Sam's VY II Calais

[soslowbro]

Built my own little amp mount that is across the back of the sub box. Certainly looks decent and in total it cost me $6.70

Pics up later

 

[borrttt]

Heres a pic of my amp and cross over wiring on my box (2 Alpine amps on the top, Boston Acoustics amp on the back and 2 Boston Acoustics crossovers each side. Everything was insulated from the box with thin foam and rubber washers under screws.

and see how theres a false wall covering the box itself, which i had upholstered in black suede. Hides the crossovers and wiring from view and only shows off the 2 Alpine Amps.

Full custom made box to fit as far back in the boot as possible to maximise boot space.

 

[soslowbro]

Looks mad!

Definitely would do something like this in the future when funds are better! For now though, I'm happy enough with what I quickly put together today.

And yes, definitely went with the rubber washers under the amps and made sure that there is a minimum of vibration affecting them.

Wish I had carpentry skills though, this is epic mate.

If Melbourne's weather isn't shitty, I might do the install tomorrow if things go well. Have access to my girlfriends carport all day..

Few questions though.
Can I just yank the HU out and the new one will just be plug and play?
Will I need to run the speaker wire all the way through to the doors, or can I meet it at the back of the HU and connect it that way to amplify the speakers?
Being a Calais (already has an amp), Do I need to do anything different?

 

[borrttt]

If its double din it should fit in, most aftermarket HU's have a metal casing supplied with them that either is used to fit the space if its a tad loose or not used if it fits in snug to begin with. Each different HU also has its own harness to connect to the cars wiring. I cant speak for all brands of HU but for mine i had to alter the wiring on my HU harness to have everything work (I wish i had pics of it). So youll just have to see really i can only speak about Alpine gear.

No, you can re-use the factory speaker wire (unless your going to use powerful door speakers) but you'll need to lengthen the wires (cut and crimp or cut and solder) and run it back to the crossovers. The speakers then connect to the amp via the crossover. All that goes in the back of your HU should be the power harness to the car, the aerial plug, and your RCA's which run to the amp. The speakers wire either straight to the amp, or run through a cross over.

Pretty much think of it as. Car accessories powers up HU + Amps----> HU via RCA tells Amp how much to power speakers by based on volume (per channel) ----> amps send signal to speakers.

Pull the old Calais amp out and sell it or something its useless lol

 

[soslowbro]

SWEET

If that is literally as easy as it's going to be, then tomorrow it should all go in.

Only other thing now I am concerned about is actually securing the sub box/amps. Might just run two brackets into the boot floor/parcel shelf. Being a super slimline sub and a tiny board for the amps, it needs as much bracing as possible.

Wish somebody has a interior teardown thread for one of these cars, got no clue how to pull it apart. can pull a VS apart all day lol...

 

[borrttt]

It might end up being a bit more involved then a shed light to. I guess for your size of install it will be far less complex than mine, as i had to wire up 3 Amps, re-wire my doors, wire a custom box and alter my harness. If anything is going to be a bitch for you it will be if the HU doesnt just plug straight up. The rest is pretty much just running cables, and screwing things in.

Let us know how it goes i guess.

 

[borrttt]

Oh... And if you want your steering wheel controls to work youll need to buy a kit called the CAT steering wheel control module. (pretty pricey) As aftermarket HU's dont communicate with the steering wheel controls. So theyll be dead unless you get this thing

 

[soslowbro]

Getting the CAT control tomorrow morning after work

 

[soslowbro]

Got some progress done, but not a lot.

Hooked up the headunit, ran the power cable and the RCA/remote wires for the amps. Until I get a decent/steady weather pattern I can't do much at a time.

Wondering what the best way to wire the front splits and the rear door speakers in is? Worth bridging front speakers on the amp and leaving rears off headunit? Thinking I may do this as I don't really care about the rear sound too much and even off the headunit it should be decent.

 

[soslowbro]

Soundstream RF 8W 8" Free AIR SUB Subwoofer Holden Ford Statesman Calais Falcon | eBay

Thinking about a pair of these for the parcel shelf? If I got them, i'd sound deaden the entire parcel shelf as well. Also allows more boot space instead of a big install.

Anybody used them? I listen to RnB mostly, and I much prefer a nice hard kick than super duper deep bass.