Thread: 2006 Forester XT

those look cool. i didnt really folllow your plexi idea more details?

Originally Posted by Anshu

those look cool. i didnt really folllow your plexi idea more details?

So, right now there is a 5" layer of foam underneath the floor of the trunk, in between the spare tire and the floor. It has cutouts for the jack, tire iron, and other little storage compartments.

My idea is to remove this foam and place the amp, computer, and other components on a removable carpeted piece of plywood on top of the spare tire. Then I would cover this with another piece of carpeted plywood with a plexiglass window in the center, looking down on the components, with a couple fans mounted on the plexiglass (sort of like a computer window with a fan in it).

Here is a picture so you can get a better idea:

In order to make the component rack easily removable, I am going to try to implement a "patch panel" out of a server keystone panel where all of my Speaker, USB, Firewire, and RCA connections can be easily connected. I think it will look something like this:

A little off topic, sorry.

But what program did you use to design the diagram in your first post? Ive been trying with PS vector shapes with crazy amounts of layers and smart groups? Is there a easier way? Or an app better suited for that type of stuff?

the pannel looks great, if you have that say hidden behind the seet and all the wires comming off it to where ever, would very clean and proffesional. Good idea.

Originally Posted by ppgt94

A little off topic, sorry.

But what program did you use to design the diagram in your first post? Ive been trying with PS vector shapes with crazy amounts of layers and smart groups? Is there a easier way? Or an app better suited for that type of stuff?

Plain and simple... microsoft paint

There is probably a better tool out there. Visio would probably be good. I like Paint however for its simplicity. It would be cool if there was a program out there like Altera's MaxPlus II, which I used back in my computer architecture classes. It was very smart about pulling wires around, and made everything nice and tidy. Of course it is meant for designing computer chips (AND/OR/NOR Gates, MUXes, BUS MUXes, ROMs, RAMs, Registers, Clocks, etc.), so it wouldn't be very good for this type of thing.

Thanks, pepsibobby. I was thinking about even making two of these panels, one on the rack and one right next to where it would fit into the trunk, so that I could just patch everything from one panel to the other. It would look a lot nicer than just having all of the wires hanging off the rack, and would give it that extra-professional look.

This weekends project was to start Dynamatting the Car. I am going to break it down into 4 or 5 weekend projects. This weekend I did the Trunk. It took close to 16 hours, and my back is killing me! But it already is starting to sound better when driving. Here are the pictures:

Bump. I updated the first post with my progress thus far.

I had to change my diagram (once again) because I noticed that the Video Splitter/Amplifier did not have audio splitting capabilities, so I will have to use RCA 'Y' cables instead. Also, I included the "Patch Panels" idea mentioned above. I just noticed that the diagram will have to be changed again because I did not split the audio signal into Left and Right channels on the patch panel. This is fine for now, but since I want to add cameras later, I am going to get a 32 port keystone panel instead of 24.

Here is a small version of the updated diagram: