier sat just below the top edge. then i used a piece of 1\4 inch ABS plastic for the base, i applied liberal amounts of high temp hot glue and pushed this down on top of the foam. i ran the wires under the foam, and poked holes through the foam so they would be neat looking, and mounted the crossovers in a similar fashion in the cubby all the way forward. the power\remote\ground\signal wires come from the battery and behind the stock radio down the driver side of the car to the amps. nothing special, i dont think i took any pictures as it was super easy.

man, this was the easiest power wire to the engine ever done. just pull back the carpet behind and to the left of the break pedal, peel out this shape of jute carpet, and drill a hole in this grommet that pops out. took 3 minutes haha!









here is where i hooked it to the battery buss bars! just had to find a bolt! super easy and mega stealth when the cover goes on you cant even see any wire.









this is the foam insert i started with









this is where i grounded the amplifier, it was on the AFT most bulkhead on the driver side below the plastic trim for the opening of the trunk. just an empty threadded hole. i found a bolt that fit the thread pattern, cut it short enough to fit, cleaned up the surface, and popped that sucker in there with a lock washer!









this is what i ended up with









and here are some of the stickerbomb and accent cues. the rims are going to get powdercoated. we got these BBS rims on craigslist with brand new tires for $250 - what a steal. ill get more\better pictures of the stickerbombing when i wash the car after it stops raining. it looks really sweet.









hood emblem that we custom colored









crappy interior shot









3M 1080 matte vynl wrap and custom rear matching emblem - excuse the fingerprints and crappy look - we just got done wrapping this.









ill have more stickerbomb pictures later 
thats it for now!

thanks for looking everyone!


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## Jaloosk (Jan 13, 2010)

In for the stickerbomb


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## yeldak99 (Mar 5, 2008)

IB 15's?????


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## Horsemanwill (Jun 1, 2008)

i don't think that car screams horns lol


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## SoundJunkie (Dec 3, 2008)

21" Incriminator Audio Death Penalty

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

oh yea, some of these pics were given to the owner of Car-Speaker-Adapters.com, and he hosts speaker-installation-photos.com as well!

so if you wanted to look at some pictures of what speaker adapters he makes for other makes\models, go check out that guys website! he is a real awesome guy!


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## yeldak99 (Mar 5, 2008)

Monkey ****!!! I need to get some of that, too bad our damn boat can't get any.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

you can get it at lowes and home depot for like $2\lb haha. super cheap, and really effective.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

Damn, I was just about to put my build up and I see this. The color is Blue Graphite. Guess how I know. 

I contacted those guys about adapters a couple of months ago and they never even replied. I would have MUCH preferred to go that route than making my own. I know, I'm getting lazy.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

well lets see your build


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

How does the Phoenix Slim sound?


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

we have not been pushing it super hard, but i am pleasantly surprised with the blend of the 6.5 and the subwoofer. the 6.5 does not have a high pass - and i think that may be part of it. eventually this car will get the helix p-dsp and i will run everything active. but it does a pretty good job considering its my wife's daily driver and its only like 3 or four inches deep 

i have to say i am happy with it for the application!


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

req said:


> well lets see your build


I'll post it when I get back from New Orleans.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

right on! looking forward to it! i put a little note on the back of my hand to take good pictures of the stickerbomb on the wifes car today after work. i keep forgetting


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

Ok thanks for your input on the subs.Nothing like a simple install but adding some processing would make it interesting,good luck going active.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

req said:


> well lets see your build


As requested

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...ery/140143-2013-vw-golf-tdi-4-door-build.html


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## Rokusek (Apr 25, 2013)

Dude... I have known you for 8 years... worked with you for nearly all of that, hung out all the damn time and i did not know you did all that to Carlys car...

Looks damn good though. We need to do some more upgrades for her.


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

i love both of your builds . i ordered some of those adapters for my car. !!! thanks for showing them off.


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## Noobdelux (Oct 20, 2011)

wish you had taken more photos of that car. would given me some good ideas : )

looks damn good..

edit, would you mind posting a few more shots from your battery solution? and why havent you proected the wires more?


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

The way the wires are routed they're completely enclosed in hard plastic. There's no need for anything more.


