Mazdaspeed 3 SQ build...with 4600+ watts?! ZED, HAT, JL, Pioneer

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

I thought I had posted a buildlog for this car on this site, but I guess not. Here's the latest:

Some great updates to add. Just got done a week in North Carolina working with legendary installer Mark Worrell and we made some fantastic progress on this car. (More like me holding stuff and watching him do his thing //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif )

First up, a new dash bezel

Click to read more...

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

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Wiring:

Power wires run through the stock plastic/rubber grommet.









Door wiring...not fun to get wires into these doors.

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

Drilled out an open area in the factory molex connector to pas through the wires



Wire is channeled then through the rubber boot and along with the factory wires into the door











Speaker wiring run



With the RCAs

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

RCAs







Trunk Ground



Under the car picture. bolted securely to the body metal.



removed paint and secured to a clean surface. This is 2/0awg wire



Speaker wires all techflexed and heatshrinked nicely.



Under the Hood:



2/0awg was run for the main power wire and the other one shown is a direct run to power the head unit. Techflex and heatshrink as usual.

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

Connected at the battery with a Streetwires BC2P terminal which provides 2 lugs for ring terminals. A very nice piece.



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As seen previously in the build log, I had made up some kick panel enclosures to house the 8" midbasses. I never got around to integrating them into the factory kick plastic for a cohesive look however. Mark and I had some ideas and this is what he came up with:

First, the existing enclosures, after Mark took the time to widen the openings to allow for the larger L8v2 (previously housed a JL ZR800) and freshly carpeted.





They fit the L8v2s now perfectly



The enclosures sit very tightly into the corners of the kicks and we installed SDS butyl rope to anchor them in. I had used it previously on these as well and it was incredibly difficult to remove them from the car. That SDS butyl rope is AWESOME stuff. You can use it for a number of different applications. Check out his site to read up about it: Welcome to Sound Deadener Showdown | Sound Deadener Showdown







Wired up and techflexed



Fresh plastic kick panels were trimmed up and then scuffed up with 40 grit to provide a good surface for adhesion of the resin. We also cut out some carboard templates to make our final shapes in wood.

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

Here are the cutouts Mark made based off of the templates



Test fitting and adhering to the plastic panels





The pieces were tacked together with screws and CA glue and then resin was applied by Mark to the pieces to seal them up and weatherproof them. He then layed up the pieces with a couple layers of 1.5 ounce fiberglass mat.









Wrapping!

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

Enclosure installed and waiting for the new cover piece:













Beautiful press fit grill pieces installed as well

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

And on the other side. Now I need to make some custom mats to keep up with the awesome pieces Mark made!



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And onto the highlight of this build- the trunk //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

In the mazdaspeed 3, the spare tire well is extremely large in diameter, but very shallow as well (2-3" deep). Mark came up with a fantastic design for the trunk and executed it flawlessly.

Fiberglassing the spare tire well (We used up to 12 layers of ounce and a half in spots to make the shell for the enclosure. It's EXTREMELY strong, yet fairly light weight as well.

The bare trunk:



Deadened with some high quality SDS CLD tiles. This part of the trunk is thinner metal and prone to resonance. I had to use more than the typical treatment amount to get rid of the issues in this area.



Masking off the trunk...Sorry for the low light pics



Mark sprayed in some 3m adhesive and layed in aluminum foil for more protection and to make removal of the shape easier. He covered the entire surface (this shot just shows the beginning of that work)



Boom



After several layers of double 1.5 ounce

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

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[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

The shell is out (and shown bonded with the back piece)





Mark began working on the top of the enclosure and the sub cutout







Rounded edges and then he installed T nuts for a more secure fit.



Sealing the top and bottom pieces up





Mark added extra fiberglass in the sections of the trunk where there are dips/ridges to provide an even mounting surface for the top piece as you can see here after he flush trimmed the piece to take off the extra edges. Really nice work.

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

Building out the top section. Mark included cutouts for the wiring to pass through as well as integrating vents for fans.







The distribution block and switches needed to find a home, so Mark came up with this little diddy. One of my favorite pieces of the install. It's made of HDP and is routed with smooth rounded edges allowing for connection of the power and accessory wires.









All of the holes were tapped and threaded- Mark is a true professional.

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

The wiring was neatly routed to the proper locations





Vinyl was applied to the sub baffle front



Glued up



And let the stretching begin! Carpet time



Test fitting



Notice the LED accent lighting around the top edges inside the piece //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Setting the mood...

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

The sub cover with perforated stainless steel mesh insert for protection and breathability.





Top cover panel is being routed and then had the edges shaped with some fiberglass filler to make a higher quality look to the finished piece.



Amps and wires connected to the amps and test fit.

 

[pickup1 5,000+ posts]

What and where are the mids /highs going?

 

[captainobvious! 10+ year member]

And the shots of what the trunk looks like when you open it up:









I wanted a stock appearance and Mark nailed it. You'd never know what awesomeness is lurking below //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif