On to the interior. When I bought my car I was driving an hour each way to school on the highway. I wanted a car that was good on gas (check!) and that could provide me with directions (as I take many road trips etc) and have ALL of my music. Also, I wanted to have a premium sound system in my car. No, I did not want to shake the windows off the car or hear me a block away, I just wanted a balanced system.
First lets look at my interior prior to any mods. Its so innocent with its tap player and FM radio.
Well I took apart most of my interior (I even drove to school one day with nothing in the car but the front seat bolted to the floor) so that I could put in sound proofing material. I didnt want to pay people to do electrical stuff to my car( why let them have all the fun right?) an it was WAY to expensive. So all of the stuff I have done my self. I didnt want to use Dynamat because of its expense. I read online that roofing flashing works just as good. Basic concept -> less vibration of metal in your car = less noise going out and coming in. Therefore using the sticky tar like substance with the thin aluminum backing as a sound proofing material worked pretty good. I applied 2 layers with a hair dryer to mold it into place and stick it well.
Now that I put sound proofing on every interior surface of the car it was time to install the wireing for the electronics that would be going in shortly.
Now I have a history of building computers (since I was 10) and I put one in my first car (a geo prizim) way back when before the iPod could hold all your music in your pocket when I was in highschool. I knew that a computer was the best solution for me to use for all my music, dvd, navigation, and intigration with anything else in the future. Half the reason I chose this model of civic was the dash was just screaming to me PUT A LCD SCREEN HERE!!! so I did.
I know there is some myth regarding Monster cable and if it works or not. I had a friend who got me it at cost so it was the same price as cheap wire so I did all the audio wiring in monster cable and all the power wires in high quality cable from a local car shop. It wasnt cheap for all the wiring I needed but I wanted this car to sound good. I didn't spend time putting in sound proofing to hear crap out of my speakers!
Basic audio setup -> computer puts out audio a USB external audio card (5.1 ch, less noise, better processing- Audio Advantage SRM by turtle beach). This splits the audio into front, rear, and sub outputs that I can control via software independently. From there the front and rear audio signals go into an infinity 4 ch amp that puts out about 120watts per ch. This signal goes to Infinity Kappa 6x9"s in the rear and component 6" Kappa speakers in the front. All the speaker wire was re-run with heavy gauge high quality wire. The tweeters were mounted in the doors. The sub is powered by a separate 150watt Rockford Fosgate mono-sub amp. It is now powering a dual voice coil 10" Rockford Fosgate sub in the sealed fiberglass enclosure.
In summation, I used a computer with a sweet sound card to generate a good audio source. I used high quality connections and power (including a 2farad Cap) and quality amps to boost the audio quality (not just loudness) and used high end speakers to reproduce the audio clearly. This combined with the listening environment (with the sound proofing) gives me sweet sound reproduction. Yes, its loud. but more importantly, it sounds accurate and looks like its a factory install.
Here is the amps, computer, and LCD screen I integrated into the former dash piece
I had the 4ch amp and the car pc mounted to the rear of the seats to save space and help them stay cool. I stealthed the wires by running them under the amps and below the carpeting. I have since moved the PC to under the drivers seat to improve connections, access, and signal quality.
Trunk with the computer, amps and sub wired up and tested before being prettied up.
LCD screen sitting pretty in the dash. This took a considerable amount of work with sanding, bondo and painting. I redid it twice, once because it was too glossy of a finish and another time to fix a small hair line crack.
I wanted my car to look nice and be functional. Having a trunk full of sub boxes is not functional. I decided "hey lets play with fiberglass today" I built a custom sub box to hold a 10" dual voice coil sub which was just enough boom for me. See how nicely it fits into place in the wheel well.
This is the finished sub box after carpeting it and installing my sub. If it looks blury thats because the sub was fireing at the time I was taking the picture.
There were 4 blank pop out pannels in the consol. I dont know what for but I know that it was a great place for me to add in stuff of my own! In one I put a USB port to connect devices to my pc (flash drive, usb charger etc) One has the BASS control knob for my sub woofer's amp to boost the bass. One has a iGo car charger that I took apart and integrated into the car so there is nothing in the 12v cig. port. The tips are changeable so if I get a new device or phone I can just swap tips and it will charge it. The remaining port was used for a Line-In audio port so that anyone with any audio device can play music in my car ( a small jumper cable to connect it is stored in the consol. A LED indicator is above it for the security system to show the armed status etc. There is a slim DVD drive mounted vertically in the arm rest. More pics of this another time.
This is the cup holder section I modified. I replaced my stock cup holders with ones from a 98 civic that could hold a CD plater. I used plexi glass to create a custom face plate for the buttons (note the relocated AC control buttons, also with blue LED's) This worked for a while but I decided I could pull it off without taking up this much space in my car so I have since gotten rid of it and I am almost done with the new version.
Here is a nice shot of my dash running the computer software and with the new EL gauge overlays.
I am almost done with my dash... I just have one or two more buttons to add to the lower dash panel and then I can finally close it up and finish off the electronics. ... and YES there is a security system in the car. It is a remote start + security with 2 way paging functions. (which lets me know your just tried to get into my car) Also all of the electronics are not visible so you cant tell from the outside. I also have a starter disable and a disable for the computer so when I take it to the mechanics etc they cant play with it. I am also thinking of adding a keyless RFID based entry/unlock system from scratch. I am still experimenting with other security measures. Yes I am sure a good thief can get into my car and steal everything but I am just preventing the guy with some screwdrivers in his trunk from breaking in and grabbing everything he can carry.
Anyway just wanted to see what you guys think of my car. I tried to make everything look as stock as I could like it was designed to go in the car. Anyone have any other ideas or things I should add to my car?
Linear Mode
