Hello all,

Well i wasnt gonna post any more updates until the interior was finished but dude asked so here goes anyway, lol

The three interior panels are almost done. They've all got a fiberglass backing then a layer of foam that was shaped to the desired panel shape, then a top layer of fiberglass:





I shaped the fiberglass backing by spanning cling film of all things (lol) between the lip of the boot seal and the new boot floor. This was then covered in a single layer of fiberglass matting, this was done in stages to stop the weight of the fiberglass stretching the film. When the glass was cured, the panel was covered in fire retardant expanding foam and left to cure.

The foam was then very easy to cut and sand. Then a final top layer of fiberglass gave me a good solid surface to fill and sand to the perfect finish, lol.

The boot lip panel is closest to completion:



This panel still needs some more filling and shaping but its not far off.


and here's one of the side panels



I think its passenger side but dont quote me, lol. It's just had its top layer of fiberglass and ill move onto filling and sanding as soon as the boot lip panel is done.


My original intention was to carpet the floor and paint the side panels, but ive since decided to carpet all the panels (mainly because i got myself a deal on 6 metres of black acoustic carpet, lol) so the stereo should sound amazing.

Speaking of which I also need to decide where the two sub's are going. They're going to have their own enclosures but im not exactly sure where to mount them yet. The amps and the power cap are gonna be mounted under the floor panels where the rear seats used to be (dont want the amps to be on display).

Guess thats about it for now, the floor panels also need a hole cutting out for access to the spare wheel and a panel making to cover the hole but that shouldnt take long at all.

Hopefully it should be finished before too long

Jonny

Well it's nearly finsihed. All the side panels and half of the boot floor are carpeted (ran out of carpet, lol). So gonna have to pick some more up, then finish the carpetting and the spare wheel cover. then cover the fixing bolts with some kind of cap that im yet to find, lol.

Also, i purposefully (not!) forgot to take into account the thickness of the carpet when i was doing the final test fit, so i also have to peel back the carpet around the bottom of the panels and shave a few mm off so they fit as they should, not a big job.

Anyhow, enough of the babble, lol, onto the pictures:

Pretty basic view from the back, just use ur immagination to carpet the rest of the boot floor and make the fixings dissappear, lol:





Also have to finish trimming the openning around the boot lock:




and dont worry that the carpet looks a little rough around the endges, lol, it hasnt been glued to the back side of the panels yet:




this is probably the best view of the spare tire cover, you can see it from the outline made by the carpet, its only half cut. I didnt want it to be round or square, so i went half way in between, lol:

p.s. Notice my finger marks in the filler dust that's settled on the side panel, lol.



and finally:



P.s Incase you're wondering, the multiple marks and stains on the bare boot floor panel mostly consist of cured fiberglass resin, glass fiber threads and polyester bodyfiller, lol. They dissappear quickly with a good sander, lol.


So thats that, lol. The next update should be the finished article. Hopefully i'll have cleaned the car by then, lol, It hasnt been cleaned in about 8 weeks, lol.

The next step after this is done will be to build two 10 inch sub enclosures that will mount above where the rear seats were and will point slightly backwards towards the boot door. The enclosures are gonna be ported and the ports will also point backwards.

After that i think i'll take it easy for a while, lol, i'm exhausted!

maybe someone will reply this time, lol, jk.


Jonny

looking good so far mate, have you thought about building it so that the speakersface forward to the front of the car or would that work orhave i missinterpretted what you are doing?

Good luck with it, not exactly my cup of tea but it wouldn't do for us all to be the same.

Hey donny,

i jus think that subs perform better when the sound bounces off something first, instead of pointing at ya like a normal speaker.

Either way, i guess I could try the subs both ways round and see which sounds the best

Jonny

Drove 60 miles today with all the panels in and they didnt make a sound and my car was super quiet again, lol.

Well I say they didnt make a sound, the side panels didnt make any noise but at the mo, the boot floor panels are only held in by one screw each, lol, so they were rattling like hell, lol, possibly blocking out any side panel noises, lol.

