Ulrisa's Volvo S40 Build

[ulrisa 26]

Ok, so I got the first two mdf rings done. These are the ones that the speakers will mount to, and the two others are solely for mounting to the door. I think they came out pretty good for the first time using any of the tools, and basically no woodworking experience lol.

This is what it looked like with the depth taken out for a flush mount, and the outer circle almost cut. After this I cut out the middle circle and sanded a bit to make it more circular.

This is the second ring. It came out a lot better and faster. I barely had to sand it, and the speaker fit right in like a glove. I'm probably going to sand them a bit more tomorrow before I start glassing.

[ulrisa 26]

Ok, so I had to change my plans a little bit. The inner rings I made didn't fit right in the holes, and wouldn't without cutting up the door panel. I had to make fiberglass back pieces for the door pods. They actually came out pretty decent.

Driver door with two coats/mats.

Passenger door with one coat, one more was added.

This is how the driver door back piece came out.

Passenger door.

This is the mocked up pod for the driver side. I will be doing the fiberglassing for it tomorrow.

And this is the one for the passenger side. I'll have to trim the ring a little bit on this one, it hits the dash on the passenger side a little too much. I think just a little trim will do the trick.

I'm really happy with the outcome so far. I feel pretty accomplished for zero woodworking or fiberglassing experience. lol.

[ulrisa 26]

More pics coming tonight. I'm fiberglassing the bodies of the pods right now. They are looking pretty good so far.

[wutang512 3]

man those mids look sick.

keep up the good work man

[ulrisa 26]

Thanks man! I think they are going to look sick once I get them in the doors, the pods are coming out great.

[slim2fattycake 85]

Good job on the smart deadening and great equipment choice.

[ulrisa 26]

Ok, so I plan on having the pods done tomorrow, with black vinyl covering them. I took a picture after the first layer. I also sealed up any holes and added another layer for structure. I might need to add a little more tomorrow depending on weak spots or holes that I missed. I took a slightly different approach than other people that I have observed because I couldn't get anything to wrap correctly around my weird back pieces. It worked out anyway, here is the picture.

After this I'm going to find a way to mount the tweeters, it might be really easy, or I might have to make more pods. We shall see.

Good job on the smart deadening and great equipment choice.

Thanks! SDS is the best stuff, I would never get anything else. Don helped me a great deal with my doors.

[jlwbmx92 0]

I had decided to wait to make mdf rings until my speakers came in. A mysterious box appeared on my doorstep today while I was at work.

Hmmm... What could be in there.

Ascendant Audio stickers? Wow whatever is in those boxes must kick ass.

These are the Havoc tweeters. They look awesome! These are going to sound just a tad better than the tweeters on my rockford coaxials.

This is a close up of the tweeter at a different angle. Looking good.

And here are the carbon fiber mids, in all of their sexy midbassyness.

I am VERY excited to put these in. I hope my first fiberglassing experience goes well. These speakers are beastly, I love them already.

I might be getting an amp on Tuesday, but I can't reveal it yet in case the deal falls through, but it is going to be awesome!

Hope you enjoyed the pics

how much did those set you back?

[ulrisa 26]

It was $249 shipped for the mids and tweeters.

[jlwbmx92 0]

It was $249 shipped for the mids and tweeters.

thats not too bad but still a little pricey how do they sound??

[ulrisa 26]

I will be finding that out soon hopefully

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Excellent choice on front stage. That is nearly exactly what has been used for two SSA vehicles, and possibly a third soon.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

It was $249 shipped for the mids and tweeters.

thats not too bad but still a little pricey how do they sound??

It is actually a good price.

[ulrisa 26]

Excellent choice on front stage. That is nearly exactly what has been used for two SSA vehicles, and possibly a third soon.

Thanks! Means a lot, I can't wait to hear what these drivers can do. It's good to know that my vehicle might be comparable to one of the SSA vehicles (especially after I get the Xcons ).

It looks like I'll be getting them in tomorrow, I'm still a little undecided on where I'm going to mount the tweeters. The a-pillars and the dash are both looking good, I guess I'll do a little testing tomorrow.

[power-fanatic07 0]

Hey man, lookin good ! You got pm

[sefugi 166]

Waitin' to see more...

[ulrisa 26]

Ok, sorry for the wait! The drivers are in. I took a few pictures along the way, but I was really tired after work the past few days so I never got to post them up. So here are some of the pictures of the progress. The vinyl did not come out well I am sad to say, I kind of messed it up. I'm going to find a way to redo or fix it soon, but for now its all about the sound.

