Tristan 338 Report post Posted May 26, 2013 Looks real tidy, mate. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted July 30, 2013 (edited) Box finished, Front baffle surround removable so subwoofer can be removed for track days etc. Edited March 1, 2014 by Neal Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted July 30, 2013 Working on building amp rack next to Sat Nav rack. Trial fit stage. Looks like I can use existing frame and holes by adding brackets. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tristan 338 Report post Posted July 30, 2013 That looks great! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 1, 2014 Managed to get time again this week to work on the car. Started on the front door builds. Going 2 way passive rather than the 3 way active factory system. While this sound like a downgrade the quality of the two way PPi 355CS have greater clarity and headroom. These speakers will have 100 rms on tap from the amp with a low pass filter of 80 hz. I'm trying the factory door locations this time for tweeter rather than my usual dash / pillar location. Factory doors & Speakers Tweeter install Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 1, 2014 Mid Bass & Crossover install Used a combination of the mid bass mounting ring and a e46 to 5 1/4 adaptor ring PPI crossovers are huge ! just managed to fit the cross over in with 3mm to spare on depth. Used hot glue to mount which can be removed later if needed Added wiring and door card finished Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 1, 2014 (edited) Running 14 Gauge cable to all speakers. Want to leave the old cable intact so the car can be returned to factory if need be. Getting door connectors to accept new speaker wire is a bit of a misson. Took a while to remove trim panels , glovebox , side trims etc. The connector on the car interior comes apart and the door speaker connector can be removed. This allows room for speaker wire to be added. Audio is contained within the left hand rectangle Speaker wire through first connector Door side connector is not as straight forward. However , the connector can be taken apart and carefully trimmed to remove the audio section. Then a case of threading it all together. Old fashion washing line is great to use as a pilot wire to pull the speaker wire through the connectors and door garter. Door card ready to re-attach. Edited May 5, 2017 by Neal missing picture Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 1, 2014 The rear seat card has a factory 2 inch mid range. I'm going to try this location for mounting the rear tweeters (Also using PPI 355Cs two ways in the rear) The tweeter can with a number of mounting cups. I've installed the version that tilts the tweeter up slightly. Old and new Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 1, 2014 Next The rear speakers. Ran into some issues with mounting the mid basses in the rear factory locations. Speakers sit 5 mm too high. Will need to modify the baskets and make up some custom spacers. Looks like crossovers will be able to sit on parcel tray. A few mm of height to spare. To be continued ..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
allan 295 Report post Posted March 1, 2014 Hi Neal, Looking at the last photo what a mission looks like you had to strip the interior and the boot total. Nicely done on the door card lay out and tweeters hope the remainder is a breeze if I may what is your goal with this?. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 2, 2014 Cheers Tim I guess in terms of goals a man has to have enjoyable projects. For me I've been tinkering with audio since my first kit set amp at the age of 12. Until recently it's been easy to improve on BMW sound systems. With this build the focus is on improving clarity and dynamic headroom of the system. Also the reason of integrating a PC means I've got my music catalog on tap in lossless format .: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 14, 2014 Progressed to rear parcel shelve. My original idea was to mount the crossovers in the tyre well . After taking the interior out I released that the rear parcel shelve had the potential to conceal the rear PPI 355cs crossovers. A quick check revelled there was just enough height to do so. 14 Gauge speaker wire has been added to ensure minimal cable loss. The sound damping was trimmed to allow the rear parcel tray to fit Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 14, 2014 Rear speaker replacement proved to be problematic. The 355cs are a similar depth to factory speakers. It initially looked like simple adaptors would mean the speakers would just bolted in. The best part of a day later I finally managed to mount them. Adaptor rings were offset mounted and trimmed down. This stopped the rear speaker magnet assemblies fouling on the inner basket. The bottom of the speaker has 2 mm clearance . The cone excursion comes within 3 mm of the covers. I'll see how these sound , otherwise will make up an alternative. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
isis 16 Report post Posted March 14, 2014 Some nice stealth work there mate!! 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 14, 2014 Car came with the japan eject box. The iphone 5 was too wide to fit in. Idea is to add charging , passive aerial , audio and video out from the phone. Used a rotary tool to trim the plastic so the phone would fit. More work to do. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 14, 2014 Has anyone recoated the rubber console trim on their e46's ? Mine needs a good tidy up and not sure if I should plasti coat it , wrap it or go leather covering like the BMW individual consoles ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
beemn 50 Report post Posted March 15, 2014 seen people use plasti dip, looked pretty good....extended leather is always nicer but more $$$$ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tristan 338 Report post Posted March 15, 2014 I wouldn't plastidip any surface I have to touch - wrapping would be my preference. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_ethrty-Andy_ 2132 Report post Posted March 15, 2014 I wouldn't plastidip any surface I have to touch +1 jusr going to come away again. leather it is Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted March 17, 2014 Had a good look when adding extra cables for processor and iPhone audio and video. Based on the above I might try spraying or replacing the ashtray and aircon relation panel and getting the main console covered. Probably similar price to replacing with new bits but should be more durable. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zero 1162 Report post Posted April 18, 2014 Neal, have you consider holesawing a hole in the front doors behind your speakers so they can breath? An added benifit is the speakers can then be mounted to the actual door, instead of the door card as this is far from ideal. Nice fabrication and workmanship btw. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted April 19, 2014 I think you could be right. I modelled the mid bass and looked best between 2 - 2.5 litres if put in an enclosure. I'm just loathed to cut the inner doors on the M3 and suspect the total area of the door will be too large. Will check with RTA later on but with 130mm drivers it's hard to get punchy lower mid bass. I connected up a home hifi amp and ran the speakers up and compared the fronts to the backs. Wasn't a huge difference but the mid bass did sound better at the back where it has the whole boot to vent into. However , been a while since I'd heard PPi's and they are sounding good and a substantial setup from factory 10 speaker hifi. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zero 1162 Report post Posted April 19, 2014 Yea, should be a huge improvement over the terrible stock system. There are a few diys on the net of guys doing the hole in the door mod on the e46 with great success. You make up a large spacer out of mdf or similar and that mounts to the door, and the speaker mounts to the spacer. It looks completely stock as the doorcard remains unchanged and just sits over the top as normal. On the two door part of the window mechanism is behind that hole, so once you are through the sheetmetal stop straight away. The other thing I would suggest if you havnt done it already would be sound deadener in the front doors. IMO both things are worth doing considering the speakers you are using. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 543 Report post Posted April 19, 2014 (edited) Started work on mounting the 3sixty.1 electronic crossover and source selector. One the base tune is done the unit can be controlled and configured via Bluetooth on the netbook. The factory amp has been removed and the space will be taken by the 3sixty. The Amp was also acted as a brace for the equipment rack so a bracket was modified to take it's place. The old Japan Telephone module bracket looked about the right size. The bracket was trimmed down, rivnuts added and sixty was mounted at roughly 45 degrees to allow room for audio interconnects. The angle here was important so that the interconnects can fit without obstructing the boot corner tray that the amps will be mounted on Edited April 19, 2014 by Neal Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
