Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

[__iceman__]

Some notes to share with you guys, on my journey to audio nirvana. Warning - some pics may be disturbing as you see the nakedness of some internals, and some surgery. Hahahah

Some quirks, disadvantages, and advantages of the E46 as I discovered it.

Some facts, the completion took a few weeks, but 90% of the work was done within 4 days, of which I camped at installer's place just to make sure that they do things right, and for touchy stuff like proper soundproofing, I had no choice by to sit there and DIY with their heat gun.

Oooh... nice boot! Why don't we start getting some serious ICE in it! Bye bye original look!

Boot floor removed. Oooh... look at all that usable space inside!

Aw man... its really a nice german car. No flimsy plastic sheets, but a proper foam covering on the door. So solidly built. But TOO BAD. BYE BYE foam. Time to get some serious soundproofing in!

Oh shit! Where's the hole to mount my midbass driver??? So nicely sealed up? Original BMW speaker is mounted on the door board instead of metal frame. No no no no no WRONG!!!!

Bye bye metal! CUT CUT CUT. Heart pain, but bo pian. Here, look at the good workmanship from installer. There is a metal pillar directly behind the metal. Real tricky to cut, and not cut into the pillar. The speaker doesn't sit into the door itself, but rather this hole is for the speaker to drive into the door, so that the rest of the door becomes a proper sealed enclosure for the speaker.

So the speaker has to be 'floating' out of the door. Meaning very tricky and very THICK spacers need to be built.

With the spacer inserted in, and a proper seal.

With soundproofing on the MDF also!

Completed door with sound proofing. Total of 3 layers. One layer on outer door skin to prevent metal surface from flexing to the bass, and two layers (really stiff!) on the inner frame, carefully sealing up every hole, even some screw holes that are 2mm diameter.

 

[ryan]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

Can't see the pictures.

Why not upload into your personal folder on the forums, then link from there? Much much easier!

 

[__iceman__]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

Done with the doors, now we look at the boot. Strip out both side panels of the boot... voila, I see my battery for the first time! Batt only a few months old, previous owner already paid for it.

BMW uses really good looking and thick 4 gauge power cables. Nice surprise. There are also quite a few electronic black boxes that I can't guess what they're for. But I guess 45k OMV will buy extra shit lah. Very tempted to strip them out and see what they're for... but better not lah, there may be high price to pay for itchy fingers!

The other side panel, where original CD changer used to fit in. Wah, got plenty of space inside! My 701 processor can slot right in, very comfortable. As a matter of fact, this space now even fits another processor unit coming from my Alpine IVA-D301 HU. And this li'l space also fits all my crossovers for the rear components, and filters for the front comps.

 

[Winston]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

wow..... finally seen the naked body of the e46.... nice work iceman!

 

[__iceman__]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

Now its time to make the amp tray. Placement need to be carefully thought out. Idea is to have a big opening for easy access to tune the gain levels, swap speaker polarities, add inductors etc. Best way is to have a large plexiglass cover over the 3 amps, but such a large piece will not take the weight of any luggage sitting on top. Have to build internal MDF beams to take the weight, and act as backbone support to prevent plexiglass flexing. Now's also the time to assess airflow patterns for cooling, and strategic locations for the fans, and plan what size of fans to be used. Fan wiring needs to be run properly in order not to induce noise, and fans speeds need to be regulated just in case it becomes too audible in the cabin.

Looks like this is the most sensible way to arrange the amps.

Woofer in sealed box needs to be measured and fitted in precisely. As this is a sealed box, no compromise is to be made. Need to get a proper flush fit on edges, glue, and nail it down. Additional sealing inside is done with RTV silicon. Two exact diameter holes are drilled in for speaker cables, and silicon sealed. Flush-fit banana plug style speaker terminals are nice to install, but compromise on the robustness. No use having 1 inch thick MDF and yet have a weak speaker terminal point. Each woofer needs to have their own enclosed space. Calculated volume for each woofer is 1 cu ft, after deducting the thickness of the MDF all round.

On the front face of the woofer box, I requested for 2 layer MDF. Waste of wood and additional weight, but at least it gives a really nicer flush fit for the woofer. Some installers will just grind away the MDF and create a thinner ring for woofer basket - that's a no-no. The insides are all black because it has been carefully coated with soundproofing material as final finish. Will there be glass wool stuffing? We shall try it without first and check out the bass. The woofers can still easily be removed to add stuffing if needed.

Woofer box is installed in. Need to be braced up for clearance, as my amp rack is supposed to be able to lift up to access spare tyre.

How does the bass get into the cabin?? Fortunately, the 3 series has two cut-outs that were reserved for the ("premium"-hahah) Harmon Kardon system. Just hack open these two cut outs, you have a proper vent. Of course, I would like for these holes to be much bigger, but just can bear to cut anymore.

One of thumb... NEVER LET YOUR REAR SPEAKERS BECOME A PASSIVE RADIATOR! Imagine, in a free air setup or even with sealed box.. when the bass pumps, your rear mid range will also be affected because of the vibrating air pressure! Your vocals from the back will be affected as the bass will cause the mid range cone to move, in opposite direction as a result of the pressure from the woofer. Your bass will also be affected, as the two midranges will then act as buffers or suspensions, and absorb that bass energy. The idea is that the rear mids need to be isolated from the bass. Ideally, the mid ranges should be working in their own enclosures. I don't have enough space (trust me, I tried!) to make a small shoebox size enclosure for the mids. The best method is to mount the mids on the speaker board, and then use the space between the speaker board and metal frame as enclosure, and use soundproofing material and sponge to try to seal it off.

