Volkswagen Lupo build log

[Haakon 13]

Hey!

Starting a little build log for my tiny little car, a VW Lupo:

Modified with coilover suspension and some old OEM Porsche 928 wheels. Pretty much stock outside other than that

System overview:

Pioneer DEX-P99RS head unit with 4-way XO, 31band eq, time alignment and more

Tang Band W3-1878 3" fullrange drivers on dash playing 200hz and up

Digital Designs DDW6.5 midbass drivers in doors, playing 60-200hz

FI BTL N218 (fully loaded) D1 subwoofer

Phoenix Gold Outlaw 1845 amp for front stage speakers

SPL Dynamics ICE-3500D for N2 sub

Kimber Kable 4PR speaker wires for front stage

4x Supra Dual interconnects

1/0 gauge power wires

120A stock alternator

XS Power D1200 battery up front

Second Skin Damplifier mats, 2x in roof, 3x in doors and quarter panels, 1x under carpet and in boot.

1/2 inch closed cell foam on top of damplifier

Some pics, starting with wiring:

Amp/subwoofer rack/mounting frame:

(only tackwelded in these pics, will be fully TIG-welded when finalized with all braces)

More to come!

Edited September 10, 2011 by Haakon

[Julian 641]

[Shogen 325]

looks great!!! :fing34:

[MikeMartel 64]

Sweet.

[Haakon 13]

Making pods for fullrange speakers:

I wanted fullrange speakers on the dash, but there is just some small tweeters there originally, so I had to modify the dash a bit

Since I wanted these neodymium long-throw wideband drivers I had to come up with something:

I want the 3" fullrange drivers close to where the stock tweeters are/were located in the dash, close to the corners. So I found my Bosch "dashboard muncher" and got to work:

does this;

They fit pretty well:

considering their mounting depth/magnet assembly:

Other side:

Routered some speaker rings

Took a few pics while making the base for the speaker mounts:

Step one; ducttaping where the base is going to sit

Step two: masking everywhere you are going to make a mess and spill resin: (done this before )

Cut some fiberglass fabric to form the base:

Coating it with polyester resin and waiting for it to harden:

This morning it was ready to be cut approx to size:

Superglue and pieces of cardboard are key components for angling speakers

Filled out with fiberglass putty for strength:

Some more fiberglass outty:

Testfitting of fullrange speaker:

Angling pretty much straight up at windshield.

After a good few rounds with body filler and sanding, trying out some high rise spray filler here. Starting to take shape:

[emh9009 199]

Wow, those are some sick full range speakers! Love these little cars, I'll be watching this closely. Keep up the great work!

[Freshh 11]

*Jaw drops*

This is a good start to your build log!!

[Haakon 13]

And some pics of the finished pods:

Only blue because that was the only colour gloss spraypaint I had around, needed to spot them for defects in the finish. But looked good, so they were wrapped in carbonfiber vinyl to match the rest of the dash inserts:

and the passenger side looks like this finished:

[Haakon 13]

Sneak peek @ the subwoofer box

[jonbearsmt 919]

pics of the spray filler?

the pods look GREAT good job, im jelly

[Haakon 13]

Thanks I used just a rattlecan spray filler, brand is Hagmans, but I don't think its available over there? Swedish brand sold here in Scandinavia.. But nothing special, just the first primer/filler box I came over in the hardware store

[ssh 924]

I love this build log and it's only just begun. Stoked to follow along for updates.

[outhopu 70]

I've always liked the Lupo. It's the closest you can get these days to a MkI Golf. I only wish that VW would have brought that to the states. Build is looking good, keep it up.

[slim2fattycake 85]

subscribed.

[Haakon 13]

Made some spacers for the door speakers, was at first going to put Focal Utopia midbasses in there.

Two 19mm MDF-rings glued together

Mixed up some polyester resin and hardener, alot ot hardener in fact, it is NOT supposed to turn dark purple after 2 minutes

Coated the mdf with resin, as mdf is not waterproof and swell up when wet. Now they can live in a door in rainy norway.

Finished them with some filler and paint, they wont be seen when the new door panels are back on, but they do look a lot better like this

Found the Jasper Jig to be very accurate, I got the mdf rings so precise that the speaker actually pressfits to the rings Tested with the Utopias:

Sadly, even though I was sure I had made these waterresistant with the polyester coating and gloss paint, they drew in water and swelled up so much that I just had to remove them and throw them away...

Started out with some new ones that needed to be deeper anyway, because of the mounting depth on the DD W6,5 drivers:

Speaker adapters/spacers V2.0:

Triple layers of 19mm mdf, bonded together and sealed with three thick layers of VPA, this time they shall not swell up like the first ones that were sealed with a layer of polyester.

