Guinness

What Did You Do To Your Smart Today?

5,057 posts in this topic

My mechanic is basically a truck shop. Lift-and-drain is the way he works. Chacun à son goût!B :sun:

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My response was more about hobbyists like Cacarella, who indicated a desire to pull the pan annually.

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Here's some images of my rear speaker boxes.Finally finished!!!

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Edited by Cacarella

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I see you shortened your right side storage area too with the bungee strap, how did you do that?Just cutting and bending the plastic?Steve

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Bravo! Looks really good! Now.... how do they sound? :D

They sound really good! I don't listen to alot of music with killer bass so I'm not sure If they would rattle orshake, but the few songs I tested with were very clear, krisp, and had very good low to mid-tone.

I see you shortened your right side storage area too with the bungee strap, how did you do that?Just cutting and bending the plastic?Steve

I cut out a section from the middle and then rejoined the two bent pieces with Krazy glue and epoxy.I shaved down the epoxy (very faint seam), repainted it with black vinyl paint and then used stainlessscrews to re-attach it. There's a thin wooden frame behind it so that the screws had something to bite into.

and thanks to Duck's video I lubed my actuator. - Shifts like a dream now.

What video?
He posted a video on youTube and linked to it in one of the threads(I'll try and find it again but I think I just searched the word actuator)Here's the link - Link Edited by Cacarella

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and thanks to Duck's video I lubed my actuator. - Shifts like a dream now.What video?

Here's the link

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Just for you Brian, I will document how I wire a GPS directly to the SAM, not that it should be overly complex. I will get to it this coming long weekend.

The mats are the finest Bulgarian faux leather, no child labour for me, only sweat-shop grannies. They make the mats with a little bit of extra love, something greatly lacking from the indentured youth of China. They are much easier to clean. I still need to invest in a set of the 451 all weather mats for winter.

Thanks Huronlad! I agree that there is a je ne sais quoi absent from the laboring youth in Asia. I just made a word joke. Like Shakespeare!

Are you going to the Oustmarting the Dragon II? If so I want to check out those floor mats. Also, I may have a present (or two) for you. :)

And as for what I did to the car, I added Infinty component speakers. Since I have an aftermarket head unit, I ran the front left and right wires from the head unit and to the respective side's crossover. Then from the crossovers to the woofers and tweeters. Woofers are in the speaker bins, under the dash. I was actually able to reuse the factory tweeter locations and screw holes for the Infinity set's tweeters!! Pictures coming up.

I ordered the Infinity Kappa 5.09cs 5.25 inch (13cm) component speaker set and following the excellent guides at both Evilution and FQ101, I was able to do it on my own. Granted it took me two 10-hour days as I went slow; was meticulous about the Dynamat application; ran new wires, did some wire combining, wrapping and strapping; hooked up the HD tuner module, ran the wires from its mounting place (under passenger seat) under floor carpet, up center tunnel to back of the head unit; and it was HOOOOTTTTT out.

Here is the interior with the dash off. There was a lot of dust in there. So I gave all the black plastic bits a cleaning.

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Dash Off, Old Speakers Out by briandewitt, on Flickr

Another shot of the naked dash

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Dash Off, Dynamat On by briandewitt, on Flickr

Outside of the speaker bin is coated in Dynamat.

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Speaker Bin Outside Dynamat by briandewitt, on Flickr

Getting the shape of the speaker bin hole so I can cut the correct sized opening in the Dynamat sheet.

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Speaker Bin Shape by briandewitt, on Flickr

On the left (from top to bottom): Infinity 5.09cs Woofer, Tweeter and Grill

On the right (top to bottom): Stock woofer, tweeter dash mount, tweeter

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New Speakers on Left, Old on the Right by briandewitt, on Flickr

Speaker bins have Dynamat inside and out, so time to run speaker wire and install the woofers! I also ran the Bluetooth cellphone microphone from the head unit to the passenger A pillar and up to above the rearview mirror. I'll grab pictures of that, close ups of the tweeters and the crossovers later.

