Emily's 04 VR SE

[Hjt]

Emily there is a girl in your car! wtf!!

Very nice work on the install, I would have came around and learned a few things, although I managed to wire in my antenna amplifier. (for the record, 3 wires. 1. power 2. accessory 3. earth) I hooked the acc wire up to the amplifier on the antenna base!

[emily_mx5]

So jelly that you already have your NA. 850 posts on this forum and I'm still saving up my cash. But I'll get there, and then I'll rip out my stereo because who needs a sound system when you're in a sports car??

You've gotta be close right? I saved up for everrr, but I do have 2.5 jobs haha
You gonna go all NitroDann and weight save? but the sports car thing doesn't matter, I'm a wanky P plater... we put sound systems in any car

My doors rattle because of my speakers, do you think the dynamat would help?

Absolutely, I had the speakers in for about a couple of months but only did the dynamat last week. It cut out a lot of road noise with the roof up, removed all rattles, the bass is more punchy aaand the doors shut with such a satisfying thud now haha.

Did you Dynamat the outer door skin as well?

Ofcourse! but I ran out of dynamat so the outer skin isn't completely done. Still sounds awesome though!

Emily there is a girl in your car! wtf!!

Haha I sat there for like 10 mins saying "How the fk am I going to get these stupid eyeball vents out without smashing them into 100,000 pieces" haha

I managed to wire in my antenna amplifier. (for the record, 3 wires. 1. power 2. accessory 3. earth) I hooked the acc wire up to the amplifier on the antenna base!

Very proud! did you solder and heatshrink?! if you twisted wires together and electrical taped them i shall disown you

[PaulF]

So jelly that you already have your NA. 850 posts on this forum and I'm still saving up my cash. But I'll get there, and then I'll rip out my stereo because who needs a sound system when you're in a sports car??

You've gotta be close right? I saved up for everrr, but I do have 2.5 jobs haha
You gonna go all NitroDann and weight save? but the sports car thing doesn't matter, I'm a wanky P plater... we put sound systems in any car

Not that close really. An extra couple of jobs would probably help, haha.
Not to the same extent as Dann, but growing up with old school sports cars has influenced me. My idea of a sound system is intake+exhaust. I'm thinking mine's going to be simplified, with a bit of tasty retro goodness.

(By the way, I'm a P plater too. Just recently turned 19.)

[Apu]

Emily there is a girl in your car! wtf!!

Very nice work on the install, I would have came around and learned a few things, although I managed to wire in my antenna amplifier. (for the record, 3 wires. 1. power 2. accessory 3. earth) I hooked the acc wire up to the amplifier on the antenna base!

Not to mention you also learned how to release your steering wheel last night. We're all very proud of you! That was worth a few giggles.

...and I'm terribly jealous of that steering wheel.

[Hjt]

I have a "slow" release wheel. It's much safer haha

Very proud! did you solder and heatshrink?! if you twisted wires together and electrical taped them i shall disown you

solder and electric tape.. so i'm half bad

[emily_mx5]

Headrest Speakers
Clearwater CWC-3D

I wondered why there were little holes in the leather on the headrests.
Then when I was cleaning the seats I saw the zipper.
WTF THERE ARE 2 SPEAKERS INSIDE EACH HEADREST?!?!?!

Well 1 is missing and the wires are cut, but still how hilarious
So my dad bought the clearwater set when he was in America, luckily my car already had the wiring in place so it only took like 10 mins to swap the new ones in.
Stereo!

They look abit wonky in the pic but there it a plastic cover that helps to hold them in.

Alot of people have said these are a waste of time. You obviously havnt been in an NA that has them, because they are great.
(I will get to all the various settings later)

Amplifier
Power Acoustic BAMF 1250

All good music has bass. To appreciate this you need a subwoofer. To power the sub(s) you need an amplifier.
Simple yeah? except for the lack of room in our little 5's...
I WAS NOT going to loose ANY room whatsoever in the boot, and mounting the amp behind the driver/passenger seat is wayyy too visible, My goal was to keep everything hidden and stock looking.
Where does this leave?
The spare tyre!
I will try to explain using pics
This is how it sits from the top

I made a bracket out of wood that is curved on 1 side, exactly matching the groove in the metal space saver.
It has rope handles to help lift it out because the amp gets hot.


This is how it is actually secured in. Tie town straps go through the wheels stud holes and go back up through the wood.
I also dremmel'd a groove which sits over the lip of the wheel, and screwed a wooden curved buffer that sits in the 'dish' of the wheel.
Basically you put the spare tyre inlace and screw it down as usual.
Then pull the straps through the holes and pull them really tight so the amp doesn't bounce around.
The spare tyre has abit of swivel, but the amp doesn't move at all.
The good thing is if I ever need to access the spare tyre, i can just undo the straps, lift it out and use the spare tyre as usual!

How it sits from the side


There is about 70cm excess of each cable, so i don't have to undo anything to take the amp out, which is all neatly bundled up and wrapped in abit of foam.
Obviously I painted the wheel and the bracket satin black so its all super stealthy in the boot.


Subwoofers
JBL GT0804 (x2)

400 rms... and they go way low. 30Hz low.
But where to put them?
Not really a fan of shoved in the boot, takes up too much room and the only way you know when the bass drops is the amount of boot lid rattle No thanks.
That parcel shelf doesn't look like its doing too much just sitting there...


But in all seriousness I wanted them completely hidden, this is not about "FulLY Sikkk HeKtiC Bro0Oo subwooferrrzzzz" I genuinely wanted a full range of sound, super stealth style.

I used the template supplied with the subs for the hole size, but it still probably took 3 hours to measure and adjust exactly where to cut the holes. I used a jigsaw with a crazy sharp metal blade to cut 2x 8" holes out. Had to cut abit of the oem sound deadening mat.


The parcel shelf it by no means flat or sealed, so I used contact adhesive to glue strips of neoprene where there are channels in the metal etc.
I used more dynamat around the sub holes and to seal off the gaps. Also had to cut the oem rubber mat.
Small grille for protection

Carpet sits back over the top so you wouldn't even know they are there

Awwwwww yeah you know you're jealous

[Jace]

Girls got skills. Kudos.

[the_darkside]

Green with envy.

[username]

Girls got skills. Kudos.

Agreed! Loving the build so far

[snshami]

Looks like you've picked up something quite nice there

You have a lot of options with the exhaust, but what you like can be very much up to personal taste. Have a listen to other member's cars, or look on youtube to hear a couple of different systems.

With the roll bar, I'm of the belief that safety is more important that style, so I would try to avoid the twin hoop style bars. They wouldn't do very much if you happened to roll the car, and as such all they really do is add weight to the top of the car. The two more popular roll bars I've seen are the Brown Davis and the Single Hoop bar from MX5plus.

Lee I am sure you did not mean all twin hoops are to be avoided. The MX5 Plus Twin Hoop is a proper roll bar and every bit as tough and strong as a single hoop. In fact given the shorter spans I would put my money on a twin hoop style any day.

[Adam_NAclubman]

He was talking about style bars, not rollbars (aside from right at the bottom where he specifically mentioned rollbars)

[the_darkside]

Although, there is less space for stickers on a twin hoop...

[red devil]

Have to say I was very impressed with your stereo install yesterday! How did you go with the weather strip?

[spikes]

Hey, got any more photos of the sub install? and how do they sound? looks really neat and clean, good job.

[emily_mx5]

make sure to get a Rollbar and not a style bar

Yep I did the opposite hahaa, but now I have subs where a roll bar would bolt too. Oh well.
subs > safety

Have to say I was very impressed with your stereo install yesterday!

Thanks man really does mean alot

Hey, got any more photos of the sub install? and how do they sound? looks really neat and clean, good job.

Thanks It was abit difficult to get pics as I was putting them in, is there anything in particular you want to see?
But I reckon they sound prettyyyyyy good Not up to show car spec obviously, and I'm still fiddling with all the settings, but lets just say now I have massage chairs Mitch can attest to this! 2x 8" subs is quite a lot for such a small car, and they are right behind your head, so there is a lot of bass, and no rattles because dynamat is awesome.
If you live around here your welcome to come and hear them.