# BMW E36 - Basic system install underway



## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

My goal with this system is to not lose any trunk space, not cut any metal, not have to buy much new gear and still sound decent.

Source: Kenwood KDC-X491 & Sirius Sportster 4
Amp: MTX Thunder 4244
Front speakers: Phoenix Gold RSD5cs
Rear/sub: Tang Band W69-1042J (pair)

So far I have installed the sources with a custom aux input on the console:









Ran the RCAs to the trunk:









Fabbed up a rack for the amp: 









Which mounts to the factory CD changer bracket.


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

Two months later, I finally had a few hours to get a little more done.

I made a rack to mount the front component crossovers in the factory amp mounting bracket, I'll probably just spray paint this piece since it will be hidden by the trunk carpet when installed:









I got the power wires run from the battery and tapped the factory turn-on wire for the new amp. Then I tossed in the old sub/box from my last car (off the shelf box & random 8-ohm RF punch sub) to test it out. At least now I have a little better sound since I used the headunit to high pass the factory speakers at 100Hz and let the temporary sub fill in the bottom:









Next step will be more woodwork to fit the Tang Band "6x9" subwoofers to the E36 6x9 adapters I have.


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## ikoolguy (Oct 23, 2009)

man is that prefab box? lol how did it PG comps sound btw?


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

ikoolguy said:


> man is that prefab box? lol how did it PG comps sound btw?


It sure is! That's why it's temporary. :blush:

I don't have the comps in yet, but hopefully I'll get the time to install them in the next couple of weeks.


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

I got the crossovers wired up and installed this weekend. I also installed the woofers in the front factory locations. Tweeters in the doors will wait until I have all the supplies I need for the other door-related work I need to do. So for now, the MTX amp and PG crossovers are driving the OEM tweeters. I was finally able to put all the trunk carpet back in too 

Tapped into the factory speaker wires running to the front of the car:











Crossovers mounted in place of the factory amp:


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

Last weekend I got the Tang Band W69-1042J 6x9 subwoofers installed.

OEM speaker pod on the left, TB subwoofer on the right:









I got these 6x9 adapters from another BFc member.









But, as you can see here, the TBs aren't the same shape as a regular 6x9 speaker, so I had to make adapters for my adapters.









I started by tracing and cutting 2 spacers, per speaker, from 1/4" MDF.


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

Since the TBs are only designed for top-mount applications, they don't have a gasket on the front of the basket. So I cut one of the MDF spacers out for speaker cone clearance. Since the TBs cones are truly oval, I needed 2 6-inch circles and a 6x2.5 inch rectangle to make a template for tracing onto the MDF. I used my wife's Cricut machine and paper cutting tools to make perfect templates.














































Like so:


















Then I cut a big hole in the other spacer and glued the two together:









These were then glued & screwed to the main adapters:


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

A little black paint and some butyl rope for sealing & they were ready to install:



























I used some sound deadener to seal up all the holes I could find in the rear deck.

The 8-ohm subwoofers are wired in parallel to the bridged rear channels of the amp, giving the pair about 190 watts, RMS.






It's ghetto, but it works.


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

I got the amp rack carpeted up this evening.

Bare MDF rack:









Cutting, gluing:


















Carpeted rack:









Cleaning up the amp:









Ready to roll:


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## pentavolvo (Nov 12, 2008)

how is the bass with those tang bangs, more then stock i would assume


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## kizz (Jun 22, 2009)

your amp looks nice tucked away like that.


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

pentavolvo said:


> how is the bass with those tang bangs, more then stock i would assume


Yeah, a lot more than stock.

I would give them an official "They're okay" rating so far. Right now, they are crossed at 80Hz. 

I'm not giving them much power, they aren't designed for IB use and I haven't done _any_ tuning of the system. I haven't even set the gains yet, they are turned all the way down and every EQ setting is just flat. 

So, after a little tweaking, we'll see how they do.


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## mzmtg (Dec 8, 2009)

PG tweeters went in the door panels this weekend.

I used the flush mount kit that came with the speakers to mount them in the stock location:


















I need to go back and mount the woofers in the kick panels a little better. I just dropped them right in, the same way as stock. I'm going to add some sound deadener and polyfill to the kick panel and try to seal the woofer to its mounting surface a little better and see how that affects the sound.


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