# Ford XR6 old school install (Australia)



## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Hi guys,

Recently found this forum and loving every minute of it  I haven't done a big install since the mid-late 90s but to be honest I haven't really found any other gear I can fall in love with that is worth upgrading to. Long live old school!

Here's the car for people outside of Australia who may not have seen one, it's an Australian built Ford XR6. I am doing a stealthy install that's well hidden in the car and doesn't damage anything


































I've accumulated a bit of stuff over the years and chosen a few items from the stockpile


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

I have a few sets of Canton splits, still my favorite. I'll be using one of the QS 2.16 aluminium reference sets in this install in the factory locations so there will be no cutting

















3x Orion 2NT 12" DVC - still brand new in the boxes - Had them in storage.

















Front stage amp: Clarion APA4200 made in USA (the old Pro Audio model with some McIntosh guts in them). I don't particularly have a use for the MRV-1000s in this install, maybe it's ebay time









Sub amp









Recently sold my Alpine 7949, CHA-S634 and PRA-H400 for an X305 and Imprint. It's the only new school stuff here, a bit of a downgrade sound quality wise but purely for convenience. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD.









I will also be wiring in a PAC SWI-JACK to retain the factory steering wheel audio controls.

Made up a simple router circle jig


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Bit of a weird-ass design I came up with with a couple of friends who are into audio fabrication. Basically to randomise the interior walls a bit and stop each chamber being a perfect square. Maybe it'll sound like rubbish, maybe it'll sound good, who knows, it'll be fun experimenting.

















Test fit (excuse the dust and dirty sub surrounds please!)









The subs will be firing forward for maximum detail. Here's a little board I'm working on to mount the amps, crossovers and processor which will use up the spare bit of space in front of the box behind the seats, while keeping everything well hidden. I flipped things around so the gains and crossovers are easily accessible through the seat opening. Just needs a little carpet

















I'll start running wiring through the car soon, I'm sure there will be plenty more to update 

Cheers


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## Blazemore (Dec 1, 2006)

Those NT's will get it on....I still remember that headache.


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## TRD07 (Oct 13, 2009)

rare old school orion. good old days.


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## kkreit01 (Aug 27, 2009)

Very nice ride, and setup. Thanks for posting.


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## Thrill_House (Nov 20, 2008)

Dude your using Canton, thats sweet!!!! I am probably the biggest canton fan that you will find. Im I have both those sets that you have posted, the qs2.16 and the 3way set (cant remember the model # right now), the qs2.16 alumnium cone woofers are phenomenal drivers! My brother has my qs2.16 set right now and im running the 3way setup active in my 2002 civic and loving them. The aluminum magnese tweets are so detailed and smooth, and the midrange have such a nice airy sound, oh and the midbass out put from the mid is phenomenal! Im actually running an old set of canton fonum 501 towers at home as well and they have that same airy sound which is really cool. Anyway I love the care and the equipment, cant wait to see how it all turns out!


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

I like this car.

Subscription sent.


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## vwtoby (Oct 28, 2005)

is that a canton RS6 3way??

love canton too...although never actually run them, lol...just something about zee german build quality..

keep us posted


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Nice to see some Canton and old school Orion fans!

Most people I speak to haven't heard of Canton since you can't buy them in Australia anymore, and even when you could in the 90s it was a bit of a specialty brand. I don't even know of a single other car in Australia running QS aluminium components to tell you the truth. I fell in love with the RS series but then the importer stopped bringing them to AU around 2000 so we missed out on the CS and QS series and everything else afterward. I fell in love with Canton all over again while living in Europe for a few years recently and hearing them in all sorts of cars and seeing them win so many awards, I just had to ship a couple of sets back with me.

The three ways in my pic are RS 3.22 8"/4"/tweet. I am kinda over the days of ruining car interiors for my hobby so I'm making up some enclosures to run these at home off a Rotel poweramp (yes you guessed it, it's oldschool too!)

Anyhow it's meant to be pretty stormy the next few days but hopefully I can progress some more.


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## tinctorus (Oct 5, 2009)

How do you use the imprint cd software on a radio that doesnt accept cd's??

Just curious how it works on that unit as I have no play time with imprint yet


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

tinctorus said:


> How do you use the imprint cd software on a radio that doesnt accept cd's??
> 
> Just curious how it works on that unit as I have no play time with imprint yet


The CD doesn't go into your head unit, it goes into your laptop. It installs the Imprint manager tuning software, your processor plugs into your laptop via USB, the mic plugs into the processor


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## tinctorus (Oct 5, 2009)

jambo said:


> The CD doesn't go into your head unit, it goes into your laptop. It installs the Imprint manager tuning software, your processor plugs into your laptop via USB, the mic plugs into the processor


Ahhh gotcha....Like I said I havent played with imprint AT ALL so I wasnt sure if it was laptop based software or something like alpine used to do where you can load all sorts of eq settings onto a cd from your computer and then put that in your cd player


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## thesolution23 (Feb 1, 2010)

Sweet! Gotta love the old school. 

I actually just picked up 2 NEW Orion 2NT single voice coil 10's. I have never had any experience with them and was wondering if anyone can shed some light into how "SQ" they are? I was going to run some IDmax 12's but got a hellava deal on these. Will the IDmax sound that much better as far as SQ? Anyone had any experience with these 2NT's?


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## athm3x (Jan 24, 2010)

WOW! 2100HCCA, that thing is beautiful...


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

thesolution23 said:


> Sweet! Gotta love the old school.
> 
> I actually just picked up 2 NEW Orion 2NT single voice coil 10's. I have never had any experience with them and was wondering if anyone can shed some light into how "SQ" they are? I was going to run some IDmax 12's but got a hellava deal on these. Will the IDmax sound that much better as far as SQ? Anyone had any experience with these 2NT's?


They are a nice SQ sub to my ears, but I haven't heard a lot of the newer stuff -- although everything new I have heard just seems to be louder rather than better sounding. The original carbon fiber NTs were pretty punchy and ripped your head off. The 2NTs I've mainly heard in sealed boxes and the 12s very much seem to be about accurate low bass. They are very musical in small sealed enclosures.

Ran some 2AWG power cable and remote

































Test fit the Cantons in a custom 5x7" to 6.5" MDF spacer









Good clearance between magnet and window too (glass goes up the centre of that rubber strip)









My first Dynamat attempt 









Next step is to find something flexible to cover the service holes, they're going to be a PITA because the sides are far from level but I'll give it a go. I probably don't really need that much Dynamat, I just wanted a bit of a practice run on the right hand side. Probably won't put that much on the outer skin of the other door, save a bit more for the inner skin around speaker mount.


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## kdxrider200 (Feb 1, 2010)

looking good so far.


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## uber_noob (Dec 12, 2009)

Nice job. That Orion is NIIIIICE.


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Thanks guys

Now... the day I was dreading for the entire install.... the day I thought would drag out for weeks and months........ finding-something-to-seal-the-service-holes-day

My old man is always rattling on about how he has one of everything in his garage, and I think today he delivered the goods. I discovered a roll of industrial roofing material also used for drainage under layers of bricks. It is a thin sheet of aluminium sandwiched between two waterproof sheets of flexible plastic:









Not very thick on its own, but when you glue three sheets together you get a lovely Big Mac sandwich of strength and flexibility goodness: 3 thin sheets of aluminium, 6 sheets of waterproof plastic, 4 layers of tradesman carpet adhesive









The bottom outer hole is the biggest problem as it has to be sunken in. There's a stupid foam block behind the door trim which slots in there for reasons unknown? Maybe just to make the door trim more solid if you bash on it.

























Small amount of silicon windscreen adhesive, then filled in all the gaps later with more silicon

















Stupid foam block, got the hacksaw and file out after this but it still gave me grief putting the trim back on so I might leave it out all together. Anyone know what it's for apart from making the trim a bit more solid?


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Outer top hole


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## danielp (Jan 6, 2010)

Shew...that Orion Sub amp...damn..
good install...keep on updating..


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## sienna1 (Sep 4, 2009)

The foam on the door panel is used to absorb some of the energy in the event of a side impact.


