# 2002 VW Golf



## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Posted on my home forums, the Fortitude forums, thought I might contribute here 

System will consist of the following

speakers:
tweeters - undecided, for now lcy108 ribbons, possibly ring revelators
midrange - Scanspeak 12Ms
midbass - Scanspeak 18Ws
fill - Dyn mw160s
subwoofer - Mag v4 (or two depending on how the giveaway goes )

amps (all gen1):
tweeter - rubicon 302
Midrange - rubicon 604 bridged
midbass - rubicon 604 bridged
fill - rubicon 302
sub - rubicon 1002

head unit and processing:
Intel DQ45EK
Intel core 2 duo 1.8ghz
M-Audio firewire 1814
Console.jp
many, many VST's at disposal

deadening:
raammat EG all the way around
will be making custom liners for the floor and putting down sand 
probably some 1/2" ensolite liners for the doors if I can source 'em 

I started today by pulling all of the old wiring and everything not oem. I left the old kick panels in, as well as one of the 12ms (why I don't know). I put these panels in to keep an OEM look, but I decided f it and go with floor mounted midbass. Today, cut and test-install. In the near-future, duraglass the pods and get some 1/4 steel rings cut.

The red you see is metal shavings rusting from a test-hole to see how much room I was working with It's all cleaned up now. Removing the crumple-zone supports was quite possibly the most difficult thing I've done to this car. 

Tomorrow is installing 8's in the sisters Neon, cleaning up the crumple-zone, waterproofing deadening, examining the underside of the car for a water-seal for an AP mat. Also, repositioning the 12m's to fire more on-axis, scoping out making a mount for a large format rev tweeter


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)




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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Oh, will begin re-wiring the car tomorrow as well, need to lengthen some harnesses


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Here's the old tweeter pods

















Dash pods framed out. The rings are notched so they don't move during glassing. The support was hand carved on a router. Tried to make them as aero-dynamic as possible.


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

wrapped, test fitted, and resin'd. Only one layer of glass was put on the fabric, and not on the wood. Every attempt possible to LOWER the resonant frequency of the pod was made. Adding more layers of glass would have farther stiffened the pod which in turn would have increased the resonant frequency. 









































Pods with filler on 'em

















The insides of the pod were deadened with sand and resin, then clay on top of that. each pod weighs in at over 2lbs each.


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

In the car

































And the clearance around the neo magnet


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

sub box, will be fully lined with clay, isolated from the trunk of the car with foam, and the center notched and glassed for the stock spare-hold down screw to go through

1.75 cubes for two SI mag v4s


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

amp rack arc welded. needs sand blasted and painted. Went overkill on the fame but overkill is a good thing. Plus I carry HEAVY stuff a lot Don't want the thing falling apart now...


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## KARPE (Nov 9, 2008)

mags look beautiful, I'm about to pick one up myself!


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

I need to get the second! Right now I have one in a 1.75 cube enclosure tuned to 129hz!


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## chasingrabbits (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow that amp rack is sick. you may have to look at your suspension before long...


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

fully loaded, the rack is less than 100 lbs


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Here's the new style for dash pods. I like the teardrop more than the circle base. It was formed by making a wedge out of dense, thin cardboard, lining the wedge up with the base of the pod, and using filler over. It doesn't have to have any structural integrity, so no glass was used. The last shot is where I ended tonight. I mostly got distracted by CallofDuty4


































And how the sanded one looks just tossed in the car


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

NICE... good work. Spesh the effort needed for those mid-bass speakers.


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## McMan (Dec 27, 2008)

Looking good there, keep it up.

ATB


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## chrisdors (Mar 6, 2009)

looks great so far- gotta love the old school SS


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## keepitreal07 (Apr 26, 2008)

looks tops.......i love how in the usa....you dont mind cuttin the floor to fit midbass.....

we get a defect notice here in aus


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## glidn (Apr 21, 2007)

keepitreal07 said:


> looks tops.......i love how in the usa....you dont mind cuttin the floor to fit midbass.....
> 
> we get a defect notice here in aus


lol,

yeah same thing in New Zealand,

But i guess what they can see cant hurt or defect us right?


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

I was told by a mechanic here that as long as the hole isn't all the way through the floor (seeing road), it will pass for inspection.


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## SPEEDBUILT (Jan 21, 2008)

Looks great!
I know you have pot a lot of time and effort into making this project become a reality.
Can't wait to see the finished product.


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## Mixagolf1 (Feb 17, 2009)

Good position for the midbass speakers, but cutting a floor isn't it too much?


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Not at all


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## pyropoptrt (Jun 11, 2006)

What did you use to cut the floor and how long did it take you?


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## CanadianDream (Nov 24, 2007)

did you acutally mix sand and resin for deadening? What do you mean by "sand" ..lol.


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

First I tried an air-powered saw, with no luck. Tried air "snippers" but the jaw didn't open far enough. Finally, I found a mini reciprocating saw at home depot for like $75. I saw it at home depot. The body is about 12" long and it uses 4" blades. It took about two minutes per side.

I did mix sand and resin to deaden the inside of the midrange pods. Sand is the stuff for kiddie sand-boxes, often used to make sand castles, sometimes gets in womens special parts at the beach and makes them angry. You can get a 50lb bag for like 6 bucks at walmart/home depot/lowes. In retrospect I would have gone with metal bbs and clay or some kind of metal shot. More mass per volume.


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

forgot - haven't updated pictures recently



















Went through four pillar designs all in all till I found something I was happy with.


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

forgot - haven't updated pictures recently



















Went through four pillar designs all in all till I found something I was happy with.


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)




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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)




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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Here's the pillars..... 

















The bane of my existence.... Total of about 7 hours work time on just the new baffles, rings, and mounting. As good as they are, I HATE working on them. Pulling the carpet back is always a headache and any time long-term work needs done you have to pull the whole interior.

















And the sub box in the car. Foam underneath to prevent rattling. It still needs internally clayed, the mount piece drilled, and vinyl'd. My little bit of left over vinyl has turned to ****. 









Fourth set of pillars

















Also had the last blue toy showed up


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Top work...
4th set of pillars?? not happy with the others or a trialing different tweets?


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Well I originally planned going with the illuminator tweeters to match the rest of the revelators. However I couldn't get the setup to look how I wanted it to. First set was what you see in post 6. Second and third sets were with that stupid little "free-air" panel. fourth set is with the little footballs. That was a frustration set of panels. I had been working on the panels for a good six hours and was about to give up. I just couldn't get the cosmetics good enough while keeping the tweeters on-axis. 

Since I realized I just couldn't make it work with my levels of acceptable, I started looking for different tweeters. I came across these:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/product-selection-comparisons/55817-audax-tw025a26.html

and thus you see what is actually a-pillar iteration 5. I wrapped and resin'd them tonight, and they're curing now. I just don't have a picture of that.


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## CLE (Sep 29, 2007)

pwnt by pat,

Please reply to your PMs.

Thanks,
Chris


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Long time no post.

Tried some MTM a-pillars

















Floor mid-bass in current state. WIll probably grab some metal mesh and do custom carpet to make them look like part of the floor


















Built a different sub-box. AP vented to behind the bumper - as best I could do with the space available

























Fitted 8's to the front doors - still have to finish and fit to the rear doors. Only play when the windows are down


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

And am now working on a horizontal array spanning the width of the dash


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## erikwithak84 (Jan 14, 2009)

dude you are my hero


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

editing out useless pics in a minute. (guess I cannot edit old posts - shame)

Left side of the array:


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## LegendJeff (Jun 28, 2009)

why do they 8's only play with the window down?


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

i wish i was back in Pittsburgh, would love to hear how this sounds...always interested in hearing and learning about stuff i havent seen before 

but i can imagine glassin in pittsburgh winter is no fun...i did that for 4 years...can you say crap load of space heaters and fume overdose?


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

LegendJeff said:


> why do they 8's only play with the window down?


To help overcome the loss of cabin gain. The reason we have cabin gain to begin with is because the cabin of the car is (almost) completely sealed. When you open the windows, you lose the gain. The ONLY way to make up for it is to have some other speakers play when the windows are down.



simplicityinsound said:


> i wish i was back in Pittsburgh, would love to hear how this sounds...always interested in hearing and learning about stuff i havent seen before
> 
> but i can imagine glassin in pittsburgh winter is no fun...i did that for 4 years...can you say crap load of space heaters and fume overdose?



haha yes. Well a 3-car underground & heated garage helps. So does a 125,000 btu kerosene heater. Once the glass is in the car, a cheap $15 space heater placed right in front of it works quite well .


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

dang, where the heck ARE you in burgh that you have that? lol...

just becareful wtih the space heater, i learned the hardway that it will warp the part becuaes its being heated unevenly if you put it too close, i general face it the other way and then close the car door to just let the heat build up evently.

b


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Old ranch home about 15 minutes north of the city. 

Yeah, warp-age and shrinking does suck. Luckily with the dash array pods the wood frame and windshield helps keep the shape.


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

Hey, perhaps you can help me with this. I'm going to take care of the doors tomorrow, glassing a cover over the 8's. 
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/diyma-fabrication/68897-fiberglass-soft-touch-vinyl-doors.html


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

VERY happy with today's progress. The only problem is I'm almost out of resin. I've gone through a whole gallon on four parts......

Right side of the array









Started on the door skins. Door was lined with a trash bag, door card masked, marked, and then glassed.

























New case for the carpc


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

to answer your question, if its hte same kind of vinyl i am thinking off, its almost impossible, you can grind it off, but its really really easy to melt the plastic underneath...you can give it a shot though at this point but the only other way i can think of, if you are determined to do this, might as well take a mold of the lower door and then separate the stock portion and attach your own molded part, but obviously a ton of work to make it work right.

b


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## pwnt by pat (Mar 13, 2006)

I had thought about that, but I really don't want to put that much effort in just for an 8. If I was going that far, it'd be for 10's or 12's with a whole new door, but then I'd have to redo the other doors. Just the lower cover will suffice I hope.


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## kaidar (Jan 27, 2010)

Any updates?


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