This is my ex-car, Chrysler Stratus. I upgraded it with new rims and tires. Not a bad looking car at all.
| 
Kenwood MASK CD-player is flush mounted in the stock radio location. The face flips automatically when car is started.
|
Clarion installation kit was used as a base for Kenwood installation. There was a really ugly looking digital clock integrated in the bracket. Needless to say it was thrown away asap. The actual radio location in the bracket was on the bottom. It was raised so that the player face would be right in the middle of the bracket. Kenwood installation frame was glued in the bracket face and finished with bondo. Then, after hours of sanding, the face was painted with dash matching color (it's not black!).
| 
Rainbow balansing unit was glued on top of the player, since rest of system supported balanced signal and Kenwood was the only device that didn't support it. Power wiring was accomplished with harness kit that fit straight with the factory wiring. Plug and play!
|
CD Changer is mounted inside custom-made center console. The changer casette can be accessed by raising the arm rest lid.
| 
Center channel prosessor remote control is installed under the lid as well.
|
I started by making a plaster mold of the original console end.
| 
Then I laid a few layers of fiberglass there...
|
...and attached the end piece into the new console made of plywood. Then some sanding and it was ready for upholstering.
| 
I really suck when it comes to upholstering. That's why a local automotive upholstery shop got the job and I have to admit that I'm quite pleased with the result! They wrapped the whole console with vinyl that maches the factory vinyl in color. There's a 5 mm soft foam between the vinyl and plywood to give smoother appearance.
|
The system is powered with a single 4x75 W tube amplifier. There are mono equalizers to tune the sound, center channel processor to create proper center image and 2-way crossover with time alignment to cut frequencies for subwoofers. All that except center channel processor are installed inside fold-down backseat. Center channel processor is flush mounted on the side of the trunk.
| 
Because there was almost a truckload of audio components to install and I didn't want to lose all the space in my trunk (nor spare tire!), I decided to install most of the stuff inside the back seat. Most installations of this kind are made using the original seat and some foam is just removed to fit the processors and amplifiers in. I had a different kind of approach. I built the whole back seat skeleton from scratch using plywood.
|
The audio gear is protected with a grill.
| 
Three sets of Infinity Beta One + Beta Four drivers are installed on dashboard. Tweeters for left and right channel are on A-pillars. Midrange drivers are on modified stock locations. Center channel tweeter on top of the dash and midrange is flushed in the windshield defroster tube. Infinity Beta Six midbasses are on stock locations on doors.
|
The center channel uses the same components as the left and right side: Infinity Beta One and Four.
| 
The door location are stock and contain 6,5" Infinity Beta Sixes.
|
Fortunately there was enough space for a decent size speaker after some cutting on both ends of the dash.
| 
The mounting rings made of plywood were mounted in place with fiberglass.
|
Infinity Beta Four is a huge driver for being just a four. Luckily it fit into place just fine.
| 
The center channel midrange caused some head scratching before I discovered that it could be mounted inside the windshield defroster tube! I used heatgun to enlarge the tube from the middle to get enough room for Beta Four.
|
The driver is mounted to mounting plate from backside to get enough clearance for cone movement. Otherwise the grille would have touched the cone.
| 
Speaker grilles on factory trim piece were way too small and acoustically bad. Therefore they were enlarged.
|
Bigger grilles were glued in place. Result looks incredibly stock! If you didn't know how the dash should look like, you wouldn't know there's a custom speaker installation.
| 
After listening the tweeters in various positions near A-pillars, the best location for this setup...
|
...was as far away from listers and facing straight up.
| 
Rings to hold the tweeters were glued in place.
|
Then after applying some pantyhose and resing...
| 
... the A-pillar trim pieces were modified to hold the tweeters.
|
Then the trim pieces were wrapped with vinyl that maches the original color. Again, result was extreamly stock and good looking.
| 
6,5" midbass drivers were mounted on doors. Before installation all the doors were damped with 4 mm asphalt mat to lower road noise and resonances.
|
Two robust Precision Power PRO12s can be found from the back corners of trunk. Center channel processor can be found of the left side wall of the trunk.
| 
The subs are mounted in aperiodic membrane enclosures to minimize required air volume.
|
Aperiodic membrane setup allows big drivers to be mounted in extrealy small box. There's no need for air volume, only the driver must fit inside. The trick is that there's a damped vent on the enclosure to simulate the air volume. I started with replacing the original air vents on the trunk with custom made ones that do not resist air movement and are absolutely silent.
| 
Skeleton for the subwoofer enclosure.
|
The skeleton wrapped in a nylon shirt. The card board inside is a spacer making sure that the driver magnet really fits in.
| 
Waiting for the resin to dry up. The place is covered with aluminium foil to prevent soiling the trunk with resin.
|
In this picture you can see the how the vents breathe inside the bumper. It's a straight hole under the break light.
| 
The aperiodic membrane was constructed of glass wool.
|
The right tightness was adjusted with the screws holding the perfored aluminium plate in place.
| 
Signal was brought in with two gold plated connectors.
|
Voila! The subwoofer using aperiodic membrane in place.
|