Jay's 2012 Kia Rio5 Build log

[JayinMI]

OK. I've been working on this car for about 2.5 years (not real diligently) and finally got sound a few days after attending Finals in Tennessee. I was hoping to have sound for Finals and maybe take advantage of some experienced ears, but software issues kept that from happening.

Many people have probably seen this over on the "DIY" site, so I'll condense things to get to the point I'm at now.

4/12: Purchased car



2012 Kia Rio5 EX Auto with UVO. Factory HU does AM/FM/SiriusXM/CD/Aux/USB/iPod/Zune (!)/backup camera and voice commands. Not changing it for a while.



Tinted all the windows. 30% all around except 40% on the windshield. Yes, it was illegal. lol

5/12: Wheels, Tires, Vinyl

First set of wheels. Drag DR23's, 16x7 with 205/55/16 Nitto NeoGens.



Wrapped the mirror caps, roof, rear spoiler, chrome trim on the grill and foglights in gloss black vinyl.







At this point, this is the equipment I had:

Audison Bit One.1 that I won from a Mr. Marv raffle on DIYMA, the Vifa Ring radiator tweets I had been sitting on for about 3 years, the Tang Band 3" Bamboos I used in my Genesis Coupe, my 7" Dayton RS180's as well as my Dayton RSS265HO (also from the GC).

I decided to run some old school Sony Mobile ES amps, and picked up (2) XM-2100G's and an XM-5046. I went with the 5046 because XM-450G's don't come around often. I looked on and off for about 2 years before one finally fell into my lap.



Next, I built some pods for my 3's and tweets to use the the area by the small front windows. I aimed them with a laser pointer at the opposing corners above the A pillar at the headliner, intending to reduce reflections from the glass.





Sometime around early '13, I started playing with an Arduino microprocessor kit. The intent was to have it intercept the steering wheel control commands, filter out volume up, volume down and mode, pass the remaining commands on to the radio, and use another portion of the Arduino to simulate the rotary encoder of the Bit One. That way I can set the volume on the radio and forget it, and use the steering wheel controls as master volume. I can also write software that would allow me to add secondary functions to certain buttons if I so desire. I got the filtering part done, and wrote version 1 of the software for the volume control, but haven't tested it yet.




(continued...)

[JayinMI]

Then I switched out the display on the Bit One DRC for a red on black one to match my cluster illumination.

Before:



After:



I built some kicks, and vented them into the frame rail. This required relocating my hood release:



This was pre-vinyl. The other one looks the same. I had some old MB Quard flush mount grilles to use, but hadn't put them on at this point. I can't seem to find any of the build pics of the kicks, but if I do, I'll include them later.

Then I built my box. (about 5 tries to get it how I wanted)







I eventually got around to pre running all the wiring in the car. All of my power and speaker wire is KnuKonceptz 100% OFC. 12ga speaker wire all over, 1/0 power and ground and 4ga after the distro block direct to the amps. Street Wires CBR-44M distro. All of the wiring is techflexed, color coded, and labeled. The front speaker wires are terminated in kicks with Traxxass TRX connectors, so if I decided to move things later, I wouldn't have to run new wires all the way from the amps.

Random pics:

1/0 run through a factory grommet to a Tsunami Compression terminal fuse holder mounted on a custom 18ga steel mount.







Made a custom mount for the distro in the back. Power connections in to distro are made with StreetWires compression fit 1/0 rings.



For signal, I ran a speaker level signal back off the front speaker outputs from the HU, AND an Toslink cable. I plan to add Optical out to the factory HU, so I pre ran it. If it doesn't work out, I may switch to a tablet later, and will use it then. The speaker level signals are braided, techflexed and heat shrunk.

(continued...)

[JayinMI]

Signal is run up/down the center, power on the left. The speaker outputs from the amps are run up the center and over to above the kick panel area.

Then I build my 2 tiered amp rack in the spare tire well. All in all, with the sub on the passenger side and the amps in the well, I only lost about 3-4" width and about 1.25" in height. Still fully usable.



The bottom layer is bolted in to a brace for the floor of the spare tire well with rivnuts. The top layer is held to that with thumb bolts for easy access and serviceability.

Then, essentially I putzed around and left it that way. A couple months ago, I decided to try some new techniques I learned and make something cool looking.

I built a panel on the left side to retain the factory pocket. Then I built the floor panel. I used the front of the car's grill as inspiration for the floor. The indented sections on the side panels mimic the center console. The painted trim rings are to match some of the trim in the front of the car.





And that's about where I am now, build wise.

Don't mind the JL grille. It was easier to buy it for $7 than to make one. There's an Illusion C10XL back there, in about .55 ft3. Way too small, but still sounds pretty good. May try out the Dayton just to see how it does, even if I have to make a spacer. It spec'd out much better in that box.

Now, the next part of my master plan, is to put the DRC display inside the rear view mirror. I picked up several mirrors from a local junkyard, and shave the lights and switches off of the one I decided to use.







I picked up some 2 way mirrored plexi and used my router to make a copy of the original glass piece.
Should be getting a little more serious about this in the very near future.

Jay

[claydo]

Beautiful work jay! Yer fab work is tight, and love the electronics work to get exactly what ya want!

[Hic]

Then I built the floor panel. I used the front of the car's grill as inspiration for the floor. The indented sections on the side panels mimic the center console. The painted trim rings are to match some of the trim in the front of the car.
Tinted all the windows. 30% all around except 40% on the windshield. Yes, it was illegal. lol

Nice touch Jay !

Thanks for video http://s216.photobucket.com/user/97a...6c83c.mp4.html

[Notloudenuf]

This is all really excellent work. I hope I can check it out in person one day.

[JayinMI]

I'm hoping to make it down to NC at some point. Wondering where next year's Finals will be.
I had such a great time, I want to go again.

[claydo]

The n.c. meets get exceptionally large turn out, with a great group of folks. I highly recommend that trip!

[whazz]

Nice build, im definitely tuned in for this ;-)

[papacueball]

Good stuff here! I especially like the DRC in the mirror idea. Where did you find the new display, and do they come in white on black?