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Speaker Bins Dynamatted, Woofers Going In by briandewitt, on Flickr

Putting the dash and all its bits back on. I put the screw driver in that hole as the whole is easily smashed closed during dash removal and replacement.

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Speaker Install 07 by briandewitt, on Flickr

Edited by briand

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Very nice job on the install, Yea, I'll bet it sounds fuller now.Was it tricky to take the dash apart?

Edited by Coast Steve

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I would be very interested in hearing your audio setup at the Dragon.

Sure thing William. Let me know some songs with which you are familiar and I'll load them onto my iPod so we can have a listen.

Very nice job on the install, Yea, I'll bet it sounds fuller now.Was it tricky to take the dash apart?

Thanks CS! :) I wouldn't say its tricky, so much as takes some time. Would be faster if you had a second person helping and little bins or bags for the screws from certain areas. For example, the screws from the speedo cowl I placed under the driver's floor mat. The screws from the driver's side woofer I placed in the cubby closest to the driver's door and did the same on the passenger side for the passenger's woofer. IF I would have just put them in baggies, with labels, would have gone faster for me. I kept counting screws to make sure I wasn't missing any. The dash removal and replacement would be better with 2 people but it wasn't hard at all. Just fiddly.

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Sure thing William. Let me know some songs with which you are familiar and I'll load them onto my iPod so we can have a listen.

Something from Radiohead or Die Mannequin would be great.To keep the thread on track, I have a Stebel air horn mounted (need to wire it up tonight), fixed my door locking problem (loose wire), installed my intercooler scoop (tried to use the factory metal clips, gave up and used zip ties instead), lubricated the waste gate and ran wiring for an oil pan heater. Edited by Huronlad

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LED City Lights. Bright and distinctive. These are my new DRLs! The pictures don't do them justice. They are BRIGHT and slightly blue-tinged. Now grille marker lights, side turn signal repeatersw and city lights are all LED.

Also replaced one burned-out high beam bulb and did oil+filter change. Ready for the dull weather now.

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Bil :sun: Edited by bilgladstone

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I cut my city light wires when I installed the Angel Eyes, but I'd like to know what 194s you used.

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I cut my city light wires when I installed the Angel Eyes, but I'd like to know what 194s you used.

If by 194s you mean the city lights, these ones:

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Illustrated to better effect in their video here:

!

:sun:

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Installed new speakers in the back, the original speacers are C R A P !To make it solid, not too expensive and still keep the room in the back, I decided to build a cover in the back, 2 layers of wood, flexible but solid. Speakers are 3 way speakers from Dual (60 dollars at Walmart, better reviews then the 100 dollar-models from Pioneer or Sony). All the material including speakers, wires, connectors, wood and fabric were a total of about 100 dollars, the sound improved dramatically. I love it! Here are some step by step-photos.

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Installed new speakers in the back, the original speacers are C R A P !To make it solid, not too expensive and still keep the room in the back, I decided to build a cover in the back, 2 layers of wood, flexible but solid. Speakers are 3 way speakers from Dual (60 dollars at Walmart, better reviews then the 100 dollar-models from Pioneer or Sony). All the material including speakers, wires, connectors, wood and fabric were a total of about 100 dollars, the sound improved dramatically. I love it! Here are some step by step-photos.

Very Nice! I noticed a huge difference when I installed rear speakers.I couldn't do it this way because when the Cabrio roof is down it would clobber the speakers.The speakers would probably scratch my rear window (more) as well.Do you lose any of the deeper tones because the speakers aren't boxed in?or does the small trunk size create an adequate environment?

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Very Nice! I noticed a huge difference when I installed rear speakers.I couldn't do it this way because when the Cabrio roof is down it would clobber the speakers.The speakers would probably scratch my rear window (more) as well.Do you lose any of the deeper tones because the speakers aren't boxed in?or does the small trunk size create an adequate environment?

The small trunk is doing the job - works like a big box........I was thinking to replace the original speakers as well - with new 4 inch.. But to do that I have to takethe whole dash apart - don't really want to do that!The sound is really good now - I am not a freak who needs the best of the best. But that AC/DC songat 05:00 AM on the way to work will definitely wake me up now! ;) Ghost

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