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

sienna1 said:


> The foam on the door panel is used to absorb some of the energy in the event of a side impact.


Ah dammit I was afraid it might have some functional purpose  I'll be sure to work around it some more and include it when everything is together


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Little bit of an update...

Speaker wiring through the factory door plugs

















And wire up to the A pillars for the tweets. I stuck the Cantons to the factory tweeter brackets with a little double sided tape to do some angle testing, there's not a huge amount of angle available up there but I'll silicon them there behind the standard grilles first and see how it sounds

















Speaker cable run all the way to trunk down centre of car along with a 5.5m Ai-Net cable for the PXA-H100 with split loom









I want to do a bit of testing with this Dynamat stuff, I've never used it before this install. I know it's meant to be some magical miracle cure but I'd really like to hear for myself the difference that it makes. I've only covered the passenger (left) inner door skin partially with offcuts, and about 70% of the drivers door using one complete section of Dynamat, as I've read that this can make a difference too. I'll add more later to see what kind of difference it makes to my ears. It's just a hobby system and I don't plan to enter any comps so if it sounds alright how it is I might even just leave it.









Since there is no standard DIN sized head unit in this car I made up a plug to wire the head unit directly in to the mobile phone socket under the dash


















.....So now everything is wired and test fitted the fun can begin, it's time to grab the gear and bolt it all up properly after this weekend


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Head unit is now mounted in a custom fascia since there's no DIN slot on this car









Front stage fully installed now, I'll seal up the remaining service holes once it's all tested

















Amp rack is now wired. A lot of the stuff around the Clarion amp will be tucked into a convenient opening in the carpet right there. Just waiting on this darn storm we're having to pass so I can find a couple more mounting screws that I'm missing and put it in the car!


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## BowDown (Sep 24, 2009)

Sweet install man! Looking forward to updates.


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## JayBee (Oct 6, 2006)

Nice ride and gear, i wish american ford designers would incorporate some of their ideas.


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## LegendJeff (Jun 28, 2009)

Love the equiptment... Nice work man


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## MaXius (Dec 18, 2009)

Grab some techflex off 'furryletters' on ebay.. it looks way nicer than that black tubing. They ship to oz.

You could also fab up some fiberglass inserts for those big holes if you feel there's too much movement in the stuff you put in.


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Thanks guys  I'm really enjoying getting my hands dirty with this since I haven't done it in nearly 15 years

That techflex stuff looks great! But in all honesty I don't intend to compete or take the car to any kind of show so the tubing is there purely for shielding and not appearance. Once it's installed that rack will be wedged between the back seat and the sub box so nobody but me will lay eyes on it anyway


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## MaXius (Dec 18, 2009)

jambo said:


> That techflex stuff looks great! But in all honesty I don't intend to compete or take the car to any kind of show so the tubing is there purely for shielding and not appearance. Once it's installed that rack will be wedged between the back seat and the sub box so nobody but me will lay eyes on it anyway


Ah, mine's totally a stealth install, so none of it will be seen either.. but the point is _you _know it looks awesome 

And it's more flexible than tubing too, and certain techflex's are also shields (the silver one) if you want something like that.


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Ahhh stop putting logical arguments into the story or I probably will get some


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

Made up some 8AWG cabling for the subs, the silicon in the holes is setting overnight. 8AWG is probably complete overkill but got it cheap as chips so figured I'd give it a home in there









Amp rack is all wired up in the car now, both amp gains accessible through seat opening, signal wires at front, power/ground on sides and back. Only thing left to connect is the fuse and grounds under the bonnet after the subs go in


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## jambo (Dec 28, 2009)

So it's all in and sounds freaking awesome I'm lovin it  been babysitting my nieces all weekend who keep telling me to "shut up with that stupid thing and come play lego" but managed to figure out the head unit and PXA a little, set some crossover points and time alignment. I'm gonna head out tonight with a mate to tune it a bit, and tomorrow I'll see if I can get the chance to seal the remaining service holes in the doors.

































Couple pieces of trim still to put back on, but enough trunk space remaining for my needs


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## jobrizzle7481 (Jul 1, 2009)

Always wanted that 2100 HCCA. I'm jealous.


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