Here are some pics of a full install I did on my Dad's 2007 Fit Sport.

This was a full blown upgrade for the Fit audio system. We wanted to get great sound without sacrificing any of the Fit's functionality. We also wanted to keep the install fairly low-key so we decided to keep the stock head unit and use the Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.1 processor. We also wanted to improve road noise and musical performance by sound-deadening the entire car.

Here is a picture of the interior after the seats and spare tire area have been removed.


Here are all the interior pieces laid out in the garage.


Interior carpet, gone!

First stage of sound deadening pretty much complete. I used a product called Raammat BXT that I've found to work well for a reasonable price. I ended up using about 1 and a half rolls for everything. We ended up doing the outer and inner skins of all 4 doors, the entire floorboard, and the spare tire area/rear wheel wells. The headliner would have been nice but I just didn't feel like messing with the A-pillar airbags.

Here's an overall shot of the car.


The rear right cargo area.

The rear left cargo area.

The front floorboard.

One of the front doors. I ended up covering the large opening in the outer skin with some sheet aluminum so I could seal the door up a little better.


Next we did another round of sound deadening, this time with a layer of closed-cell foam called Ensolite. I purchased this stuff from the same website as the sound deadening: RAAMaudio - Quality and Value in Automotive Sound Deadening

Here is an overview of the car.

Close-ups of the rear cargo area.



Here's one of the doors before the excess foam has been trimmed away.


The next step was to wire up the Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.1. We used this processor so we could keep the oem head unit (so as not to tempt thieves), while at the same time get the excellent sound quality of an aftermarket deck.

I decided to just tap in at the radio harness for all the required signals including the constant 12V, switched 12V, and 4 speaker level outputs.

I know I should have soldered but time was short and I didn't have the right size heat shrink.

Here's a shot of the wiring going behind the glove box area.

Here's a shot of the 3sixty with it's control knob and my fuel of choice.

I decided to mount it up near the top of the floorboard in front of the passengers feet. I just couldn't seem to find enough space inside the dash.

For the front speakers, we went with the DLS UP6 component set. Here is a before and after of the tweeter.



Here's a shot of the midrange and crossover mounted in the front door. I just ended up using the Metra 1" spacer for the midrange. These mids are shallow so I probably could have gone with less but I decided to play it safe.

Close-up of the mid.

Close-up of the x-over.


I forgot to take any shots of the rear speakers, but we used the DLS classic 126 coaxials. They were pretty inexpensive as the rear speakers are just for fill.

For the subwoofer, we chose the Elemental Designs 11kv.3 in a dual 4-ohm configuration.


I decided to put a dual banana plug on the subwoofer connection to allow for quick disconnects in the case it needs to be removed for functionality.

The amplifier was the trickiest part. We wanted to allow full functionality of the cargo area so we decided to put an amp here in the rear-right cargo area.

A piece of 1/4" MDF was cut to make a mounting board that could sit vertically in the empty space.

Here we test fit the board into the body panel. We decided that to hold the board in place we would use 4 threaded rods between the board and the body panel.

Here is the body panel with holes cut to allow all the wiring through...note the 4 threaded rods sticking out.

The amp as it will be mounted on the board. We went with the Eclipse XA5000. It's a 5-channel, fully class-D amp that was pretty much the smallest I could find at a reasonable price.

Here is the amp mounted and wired up.

And here is the amp/sub combo. It doesn't take up too much space as it is...and with the quick disconnect, the sub can be pulled out and pretty much all the cargo space is still available.


Overall the installation went smoothly. It was extremely time consuming to deaden the entire car, however after riding around some, I could really tell the difference. I wouldn't say it was as quiet as a lexus...but it was pretty close! Let me know what you think.

 

You need to fix the tags to [img] and [/ img]

 

I fixed the tags...but not before somebody noticed...