I took out the stock tweeter mount and cut it a bit and fit in the new tweeter in there. It actually came out really good.

Here is the tweeter mounted in position.

Hmm.. Which one is better? lol

I put a ring of SDS butyl rope around the speaker hole so the fiberglass back piece would make a good seal.

I also put some leftover pieces of CLD tiles around the ring to seal the hole completely. Oh, and the fiberglass piece didn't line up with the stock screw holes, so sheetrock screws came to the rescue lol. I just put a small washer around them to prevent them from going right through the fiberglass. Again, the vinyl makes me sad .

This is how it looks in the door. Pretty sexy

Overall it came out pretty well for my limited skills. I just wish I had done a little more vinyl work before I did these. So I got it all hooked up and I went to set my crossover. I thought that my amp had a pretty flexible crossover, but I guess it does not. I was thinking of a different 4 channel amp I have that doesn't work. Luckily my brother had an old California Profile crossover that just so happened to have exactly what I needed.

I switched out that crappy rca for another one of those beefy ones btw lol. I still need my own crossover, and apparently one with a bandpass option is unobtainable. M5 might be helping me out (eagerly waiting his reply) in that department, I'm going to buy his DX-28 as soon as I get my next paycheck.

Finally, for how they sound. They sound awesome! With minimal tweaking they already sounded great. The staging with the stock dash mounts is actually really awesome. I'm happy I didn't cut up my a-pillar for nothing. I have a lot more midbass, and the clarity is awesome. I am very pleased with my purchase, those speakers were worth every penny. I plan on getting an equalizer or something though, I'd like to tweak them a little more and the pioneer I have right now only has a 7 band equalizer that is a little too broad for my tastes. I'd suggest these speakers to anyone who is on the edge about them.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

looks good and clean! keep it up!

[ulrisa 26]

looks good and clean! keep it up!

Thanks man!

[ulrisa 26]

Did a little more tuning today, and I've got to say, these things rock! It's like having mini-subs in my doors lol. On top of everything the xmax is just fun to watch lol. I'm getting much closer to the punch feeling I desire.

[sefugi 166]

That looks good! Glad to hear you are happy with your results. The hardest person to please is yourself. Great Work! Hope you continue to post other changes in your system.

[ulrisa 26]

That looks good! Glad to hear you are happy with your results. The hardest person to please is yourself. Great Work! Hope you continue to post other changes in your system.

Oh yeah, I'll be sure to. I think it's really fun to share this stuff with other people and hopefully some of it is helpful to someone else who might be thinking of doing the same thing. I can't wait to get things rolling again it's limited to my pay schedule lol. I'll be sure to post some updates along the way though, especially with the 40.1.

[ulrisa 26]

The amp is in! It is a beast. It's the most awesome sight I have ever seen lol. I can't wait to hook this baby up, it's ridiculous. For those of you who don't know, it does 3600 watts at 1 ohm, 12.8 volts rated. That means even more powah at 14.4! According to some sources 4600-4800 watts at 1 ohm. It's pretty sweet. Anyway, on to the pics.

Wow that is a huge box.

For some reason I could not get this picture to come in clear. I think the amp was distorting the camera's image by being so awesome lol.

I really like the input section on this amp. Quite the step up from the Punch 500-2 lol.

Very nice, very nice...

This is the Incriminator badge on the front of the amp, it looks really bad ass in real life.

Here is a pic of the amp guts. Looks really nice!

Just thought I'd throw in a pic of Kendra

I'm really impressed. I'll be sure to post more when I get some more progress going.

[SPLScion 3]

That looks good! Glad to hear you are happy with your results. The hardest person to please is yourself. Great Work! Hope you continue to post other changes in your system.

Oh yeah, I'll be sure to. I think it's really fun to share this stuff with other people and hopefully some of it is helpful to someone else who might be thinking of doing the same thing. I can't wait to get things rolling again it's limited to my pay schedule lol. I'll be sure to post some updates along the way though, especially with the 40.1.

I am actually about to do this exact same install! Only minor differences, its an S60 and the mids are differemt brand but still 6.5" neo's and planned to put the 6.5's in the door, this really helped me, now I can make my plan of attack while I wait for FedEx THANK YOU for posting this log, its very helpful!

[SPLScion 3]

oh and it's been said but nice equipment and good work on the install