When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
After a full morning/afternoon of meetings, design work, and kid time, the rain clouds cleared and the kid decided to go out and play, which means I get to go out to play too!
We drove a few circles around the neighborhood as the kid (almost 2) really likes riding in the truck. Still can't drive it legally since the NJ MVC has been closed since I got the car, but hopefully that will change next week!
I had been meaning to investigate why the rear seat headrests were stuck in the "up" position. The plan was to remove the center headrest, as well as the headrest behind the kid's car seat so it could sit flush.
My car is a 2005 so I'm not sure if this mechanism changed over the years, but if you pull the rear seat headrests to the max "up" position, you can't push them back down, and can't take them out.
Fold down the seats and remove all the screws.
You may be able to remove the seat folding lever by prying it off but mine was pretty stuck. I just lifted the seat back plastic sell up enough to expose the clips circled below in red. Obviously, there are 2 clips per headrest. I used a longer screw driver and popped the clips off, and the headrests came free!
You can store the clips on the headrests by clipping them onto the groove so you don't lose them.
Of course, while I was in there, I decided to vacuum clean all the seats and remove all weird things in the nooks and crannies with leather cleaner. This of course lead to cleaning of all the seats, then cleaning of all the foot wells, vacuuming all the carpets, cleaning the whole cargo area, etc.
While I was doing all of that, I thought I would investigate why there stereo system didn't really sound up to par.
The previous owner, forum member DGI, replaced the factory head unit/nav system with a Single DIN Kenwood KDC-BT572U. Was pretty confusing to dig through all the settings and disable a lot of the default music sources, but after setting everything up, it works well, just the sound isn't that great. I did some snooping around and found that the rear door speakers only output a really low garbled mess of sound. The 6.5" "subwoofer" under the rear seats was also not working. Making my way to the back of the cargo area, one of the high mounted speakers was intermittent.
So thus begins the quest to make the stereo system work again!
Removed the cover off the rear "subwoofer" under the bench seat and found a "small" tear in the cone that prevented it from working.
Did some searching/reading on the forum and found a few members replaced the factory "subwoofer" with this:
After placing the order, I did some more reading and found that the Harman Kardon system only drives the "subwoofer" at 10W RMS! Hardly enough. My plan is to plug it in and see how the system sounds, but knowing I'll probably be disappointed, I have several amps lying around that should work well.
I have one of these 4-ch amps that can be able to use to power the rear door speakers and the rear cargo area speakers.
I also have one of these mono amps that can be used to power the subwoofer Alpine MRD-M605
Lots to do on this stereo upgrade project before actually knowing which direction to go.
1. Check the Impedance of the rear cargo area 4" speakers, and the rear door 6.5" speakers.
2. Check the wiring/condition of the rear cargo area 4" speakers and replace if needed.
3. Check the wiring on the Kenwood head unit.
4. While I'm in there, wire in some USB-C fast charging plugs on an extra 12V socket.
5. Also while I'm in there and the headliner is removed, install the Auto-vox X1 2-channel Dashcam + LCD Rear view mirror system.
6. Check the factory amplifier setup and that it's still working correctly.
7. Wire in the Kicker sub and see how it sounds.
From here the stereo project can go many directions. After doing the above investigations, I'll report back with next steps.
Has anyone else taken a deep dive into the Harman Kardon stereo system? Is it worth the mild upgrade I'm planning or should I just go full independent components and amps? I can do it myself for relatively cheap but the hassle is a lot.
As always, any comments/questions/suggestions welcome!
Older cars and stereos. I am still on my hunt for the perfect G.
But I did two different routes with my last Land Rover Builds re: the sound system. Both Harmon Kardon systems
Route 1, which came out best and felt like I was in a theatre
I had the factory head unit wired up to a blue tooth receiver that was wired into the stock amp.
I then added an additional 2-channel Amp for an aftermarket Sub.
I added a 4 channel amp that powered all new Front and Rear Door component speakers (These are the ones that have one speaker and a driver "tweeter" setup)
Added new tweeters to the A-Pillar
Sound was theatrical and fully immersive.
Route 2, was nice but I was pretty disappointed, and soon sold the truck
This time I rewired everything.
The stock amp either required tapping into 2-3 sources
Or the other route was to bypass the amp altogether
I figured this would be the best bet.. it took 4hrs of wiring and the final result was underwhelming.
Same setup with two amps and component speakers in the front, the back I just used coaxal
Not sure how the factory amp works with the G55, so you may want to dive in there and see what's been done at the source if the sound quality is so-so. Also may want to break out a multi-meter to check everyting once over.
It's been a little while since posting but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading, researching, ordering more parts, and working on the truck!
I've been planning a mild stereo system upgrade on the G. Overall, I just wasn't happy with the system at low or medium volumes (I never listen to music or anything loud). The goal is to use as much of the stock system as possible, but to increase the low end, while cleaning up the mids and highs.
As posted previously, I discovered that the bench 6.5" "subwoofer" was completely blown, so I found that a few members had used this as a replacement successfully.