But saying that, every point where a panel is touching either another panel or the car chasis is covered in carpet (floor panels will be soon) so really it should be impossible for it to make any noise at all.

...theoretically, lol

Jonny

Man I just have massive respect for the fact that you've got the sheer guts to do that to a fairly new car. Also it helps that you've got the ability time and patience. Initially I didn't like the idea but now I've seen it almost finished I'd love to have the courage to do that to mine.

I never use the rear seats so it makes sense to make use of the space. I say good on ya and keep it coming, can't wait for more photos

thanks poing,

Thats probably the best response ive had to a post, it is a big move and 90% of the responses that i got (not jus talkin about the forum) have been totally negative. People saying that im ruining a perfectly good car and that im gonna destroy the re-sale value and void the warranty, and i dont care, lol.

When people buy a house, they dont just move in, un-pack and get on with their lives. They re-decorate, build an extension, landscape the garden and all the rest. I guess I feel the same about the car. I loved the facelift coupe, thats why i bought one. But it didnt take long for me to define a number of things that I wanted to do to the car to make it even better, in my opinion.

and this is only the beginning, lol.

the interior still needs a lot of work before its done, i'm really looking forward to getting the stereo system back in there, ive been usin just the two front speakers for far too long, lol.

After all thats done, ill do a few 'low labour' mods to the interior. Namely: short-shifter, black sparco hand brake handle, and of course a Sparco steering wheel:


(found the image link on google search, who knows when it might die, lol)

I love the look of the slim sparco wheels, Dont get me wrong, I want my interior to be full of sparco, lol, but i dont like anything flash, I want it all to be dark and understated, as it were, lol.

thanks again,

Jonny

p.s. Yes I know that replacing my steering wheel will:
1. Drastically reduce my chances of survival in a crash
2. " " the resale value of my car
3. Most likely invalidate the warranty on my entire steering system and prpbably the whole interior electronics

lol, and i still dont care, lol.

Now utterly convinced that you're certifiable, Greensheep!

But, I have to say, you're growing on me! You're so determined to do this and Hell mend anyone who attempts to guide or advise you otherwise....

Actually, if that whole 'tearing out the back seats' thing is to facilitate the installation of some massive amps and subs etc, then it all starts to make, heaven forbid, sense!

Sparco seats, short shifters et al, also make sense, but the dreaded plastic roll cage still doesn't! Won't stop you doing it though....

You go for it my boy!

Jimmy

You get one life Jonny and have to make the best of it and do it your way. Its great to see youre getting lots of laughs from your car and power to you for enthusiasm etc. nothing at all wrong with being certifiable- I once made a living from it! Thats an ambitious project and youve waded in and got something done, lots of different skills required. Please leave braking space when youve done the wheel...

Glynn

lol, I knew you'd start to come round eventually jim.

Well i took half a day off work today and drove over to demon tweeks in Wrexham to get my short-shifter. It wasnt in stock so they've ordered it direct from B&M, and they gave me free delivery so i paid £97 in total, cant wait til it arrives.

Also called into Halfords on the way home for a look around and spotted an identical sub to the one I already have. There was no price, it looked like someone had found it in the back in a messed up box and just put it on the shelf to get rid of it, so i bougt it, lol. It cost me the huuuuge sum of £25! lol, bargin of the century.

So i now have the two subs that i need to get on with building the enclosures. Just gotta get my head round all this vented, ported bandpass crap, lol. Now i wish i'd paid attention in college.

Jonny

Greensheep,
Like the others said, not my cup of tea, but respect and more power to you for having the nuts to do this.
My ONLY negative comment is... Why Sparco? And please dont buy a Sparco strut bar...After spending 3 hours reshaping the last one I fitted because the fit was so poor, I wouldnt recomend anyone get one!

weird, my sparco strutt brace went straight on.

