Anthony Collova
10+ year member
CarAudio.com Elite
Thought I would share the install my new friend John at Hand crafted Car Audio of Chandler AZ did for me a couple weeks ago.
I met John through a Second Skin sales rep named Bob Morrow.
Some of you guys already know of Bobs Tacoma which has been reviewed in this DIYMA thread:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/member-product-reviews/60325-bob-morrows-h-t-tacoma.html
So Bob introduced me to John, one of the customers he calls on.
John is a true DIY guy turned professional.
He works out of the garage in his home in east Chandler AZ and within the first minute of walking in, I knew I was in the right place.
The tools he has and the cleanliness alone were enough to make most retail install bays jealous.
You can see a shot of his garage on the home page of his website:
Handcrafted Car Audio - Mesa, AZ - Car Audio, Video, Security and Accessory Sales and Installation.
After talking with Bob and John for a few hours, we came up with a game plan. I already have tons of amps, subs and components to choose from. Most all brand new, but some simply wouldn't work.
I really wanted to keep everything as factory looking as possible. I did not want fabricate pods in the dash, or put the tweets in the pillars. We did not use kicks, and I opted to keep the factory spare tire. My biggest concern here is that I travel to Mexico 6-8 times per year. It is a 4 hour drive to the beach so I would absolutely hate to blow a tire on the way and be stuck in the middle of the desert with no spare. The spare had to stay.
The problem with this was that it limited the space we could use for the amp rack, as well as the subs. We ended up glassing one sub on each side of the hatch while making the amp rack adjustable so that I could still access the spare tire with ease. It turned out better than I could have hoped for!
All in all, everything is very factory.
The mids are in the doors and the tweets are in the factory dash corners. I knew that I would be compromising on this but I honestly would rather keep everything factory, and take my licks afterwards.
Here is what we used:
Head Unit - Factory Infiniti integrated with:
Arc Audio SRI
Components
Ultra Subs SS-6
Subs
(2) JL Audio 8W7
Amps
(2) JL HD750/1's
(2) JL HD600/4's
I only needed one of the 4 channel amps so that one is sitting back in my closet.
Crossover
Arc Audio IDX
Sound Deadening
Second Skin Damplifier Pro
All in all, everything is still very factory.
The mids are in the doors and the tweets are in the factory dash corners. I knew that I would be compromising on this but I honestly would rather keep everything factory, and take my licks afterwards.
Here are the pics:
I met John through a Second Skin sales rep named Bob Morrow.
Some of you guys already know of Bobs Tacoma which has been reviewed in this DIYMA thread:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/member-product-reviews/60325-bob-morrows-h-t-tacoma.html
So Bob introduced me to John, one of the customers he calls on.
John is a true DIY guy turned professional.
He works out of the garage in his home in east Chandler AZ and within the first minute of walking in, I knew I was in the right place.
The tools he has and the cleanliness alone were enough to make most retail install bays jealous.
You can see a shot of his garage on the home page of his website:
Handcrafted Car Audio - Mesa, AZ - Car Audio, Video, Security and Accessory Sales and Installation.
After talking with Bob and John for a few hours, we came up with a game plan. I already have tons of amps, subs and components to choose from. Most all brand new, but some simply wouldn't work.
I really wanted to keep everything as factory looking as possible. I did not want fabricate pods in the dash, or put the tweets in the pillars. We did not use kicks, and I opted to keep the factory spare tire. My biggest concern here is that I travel to Mexico 6-8 times per year. It is a 4 hour drive to the beach so I would absolutely hate to blow a tire on the way and be stuck in the middle of the desert with no spare. The spare had to stay.
The problem with this was that it limited the space we could use for the amp rack, as well as the subs. We ended up glassing one sub on each side of the hatch while making the amp rack adjustable so that I could still access the spare tire with ease. It turned out better than I could have hoped for!
All in all, everything is very factory.
The mids are in the doors and the tweets are in the factory dash corners. I knew that I would be compromising on this but I honestly would rather keep everything factory, and take my licks afterwards.
Here is what we used:
Head Unit - Factory Infiniti integrated with:
Arc Audio SRI
Components
Ultra Subs SS-6
Subs
(2) JL Audio 8W7
Amps
(2) JL HD750/1's
(2) JL HD600/4's
I only needed one of the 4 channel amps so that one is sitting back in my closet.
Crossover
Arc Audio IDX
Sound Deadening
Second Skin Damplifier Pro
All in all, everything is still very factory.
The mids are in the doors and the tweets are in the factory dash corners. I knew that I would be compromising on this but I honestly would rather keep everything factory, and take my licks afterwards.
Here are the pics:
