koskesh

I am in the process of cutting the rear deck and fitting my 12" subs.
Has anyone removed the rear shelf before? I need some tips or maybe a step by step guide on this. Knowing myself I know I will get in there to try to figure it out then I'll get frustrated and impatient and start breaking plastic tabs that I shouldn't.
I tried searching the forum here and other places but there really isn't a step by step guide on this.

I have the E320 1994, power sun screen and power head rests in the back.
thanks

Makahveli

You will F(_) CK your car up if you remove the shelf. I wouldn't do 12's to the deck, it really wasn't a compatible fit for me to get my "10 sub back there so I stalled off and and just made a 2 small ports which I reccomend. That rear shelf is part of your frame and with too much cutting I hope that you have a donor car on the side, but being a beginner

koskesh

yeah i think I'm gonna give up on putting 12's in there. How does your system sound with ports cut in the back? And how did you exactly do it? I'm thinking of drilling a hole then taking a jig saw and start cutting away. just want maybe two 5 to 6 inch diameter ports. I hope that doesn't give me too much road noise.

Bigpete123

yeah, like I told you in your other thread, it's really not a good idea to put 2 12's back there. You're gonna have to cut your entire rear deck out just to fit them.

Regardless, here's generally how to remove your rear deck.

Open the first aid kit door, remove the kit. Unscrew the 2 black plastic hooks that the elastic straps latch onto. You don't need to remove the first aid kit door to take out the deck.

Put the headrests in the up position. Pry off the plastic trim pieces that the headrests go through. I had a hard time with this step and actually scratched these things up pretty badly. Maybe try to take them off from inside the trunk rather than from inside the car. If you look down through the holes, you will see little black plastic levers that are part of the head rest mechanisms. Use one screwdriver in each hand and push down on these levers. With both of the levers pressed, you should be able to pull the headrests out. If you're unable to locate the levers, go to the trunk, remove the trim panel that goes up against the gas tank, and take a look at the mechanisms. You'll see them.

Remove the speaker grills. If you're unsure about how to do that without breaking them, look here: http://www.mercedesshop.com/Wikka/W124Stereo

Unclip the back of the brake light housing. I can't remember how this thing comes apart, but it should be intuitive. Unplug the wire running to the brake light.

The rear deck should now just pull out. Oh, you'll need to take out the rear seats to make this easier... Here are my directions for the coupe (they may slightly vary for the sedan) To take out the seats, push on the red tabs down under the seat bottoms, and pull the seat bottoms out. The seat backs are held in place by one screw in the center/bottom. Unscrew. Slide the seat backs straight up toward the ceiling.

Now you will be able to slide the rear deck out. Lots of steps, but it's very straight forward.

I humbly disagree with Makahveli. You should be able to remove the deck very easily without causing damage.

Makahveli

Oh, I'm sorry thought it was part of the frame, as in welded in.

ZedStyle

i think you guys are maybe both right; the deck that pulls out sits on top of a metal shelf, doesn't it...?

Bigpete123

correct. The metal dash will only come out if you cut it out. My instructions are for the removal of the interior/carpeted dash. Those two parts are distinct and separate.

Makahveli

Oh, I was talking about both, as they work as a complete unit. Wouldn't make alot of sense to work with one and not the other, what now BigPete? I'm pretty sure koskesh was talking about the whole assembly too.

Bigpete123

I figured that if he's gonna cut a hole in the metal dash, he'd want to take out the interior dash... The sparks from cutting the metal dash with the interior dash still installed could (but probably wouldn't) cause a fire. Furthermore, it would make cutting easier.

When I cut mine, I took out the interior dash first, cut the hole in the metal, placed the interior dash in place and drew an outline of the hole I cut, took the dash out, and used a jigsaw to cut the interior dash. The dremel won't do as good of a job of cutting through plastic as a saw will. It will be easier to cut them separately, trust me.

Makahveli

It will take alot longer to do the two seperate

Makahveli

The thickness between the 2 are about an inch or less

Bigpete123

Whatever, man. He can do whatever he wants. He asked for instructions on how to remove the rear deck, so I gave them to him. Since the metal dash is obviously not removable, it's safe to assume he was asking for instructions on how to take apart the interior. Especially because he said he was worried about breaking plastic clips.

We can speculate all we want since Kokesh hasn't replied. Good luck, Kokesh!

Makahveli

I have nothing against you, ur a fellow CE owner, now what I do wonder is if there is a differrence of the rear shelf between CE's and Sedan's?

Bigpete123

No offense taken. There just isn't much else to talk about. Especially because it doesn't seem that he's reading this thread.

In response to your question, he did say that he has a power sun screen. I definitely don't have one of those, so that might change things for him.

Makahveli

power sun screen, is that for people afraid of tinting their windows?

koskesh

Thanks for the instructions Bigpete123, it is going to be a great deal of help once I start taking apart the rear dash. Yes I am going to take out the interior of the dash then cut the metal. No way am I going to cut them together. that will definitely damage the rear dash. I'm hoping I can get away with a jigsaw with a metal blade.
So I've decided to take my time with this instead of jumping in and cutting holes. First I'm going to design a box then use 10" or 8" high quality subwoofers and mount them in the rear. I will eventually have a system that is separated from the trunk. There's simply too much rattling from the trunk area and it really ruins quality of the bass. I'm going for a SQ system in this car as opposed to my ghetto rumble box that I had installed in the 190E. I guess I have aquired a taste for sound now. I just want clean bass that is pleasing to the ear...and loud too.
Makahveli, power sun screen is for people who can't afford getting a tint at least in my case. And there's nothing wrong with getting a little tan while you're driving. I'd love to get a tint but I don't want to get those bubbles that form when they get old. I wouldn't know what to do if that ever happened.

