Rob- Posted February 16, 2010 Report Share Posted February 16, 2010 If like me you have no ski hatch and non folding rear seats, you may find this usefull for installing a subwoofer. (Please note this may not be as simple on coupe models) As we know the boot on an e46 is pretty good at deadening base from a subwoofer before it reaches the cabin rendering it useless. Up til now the only viable option ive seen is to have JL audio stealth boxes installed. This can be very expensive as these can go for over £300 second hand and are pretty rare. I'd often wondered about making my own ski hatch by cutting a square hole in the rear bulkhead but was worried about it being a PITA and time consuming job. Not so! All i needed was a rubber mallet and a flathead screwriver! First remove the rear seats. This is very easy to do, they basically just pull up and out. You'll then be greeted with this. Pull away the perfarated foam padding and you'll find a square plate with a series of spot welds all the way around it. As you can see from the above i'd already started freeing the plate by placing the screwdriver on the welds and giving it a short sharp knock with the rubber mallet and breaking the tacks. Once all the spot welds are broken the plate should come free exposing the boot liner, ready to be trimmed to shape to accomadate a ski hatch sub box or an MDF bracket to mount a free air subwoofer to. I've decided to use a ten inch subwoofer which requires an enclosure. Went a bit wonky with the screwdriver on the top right corner but it's now back to being straight after some gentle persuasion. You now have a ski hatch. Or a big hole in your boot, depending on how you look at it. I had a delivery this morning It was well packaged to say the least Then a couple of minutes later this turned up Next step is to build an enclosure. I bought a an 8' by 4' sheet of 18mm (sorry about the mixture of metric and imperial) MDF from B&Q. I had them cut it into 4 equal pieces so it was easier to fit in the car. Plus this is probably what i'd have done anyway before i started building the enclosure. Ive roughly cut out the shape of the back of the seats using the original carpeting as a template. This will need tidying up with my dremel so it fits snugly behind the seats. Now need to crack on with measuring the angles in the boot! Will update with angles (for a saloon) and pics when this bit is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momo Posted February 16, 2010 Report Share Posted February 16, 2010 Kewl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mit Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Not much use for skis though, I imagine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Not much use for skis though, I imagine I dont even have any ski's As yet dont even have a suitable subwoofer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jorge- Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Is that taken from the boot or car side? Mine looks nothing like that if so haha. I just pulled down the centre arm rest and there was a piece of leather with velcrow across the top covering a metal sheet (ski hatch) Going to take a hammer to mine on Sunday so will grab a few photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 All pics taken from the back seat. mine seems to have a foam padding all the way across the bulkhead. Possibly different because it's a loon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shali Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 cheers for this mate, was wondering my self how much of a PITA it would be to remove the metal piece ....... will be doing this on the W/E happy times... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Good little write up, i expect this to be updated once you have a sub ready to install! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Good little write up, i expect this to be updated once you have a sub ready to install! Yeah will do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Will be upgrading the front and rear speakers too but this will be done in a few weeks as this is getting a bit pricey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 Sub and amp arrived this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Court Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Nice Sub, you gonna add pictures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autosri Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 That guy on eBay is good to deal with he is about half hour from me so I collected it from his house when I bought something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jorge- Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Ahhh, AudioEthos, yeah very good. Did you get in contact with him in the end then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Yeah will add pics of each thing ive done along the way. Order the peripheral SVEN4, sound deaden the front doors, build the enclosure, run new wires to the speakers from the boot, mount the amp somewhere (possibly in the spare wheel well if it will fit in there). Find a decent EQ at a decent price. Will take a few weeks but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. Yeah eventually got in touch with Matt. I was going to buy the Mac Audio Absolute but someone had already bought it He did suggest buying the 12 inch version and set it back from the ski hatch slighty but i the end i just bought the Seas 10" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrimja Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Slight hijack, but does anyone with the actual ski-hatch have any pics of what it looks like from the boot? Obviously there is a cut out in the fabric but what goes in the hole? I think that made sense :-S lol EDIT: by the actual ski-hatch I mean from the factory with the ski bag in place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Slight hijack, but does anyone with the actual ski-hatch have any pics of what it looks like from the boot? Obviously there is a cut out in the fabric but what goes in the hole? I think that made sense :-S lol EDIT: by the actual ski-hatch I mean from the factory with the ski bag in place Heresone with the ski bag from inside the car, from the back it looks like a plastic black square which is recessed slightly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrimja Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Cheers for that Wirral. Had a look on realoem but can't find the part numbers for the ski-hatch set-up. Any ideas anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jorge- Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Hahah, well I wonder who that would be who has the Mac Audio Absolute sat in the boot of his car already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Was thinking about these for the front doors? http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/genesis-audiophile-16.html Anyone heard them before? Or know whether they'll fit for that matter? I know i'll have to get MDF rings and do some modification to the door cards anyway just the mounting depth that may cause a problem. Have given up trying to find a set of Seas components, cheapest i've seen them is ~$750 + carraige Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autosri Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Seas lotus are proper top end stuff mate you got a bargin on the sub I've heard the genisis comps sound really nice and natural from memory but with the fitting your on your own mate Genisis is one of the best car audio manufactures around everything is built to perfection and sounds better than it's built when i win the lottery lol I will have a full genisis setup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 This looks like an affordable alternative to the SVEN4? http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/genesis-s3...-interface.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autosri Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 i really dont know mate i wouldnt like to say but after all the searching i did the sven seemed the only one i could garantee that does it if you fancy a gamble its up to you it may do it alot better than the sven or it may not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted February 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2010 Think i'm going to go with the genesis converter, only because i'm really impatient and dont want to wait for delivery of the SVEN from the US of A. Plus the genesis has a remote switch on so there no need for me to wire one in separately. I will speak to caraudiodirect tomorrow to see if they are definitely compatable with the balanced differentials. I previously had a mono amp and sub wired into the speaker cables with this cheap and nasty contraption Seemed to work ok but theres no way im using these on a 5 channel amp Biggest PITA i'm going to face is fitting 6.5" components in the stock door locations. I've not looked properly yet but i believe there's no vent to the back of the speaker so i'm going to have to cut one out before I start to deaden the doors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shali Posted February 26, 2010 Report Share Posted February 26, 2010 has anyone removed the metal plate on a coupe? as i realised just now.....BM has decided to make it a bit more harder...... the metal part seems to be welded to the frame from inside.....so i guess its a bit more trickier..... i dont want to cut the carpet from behind either..... if anyone has managed to remove the metal piece please shed some advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