It arrived a week or so ago and I wired it up using the factory connectors from the blown sub, and test fitted it. It DID NOT fit. I don't know if the cutout changed sometime over the years (my car being a 2005), but the outer ring of the subwoofer was roughly 1/8" too large on the diameter for the stock cutout. Super annoying since it was so close to dropping in. I gave it a test run with the factory Harmon/Becker system and found that there is pretty much no difference with the subwoofer working. After some digging it looks like the rear bench subwoofer is only driven by ~10W total power from the factory amplifier, so I did some more research and reading to see how to improve the system with minimal added wiring and complexity.
I settled on using one of these mini amps. Mostly I chose this because it is tiny and I had it lying around from a previous project. Rockford Fosgate PBR300X4
4 channels
300W total - 75W x 4 @ 4ohms
The plan is to change how the factory system works. Adding a dedicated amplifier for the rear subwoofer, and also driving the rear door speakers with this same amplifier, should provide a substantial improvement in sound output, as well as adding the ability to tune in more midrange and bass to round out the system sound profile.
For reference, I do not have the factory 2005 MB head/navigation unit anymore. The previous owner changed it out to a Kenwood KDC-BT572U. It works fine as a headunit and has bluetooth (all I need for hands free calls and streaming music), but I may change this out one day for a more retro looking Single DIN model (I want to stay Single DIN because I love having the storage pocket under the radio and use my phone for navigation on a vent mount) I'm not a fan at all of flashy futuristic looking electronics with lights everywhere and cheap feeling buttons. I much prefer classic plain looking electronics that are high end and function very well (Probably why my main camera is a Leica Q)
Two potential candidates for replacing the Kenwood are these retro/80s/90s looking head units: Blaupunkt SQR 46 DAB
I love the look of this and the build quality is supposed to be excellent, but for $500+shipping, that's a hard pill to swallow. So much want though! Continental TR7412UB-OR
Although this one doesn't look as nice as the Blaupunkt, it would fit the G interior much better than the Kenwood. Also coming it around $170, this is a much easier pill to swallow. Has everything I need (bluetooth + radio + hands free calling) and the classic looking style. I probably won't go to change this for a while until the rest of the truck is done (of which there is A LOT to do)
My goal was not to have to run any additional wires to the door speakers, or the bench subwoofer, so I started looking into the factory amplifier as all speaker outputs come out of here. The Harmon/Becker amplifier is located under the driver's seat. Everything is easily accessible and the wires have plenty of length to cut and splice as needed. I am not too concerned with my modifications being reversible (unplug - unplay), but do want to keep things relatively close to factory and clean as if I ever do want to return this to the stock configuration, it will be easy to reconnect some wires and shrink wrap after soldering.
I started digging around WIS and finally after an HOURS of searching, I was able to find a wiring diagram for the stereo system for my 2005. I did verify that all the input/output connections to/from the amplifier are correct, and verified that all the wire colors match up with the wiring schematic. I have attached the schematic below for anyone looking to do any modifications. I edited the wiring schematic to include names of speakers, some pictures of the connector, and also wire colors instead of having to read the abbreviated text and legend. If anyone needs/wants a full resolution of this, PM me.
The plan is pretty simple. I will be using the preamp outputs from the headunit for the "rear" 2 channels, as well as the "subwoofer". I will use these as inputs to 3 of the 4 channels on my Rockford Fosgate amp. I will cut the existing wires leading to the 2 rear door speakers, and the bench subwoofer and connect them to the output of the RF amp. I'll be able to adjust their levels as the amp has independent gain controls to match the volume of the factory system. I'll add connectors here so the system will be easy to install and uninstall if needed.
I'll be running the Kicker subwoofer DVC in series so it will be 4ohms. I'll technically have a 4th spare channel available on the amplifier, so there are many other possibilities for the future, such as adding another set of speakers somewhere, installing a second kicker subwoofer, and /or running the Kicker subwoofer off an independent mono amp to fully utilize the 150W RMS (currently, I'll only be driving the sub at ~75W due to the 4ohm amplifier limitation)
I did a lot of researching and discovered the following about the factory speakers:
Front Door 6.5" - P/N A463 820 12 02 - 2ohm
Front Left/Right Tweeter - P/N ?
Center 2.5" - P/N A463 280 15 02 - ?ohm
Rear Door 6.5" - P/N A463 820 13 02 - 3ohm
Rear Cargo 4" - P/N A463 820 16 02 - 4ohm
I will verify tomorrow what the actual impedance of all the speakers are and update these P/Ns and specs. This will affect how I use the amplifier since the RF amp can only run at 4ohms.
The next task was modifying the wood panel to fit the Kicker 6.75" subwoofer, which means removing the rear bench seats. I couldn't find a tutorial online so here is my DIY walkthrough.
Remove the circular endcaps on the seats. There will be 4 for each seat, so 8 in total. They simply push out from the inside.
Next remove the gas strut by inserting a small flat head screw driver or pry tool as shown below in red. You only need to pry it enough so you can push the captured pin through shown in blue. I tapped it with a small hammer to unclip it. This pin holds the outside pivot point of the seats. Don't loose the spacer when removing! I used a small nail setter and hammer to remove the pin.