Hey Richard, I will be fitting strut bars eventually, but I dont have any prefernce over manufacturer. In terms of why sparco, it's simply because I like the way their products look. The seats i choose just hapenned to be sparco because they were the ones i liked best, same goes with the steering wheel, so start as you mean to go on, lol.

Ok, this is just a quick update, I've finished the main construction on the two sub enclosures, they still need some final finishing and carpet, but apart from that they're about there.

I didn't think my carpentry skills could stretch to anything too fancy so i decided to keep them simple, they're both sealed enclosures with 1 cubic foot internal volume. I may build some enclosures that blend in more at a later date, but these'll be just fine for now:



Jonny

EDIT: Also picked up some more carpet today so should be able to finish off the boot floor tomorrow

Sparco?! why Sparco?!? its THE motorsport make - best of the best. sparco seats way beter than cheap rubbish.


nice work greensheep cant wait to see how it looks! i think its gonna be amazing personally - i have always stuck by that!

Cheers dude,

well its soooo close to bein done, i can almost taste it, lol:



Jonny

mr greensheep has a point. Hes got what he wanted out of the project completely. A conversion, boot space, nice big speakers and carpet ed to not look gash.... Jobs a good un

exunctly, lol, and I like the 'Mr Greensheep' lets keep that going, lol.

Just finished wiring up the stereo, the amps and power cap fitted perfectly below the boot floor, and there should be enough room to fit the front amplifier under there at a later date to get it out of the passenger footwell.

The system sounds amazing, no rattles coming from anywhere and having two subs running at far less than their full power gives much smoother bass than a single sub being pushed really hard, and not to mention I now have stereo bass, lol. There's still a little final tuning to do in terms of gain and crossover settings for the subs and the 6x9's but apart from that, the system is all done.

Jonny

oh, and by the way I've also turned the sub enclosures upside down and laid them on their back, so they now look like a mini-house roof instead of mini-coffins. As far as i figure there are about 4 or 5 different positions that the subs could go in, so im gonna try them for a couple of days in each to decide which gives the best sound. For the next position, i'm going for '2 obelisks pointing high into the sky', lol.

..'stereo Bass'.....you gotta love this guy! Hilarious.

Jimmy

I have read all of the post Greensheep, like I said "I'm sorry if I offend you" I don't mean to and "IMHO" (in my honest opinion) and it is only my opinion. Some people will like what you've done but at the moment I don't. I'm not trting to ridicule what you are trying to do, I'm just giving you my honest opinion.

I dont have anything against people giving opinions, even bad ones, but i do have objections to people giving bad opinions about parts of my mod that aren't even finished yet like the sub boxes and the mounting screws.

I also have strong objections to people whose opinions cross the border between being honest and being just plain rude.

Ive seen loads of mods in loads of forums, some of which 'in my honest opinion' are absolutely awful. But I know that whoever has done the mod loves it, otherwise they wouldnt have told other people about it. It's for that reason that I would never even dream of posting on his/her thread and telling them that their mod looks 'ugly and amateurish' regardless of how entitled I am to present my own opinion.

I have absolutely no problems with people saying that they're not sure about it, or that its not to their taste. I would just rather that some people used a little more tact.

ok, thats enough of that, lol.

Hey gee, it's always been the plan to keep the spare, I just know that If i didnt have it in there then the first time i went for a long drive i'd get a puncture, lol, and you're definately right about openning the windows for better bass, although i dont think my neighbours would agree with you, lol. I've also been messing with the low-pass cut-off point. Should have it about right by the end of the week.

and phil, im gonna take a break for a few weeks after the boot's done, then get on with the cage. I've done a coupe of pipe bending tests with 40mm and 50mm pipe and they came out great, might take a while but ill get there, lol.

Well the short-shifter arrived today and took about 40-50 mins to install. The instructions were really good but there's a few things not in there that would make the installation much quicker and easier, so if anyones thinking of installing one (it's a B&M btw) then let me know.