Bigpete123

I think you're on the right track, man. I'm installing my system right now... I've already done one system in this car and decided to redo it. I've been planning it out for a number of months. Unfortunately I only get around 5-6 hours per week to work on it, so it's slow progress.

My point is that planning is a good thing. Plan the whole process out before you pick up a tool.

My advice is to buy a dremel. I have the battery-powered one, but I'd just get one you can plug in because my battery goes dead all the time. You will be surprised how often you will use the dremel for other things once you get it.

I worry that a jigsaw's wide oscillations will be very hard to control when cutting through metal. It's doable, but it might end up sloppier than you would like. It works like a charm on the interior dash, though.

So which subs are you looking at?

koskesh

yeah I might end up getting a dremel. for the subs I haven't decided on anything yet. Any suggestions? Infinity always comes to my mind when it comes to SQ, also Alpine type R, can't think of many good ones right now and I'm open to advice on this. I will probably get two 10's if not 8's. I will design a box to get as low of a frequency response as possible out of them. I like low response.

Bigpete123, got your PM, I'm receiving my speakers today so I'll let you know how it works out soon. thanks

Bigpete123

cool. I actually bought the Infinity Kappa Perfect 10vq sub. I bought it because it has a variable "q" (hence "VQ"), which makes it flexible enough to use in infinite baffle (no box) like what I'm doing. If I don't like the way the infinite baffle sub sounds, I can change the Q and put it into a sealed enclosure. If I don't like how that sounds, I can put it into a ported one.

I can't tell you whether or not I like the sub yet, cuz I haven't installed it...

You said you want to go for SQ. I personally would not consider a ported enclosure to be the best one for SQ. That's not to say that they sound "bad", but ported and bandpass enclosures tend to have a less tight sound... they rumble more and they are more effecient that a sealed enclosure, but they will not make you terribly happy if you're looking for SQ.

koskesh

You're absolutely right, I completely forgot that sealed gives you the best sound. but don't you think if a ported box is designed nicely will also give you good sound? the reason I say that is when you look at for example a Bose subwoofer box for a home stereo it sounds nice and it's ported. I want something that gives good response at low frequencies say around 30 hz. that's what I wanna tune it at. What do you think of a transmission line enclosure? too complicated for a car? If I get lazy and impatient I'll just go with a sealed box which isn't that bad at all.
An infinite baffle sounds very nice and easy especially for our cars and it's tempting me as well to go for it. make sure you let us know how your setup sounds when it's finished.
BTW, how can you change the Q on a sub?

Bigpete123

Infinity gives you 2 donut-shaped inserts that you slide in and out of the magnet. No insert is good for infinite baffle, and the other two are good for either sealed (use the bigger of the two inserts) or ported (use the smaller of the two inserts). I'm not an electrical engineer or physicist, so I can't tell you any more than that.

Regarding the IB setup, I thought it was going to be much easier than it turned out to be, actually. I put damplifier pro over the rear deck (competitor to dynamat xtreme), used some metal HVAC ducting, tin snips, self-tapping sheet metal screws, and some caulk to cover some of the larger holes in the deck.

I then had to use some expansion foam in some unreachable areas (i.e. where the trunk vents into the A-pillers, and in some other misc. holes in the rear deck). My last 3 holes that need to be sealed are gonna be a little tougher- the holes that the headrests go through, the holes for the trunk hinges, and the holes where my cables and wires feed into the trunk.

I will have to build little sealed "boxes" to go around these suckers. I have already made the ones for the hinges, but the headrest mechanism ones are gonna be a b*tch. There's very little room between the gas tank and the mechanisms, so I'm not sure how I'm gonna do it.

After that, the challenge will be fabricating a baffle that matches the irregular contours of the metal dash. As you know, there are some grooves and angles to it. But my sub needs to seal perfectly against it. So I'm gonna have to make something by hand in my woodshop. It shouldb e fun, but very time-consuming. I've read that IB is the best SQ setup if installed properly, so that's what I'm shooting for.

regarding your comment about sealed enclosures, you're definitely right in saying that ported enclosures often sound great. It just depends. My home theater subwoofers are ported and I find them to be very responsive and accurate.

Maybe the best compromise between SQ and frequency extension would be getting a single 12" or 15" in a sealed box. I don't have much personal experience with building ported enclosures because I have always avoided them. I've heard them enough to be of the opinion that they don't do much for me. It's all about what you want to do and what you like... So don't let me stop you!

koskesh

man... I didn't even realize sealing that trunk is so much work but I'm sure you'll end up with a really nice setup and sound.
Are you putting damplifier all over your trunk area?
I just got my alpines and I'm installing my system right now with some temp subs for now. I'm also taking pictures of the installation so I can post a thread on it once it's done.

Bigpete123

nice. I only put damplifier in the wheel well areas of the trunk (not the whole thing). I put it behind the back seats, on the floors, and on the rear deck. I figure if I have it everywhere inside the cabin, it would be a waste to do the trunk. We'll see though. I still have to do my doors... good times.