# Audi A3 - Custom Stealth Sub Install (Pictures Included)



## strcruizer (Mar 22, 2009)

The goal of this install was to have a clean install with that maintained that stock look. I decided to that I wanted to keep my steering wheel track and volume controls so I opt to stick with the factory Concert II head unit. I wasnt impressed by the factory subwoofer so I decided to remove it and build a custom fiberglass stealth sub enclosure. I wanted to keep my cargo area available and not have a clunky speaker box to contend with.
*See the full write up here ===>http://tadasauce.wordpress.com...tall/*
*Components Used:*
Head Unit: Stock Concert II
Amplifier 1: Alpine PDX 4.150
Amplifier 2: Stock Amplifier
Subwoofer: JL 10W3 v3
Power Wire: 4 gauge
Front Seperates: Focal 165 v2 6 1/2�� Components
Rear Seperates: Stock
Interconnect: Monster Cable Interlink 400 MkII 4m
CD Changer: AUDI USB/MP3 Interface Model V (Xcarlink)
Lineout Converter: 2 Channel lineout converter








































































*See the full write up here ===>http://tadasauce.wordpress.com...tall/*
Enjoy!


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## jowsley0923 (Oct 13, 2008)

i like the lights that match the theme of the inside of the car
very nice write up!


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## Presns3 (Mar 6, 2006)

so absolutely sick!!
i wish you were local so you could help me do something similar








that setup is exactly what i want 
is it possible you could make another one of those boxes for me?


_Modified by Presns3 at 10:43 PM 3/22/2009_


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## krazyboi (May 19, 2004)

*FV-QR*

Wow, that's amazing. If only it were as easy to do as reading the DIY....


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## brungold (Oct 8, 2007)

*FV-QR*

soooo sick!


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## drew138 (Dec 3, 2006)

*Re: FV-QR (brungold)*

Hold [email protected] thit is so sick. Love the focals too. I'd love to hear the final product. How does it sound.
Few questions... 

#1 - would you be willing to put up the HiRes pics for share on your photobucket site? Would love to see this in more detail.
#2 - did you take a closeup shot of the piece that you cut out to make the sub enclosure fit?
3# - did you happen to take a cast mold of the sub enclosure so you could replicate the enclosure?








#4 - is this your car, or was it for a customer? do you do this professionally?
Thanks for posting!
I honestly think this is one of the best / cleanest installs on a factory system I've seen in a long time. Simple goals, simple output, incredible output. I really hope it sounds nice.


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## Audi'sRevenge (Mar 24, 2008)

*Re: FV-QR (brungold)*

Very nice!







The carpeted, four rings logo amp rack is a nice touch though personally I wouldn't have bothered--one it's underneath the tyre cover, no one is really ever going to see it; two, though you noted the rings give ventillation it's still not as good as had you just mounted it it "open" on the board instead.
I wouldn't have gone so far as to cut the metal in the trunk (but then my car is a lease, lol) but nice to know you can cut that part there with no ill effects.
The other thing is hopefully your speaker baffles don't get wet because the MDF will rot (expand) if they do. I had MDF baffles in another car and after a couple years they got wet and the speakers came loose (the screws came out of the mdf when it expanded/got soft), so I had to remake them with polycarbonate instead. Just as easy to cut, and totally waterproof. Alternately you can "paint" the MDF rings with resin to waterproof them. I mean it certainly looks like you've done this stuff before, but just saying I have had door baffles made with MDF rot on me.
Just a note from your page for others, where he shows the power wire going through the firewall grommet, that's where the clutch pedal would come through in a manual trans car, I believe. I put my power wire through there too but I don't think that's an option for non-DSG cars. With a manual trans you'll either have to drill a hole or find another place to put the power wire through. Edit: One other thing about the power wire, I noticed you mentioned that you had to "dremel out a hole in the back seat frame" to get the power wire through? I didn't do that and I got 1/0 wire through... I just continued down the side, into the hatch instead of trying to get through the seat, and then down under the carpet and into the spare tyre area. I did have to remove all the styrofoam around the spare tyre to get it through but replaced it all after and it fits perfectly, you can't tell the power wire is there at all. 
Out of curiosity, where did you ground? (I haven't run my ground yet, my install is "stalled" from last fall, lol.) I was just going to use one of the pre-existing bolts in the hatch, and sand down the metal underneath for better contact.