They are bonded to the doors with Sicaflex for a perfect seal. And seeing how much work it was getting the old ones off, I think they will hold up just fine being bonded only to the door metal.

[sefugi 166]

Awesome work so far!!!! Will be tuned in...

[ssh 924]

I've never thought about doing that for fitting larger speakers in my doors, yet it's pretty straight forward and simple. Curious as to how the new door panel will look.

And why are you using the dds over the focal utopias?

[Haakon 13]

Originally all speakers were going to be Focal Utopia, from the old (and no compromise) W series, the one before the Be series they have now. I made the first door spacers for the best Focal substitute for the old W midbass drivers that I had no luck in tracking down after 2 years of searching. The Focal distributor had found the midbass capabilities of the 6" driver from the KRX3 set to be stronger than the Be utopia equivalent, the 6w3 driver. So the spacers were made to fit these. Incidentally, the Focal Audiom 6W midrange units (that I have) are exactly the same size, so I could use them for measuring.

However, I found out a bit later (when the door spacers had swelled up), that I did not want to mix Utopia and K2 power drivers, and if I should build a complete Utopia W series setup, I should have all the right drivers, not use some K2 units just because I did not find any of the amazingly great 7w2 midbass drivers. So I decided to postpone the Utopia setup plans until I got hold of everything

Since i also had a DD 9510G about, I decided to try out some DD midbasses also this summer I've had a setup of TangBand fullrange speakers, DD6,5 in the doors and a 9510G in a ported 1,5^ft box. But I got a good offer on the 9510, and a great price on a fully loaded N2 18" delivered from the european distributor. I only paid about $50 in between on the price I got from my used 9510G to a brand new N218 delivered to my door, it was an easy choice to make!

Meanwhile, a set of Focal Utopia 180W components came up for sale in England, and this set includes the 7w2 drivers I needed, so I bought them also. So now I have my complete Utopia W setup, maybe I'll fit it all to my next car, sometime in the future:

Focal Audiom TLR tweeters, Audiom 6W midranges and Utopia 7w2 midbass drivers:

And I have 4x Focal Utopia 27WX subwoofers:

[ssh 924]

So when are you planning on coming to the states? Specifically Arizona.

It's awesome to see such a large build with stellar equipment, not a bunch of supertweeters lined up in the dash, and 20 midbass drivers in the doors.

[edouble101 314]

Build is looking very good. I bet that Kimber wire isnt cheap

I eyeball those 3" Tang Bands every time I look through the Parts-Express catalog. I would love to hear yours! Very anxious to hear what you think of them.

I am waiting to see more pics of your steel subframe for the trunk!

[Haakon 13]

I actually started building a box for the Utopias, and had it about 80% complete when I decided to use something else, haha.. I'm terribly indecisive Can show you some build pics of that box anyhow, its junked now

And some amps I have (well I sold the Tru Tech Copper tube amps for $3000 a few weeks ago)

[emh9009 199]

Wish I could give you some rep for this!

Why did you junk that box? Looks great!

[Haakon 13]

I found out that I was not going to use it, I tried to give it away for free, but no one was interested, maybe because it was made for a odd speaker size, 11" subs. Had no room for it just standing around in the already small garage, so out it went. Learned a bit more of what to do and what not to do when building a fiberglass/mdf combo box, so adding some points for experience and that it. Fine by me

Anyway, a N2 18" is maybe a much funner sub to have, making a pretty big box for it, about 7 cubic feet net. Tuned to 31-32hz, should hit the lows pretty good? I'm working on the box these days, it's looking pretty good I think

Back to the doors, I actually came across "readymade" door panels. They were not ready. Halfway ready at most Finish was good, but fitment was rather crap to be honest. Did not fit at all, needs major surgery to fit. But they look pretty good though. For a "proper" build they need to be modified a bit, they have really flimsy mounting points and if you were to mount speakers directly to it, the whole panel would vibrate bigtime. I might make new door spacers to fit the Focal midbasses, although they are nearly 8" in reality (specced as 7"), I should be able to fit them behind the door panel, and just use the panels as trim. They look like this:

and where they are supposed to be straight:

The lower parts of the doora has a really big opening behind the doorpanel:

so I made a cardboard template that filled this out:

and transferred the template to a 8mm thick plastic sheet:

This is fastened with industrial 3M VHB doublesided tape around the edges, and then a layer of Second Skin Damplifier Pro over the panel and its edges to seal it properly up.

Looks like this all sealed and dampened:

[TRP 42]

Looking really good.

[Brett_the_Vandal 2]

What are those Neo Drivers you put in your dash?? I'm in love.