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Old April 30th 2010, 17:05
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Post Amp Installation

by Sam C
Oct 6, 2003

Background

Ok, I dont have any pictures from earlier than this stage, as I didnt think it was worth it, but when I got this far I decided that this could be useful. Some of the early insructions will make more sense as you read further down...

Story so far:

To start with I got some 8mm ply, fairly good quality. Made two card templates of the area I was planning on mounting the amp board, remember to offer the amps up to the area and make sure there is enough room for the amps to fit. When cutting clearence to allow the card template to fit easily remember that the wood has thickness. Transfer the templates onto some of the wood and cut out.. Either fully carpet or partially carpet the boards (depending on what your plans are). Slot them into place, if you have made the template right it should be a little bit of a pain to get them in, usually having to put one side fully in first and then wriggle the other side in. If its too tight, trim a tiny bit off the boards.

If this is all not very clear, read-on. The work we will be doing below involves almost identical techniques and should make everything a lot clearer.

Process

Amps placed on the board, roughly where I want them. Notice that all cables have been routed through grommeted holes to protect them. The earth lead is connected to one of my suspension bolts, I put an earth ring thats designed for batteries on the end of the lead and bolted it to one of the suspension top bolts. Should make a very good earth.



I have raked them slightly as there wasnt enough room to put them end to end, and this way there will be one amp per board, which will make life much easier if I need to remove the boards at some point.



I cut a corner off some cardboard to the angle I wanted, and used this to line up the various components, so I knew that everything was at the same angle.




The fuse block is raised on a small piece of scrap wood, this was to get the top level with the top of the amps, so I could cut a hole in the top board. Makes it much easier to check the fuses once they are in. Dont fit any fuses until you are totally done. Makes it safer as you shouldnt have any live wires flapping around.

The earth lead is connected to the earth distribution block.



This gives a nice overview of the layout so far. Keep stepping back and re-assesing what you have done. Far easier to undo it and change things as you do them if you are not happy.



Here you can see the routing of the cable. Both amps must have an earth and a live. I started with the earths and progressively hooked everything up. I cut the cables to slightly longer than needed, connected to the distribution block, then started using plastic P clips to hold the cable where I wanted, fixed in place with a self tapping screw. The electric drill with the screwdriver head in makes my life very easy. Trim the end of the lead to length and connect it to the amp.







Hook up all the other leads (Phono's and Speaker). You may notice I have used permanent marker to right on my speaker leads where they are for, this makes life MUCH easier.

BL = Back Left
BR = Back Right
FL = Front Left
FR = Front Right
S1 = Sub 1
S2 = Sub 2

If the boards were fully carpeted this would be more than acceptable for a stereo install. The piece of cardboard shown hear was trimmed to size by hand as a template for part of the board that will hide all the ugly wiring.



A second piece was trimmed up, with a gap for the cables to be routed through, both pieces were a tight fit in the space available. Write/Mark the fronts of the card somehow so you can easily remember which way around they go.



Here are the templates been transferred to the hardboard. Put them in place and draw around them. Remove them and then CAREFULLY cut the shape out with a jigsaw. Wear goggles and watch your fingers.



Here is the pattern transferred to the hardboard.



I offered the hardboard template up, it needed very slight trimming to make it fit very nicely. I trimmed it using the jigsaw and it makes life much easier... Be very careful though.



Ok, now take the board out, get some automotive carpet from somewhere, trim the carpet to a size which will nicely cover the front with at least an inch of overlap onto the back. Some good carpet glue is needed too. Follow the instructions on the glue to the letter and you wont go wrong.



Here you can see the overlap has been pulled tight and glued down.



And the front of the board. The sunlight makes the carpet look dark gray, its actually very black.



And the freshly dried board offered up. Looking much better already






Now I used a similar technique to create a cardboard template that fitted nicely around the top of the amps. Small area at a time, Trim sparingly as its hard to add card back on. Use tape of some sorts to hold it together and in place.

Keep going like this until you have one large piece of taped together card. This is your template. Again, trace it onto the wood and cut around it with the jigsaw.

Cover this board with carpet too. The left hand side is done and the right hand side is waiting for the glue to dry off enough for me to stick it (specific to this type of glue). Be VERY careful not to get glue all over your nice new carpet. I also added a support going front to back in the middle.






Final Impressions

I ran out of light on this day, but since also used the same technique to create a front cover for the board to hide all the wiring from view, and have also boxed in my entire spare wheel area to, so that 90% of the area is hidden from view.

Hope this gives you some insight into a technique that can be used for installing stereo bits n bobs tidely in a bug. The same techinque I also used for creating a set of engine tin for my T4 engine in my bug from stainless steel.
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