OUCH!!!!! Heart pain ahhhhhhhhh!!!

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

i see no pictures lei ...

 

[hgatomic]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

Wow this is really impressive..

 

[jaskin]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

This is what you call hardcore. It's a pretty good installation but you have to see the car in person to truely appreciate it.

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

This is what you call hardcore. It's a pretty good installation but you have to see the car in person to truely appreciate it.

Agree. Esp not many pple can bear to cut so many things in a bimmer..let alone a coupe.
Big sacrifice on space too.... way to go Iceman...

 

[__iceman__]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

Cutting is only the front door, which doesn' compromise the strength of the door and invisible, and the rear speaker board. No choice lah, be prepared to buy additional panels to replace when selling car lor. If I can find the replacement front door panels, I can then start my dream of customizing 2 mid ranges per door liao...

 

[FiftyFive]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

Iceman.... great setup..... must sound awesome ya... drool...

In between, any pics for the final finished product?

 

[__iceman__]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

I have - but I need time to post them up... wait hor...

 

[__iceman__]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

While work at the back goes on... we look at the front again. Now... the tweeters, how to mount them? These Lotus Reference Tweeters come with a chamber - total height is hefty 1.8inches.

Mounting the tweeters in the orginal door handle locations is OUT.

1. There isn't enough space.

2. BAD SOUND. Path length differences are just too much. Meaning the driver's side tweeter is too close to the driver, in relation to the passenger side. The path length difference of left and right is a lot more exaggerated compared to the mid ranges, which are both further away and more 'equalized' in distance.

The idea here is to 'push' the tweeters away from the driver's head. The furthest distance? That's the end of the windscreen, at the base. Further, driver side tweeter should not be facing driver's head directly. But if passenger side could fire at the driver, we can try to 'minimize' the path length distance further by doing such 'cross firing'.

The tweeter was being fabricated using a very interesting material. Its like plastercine/clay. Just add water, and knead like dough. Allow to settle for 30-45 mins, it will become rock hard, and easy to sand.

Before that, a MDF ring mold is made for the tweeter, and the clay is added around it.

Here you see the A pillar being ripped out. OOps... that's my airbag. Can see it coiled up inside, and the canister of gas... let's hope it doesn't explode!

With such a challenging shape, its not easy to get it wrapped nicely in PVC! Voila... its done.

 

[jaskin]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

Woah... Those tweeters are really sweet man. Nice custom job.

 

[Azrielsc]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

More more more of this sweet job!

 

[__iceman__]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

Let's walk round to the back - to see the progress.

Amps were mounted, and the cooling fans strategically placed. We have two bigger fans right in the middle sucking the cool air into the amp rack, and a total of 8 or 9 other smaller ones at the sides drawing out the warm air.

This kind of cooling is essential, as three amps were mounted in a sealed amp rack, with a plexglass top. The temp differences with and without fans can be as high as 40deg C!

Cool air intake fans

Hot air exhaust fans

Staring at my office lighting... hmm... reflectors always make flourescent lights a lot brighter isn't it? So the curious ICEMAN goes home... cuts up some toilet rolls.. wrap them in aluminium foils and uses them as reflectors! Wah. Damn ugly man... this is what you get when you leave things to an amateur!!!

Besides that... the woofer box looks ugly, sitting smack in the centre of the boot. It looks like someone just dumped a big subwoofer box in my boot. Need to modify this into an integrated look!

So what we need to do is to cover up the two gaping holes on each side of the sub box. Try to create a false 'wall', and make the subwoofers appear to be mounted into this 'wall'. We have to attach a piece like so to cover up...

At first I thought they had to peel off all the carpet on the front surface, add the backing at the sides, and wrap 1 big piece... but apparently there is no need.

Carefully peel off the carpet at the edges of the box.

and attach the new piece

and perform some precise surgery...

and voila... you have your 1 piece wall!

 

[__iceman__]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

here's how the dash looked like, when it had the Alpine 9833 HU, and H701 processor below. Who says it's really ugly? If you get a proper HU bracket, it looks neat. A huge sound advantage over the original HU.

And one more parting shot of the rear end.

Let me catch my breath, before I go thru the process of tuning the sound. The processor opens up a entirely bewildering world of tuning options, especially if you play the front with bi-amping (active).

 

[Azrielsc]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

One Word! *impressive*

 

[oneHeadlight]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

iceman... can show your right tweets ? Also, i cant see the dash lei... can post again ? thanks.
Nice job !!!

 

[__iceman__]

Re: Diary of an ICE install - E46 Coupe

All the pics can display... and reference the same photobucket location where I store them. Try refreshing your browser and see...

My right tweeter on dash... looks exactly like my left. I know why you ask... because of the IU right?

The IU has been shifted to the centre. BTW, easy operation - the cleanest way to do it is to buy a replacement bracket at VICOM. You can buy the plastic bracket with original 3M clear mounting tape for only $7.35.