This weekend I took the time to install most of my stereo and the '05 leather seats I purchased off of ebay into my 2006 base coupe. I just wanted to post some pictures and info in case anybody else found the information useful.

First I started by pulling the door panels and putting 3 layers of eDead v3 on the doors, one layer of dynamat extreme in some key areas and some closed cell foam (eDeadv4). I then ran speaker wires to the doors from my amp. These doors are extremely easy to run speaker wire to. By having the door panels off, and the kick panel off, you can easily see a wide passage from inside the car into the door through the black conduit between the two.

For my speakers I installed the Pioneer Premier TS-C720PRS Components. Reviewed at the link below. The woofer of the component set has an enormous magnet with a basket around it that would not fit into the stock opening. Originally I pried the back of the basket off the magnet and used the spacer provided to make the speaker fit. This would not allow the top speaker bracket with the foam to go over top the speaker and allow the door panel to go back on. On second thought, I decided I wasn’t comfortable with the basket off the back of the speaker since it may be providing needed support. After putting the basket back on, out came the dremel tool and a carbide cutting bit to make the speaker hole bigger. This was accomplished by putting the black basket that connects to the door on, and tracing its inside footprint with a sharpie on the door, then cutting with the dremel tool. Only the top half of the sheet metal as seen from inside the basket will cause a problem and needs to come off. The woofers then fit inside the door panel without the provided spacer, and allow the top half of the speaker bracket to go back on.

For the tweeter, it fit with very little alteration or problems. After removing the tweeter/door handle trim panel, you can easily remove the entire tweeter grill/surround ring. After pulling this, then the plastic grill part easily comes off with a few clips. The tweeter surround can now be put back into the entire tweeter/handle trim panel. The pioneer tweeter perfectly fits and clips into the surround ring with its retaining bracket. It just pushes and snaps in and is secure. Before putting the door panel back on, the factor tweeter needs to be removed from the rear of the panel. I then put the door panel back on, fished the wire through the original tweeter hole, secured the door panel. Connected the tweeter to the fished wires, and snapped the trim piece back into place. The only problem I had was the tweeter pushed out just a slight bit towards the rear of the car. I snapped the trim piece back out and sanded a very slight amount of plastic off from behind the tweeter (on the door panels black plastic that is behind the trim panel) and it fit perfectly. The factory speakers and tweeters can both be installed again when needed. The speaker crossovers were easily installed on top of the panel and white foam on the floorboard and behind the carpet.

I installed the Pioneer Premier DEH-P790BT radio, and the install was the same as described in the radio howto thread. The only difference was the iPod cable and the Bluetooth mic. I fished the Bluetooth mic under the dash (BE CAREFUL to not let the cable be in the way of the steering column or pedals), took off the drivers side A pillar, and ran the mic wire behind it and snapped it onto the visor. I also fished the iPod cable into the center console by removing the silver shifter panel and the black compartment. I drilled a small hole inside the center console storage area to the area behind the black compartment holder, and fished the cable through. With the carpet in place, it cannot even be seen that there was a hole drilled inside the storage console.

Finally, I installed my amp in the factory location of the premium sound system. I used a Boston Acoustics GT 20, and it fit with probably 2 inches of width, another .5 inches of depth and another 1 inch of height. I ran a 4 gauge power wire to the trunk for distribution and an 8 gauge back to the amp for power. (The fused distribution is for my sub amp which is behind the passenger seat, and power for the seats I installed since the cables were not present in my '06 base coupe). The stock location is perfect for an aftermarket amp, even in its covered and enclosed location. There is a black tube that is under the white floor panel that sucks warm air out of the enclosed area anytime the fan is on.

The setup sounds amazing and I haven’t even installed my sub yet. (Temp box will be added this weekend, and a custom small fiberglass box will be added next spring/summer for either an 8 inch or 10 inch sub). The speakers have amazing midbass and I would recommend them to anyone and do not distort at all even with a 50 hz high pass filter set for them at top volume. With the sound deadening, there are zero rattles in the door. The Bluetooth and my phone also work surprisingly well, especially since I often sit in hr long traffic jams while shifting and talking.

TS-C720PRS Speaker Review
http://www.caraudiomag.com/testreports/0612_caep_pioneer_premier_ts_c720prs/index.html
If anybody ends up in the same position as I do with older power seats, and a newer car without the proper harness, please let me know and I can help you get the seats installed as long as you are willing to run power to the seats.

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this is all I can find. http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r170...unit-swap.html

 

Here is the initial radio install how-to I was referring to in case anyone was wondering:

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...=radio+install

 

jspies,

Great write up! This will be a huge help when I upgrade mine. Outside of the doors, where else did you put sound deading materials?

 

First, a little info on sound deadening for all reading. Products such as dynamat and edead v1 and v3 are products that deadened sound (rattles) by something called mass loading. All metal and plastic panels in the car have the potential to resonate / vibrate at certain frequencies. By mass loading, you are effectively adding weight to the material, trying to make the metal or plastic have a higher resistance to resonating. This type of sound deadening is best used with bass / subs, to prevent rattles. Although mass loading does limit some road noise / high pitched wind noise, this is just a slight consequence and it is very ineffective at it. This is where foam sound deadening comes in. It effectively absorbs sound waves. Closed cell foam is better than open cell foam because it has a higher resistance to mold and mildew.

As for what I did...for the doors I installed mass loading on both the inside and outside panels. It is a little hard to reach up and get the inside door panel, but it is doable with the windows up. As for the closed cell foam, it was put in select spots on the door, behind the speaker, and a second layer was added over top the factory carpet that covers the large gap in the door panel. The carpet is applied to one side of the vapor lock plastic sheet, I stuck the closed cell foam on the exact other side.

As for other locations, the floor of this car has very thick padding already, so I saw no need to apply any there. I did pull of all of the back panels and carpet around the gas tank "hump" On the gas tank hum, I applied one layer each of dynamat and closed cell foam. In the rear, I covered everything especially the floor with three layers of edead v3. I also applied edead v3 to the metal inside the rear top back panels. These panels are a pain to take off, and even more of a pain to put back on (at least in my opinion as I broke some clips trying and need to go replace the clips).

given that I had all the panels off and the a pillars, the headliner seemed like it would have come off very easily as well, but I was out of sound deadening material and did not apply anything to the top.

Not sure if this helps, but let me know if you have any more questions. The car is very quiet with this, and with my speakers, and 10 inch Alpine Type R sub, there are zero rattles.