It makes a great difference to the feel of the gear box, changes are much 'crisper' (cant really think of any other words to describe it, lol), and the shift distance has been greatly reduced. Overall it feels great, im very happy with it.

I'll finish off the spare wheel cover tomorrow (if its not pouring down like it is now , lol) and will pick up the rest of the carpet that i need at the weekend.

Jonny

i have been thinking about a short shifter but was worried about getting all the plastic surround off. How do you remove it all?

It's really easy phil,

you need to seperate the gear stick surround panel (also holds the rubber mat), from the main centre console. Just get urself a thin flat blade screwdriver and push it inbetween the two pannels at the front, if you take your time then you wont mark any of the panels. When its in, just grab the screwdriver and lift it up quickly to seperate the panels, dont try to 'prise' them apart as this will also most likely mark the panels.

Once the top panel is off, you'll have uncovered two small screws that fasten the centre console to the main dash. There are also 3 screws down each side of the centre console itself. After you've removed all these (and the small plastic panel under the handbrake handle (this pulls out, but you have to get your fingers underneath to pull a couple of clips back)) then the whole console should lift straight out.

easy peasy. lol

then fitting the short-shifter:

- When you first get the shifter from B&M, there's a plastic cap on the bottom and one on the side. You dont need the cap thats on the side, get rid of it, it doesnt tell you this in the instructions.

- Make sure the spring assembly doesnt fall off the main shift assembly when you remove the locking nut and slide back the bolt. (it'll make sense when you see it, lol) its a pain in the arse to get back on, lol.

- B&M supply the stick with a gear knob, encase this in concrete and throw it in the sea. This is the only way to safely get rid of something so hideous, your old gear knob will fit on there just fine.

i'll post a pic when i get home

Jonny

thanks mate a pic would be great

Just a quick update as i really need to go to sainsburys to get some food, im starving, lol.

Got the subs and the wheel cover carpetted today:





I think ill take a rest til the end of the week then get to work covering the fixing bolts and fine tuning everything.

Jonny

Well done that man !

I think that looks really good, good choice of angle for the sub boxes in the end. I would just add an amp rack with some subtle neons to brighten up the rear and then job done.

I'm sure you'll deal with the bolts fairly soon, you'll catch your hand on one when taking some shopping out of the boot, swear a bit then go straight home and sort them out, after some copious bleeding of course

Hmmmm ok i really love it, still love it even after the first comment i made earlier in the thread but just staring at the picture i noticed how big the boxes are. So what i wanted to suggest is.. have you thought about cutting down the wedge boxes. Then with the free space between the two subs you could place an amp? or leave the space free for grabbing stuff from the back.

here i edited a pic a bit so u can see what i mean

thanks for the replies,

Poing - I actually bought a coupe of neons today. I dont really like over-bright lights inside a car, but im gonna put a small red neon in each 'rear-passenger footwell' to give a nice soft red glow, lol, around the seats and the subs. I'll see how it looks when they're in and may then move them around/add some more etc.

And if you saw the state of my hands then you'd know that ive caught myself on those bolts loads of times. I've even ripped a pair of jeans open after getting them caught on the boot lip fixings. I guess thats good in a way because it shows me that they're strong fixings, but bad in another because it nearly ripped ma goolies off, lol.


Grizzlle - Ive been thinking a lot about bringing the amps out from under the floor. I like the idea of it, but i think its something that can wait for now. Maybe in a couple 'a mods time, lol.

p.s. you have no idea how many times i thought of just buying a can of tyre weld and dumping the spare, lol. But im happy with the decision i made. I dont know if it comes accross in the pictures, but i really love the way the spare wheel cover looks, it helps to 'break up' the boot floor and I love the shape of it.

Jim - LOL, i really admire your persistance. But you know that im gonna build the roll cage and you know im gonna install it, lol. But im not so stubborn that I wont get rid of it if i dont like it, lol. But the only way that im gonna satisfy myself is to try.

Spacemunkee - Hey, I considered a lot of shapes for the sub enclosures but the thing is that they have to be a certain volume in order to get the most out of the sub,and the shape that i used was a compromise between getting the internal volume that i needed and looking reasonably good.

