2016 WRX, 3 way active Focal Be, IDMAX 12 sub, Helix PRO DSP and Director

[Captain Buff]

OK...so I kind of wanted to do this as a bit of a 'tutorial installation' rather than a build log. There are plenty of WRX installs around that are better than mine...so I figure that just doing the same build log process was a bit of a waste of time. I'm not the type of guy to create a post of my build just to show off - heaps of guys have way better gear and way better skills - I more want to show what I did and how I did it with the hope of inspiring other guys to have a go.

I started this on DIYMA - but after recently becoming aware of how they are run - I walked out of there on principle. I am not contributing jackshit to a forum just so some company can boost its share price. I also cannot believe that a mod would put a post down saying they are aware of users who have multiple accounts on the forum but they don't see the need to do anything about it.

So I have copied what I put on DIYMA and will list that and the remainder down here.

First off though I think I will just put down a pile of photo's of where I am at (90% done installation wise...just waiting on speaker brackets in this goddam Covid snail mail). That way the guys that just want to see what I did can get an idea if they want to read on or if they think I suck!!!

I am no pro installer...I started installs back 20 years ago when (I think this is a common story?) I began to realise there wasn't that much to it and I had paid a pile of money for a pretty b grade install anyway. I have done probably 20 installs over the years...some bigger ones for mates and some puss ones as well...but I am not a professional install guy at all.

I am a qualified Engineer though and I grew up renovating houses with my parents...so I'm not a dumbass and I am useful enough with my hands.

Cool story...you'll have to BYO more dragonz...photos and stop talking

I don't have a heap of time tonight (Aussie time!) so I'll just throw photos down and tomorrow put a bit of a caption to each one to explain what is going on.

Hope this helps any guys...if you are thinking of doing an install in your 2015+ WRX then feel free to ask any questions and I'll help if I can!

Cheers

[Captain Buff]

The new car...believe it or not but I bought my wheels brand new (Nov 2016?) and it is a DD...but I have just ticked over 16,000 km (10,000 miles). Dead serious, I don't drive much as I am retired!!! Has the typical performance mod's, turbo back exhaust, top mount intercooler, boost control solenoid, cold air intake, bypass valve, sway bars and some handling mods and a pro tune (in Australia Cobb are pretty rare...there is only one place in West Australia that will install a Cobb unit. All the rest swear that you must reflash the EcuTEK ECU...all that means is an OTS flash that cost me $1,650. Total BS...but whilst Cobb is getting bigger it still just doesn't get the support from the retailers).

Anyway car looks like this:




I absolutely changed out the head unit as the very first thing I did...personal reasons I will go into later, sorry don't know why it pasted on an angle



I'm single...so my living room looking like this is no problem. I am tempted to make a 'pussy' joke related to being single...along the lines of 'the best pussy I ever had is in the photo as well'...but I should probably be a little more PC.

[BigAl205]

The fact that you like your pussy hairy really shows your age

[Captain Buff]

Some soundproofing gear




Sub box




The correct speaker brackets for the front doors (AP324 do the rear doors)

[Captain Buff]

Mid range speakers installed in dash (I made my own bracket from some ABS I had lying around). Definitely would like to see them in an enclosure but that is a bit too much work for now. Also include some pics of the amp rack and boot (trunk) soundproofing...I'll clean this up and explain it all a little better tomorrow!













That's it for now...sorry GTG... I can see some pics are rotating for some reason and the format is probably wrong (I'm new to this system) so I'll fix it up better later.

Peace

[Captain Buff]

The fact that you like your pussy hairy really shows your age

This type of pussy isn't for bedroom shenanigans! However she also doesn't use my credit card, bitch at me about <whatever>, then ultimately take 50% of my stuff...
Now that comment shows my age...I was too busy working to find a girl through my 20's and 30's...but most of my mates married and they have ended up something like that.
Mate I just turned 40 and I have some grey hairs coming through...I'm going to 'silver fox' it and get amongst those mid 20's ladies (at some point).
I expect that sort of area to be well trimmed and presented FWIW

[Captain Buff]

More pic's....and as promised (better late than never) I will attempt to clean the above photo's up a little!

REAR DOORS

This is the rear left door with the door trim removed, the weatherproof plastic sheet removed...and a sneaky little trick...