 

This looks awesome... my plans were exactly the same, with exception of the location of the amp, was going to remove the Spare Tire, and put the amp down below, and create a box using the trunk cover as a template.... so i could make clamps into the OEM latches...

Mine will be the same... =D

where did you run all those RCAs through? the side floor boards?

How hard was it to fit all the shells back into place?


EDIT:

Also, can your alternator power the system at high volumes? I'm having trouble powering my 400watt amp to my 2 12" subs.... =|

 

Dang man...you guys did a really great job! How does that 10" sub sound? Again man...congrats on the great job. How much did you spend sound deadening the car and how many sqft of the BXT and Ensolite did you use? How much total weight was added also? Thanks.

BTW, you guys made my sound deadening job pretty weak! lol

 

I thought after all that work and stuff, id see a nice big ol' custom sub in the back.. not a lil' 10incher

still awesome work man

 

I think the tire well would be a great place to put things, but we wanted to keep everything functional.

Here is how all my wiring was run:






I originally planned to run the wiring around the base of the wheel well, but found there was almost no room between the shell and the sheet metal. This made it impossible to get the shell back on, so I ended up running all the wiring over top of the wheel well and out of a hole I made to the rear of the shock absorber. I actually ran the RCAs down the middle of the car and the power and speaker wire down the sides. The power cable came through the firewall at the factory grommet like most other people on here and I had no problem fitting all the panels back on besides the small issue above. As far as power, time will tell but after initial testing I didn't seem to get any sort of headlight dimming which is usually the first sign that you could encounter charging problems. I also monitored the battery voltage during heavy bass notes and didn't notice much of a drop during bass-heavy passages. One reason for this is probably the fact that the amp we're using is entirely class-D, so it's probably at least 85% efficient. Class-D amps used to be exclusively for subwoofers because the sound quality wasn't good enough for full-range speakers...but more and more amps are coming out now with full range class-D channels.

 

Thanks! that 10" sounds excellent. I'm running it at 2 ohms so it's getting about 450 W from the sub channel on the amp and it loves it.

I don't remember the cost, but we bought 2 rolls of BXT, 6 linear yds (6 yds by 54" I believe) of Ensolite, and 2 cans of spray adhesive. We used maybe 1.5 of the 2 rolls, pretty much all of the Ensolite, and all of the adhesive. There were quite a few scraps of Ensolite left. Since this was my first time working with the Ensolite, I think with more experience I could have been a little bit more efficient with it but it turned out pretty well regardless. As far as the weight, I think the Raammat is supposed to be around 50 lbs./roll. The Ensolite couldn't have weighed more than 5-10 lbs. with the adhesive so I'd estimate no more than 85 lbs.

 

huge custom subs are all good, but we wanted to keep every feature of the fit easily usable. having a small sealed box like that allows it to be pulled out if the full cargo area needs to be used. Also, I was really going for more SQ than SPL. I have a pair of 12" IDMax subs sitting around waiting for me to build something for them in my xB. I don't think I'll be feeling like any big projects for a while after this though.

 

Hmm, now that you mention it, the headlights never dimmed on me either. but all my internals did... my dome lights and dash would dim a bit...

and the engine didn't `perform` as well... be ready to take off the power... to test it out, but i noticed an engine performance issue =\

Waiting for scosche kit to arrive, and waiting for my friend to give me a quote a replacement alternator

EDIT:

Also, couldnt fit the 360 into the dash area, right above the glove compartment area? you could have put it on the support bar there, that's where i secured my Hi lo converter, i know the 360 is larger, but i saw lots of space there... =o

 

You guys did a really good job. I did a small portion of my car and I know how much work goes into it. Thanks again for all the informative pictures.

If possible, can you take a few more shots of the subwoofer box in the trunk. I want to get a better idea how small that subwoofer box is. Did you get the box from edesignaudio?