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## file audio (Mar 12, 2013)

hey man nice, project....congrats!
. one question,,are you satisfied with the helix p-dsp? o own one .. still figuring out how does it works ,,, well just by connecting not tweaking it change the audio,,, now it sound cleaner an as some mention crystal cleat,,, but I cant find a good review yet...


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

the helix p-dsp is a great unit. i have not had any problems with it during its operation for the past year i have had it installed besides misunderstanding that when you install a new version of the software on your computer, the next time you connect to the DSP to change anything it will push the firmware to the DSP and all the output channels will have this crazy super loud noise that will blow your speakers up (i popped $40 worth of tweeter). all you need to do is make sure your amplifiers are off during this update, and no problems.

there are only a few drawbacks - the EQ could have a better resolution (like .25db steps). the eq could have spots to manually change the frequency rather than just having it set 1\3 octave (the c-dsp does both of these things i think). the menus are easy enough to get around, i wish there was a way to set independant left\right EQ and crossover, then link the channels and do small tweaks to both channels without messing up the left\right information.

for example, if you set 1000hz to +1 for right, and -3 for left, then link the channels and decide you would like it set to 0 for right, and -4 for left, so you are looking at the left midrange page (after you linked channel 3 (left midrange) to channel 4 (right midrange) and move the slider on 1000hz down 1db so it should now read -4 and this is good. when you click on channel 4 and look at 1000hz, it will also read -4 instead of 0 where you wanted it! its a pain because you cant change two channels at once or link all the channels and adjust the eq overall if you have already done left\right independant EQ. but that is a VERY nit-picky issue.

the ONLY other thing that bugs me - and this is a software thing - is that the resolution of the software window is stuck at 800x600 and can not be re-scaled at all.

if you have a netbook with LESS than 800x600 resolution, you may as well not even turn it on because you will get all the EQ cut off at the bottom of the screen. most people will not have this problem - but i feel compelled to mention it. i will also mention - that EVERY piece of software that i have used with EVERY DSP has this same problem - so its nothing that helix is doing different.

but the DSP is strong, small, simple, and fairly inexpensive solution to DSP with all the bells and whistles (besides a remote).

all im waiting on is to swap the helix into my wifes golf, and put my arc audio PS8 into my gti. luckily, there is a harness you can buy for the helix products that integrate with german cars (like the golf) and it has a harness that plugs right into the back of the head unit and the DSP will work perfect 

very cool.














































i ended up putting my image dyanmics IDQ6 in her doors because the paper foam gasket keeps the cone from touching the door card if they get moving a lot. i also trimmed off all the extra ribs and such from inside the door card to give me a smidge more clearance.










so for all the people wondering - the plastic speaker baffles have one tragic flaw. they are exactly the same depth as the OEM speaker... but the oem speaker is not mounted to the surface like an aftermarket speaker. so the speaker flange is +1\4 inch, the surround is +1\4 inch, and the excursion is on top of that. so in reality, the height of this aftermarket speaker baffle should be a half inch more shallow so that the cone can not touch the door panel!!

i wish manufacturers would use foresight in speaker mounting provisions... *sigh*


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## vwdave (Jun 12, 2013)

Nice updates. Wheels match the cars theme well. It's interesting to see the revisions you made to the door speakers.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

well the basket for the german meistro speakers was real thick, and the surround was closer to the door and at high excursion it would touch.

the IDQ6 has the paper gasket round the basket and the excursion does not go past this gasket, so if the door is close, it kind of bumps into the paper gasket instead of the cone.

the midrange fidelity from the german meistros was really on point... but the midbass from the IDQ6 is much more robust. so its kind of a wash. at this point, im just happy that there is no cone taping. all that really needs to happen is i have to figure a way to make the door space 1\4~1\2 of an inch shorter and i would be in business.

i really want to find a way to fit the exodus audio anarchies in her doors... but the way VW designed these ones is much more restrictive than the MK4 version due to the window regulator being mounted directly behind the speaker location and the door panel being stupidly shaped.


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## jgarcia1925 (Oct 29, 2014)

Very nice im glad i stumbled on this build thread, looking forward to starting my build this summer, did you list the components that you used for this? looks great


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