_Modified by Audi'sRevenge at 11:07 AM 3/23/2009_


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## whizbang18T (Nov 17, 2000)

very nice!


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## [email protected] USA (May 17, 2007)

*Re: Audi A3 - Custom Stealth Sub Install (strcruizer)*

Awesome install
I started mine simlar to this a while ago but some of the spacing ended up being off and the sub was too close to the carpet. I Am using a super shallow ED sub so i didn't remove that metal section but I am go back and so do just so I can really make sure it sets far enough behind the lining.
I was just going to do some sort of circular cut out with speaker cloth over it I like the Audi rings though very nice touch.


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## strcruizer (Mar 22, 2009)

*Re: FV-QR (drew138)*

First of all Thank you for you comments, its really appreciated!







The focals sound great! I couldnt ask for anything more. I guess the only thing that I would want to do is perhaps make speaker pods for the tweeters. I think the tweeters are more of a directional speaker and would sound better if angled differently. Currently the tweeters are firing straight across the dash.
By the way, it sounds really nice! Tight deep bass from the 10" JL10w3v3-4 and sealed sub enclosure. The mids and highs are smooth and clean. The amp is putting out 150Watts RMS to the Focals which are rated at only 75watt RMS. I have the gains down somewhat however, the signal is much cleaner this way. No bogging what so ever (unless I put the amp's crossover to full range) its currently set to highpass with the crossover point approx 120-130.

#1 - would you be willing to put up the HiRes pics for share on your photobucket site? Would love to see this in more detail.
Answer: You can check out my Flickr account. I dont have all the pics up but I have a few. You can find the hi-res ones there. http://www.flickr.com/photos/1...2232/
#2 - did you take a closeup shot of the piece that you cut out to make the sub enclosure fit?
Answer: I dont think I did, I only took of the hole I cut out. 

3# - did you happen to take a cast mold of the sub enclosure so you could replicate the enclosure?








Answer: No. Never had the idea of reproducing this enclosure so I never casted a mold. 

#4 - is this your car, or was it for a customer? do you do this professionally?
Answer: Yes this is my baby! I enjoy doing things to make her happy







I'm an I.T. Manager by trade. I just love great sounding music with style of course! hehe.

[/QUOTE]


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## strcruizer (Mar 22, 2009)

*Re: FV-QR (Audi'sRevenge)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Audi’sRevenge* »_Very nice!







The carpeted, four rings logo amp rack is a nice touch though personally I wouldn't have bothered--one it's underneath the tyre cover, no one is really ever going to see it; two, though you noted the rings give ventillation it's still not as good as had you just mounted it it "open" on the board instead.
I wouldn't have gone so far as to cut the metal in the trunk (but then my car is a lease, lol) but nice to know you can cut that part there with no ill effects.
The other thing is hopefully your speaker baffles don't get wet because the MDF will rot (expand) if they do. I had MDF baffles in another car and after a couple years they got wet and the speakers came loose (the screws came out of the mdf when it expanded/got soft), so I had to remake them with polycarbonate instead. Just as easy to cut, and totally waterproof. Alternately you can "paint" the MDF rings with resin to waterproof them. I mean it certainly looks like you've done this stuff before, but just saying I have had door baffles made with MDF rot on me.
Just a note from your page for others, where he shows the power wire going through the firewall grommet, that's where the clutch pedal would come through in a manual trans car, I believe. I put my power wire through there too but I don't think that's an option for non-DSG cars. With a manual trans you'll either have to drill a hole or find another place to put the power wire through. Edit: One other thing about the power wire, I noticed you mentioned that you had to "dremel out a hole in the back seat frame" to get the power wire through? I didn't do that and I got 1/0 wire through... I just continued down the side, into the hatch instead of trying to get through the seat, and then down under the carpet and into the spare tyre area. I did have to remove all the styrofoam around the spare tyre to get it through but replaced it all after and it fits perfectly, you can't tell the power wire is there at all. 
Out of curiosity, where did you ground? (I haven't run my ground yet, my install is "stalled" from last fall, lol.) I was just going to use one of the pre-existing bolts in the hatch, and sand down the metal underneath for better contact.

