Well, here it is. My second install on my all-alone venture. For those who didnt know, i am now working for myself and installing out of my garage. Im excited to see whats to come. Here we have a 2013 Ford Taurus SHO in for a simple build. The customer supplied all of the gear except the helix processor, which i supplied. The goal was to maintain the OEM look, retain cargo space, all while maximizing sound quality.
The gear from the top of the chain goes as follows
. Helix DSP
. Alpine PDX V9
. Seas Prestige 27TFFNC/G (H1396) 1" Textile Dome Tweeter
. Hybrid Audio L6
. (2) Image Dynamics IDQ 12v4d2
SDS MLV, STP and Dynaliner CCF, Stinger CLD, Knu Konceptz wiring, Fast Rings
The Helix DSP got high level inputs from the factory sony system. Ken Ward over at Musicar Northwest had previously tested the outputs on these and supplied me with the info that the front mids get full range left/right signal and have only a very little amount of eq from the factory. (THANKS AGAIN KEN!).
Front doors got a liberal amount of CLD. Luckily there was a nice sized access hole to get to the outer door skin.
Once the outer door skin was deadened, the access holes factory vapor barrier was covered with cld and "taped" over the edges for easy access while still sealing up the hole and maintaining some rigidity.
Sound Deadener Showdown mass loaded vinyl cut to the shape of the door. The scuffs are from 32 grit sandpaper to help the closed cell foam stick to it better.
Closed cell foam stuck to the mlv
MLV/CCF mounted with SDS Velcro (before i cut the hole out for the mids baffle). It was a ***** to get the doors on after. For anyone wanting to do an install in one of these cars, use thin and very forgiving ccf.
Baffles to house the Hybrid Audio L6's. The factory baffles were used as a template for the bottom layer. then two 3/4" Birch was used for the other two layers. They were primered, painted in a rough texture coat, then pained over again with a few heavy layers of plasti-dip to protect them from any possible interactions with water. I would have used HDPE but unfortunately i only had enough for one baffle. Should have gotten more before hand. Not the end of the world though.
Since the Hybrid L6's have push terminals, i found no reason to use XT60 connectors. I did however tin the ends of the exposed wire so they dont fray while being removed/re-installed, and heat shrunk for quick and easy identification.
Hyrbid Audio L6's all mounted up with Fast Rings.
Side note: Hybrid L6's are a hair to big for the 6.5 inch fast rings. I had to stretch them out a bit.