Okay, about to start on my install of my new convertable 'splits'.

Wondering what to do on the install. I have purchased the standard 18mm 6.5" MDF spacers, and will get some spray/paint on deadener for the back of the trims. Will purchase some diffusers for the front also. Not looking for a massive deaden as the car will need to go to the panelbeaters at some stage....

Looking at ripping out the stupid plastic mounts, and replacing it with MDF for the midbass to live in.

Has anyone got any templates or ideas on the size of the pieces???

Any other door prep hints gladly accepted, along with photos, or a full instructional thread (yesm did a search, came up with some useful tidbits, but not the whole thing in one thread).

Tim??

The best thing for door splits is sound deadening on the door skin. That will make the biggest improvement.

The SD sheets should be stuck to the area right around where the speaker is installed for best improvements, and if you want to go further keep applying the SD sheets moving further and further away from the speaker. The further out you get the less improvement you will see, but it could be worth it depending on what speakers your running and how much power is going to go to them.

Also sealing up all the holes in the trim with MDF then putting the SD over the MDF as you go over the door skin is also good to keep the sound pressure and waves from coming back behind the skin and hitting the door trim creating rattles.

Im sure tim will jump in soon and go into further detail for ya.

Remember but, the installation of splits is just as important and if not more important then the actual speakers it self. I've seen it happen first hand even with my own car how good speakers can sound completly **** with crappy installs. Then going through the pain of reinstalling it all. :badgrin:

i've got my 5" splits in custom MDF mounts, and every inner surface of the door is covered with sound deadening. i get absolutely no rattles or resonance from the speakers, even a cheap sound deadening patch does pretty much the same job the expensive ones, i'd have a look at hardware stores and see if they've got anything.

Im not looking to go mental with the deadening at this stage due to the car needing repairs to hail damage. So you can understand me not wanting to put truckloads of dynamat on the inside of the door skin!

I am more worried about the mounting at this stage, cure the rattles from the door frame, lock pins etc and deaden the inside of the trims.

My biggest concern is the getting rid of the crappy plastic mount and replacing with MDF.

Pics, plans please....wanna go buy the MDF tomorrow :confused:

Ah crap soz dude, seems this thread slipped through the radar.

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24273

do everything there except the fleece (what a waste of time that was). Dont forget to paint one side of the mdf to seal it up (any outdoor house paint or whatever)
Whenu deaden ur trim with Sound off (or similar) be sure to take apart the fabric piece in the trim and deaden behind that. Stick some foam there too. Paint the plastic airvent in the trim to stop resonance there on piano notes etc.

Anymore questions just ask. Need anymore pics just ask and I'll see what i can find. Otherwise search around under my name there's a few around.

Peace

Tim

Yes Tim, it did. I knew I had seen it, just had my keywords out a bit. That was what I was looking for.

Also saw one a while back that had LOADS of MDF in the doors, only in the last 2 months I think. Would be over the moon to see that again, but alas, not coming up in any of my searches. Tim, you may have a direct link as you praised it as "looks like it's a pretty solid door" (gotta start saving these threads to my PC....)

Ripped off the door trims tonight, had a look. Thinking of taking off the stock grille, trimming the screwhole tags a bit, and with an MDF spacer, dropping the whole thing through the door trim. I would screw the driver through those grille tags to try and secure that more so less chance of vibration.

Will replace the plastic mount (everyone at MMAL - WTF were you guys smoking??) with MDF. Think I will paint it with an eproxy substance of some descripton to seal it.

Then will MDF up all those bigger holes and seal with whatever I am going to use!
What would you recommend other than the 'Knead It"? I am quite handy with bodyfilla - bog, bondo (WCC stylee) - whatever you want to call it. Think that would be okay?

Going for maybe 2x cheap jaycar acoustic tiles to be glued inside each door skin. Will also sand down 1 side of the spacers to make them angle back & up a bit - say 5mm depth one side, smoothly graduating to 18mm the other side.

As foor the door/lock pins, how should I do that? Wrap with low-density open cell foam strip, then wrap that with Electrical tape??

While I have the questions going, I want to re-wire the whole audio system, RCAs, remote wires, power wires, grounds, speaker wires.
I am going all Stinger, with 0ga to the boot, both amps will be located there. Distro 4ga to both amps, the monoblock (and maybe monoblocks later :) ) will get a stinger blacktop cap too.

Do the stinger RCAs have a decent sized remote wire? My crappy RCAs have like a 24ga with maybe 6 strands of copper!

What guage should I run for the speakers? What do you run?
The Splits documentation recommends 18ga.... I think the Audiobahn amp outputs is about 16ga (half the diameter of 8ga - yes?) and that's cool.

What about the subs? Has decent home audio OFC now, but could probably go better. Recommendations?

