So last week in a exhaustion fueled rant on an unrelated thread I confessed that I had neglected my e30 by not finishing the audio install, and had done absolutely nothing with the finely crafted instrument of musical goodness, known on this forum as a "Luke box", since it had arrived many moons ago.
Shamed by my public confession, I got to work. I still don't have a lot of spare time, so I don't know when I can fabricate my tuck and roll covered, neon and chrome accented, windowed, cover panel,
so I painted the back of the box black to make its appearance more respectable in the trunk in the meantime.
I am using some old-school Hifonics amps: a 4 channel Gemini for the fronts, using the onboard crossover, and a 2 channel Odin for the sub.
After much agonizing over the placement, as it doesn't seem like HiFonics ever meant for these two amps to be placed side by side, I went with the arrangement pictured here. The short power leads were the deciding factor.
Inspired by another forum member who was worried about having to remove the box, I decided to make my connections to the amps as modular as possible, so (relatively) quick disconnect and removal was possible. I had a couple of cheap distribution blocks laying around so i put them to work. Those of you who have done this before can already see a problem.
The main power wire is fused near the battery with one 70 amp fuse, however, the two amps draw different - the gemini at 40 and the Odin at 30. One big ass fuse isn't going to protect much. Luckily I figured that out before I installed.
Here it all is installed in the trunk with the amps individually fused. Still not hooked up, as the fuses are not correct.
Next up, run remote power and the front speaker lines for the new amps, and install the sub fader and antenna switch in the dash. Oh, and get fuses.
Edit:
Had some trouble getting the box to fit with the carpet, at all. Seemed to be 1/2 inch too tall. It fit without the carpet, though. On the 318 there is no sound proofing on the sheetmetal. However, there was some 5/8" padding sewn into the bottom of the carpet. Using a razor, I cut the retaining fabric on the back of the carpet and pulled the pad out, and voila, the box slid firmly into place on the carpet.
Shamed by my public confession, I got to work. I still don't have a lot of spare time, so I don't know when I can fabricate my tuck and roll covered, neon and chrome accented, windowed, cover panel,
so I painted the back of the box black to make its appearance more respectable in the trunk in the meantime.
I am using some old-school Hifonics amps: a 4 channel Gemini for the fronts, using the onboard crossover, and a 2 channel Odin for the sub.
After much agonizing over the placement, as it doesn't seem like HiFonics ever meant for these two amps to be placed side by side, I went with the arrangement pictured here. The short power leads were the deciding factor.
Inspired by another forum member who was worried about having to remove the box, I decided to make my connections to the amps as modular as possible, so (relatively) quick disconnect and removal was possible. I had a couple of cheap distribution blocks laying around so i put them to work. Those of you who have done this before can already see a problem.
The main power wire is fused near the battery with one 70 amp fuse, however, the two amps draw different - the gemini at 40 and the Odin at 30. One big ass fuse isn't going to protect much. Luckily I figured that out before I installed.
Here it all is installed in the trunk with the amps individually fused. Still not hooked up, as the fuses are not correct.
Next up, run remote power and the front speaker lines for the new amps, and install the sub fader and antenna switch in the dash. Oh, and get fuses.
Edit:
Had some trouble getting the box to fit with the carpet, at all. Seemed to be 1/2 inch too tall. It fit without the carpet, though. On the 318 there is no sound proofing on the sheetmetal. However, there was some 5/8" padding sewn into the bottom of the carpet. Using a razor, I cut the retaining fabric on the back of the carpet and pulled the pad out, and voila, the box slid firmly into place on the carpet.
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