 

I would say if you're definitely noticing slight dimming and engine performance issues, your problem might be solved by upgrading the 'big 3' (alternator-battery, engine-ground, battery-ground). I would try that before sinking the money into a larger alternator. Also, if you decide to go for the alternator make sure the output is good at idle as well as 2-3k rpm to insure you're getting current even when sitting at lights or in traffic.

As I mentioned in another thread, I saw all the Fit dash kits at CES this year and the Scosche was so much nicer than the others...the wait will be worth it.

As far as the 360...that location right behind the glove box was just too small. I think one of the wire connectors stuck out like half and inch too far. I might go back later and try to get creative with it but it's not causing any trouble under the carpet for now.

 

Yeah, we ordered the box from elemental designs because I didn't feel like building one...so according to the website, the dimensions are: 14.5"x12"x8"

This is really the only other picture of the box I haven't posted. I don't live with the car but I'll try and get some more pictures next time I'm there.

 

If you can, please list out the products you used, how much of it, and where you got them from, and how much it cost you..

I'm about to get the supplies this coming week, and next weekend will be doing the soundproofing, then i can get the new Kicker ZX .5 series amp, should do me justice to replace the whole stereo wiring in the car =O

 

He bought the sound deadening stuff from RAAMaudio - Quality and Value in Automotive Sound Deadening.

 

Ah, thanks, so 2 of everything =P

and last question, how did Invisi test his power, just a voltage meter? where was it connected to? how did he check the power stuff @_@


EDIT:
And that Ensolite stuff, how much Invisi get? cause they have 3 sizes of rolls.

 

As far as testing power, I just tested the voltage at the battery with the engine running, while playing some more bass-heavy music (because the heavy bass is what really hits the charging system). It seemed like the Fit charging system was pretty decent, idle voltage was around 14.2 VDC, and during the heavy bass notes it never really dropped below 13.8 VDC. Its not scientific but that's basically all autozone does when you ask them to test your alternator.

For the ensolite, I ordered 6 yards and used pretty much all of it. As far as coverage, I got the inner skin of all 4 doors, the spare tire area, rear wheel wells, and pretty much the entire floorboard covered with the amount I bought. I probably had enough left over to cover the rear hatch but didn't really feel like it. You can order any quantity with a minimum order of 2 yards. If there are a decent number of people on this forum interested in buying raammat products you could probably send him an email and get a reduced price/group buy thing going. I've seen him do similar things on other audio forums in the past.

 

That kicker amp is pretty nice. I would have liked to get an amp with more power on the 4-channel but they were all too big for where I wanted to put them. Definitely replace as much wiring as you can...I was able to get wire through the front door wire grommets but the rear doors are a royal pain so I ended up just tapping into the wires at the bottom of the B-pillars. I figured the pain wasn't worth it because the rear speakers were relatively cheap coax (~$75), whereas the pain was worth it for the front doors where the component set was around $380.

 

That makes sense, i was planning on using a cable puller i saw on this site i was picking parts from:

Universal Wire Puller / Grabber - Universal Wire Grabber Tool - , Car Installation & Accessories, Installation Tools and Cable Ties - Sonic Electronix

But not sure about getting the tools they have.

And i was convinced on getting the JL500.5 amp, since the guy at the auto shop was talking about throwing out his amp that was given to him by a customer, (he owns the place) and i asked him if he would like to let me buy it, and offered it for 100$

JL Audio 500/5 - 5-Channel Power Amplifier • (100W x 2 front chan.) + (25W x 2 rear chan.) + (250W x 1 sub chan.) • 108.5 dB S/N Ratio for front/rear channels • 98.5 dB S/N Ratio for sub chan. • 1.5 ohm - 4 ohms stable - , Car Amplifiers, Multi-chann

That should be more than enough, and pounds more than the Kicker.. so that's a huge plus, and it's a freaking JL.. i was feeling like i was going to nut myself xD

 

Nice install. Looks like you did a pretty thorough job of sound deadening. How do the DLS's sound? Are you on ICIX at all? They're all about the eD and DLS stuff.