But saying that, there is still a tonne of room in the boot and i'll certainly look into the possibility of extending the install to show off the amps and power cap, thanks for the PS BTW

Jonny.

Big positive points, irregular boxes reduce the risk of frequency peaks, two subs reduce the amount of power per unit to get a good output so less driven and less resonance PLUS two units together will give deeper frequency range than one alone. The fact that you compromised on size is not recommended for subs but having two together should overcome any probs as you dont need to drive them so hard....looking tidy mate.

Glynn

Been keeping an eye on the build through the posts, I've done quite a few boot builds, always in my son's cars (Escort, XR21, XR31's and the like), and they always look a mess until you get near the finished article. GS you've done a fine job, my man. I personally would have put a perspex cover over the boot area, and mounted the amps and powercap under there, which still gives you a decent size boot (Sainsbury's trips and the like) but also shows off the full ICE solution.. What head unit you running?

I say I have done the builds in my son's cars, never in my own, subtle and effective is my preference, but everyone is different.

I still think you've done a fine job.....

Hey Andy,

I'm strongly considering building an install to display the amps and power cap, although I want to make sure that it doesnt end up being too flash, I want to keep it quite understated, lol.

Would ya mind if i PM'd you in a week or two when i have some ideas? wanna get the expert opinion, lol.

The head unit that im running is a Pioneer DEH-P7700MP. I have the front pre-outs going to a vibe black box amp for the front infinity components. The rear pre-outs are fed to a fusion amp for the infinity 6x9's and the stereo sub output is fed to a JBL amp with about 250Watts RMS per channel. It all works really well together.

Jonny

p.s. I took a couple of pictures of the boot with the red neons but they didnt come out very well and they dont do it justice so i'll leave them off for now.

Edit. The sub enclosures are about 1550 cubic inches, comparing this to the recommended 1728, do ya think that there's too much compression in there Gee or would the difference be negligable? just wondering, its not too late to change them.

[quote="Greensheep"]Hey Andy,

I'm strongly considering building an install to display the amps and power cap, although I want to make sure that it doesnt end up being too flash, I want to keep it quite understated, lol.

Would ya mind if i PM'd you in a week or two when i have some ideas? wanna get the expert opinion, lol.

The head unit that im running is a Pioneer DEH-P7700MP. I have the front pre-outs going to a vibe black box amp for the front infinity components. The rear pre-outs are fed to a fusion amp for the infinity 6x9's and the stereo sub output is fed to a JBL amp with about 250Watts RMS per channel. It all works really well together.

quote]

No worries PM away.....Not sure I'm an expert, but if I can help, guide, suggest I will

Assuming youve got plenty of acoustic wadding in the boxes that shouldnt be a problem. Having a shallow enclosure is not recommended but the angle between front and back should minimize the reflection. As I said having two means you dont need to drive them so hard as you have a large cone area which will move more air. A single speaker would need to travel further to move the same volume and that would make the dims. more crucial, and make any resonance more noticeable. Putting the angles into the cabs has made this a tougher job for you but is probably a stroke of pure ( dont know wether to put luck or genius ). All the joints need to be sealed or strange noises may be produced as air is rammed through the cracks. Youve put the speakers off centre and I think youre probably an acoustic enclosure designer for Bose.

How does it sound by the way ( its not by the way at all is it)

Glynn

Hey Gee,

Yeah, both the enclosures are sealed and padded out on the inside.

It sounds great, the bass is very smooth and always seems to complement the higher frequencies regardless of volume. The 6x9's are very strong and never seem to be overpowered by the bass. I still havent adjusted the gain on the front components so they're a bit drowned out at the mo, but ill sort that out soon enough.
My only slight criticism at the moment is that the subs are possibly a little too close to the seats. But im gonna have a go at moving them slightly further back this weekend.

Jonny

excellent work m8! roll cage next!


