New beater - MY09 Silver SS

[RED LION]

Great job getting rid of the ugly stuff. Should be interesting with your future mods.

 

[notStock]

Ok so I've learned a lesson - don't skip on bits that others say you can get away with not using. Sounded like I was driving along with a bucket of spanners it rattled so bad.

Grabbed a hardware kit off a dude on eBay, and it might as well have been a magic cure.

 

[notStock]

Audio day - normally I'd just cope with the stock stereo. But FFS the stock speakers in a VE are just extra bad, so I went and did this.

Alpine type s 6.5" front splits - got a pretty reasonable deal, in they went.
Kenwood random 2 way coax 6" rears - were like $60, and who cares about rear passengers anyway

Other things not pictured: Jaycar noise filter/supression device. Pretty much cuts out alternator whine from the system. You just intercept the power feed(s) to the stereo and send them through the filter, which then gives you an output lead to connect to. I grounded the unit to a bolt into the chassis behind the dash.

Inside the stereo unit itself (again no pics...) I took the my bluetooth board out and remounted it properly (bolts and spaces, not just double sided tape) and put a little voltage regulator on it. It seems much happier with constant 12v on it now.

Disconnected the craptastic centre speaker, then just bolted it back down and snapped the grill over it.

Kept the stock connectors on the cables (why? dunno) and connected new fly leads for the new speakers.

Front speaker mounted in bucket thing:

Tweeters - I put these up in the dash the same as the stockers, but there's no real nice way to get them to sit in the stock location... so I holesawed out the grill in the dash trim piece and sat the new tweeters in there, they're secured by a threaded ring on the underside. The mounts gimbal so I can point the tweeters away from the windscreen a bit.

And the rear speakers just breezed in - nothing advanced here.



End result: unbelievably better for only spending around $200 on the thing, the sound has range now, the front speakers hit hard and fill out the low end surprisingly well. The Alpine tweeters work really well and details in the music are much clearer. Also alternator whine has been pretty much eliminated, and the bluetooth board means no more ugly-assed aux cable hanging out of the dash.

 

[notStock]

PROGRESS!

If you buy one of these alpine kits - sometimes the screws holding the climate LCD to the fascia are overtightened, which means the touch controls don't work. Also getting the "sports display" to come on can take awhile. Ugly AF anyway, I'm going to do a E1 HSV gauge setup soon.

 

[VS 5.0]

Nice choice of music.

 

[COOP_VE]

What was you're reasoning for going aftermarket as appose to a Series 2 Conversion?

 

[notStock]

What was you're reasoning for going aftermarket as appose to a Series 2 Conversion?

Pre-amp outputs, and the way the IQ conversion works in forcing single zone/dual zone ac thing. Doing the s2 setup into a single zone s1 means modifying the hvac controller - you end up with a couple of useless controls on the hvac panel, and I didn't like that, from an overly attentive OCD kind of viewpoint. Without tracking down and installing the extra sensors (interior cabin temp, exterior ambient, and dual zone sun sensor) the car is forced to think the cabin temp is always a set temperature, so the climate control part of it acts weird.

 

[MrBags]

Nice car mate, good stuff.
I am considering getting an upgraded speaker system fitted as audio and interior disassembly are not my strong suits!
Just have to cough up the install costs.

 

[notStock]

This happened:

Installed: only broke two things (seat rail trims on the back near trans tunnel. Convinced it's impossible to get these off without destroying them).

 

[VS 5.0]

No backseat ?