In any case, will probably get FHRX to do the 0ga power wiring to the distro for me (drilling the firewall & grommeting scares me), plus a grounding setup and an Optima Yellowtop. RCA's & speaker wiring I'm happy to do myself.

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15316

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showpost.php?p=197257&postcount=4

There's some other links
Here's some more pics...
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/1383/01rattlingdoor2jw.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=01rattlingdoor2jw.jpg)http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8403/04roller7lw.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=04roller7lw.jpg)
Note window handles double as rollers
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/1249/05smallmdf9wn.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=05smallmdf9wn.jpg)
Tape behind mdf, then infront of mdf for a good seal.
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/253/06smallmdfinplace0ol.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=06smallmdfinplace0ol.jpg)http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/2856/07smallholefinished7hz.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=07smallholefinished7hz.jpg)
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/3056/11innergaffatape23zu.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11innergaffatape23zu.jpg)http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/5549/12largemdfinplace3kf.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=12largemdfinplace3kf.jpg)
Tape over the whole lot to further waterproof.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/10/angledbafflefulldoor9ql.th.jpg (http://img369.imageshack.us/my.php?image=angledbafflefulldoor9ql.jpg)

Peace

Tim

hey tim is that MDF or Masonite? what size thickness do you recomend?

It's MDF coated with paint
6mm is fine... Doesnt need to be very thick

It will still flex even with the deadener over it, it is primarily there to separate the speakers energy. So the front wave can't cancel out the rear wave.

If you want to make a speaker baffle it's a different story though. As it needs to be solid.

While I have the questions going, I want to re-wire the whole audio system, RCAs, remote wires, power wires, grounds, speaker wires.
I am going all Stinger, with 0ga to the boot, both amps will be located there. Distro 4ga to both amps, the monoblock (and maybe monoblocks later :) ) will get a stinger blacktop cap too.

Do the stinger RCAs have a decent sized remote wire? My crappy RCAs have like a 24ga with maybe 6 strands of copper!

What guage should I run for the speakers? What do you run?
The Splits documentation recommends 18ga.... I think the Audiobahn amp outputs is about 16ga (half the diameter of 8ga - yes?) and that's cool.

What about the subs? Has decent home audio OFC now, but could probably go better. Recommendations?

In any case, will probably get FHRX to do the 0ga power wiring to the distro for me (drilling the firewall & grommeting scares me), plus a grounding setup and an Optima Yellowtop. RCA's & speaker wiring I'm happy to do myself.

I've yet to actually see 0ga wire :P looking forward to the day lol. Sounds like your poor boot is going to die with that setup, you got any pics of what you've done to it to deaden it ? because mines all over the shop with a winky little sub :(
I'd like to deaden mine but haven't been game to tackle it yet, if I put dynamat on it like I did with the doors theres no way the boot springs will open it anymore.
Got any ideas ?

Matthius

Stronger boot springs? :D

I've yet to actually see 0ga wire :P looking forward to the day lol. Sounds like your poor boot is going to die with that setup, you got any pics of what you've done to it to deaden it ? because mines all over the shop with a winky little sub :(
I'd like to deaden mine but haven't been game to tackle it yet, if I put dynamat on it like I did with the doors theres no way the boot springs will open it anymore.
Got any ideas ?

Matthius
0ga you can see at any JB Hifi.... they have 0ga stinger power wiring kits for $169 on the shelf at almost all stores.

You don't have boot springs. You have torsion bars. Shouldn't be a problem, the boot will just be heavier to open.

The main problem is with the Wagons, if the tailgate gets too heavy, the gas struts often do not hold up the tailgate due to the weight.

Simple... get bigger, beefier ones! :badgrin:

My boot goes mental too. I have to get my car re-skinned due to hail, so the boot can stay as-is for now.

0ga you can see at any JB Hifi.... they have 0ga stinger power wiring kits for $169 on the shelf at almost all stores.

You don't have boot springs. You have torsion bars. Shouldn't be a problem, the boot will just be heavier to open.

The main problem is with the Wagons, if the tailgate gets too heavy, the gas struts often do not hold up the tailgate due to the weight.

Simple... get bigger, beefier ones! :badgrin:

My boot goes mental too. I have to get my car re-skinned due to hail, so the boot can stay as-is for now.

A torsion bar is a spring dude, it's a torsion spring rather than a coil spring :) and yes I know how it works. I tested it with a few towels and it didn't like them very much.

Matthius

Better to not confuse the people who cannot get away from a spring being a coil! :bowrofl:

It's just easier to say torsion bar... or else people think different and say:
'I can't find that spring holding up my boot'..................grrrrrr :doubt:

There was an excellent DIY FAQ on deadening boots, I think it was in an old Hot4s but I have chucked all mine.