_Modified by Audi'sRevenge at 11:07 AM 3/23/2009_


Your post was very informative and thanks for the heads up on the MDF baffles. At the next opportunity I'll go ahead and seal them so they dont get water logged. As for the dremel cut out for the power wire. I did this so I could get a different feed for my power wires. I wanted the a single conduit of wires going to my amp rack. I designed it this way(although its not recommend to put the power and RCA's in parallel to each other) so that everything is in a nice sealed flextube conduit so that in the event I need to access my spare tire, it wouldnt be such a hassle to move the amp rack. The power wires come in from the corner of the trunk and I cut out the foam to accomodate this.
As for the ground, I ran the ground thru the flextube back into to back seat area. If you look at that pic where the powerwire goes thru the backseat frame, you can see a small glipse of the ground. I sanded the paint off, put a star washer there and treaded and mounted a solid ground. Again, I designed it this way so there is only a single conduit of wires going to the amp rack in the trunk for ease of access to the spare. I also think it makes for a cleaner install.
Hope this answers your question. I'll try to post more hi-res pics to my flickr account when I go home tonight. let me know if you have any more questions. I'll be happy to answer them.
Thanks


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## drew138 (Dec 3, 2006)

*Re: FV-QR (strcruizer)*

Thanks. I would really loce to see the rest of the HiRes pics. 
I'm not sure what I'm looking at in this pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1...31591/
Is this the panel removed, or is this the cavaty behind the panel? Where exactly did you cut in order to get the extra space?
Also, how did you fabricate the front of the box? And how do the two pieces fit togehter. Sorry for the noob questions, I've never worked with fiberglass. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1...tream/
Did you find a good pin diagram of the concert radio system?
Lastly, how long to you estimate the entire build took?
Congrat's again!


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## strcruizer (Mar 22, 2009)

*Re: Audi A3 - Custom Stealth Sub Install (strcruizer)*

Thank you everyone for your great comments!


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## kayaker10 (Jan 10, 2006)

*Re: Audi A3 - Custom Stealth Sub Install (strcruizer)*

Great project and nicely done! I had similar goals, but had a custom shop do all the work. The difference between yours and mine is that my custom sub enclosure fits in the storage pocket on the right side of the boot area. Where the original amp and sub were is where I have my zapco digital amp. My shop used the oem front mounting brackets instead of making them. Of course this means you have to destroy the oem speakers to use their brackets. 
On a side note that I did not see (maybe missed) in your write up, did you ground the bose pin in the back of your non-bose HU Concert II? I have the same HU and the pin needs to be grounded for the HU to put a flat signal that you new amp can then process. 
Here is a pic of my sub for comparison. The enclosure fits in the storage nook without any cutting.


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## erongun (Dec 12, 2009)

bump after years  

great work...

1. the cut part made any problem with the car ? 
2. extra how much volume you gained by cutting ? 
3.what is the total volume of the enclosure ?


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## Tcardio (Mar 19, 2009)

kayaker10 said:


> .


Nice work but seriously...your US outers are hurting my eyes


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## BeeAlk (Jun 3, 2013)

Tcardio said:


> Nice work but seriously...your US outers are hurting my eyes


Were facelift Euro tails even available yet when he posted that 6 years ago? :laugh:


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## Ponto (Jan 11, 2012)

BeeAlk said:


> Were facelift Euro tails even available yet when he posted that 6 years ago? :laugh:


Facelift was just released so maybe? haha


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## Tcardio (Mar 19, 2009)

both of the above are good looking mods but I prefer the left sided box so I can keep the storage buddy. Atomic 80 also did an install which is very nice indeed. I think it may be nice looking to have the illuminated audi rings( so distasteful on the front bumper) on the sub install and wired to change with da beat.

http://forums.thecarlounge.com/showthread.php?5263240-Swapping-out-2008-RNS-E-to-2010-RNS-E-with-AMI-interface


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## body electric (Aug 27, 2002)

*beautiful work!*

I am in awe of the amazing work you did! I just bought a 200w bandpass 8" enclosure for my trunk and I sacrificed space for the added bass. Anyway, I noticed on the back shelf you have a net pocket, before I check my car since i never notice that is that stock?


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## BeeAlk (Jun 3, 2013)

body electric said:


> I am in awe of the amazing work you did! I just bought a 200w bandpass 8" enclosure for my trunk and I sacrificed space for the added bass. Anyway, I noticed on the back shelf you have a net pocket, before I check my car since i never notice that is that stock?


There;'s a couple different parcel shelf variations IIRC. Mine has the net underneath and a sunshade for the rear window on top.


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## body electric (Aug 27, 2002)

Unfortunately mine only has the shopping bag hooks 


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