Jim why dont you want him to build it?!

Dudeman,

Because it's a crummy idea. Even a full blooded, real roll cage is a waste of time unless you are preparing to compete with the car. (Or crash a lot). This car is neither one thing or the other. It has racing seats which are OK, I suppose, but is loaded with ICE. Contradictions.

Great, your butt will be held firmly in place whilst high speed cornering only to be clouted about the head by a subwoofer cabinet! (I know...exaggeration.)

The roll cage is a total contradiction too. I just cannot think of any reason why it should be built. He claims it is not to impress anybody, so it must be for himself. Why? It is non functional, will most likely not be aethetically pleasing (even if he does a beautiful job), will be inconvenient and impractical. OK he has spirit and is seemingly doing a decent enough job, but that is no excuse for this silly idea.

At the end of the day, however, it's his car and he seems determined to do this. All I can suggest is that during the fitment of this plastic cage, he doesn't do any irreversible damage to the interior of the car. (Holes in the dashboard etc.)

I'll be quite prepared to congratulate him if he manages to pull this off and make it look anything other than daft!

You go for it GS! I'm obviously getting too old to understand......

Jimmy

fair enough- comming from a motorsport background myself i used to get annoyed with stuff like that (i.e. lightening the car the filling it with bloody playstations, carbon fibre effect etc etc) but know i kinda understand how people want the 'race look' without it being a 'race car'. we both know a comp. roll cage would cost loads and probs have to be made specially, but GS obviously wants the look without the FIA outlay.
good points are made and i fully understand where you are comming from, it isnt a practical idea, holes may have to be made and for nothing more then just looks but I still think it will look good even though we know its not real, has no effect etc.
personally i wouldnt do it unless it was real but he did say he wants to replace with a real one when the £££ comes around and surely this is a perfect oppertunity to see what it looks like - it is, as discussed, for looks and not functionality.

i mean big wheels used to be so the car could get more rubber on the ground, big exhuasts to make engine breath better, areodynmic bodykits all for performance now used for asthetic reasons. isnt this just the next step?

another idea would be on the track and you see a (performance) modded 205 Gti p*ss over most things - i think they look amazing out there, but they actually look like a bag of sh*t.

It is indeed true that a lot of the mods done today are motorsport orientated but are now really just for looks. Big wheels, Spoilers etc.

This is my point. These items do actually look good. I cannot possibly imagine a plastic, or real, interior roll cage looking anything other than ugly! I really think he'll spoil his car with this. A genuine one may generate some kudos, but a plastic one.......ughhh.

Anyway, he'll do it regardless and if he enjoys the process and the finished result then that's what matters.

Jimmy

Ok, i'm gonna keep this short, lol

I'm doing this purely for the looks, others in this forum may not like the look of roll cages, functional or not, and now we're back onto the subject of opinions. Regardless of whether anyone else likes the way that cages look inside a road car, I love them, and thats why im building one. Dude hit the nail on the head, it's the race car look without actually being a racecar. In actual fact, my favourite look for a modified car is a racecar look with a modded interior, speakers, carpetted etc.

And maybe i should have made this clear from the start, but i wont be making any holes in any panels for this cage. Certainly not the dashboard.

Jim, I've clearly picked up from a few posts that you dont like the look of roll cages, unless they're functional roll cages on competition cars, and even in those cases I get the impression that you only see them in a functional sense. But we all have different tastes, and there are a lot of people, myself and dude included, who like the way that cages look. This has gone so far for me that I dont have any concern as to whether the cage is functional or not. I'm building this for looks alone.

Also, tbh, i dont see why the fact that it is plastic is causing a problem. The cage will be under no physical stress, so the strength of the material is not a problem. So in a case such as this, why not use plastic? it's cheap, easy to work with and readily available. So that just leaves its appearance, well there is no doubt in my mind that I could get a length of plastic pipe, and a length of metal pipe, paint them both and leave them looking identical.

Jonny

could go red for full on motorsport looks...!