Hopefully as mentioned above a big thing I wanted to do was try and adjust the door wiring so that rather than being on the outside of the inner metal it was (as much as possible) on the other side of the inner metal (but still did not impede the function of the window!). The reason is obvious...that would make is a lot easier to cover with Dynamat and Mass Loaded Vinyl.

I couldn't move much of the wiring to the back doors simply due to the nature of it...however where I was a little sneaky was that in the below picture you can see a highlighted connector (or at least you can see where the prongs go through the hole, the connector is on the other side). This connector is an 'L' shape and what I did was swap the left hand side and the right hand side connectors; so that allowed me to put them on the other side of the inner metal skin...pretty sneaky and definitely required an IQ of 196.

Perhaps not...but simple things like that can make a difference between being able to CLD/MLV over it whilst maintaining the function of the door locks etc.; so I think it's worth nothing.



This is the left hand side door with the outer metal skin coated in Dynamat. Pretty straightforward; no real issues to note.



Sorry for the sort of 'jumping around' from door to door; but I just took photos as I was going and sometimes forgot to take pics of certain things...I'm sure you can get the idea anyway!

This is a photo of the inner metal skin of the right hand side door covered in Dynamat. Caution here with the door locking cables which I explained above...I don't know how other guys did it but my method worked so all good. Again no real issues to note. One issue that the keen obsever may note is that I forgot about the single steel bracket that is attached to the door (you will see in following photos) and so I Dynamat'ed straight over the screw plugs. Dopey thing to do but took about 2 minutes to fix so no real issue.



Mass Loaded Vinyl attached to the left hand side door. Holes for the wiring to come through and for the door locking cable to come through...but I hadn't yet realised that I needed to attach the small steel bracket...

Only other thing to note was that the MLV I had left was not long enough for the entire door so I had to duct tape a small piece on the bottom. Duct tape was piss poor so I had to super glue the duct tape to the MLV. Trivia time: 'duct tape' was originally called 'duck tape'. It was invented sometime before WWI and was called 'duck tape' because it repelled water like 'water off a ducks back'. Over the years it gradually became called duct tape as the old method of classification of the fabric used was abandoned and plastics were used instead of the original fabrics. I'm a good guy to have on your team if you are ever in the unfortunate position of being at a quiz night.



Same shit on the other door...but the genius remembered to attach the metal bracket this time.



This is a piss poor picture so I will try to get one from the front doors and explain how I personally made sure the inner metal skin was sealed as completely as possible...but at the same time ENSURED that the door locking cables could move freely (I don't know how other guys did it...but this is how I did it and it worked...so do what I did or whatever you want).



Next up I'll include a few pic's of the wiring to the rear doors and a few notes...nothing too special involved though.

[Captain Buff]

Ahhhh shit...I have just realised that I have 'run out of time' to edit the above posts to add notes and make some sense of them...my apologies as it will look like I have lost the plot and am going backwards; but I shouldn't have been lazy in the first place! Apologies as this will appear stupid; but it will make sense if you have a shit enough life to spend the time reading my rambling anecdotes.
On we go then...

[Captain Buff]

Let's try this again...as I've said before I don't really want to do a 'build log'...this will appear as a build log; but I will especially take time to say what I have done and what issues I ran into and suggestions for others guys and things like that. There are a ton of builds around; and the one thing they all seem to have in common is that the guys are just taking photos of what they've done. There is no explanation of anything or tips and tricks...and so that is what I wanted to do.

I am (currently) about 90% done with the install; all I have to do is drop the amp rack in, connect all the cabling and put some internal panels back in and we are away. However I will start at the beginning and explain as much as I can...it will probably turn into a long boring bullshit build log...but my intention is to help other guys; not show off what I've done because I'm great. I'll leave that to Steve Meade.

Hmm...most of what I say will be just straightforward tips...but I will put in some personal opinions on stuff where it could be helpful (or like the end of the previous paragraph; funny because it is true).

I think the best place to start would be to give props to all the places that I found information and general help. There is a wealth of information out there but these were really helpful. I absolutely have no affiliation with any of these sites; I am simply listing them as I think it could help other guys. So...in terms of sites:
bcae1.com great general knowledge site about car audio
sounddeadenershowdown.com a fairly generic site on how to sound treat your car; however it has a build log for treating a 2015+ WRX...so VERY helpful!
caraudiofabrication.com credit where it is due. I learnt a lot from Mark and his videos really helped me build on a lot of my skills. I respect him and what he does; but I cannot help but say that a lot of what he does is just wank. You do not need to do 17 different types of install material on a false wall to make it look good. You also don't need to buy every Mobile Solutions template before you can do any good routing...the blatant 'promo without disclaimer' approach is totally against who I am as a person. I am strongly against that...however his skill and knowledge are pretty dam useful.

Without a doubt this dude was the most help to me! He really does waffle on way too much at times (and that can get annoying...); but the install vids he has done on his WRX were the biggest help to me:

https://youtu.be/WLz4i4o851g

https://youtu.be/2rs5FUhSn-o

https://youtu.be/wgSEhMEoWEo

He has a number of other vids on WRX install details so have a look.

The one point of difference that I take (and have already stated) with the above dude is that he uses an LOC. I swapped out my head unit and I haven't thought twice. A number of guys will say that playing their DAP with an optical or coaxial connection to their DSP is far superior to a head unit; to those guys I say 'have fun with the OEM integration'. I even heard one guy justify his use of a DAP (or tablet; whatever) by saying that he had the rear speakers connected to the OEM head unit still so he could answer phone calls using the steering wheel controls...

...piss off. That is just pure bullshit. This is my personal opinion - if you want to use a DAP then go for it - but think about trying to turn down the stereo whilst taking a phone call and driving down the freeway. I've had my say on that one.

The head unit I used I think I have already mentioned was a Kenwood DDX9017DABS. Reason for getting this head unit was that it plays flac's (and my entire music library is in flac's) AND at the time getting a plug and play kit for a WRX (especially in Australia!) was next to impossible. These guys were the only place that did a total head unit swap out that maintained all the OEM functions. This is the install vid they did for this particular unit; but it could still be handy for guys in terms of how to take the old unit out etc.:

https://youtu.be/tKVo78zoNj8

They still do an install unit for the WRX (a Kenwood 9020 I think it is nowadays) if you are interested. Again I'm not getting anything from giving them props; I'm just giving respect to the guys who helped me out along the way.

One note that I spent most of the day yesterday completely stumped over is that in their plug and play harness they have used the blue/white remote wire to turn on some of the OEM units. As such you can't find it!! I went looking for it so I could tap it to my DSP but it was nowhere to be found. After a pile of foul language I figured to trace the wire with my multimeter. Very easy to find (it has power written on it after all) and then splice into; and you're away!

Grabbing some dinner and I shall return...

[Captain Buff]

I haven't listed the gear I am installing (though it is on my profile I probably should still list it here)...and then I think the best idea would be to upload photos and descriptions of each 'section' of my install. I'll assume you know basic car audio so I'll just show what to expect and potential issues/annoyances/creators of homicidal tendencies. The cabling through the front door rubber grommets almost pushed me there...

My gear is:

Kenwood DDX9017DABS head unit (mentioned already)
Focal Utopia Beryllium Three Way Active front component set
Two Image Dynamics IDMAX 12D2 subwoofers (I will only use one...the second is there if needed)
Phoenix Gold Elite.5 amplifier
Zapco SQ <called something> amp, 4 x 65wrms AB
Helix Pro DSP Mk2 (with the Director)
Hertz HSK165 components, I will only use the 6.5" mid range (rear fill...you can leave now if you want. There is another reason though; I believe that mid bass response may be difficult to come by and rear mid range have been suggested as a solution)
Dynamat, MLV, CCF
KnuKonceptz Power Cable, Fuses and (most) Speaker Cables
KnuKonceptz RCA's
D Blocks, Terminals, Ferrules etc. are all left over stuff from years of doing this stuff.

As I said I will go by subheadings of each section of the car. As it is easier to talk about a section of the car at a time it will not be in chronological installation order! One of the first subheadings will probably be the amp rack which was one of the last things to go in...but hopefully it makes sense and is helpful to other guys.

I have been through the back doors already above...so I will go to the front doors next. These were a total runt.