[forcer78]

OK...here was my goal:
1)Install the Alpine SPR-694A 6x9's and Alpine SPR-136A 5.25's I received as a gift.
2)Relocate the Alpine DVD Nav system from under the drivers seat to under the passenger seat using the factory mounting bracket.
3)Use a line out converter from my stock radio to connect to my Alpine MRV-F340 amp and locate the amp under the drivers seat (where i have already made a hole)
4)Do not under any circumstance cut any of the factory wiring (why?, I don't know)
5)I almost forgot...connect the CAN BUS interface from Hunter Transducers(thanks woodman for the link) to the speed pulse wire of my nav unit.

Now before i go on about my install, i do have to say that I would probably not have been able to accomplish half of what I did without the help of this website Everything from how to remove the door panels, wiring diagrams, removal of rear and front seats, accessing the wiring harness to the front doors, etc... was all found in these forums.

I thought i had a pretty good plan before I got started...two and half days later I realized that my plan wasn't well thought out. However I am the type of person who will sit on one problem for hours until i figure it out, no matter how insignificant.


First thing was to strip the interior down then relocate the Alpine Nav unit I had already installed about a month ago. Then I fitted the amp under the driver's seat for measure (note that the amp technically didn't correctly in the space under the seat, so some modifications had to be made, I'll explain later.

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Next was my biggest and most time consuming dilemma. Do I cut into the existing car wiring for the door speakers or do I attempt to run my own? Well it would have been really easy to just cut into the factory wiring, but I decided there had to be an alternative. After trying my hardest to feed new speaker wire from the door to the cabin throughout the rubber shroud I realized it was impossible. After removing the shroud connector from the car body I noticed that there is a connector and no extra space to feed wire through. So after much consideration I drilled through the last section of the connector where there aren’t any wires present (perhaps this is space for future wiring or heated mirrors).



I probably could have gotten away with 6.25” or 6.5” woofers in the door, but I opted for the 5.25” size. I made the mount for the speakers out of MDF board (pretty good for someone who has never touch a jig-saw in his life). The tweeters fit perfectly in place where the factory tweeters resided. The component crossover fit quite nicely in this location.



The rear speakers were the easiest of the install, only thing is that they had to be mounted from behind. I fed all the speaker wires through any existed rubber grommets (these grommets were obviously meant to hold only one pair of wire, oh well). All the existing speaker connectors were taped back to the wires so they wouldn’t rattle.



This just turned out to be a huge mess of wires, how it all fit behind the stereo is still a mystery to me (after all this I think I might be replacing the head unit!!!)



So everything came out great… connected everything correctly on the first try, nav unit fit perfectly in modified factory bracket and the sound from the speakers was excellent.. However anything I do always comes with some sort of consequence, usually in the form of something breaking. The amp! I measured and measured again to make sure it fit. Width wise between the seat rail posts in the floor it fit perfectly. Lengthwise (between the front and back) however it was a tight fit, so the front part of the amp was tilted up slightly above the carpet when all the wires were connected. Also I had to cut the aluminum trim piece that covers the wires so that it would fit without further lifting the unit above the carpet. After bolting the driver seat back in place ad sliding it back and fort a few times I quickly came to realize just how much the amp didn’t fit. It cleared the seat rails on both sides without a problem, however the sliding mechanism juts out further than the rails (something I overlooked). So what did I break? The driver seat of course. It was stuck in the most forward position, with hardly enough space for a small child to drive the car. I figured that having the car towed would be more expensive than having the seat fixed. So I broke the sliding mechanism on the left side of the seat all together and slowly (and painfully) moved the seat to a more drivable location. Not to bad, $99.00 for new seat rails.

I'll post more pics of the nav screen later...also take a look at my gallery

I plan on installing a Alpine head unit in te near future..so if anyone want sto purchase any of the following let me know: Alpine 6-disc CD Changer (M-Bus), Blitzsafe adapter, Peripheral Line out conveter.

[woodman438]

great planning, great thought, great install, EXCELLENT RESULT!

Well done, oh yeah and thanks for the credit!

W

[Dom]

Look's like you've been a busy boy

Dom

[IML337]

nice work - very impressive and helpful

[Fifth Gear Racing]

Very nice install. I too have the alpine type r speakers, and the same amp, but i have the 6.5" components for the front. I am curious how it all sounded. Was there much need for Dynamat. I have a door kit and a trunk kit for my car, I am curious where would be good places to put it since you are running a similiar setup as well as where you would add some more once the panels are off again. The rear speakers didn't look like they had any.

Chris

[minhi]

you need to apply dynamat to the area directly behind the speakers. you can get a lot of resonation from the rear speakers if you don't apply something to the metal. the fronts weren't as big a deal for me, but it did remove the slight vibration i was getting inside the door

[forcer78]

about the dynamat: I did apply some behind the rear speakers, you cant see it with the speakers in place

The system sounds great, I haven't noticed any rattling or resonance caused by the speakers (except for a new rattle that I created in the drivers door , I'll have to try and fix that one at some point). It will all probably sound much better when I get the new head unit in there

Here are the pics of the Alpine LCD screen mounted below the toggle switches (the brain for the video screen is located in the glove compartment.

[IML337]

nice install, is the screen easily readable down there though?

[forcer78]

The screen location is not too bad (and not ideal either). I have a clear view of the screen from the drivers seat as long as the gear is not in first. also the alpine LCD's have a wide field of view so the picture looks just as clear from a top angle as it would looking at it straight on.

[Fifth Gear Racing]

how large is that alpine screen, the model # is a little blurry to read (TME????)? Do you have some pics of how it was mounted. I think it looks nice but i know i would somehow spill something on it with the cupholders being so close.

Chris

[forcer78]

The LCD screen model is TME-M760. It's the 6.5 inch model

As for mounting, I tried one of those universal mounts but I didn't like the way it worked. I modified the metal bracket that it came with (the one used for mounting in a headrest). Essentially the screen holds itself in place with pressure, the bolt on the bottom slips into the cigarette outlet. I meant to attach a metal strip behind the screen and secure it to the down-tubes, but so far the screen stays perfectly in place and hasn't fallen out yet.






I new going into this that I wouldn't be using my front cupholders for holding my drinks (i never really used anyway), so I just use the rear one and store my phone and remote in the front cupholders

[IML337]

nice work dude

I agree too - the front cupholders are really useful... for just about everything *except* holding drinks - the rocker switches get in the way of the top of the drink

I use the back holder for drink, and the front holders for garage remote, spare change, and bluetooth headset holding

again, nice work and helpful documentation - much appreciated

Cheers