[16psibrick]

Hey all, its been a while since i last posted anything, working on a project for CES, coupled with being sick and parents visiting sorta prevented me from doing anyhting new

but over hte last week or so i managed to squeeze an install, its my first ever full custom install in a E46 M3

goals:

1. excellent Sound quality, but retain stock locations

2. stealthy trunk install and save as much space as possible.

3. when covered pulled off the trunk, there can be a bit of flash

4. revert the car from stock NAV to non-nav. whcih is kinda different, but the car is going overseas where the stock nav would have been useless...but it sure took a bit extra work to do

lets get started.

upfront, a pioneer 5900 flipout dvd player is housed in the stock location. the stock nav headunit was removed, and various bmw parts were ordered to return the car to non-NAV configuration



the front stage consists of a pair of DLS Iridium 6.2 two way comp sets. the tweeter was installed int he stock midrange location...whcih is behind a factory grille, so here is the best pic i can get:



while the midbass was installed int he loewr door. This was quite a PITA. the stock bmw speaker is a 5.25" and installed to the PLASTIC DOOR PANEL, whcih obviously is crappy for SQ. so, a hole had to be cut in the metal door behind it, and a bracket fabricated that would hold the speaker and mesh with the plastic door panel. i also used a foam baffle to seal the space around the spealker so it only breathes to the outter door cavity.



thats about it in the trunk, a pair of DLS 425 component coaxials reside in the stock location in the rear deck as per customers request.

moving to the trunk, here is the normal covered up view:



as you can see, the floor is only raised by about 2 inches or so over stock and i cut a piece of new carpet to go over the install.

pull the carpet off an here is the new fake floor, the entire floor is trimmed out of ebony CF vinyl, with three cutout windows sorry for the poor lighting, the CF vinyl looks much better in person:





remove those covers and you see the equipment. inthe back, a DLS A7 5 channel amplifier runs the entire system, active on the IR and 600 watts to the subs. two Image Dynamics IDQ10 version 3 subs are int he middle. and a logo plate upfront.

the sub install was quite a challenge becuase the m3 does NOT have a spare tire, so there wasonly a very limited amount of space avaible in the tool well...but it turned out okay, a little over 1 cub feet is the internal air space.

the sub and the amp are trimmed in white suede, and if you look closely at the well of the amp, you can sorta see that each side wall of the amp rack well is three pieces, a piece of sueded mdf on the bottom, a strip of plexi in the middle, and a nother sueded mdf strip on top the two forward wells also have flush trimmed plexi glass below the floor.









obviously, the reason for all the plexi is that each piece of edge lit with blue LEDs, making for a pretty bright glow





lets see it at night in darkness









thats about it...i gotta say, it sounds quite good, the stock location for hte tweeter isnt ideal, but its not bad, and the solid nature of the BMW IMO benefits the overall effect nicely

two more shots for ya:

the stuff below the floor:



and i also put in a cap on the driver side, again as per the customers requiest, quite fun routing power wires back and forth lol

[16psibrick]

oh i want to add that a big thanks goes out to rcurley55, wihout his help, no way i would have gotten the install done in a timely manner

[Stephen_C]

I love those cars and as always the install looks incredible

[JKrepps]

Wow, that install looks very nice. Well done!

[Vestax]

Saw it in person last night and the craftmanship is almost flawless.

Good work bing.

[Stephen_C]

Originally Posted by Vestax

Saw it in person last night and the craftmanship is almost flawless.

Good work bing.

?

[nabot49]

Originally Posted by Stephen_C

?

no one is perfect...
bing is just the closest
I swear I am going to have you do my install one day when I get a nice car like that...

[16psibrick]

nah, i am far from flawless, nor am i anywhere near closest, but i try to keep my margin of error to a minimum...my rule of thumb is, if something is off by more than 1/8" of an inch, i redo it

b

[z-lite]

Omg!!! Pics Of The Car Pllzzz :d :d

[JamesH]

your work is great!

[StealthBox]

As usual great work....
You have the ability to make the trunk flow much nicer then I do...

B-