Next up is to unclip the inside pin. The red arrow shows the direction the clip is removed. There is a small flap you need to pry up to push the clip off. Blue arrow shows the pin and the direction to remove it.
There are 2 seat sensor/plugs that have to removed. Cut off the zip tie and unplug the connector. I used a small flat head screw driver to gently pry it free.
Below is just showing the nail setter I used to punch out the pins. Don't loose this plastic washer!
With the seats out, pulling up the carpet and removing the subwoofer box wooden top was easy. Just a ton of screws. I marked how far I had to cut using a marker and used a straight cutting bit and a router to enlarge the subwoofer opening. Freehand worked ok as I did not have a circle jig. It's not perfect, but it will work perfectly fine. I may also end up remaking this piece anyway from a better piece of wood in the future.
I measured the volume of the subwoofer compartment and it is ~0.53 ft^3. This is perfect for the Kicker sub and means there is still room in there for other things if needed.
Test fitting the speaker ring into the routed hole, as well as showing how I wired the DVC sub in series. I'll be doubling up on the factory wiring (using both pairs of subwoofer speaker leads) in a parallel configuration to make sure that wiring will not be the limiting factor in driving the kicker sub (shouldn't be an issue, but the wires are there and I might as well use it)
While everything was open and empty, I took the time to vacuum the whole area, the carpet, under the carpet, in the storage compartments, etc. There was a TON of sand, dirt, pine needles, etc down there that I honestly don't know how they got there. I used degreaser to clean out the subwoofer enclosure and went to work adding sound deadening material in there as I don't plan on opening this back up if I don't have to. Added 2 layers of some super old Fatmat I had from a previous project. Didn't do a 100% coverage job or create a 100% sealed enclosure, but it should work well enough. I forgot how much I hate adding sound deadening material to cars. It's a backbreaking, finger numbing process that will test your patience and reason for doing it.
With the kicker sub installed. The OEM subwoofer screws DO NOT fit into the recessed holes on the kicker, so I found some pan head 6-32 wood cutting screws and they fit perfectly. Just remember to be gentle screwing in as the MDF is brittle and old.
Last step tonight was to put the carpet back down, tuck it under the passenger footwell carpet, and reinstall the speaker grill. Looks completely stock and clean which is exactly what I wanted.
I'll work tomorrow more on the amplifier side of things as I will have to find a good mounting location for the Rockford Fosgate amp (under the driver's seat), run power/ground to the battery (luckily it is right there in the center of the floor), run the preamp outputs from the headunit through the center tunnel to under the seat, then cut/splice the speaker output wires.
In other news, I removed the rear spare to repaint/recondition all the parts in there and delete the chrome. I knew the previous owner backed into a tree and damaged the tire carrier back, and subsequently replaced it, and mentioned that the back door was dented slightly because of the mishap. Took a look back there and the dent is quite large, as well as having a large paint crack/chip with the panel starting to rust. I'll have to get this taken care of soon to avoid any further rust issues. When I have the back door card off, I'll try to push out the dent and if succesful, I'll treat the area with a rust inhibitor and some touch up paint. There are a few other smaller panels on the truck that need to be touched up/re clear coated, so I'll tackle all of those at the same time. Below are the dents and rust spot.
I also received the leather steering wheel cover that I ordered to cover up the aged, worn, and cracking leather and wood trim. Test fitted it to make sure it was correct as the specs didn't list the 2005 G55 as a fit. I will have to sew the insides together and tuck t all into the button/airbag recesses, but I think this will look very good when it is finished and clean up the interior (getting rid of the wood trim). Of course when I finish it I will report back on how everything fit and how the installation process is.
~$60 and took a month to arrive. You can pick all different materials, thread color, etc. I chose to go with a straight black perforated and black leather, with black thread.
Hope to finish the stereo upgrade (phase 1) tomorrow and see the results.
If the sound still isn't up to my standards, I will go the next logical route (phase 2) and upgrade the speakers to better 2 or 3 way coaxials. Plan is to replace the 4 door 6.5" speakers as well as the rear cargo area 4" speakers with a set from either Rockford Fosgate ($120, and very well reviewed), Kicker ($175 - to keep all the speakers the same), or Polk ($220, also very well reviewed). I don't want to replace the tweeters as I don't want to have to come up with a custom mounting solution. The center speaker is a toss-up since it's such a small size. I don't think it makes sense to spend big $ on really high end speakers as I'm not going for award winning sound, nor do I play music above moderate volume levels.
If completing phase 2 still isn't good enough, I"ll move to phase 3, which will involve removing the factory amp, adding a second amp, and tuning the whole system with a DSP to set the sound stage and balance all the speakers out. I hope I don't have to go this route as locating all the amps and DSP will be a major PITA and get away from minimal modifications.
That is it for now. As always, any comments/questions/suggestions welcome!
Man! Great writeup and process pics! Jealous I now have just the weekends to take on quick projects w the truck!
Loving the idea of those two retro units. Agreed the Blaupunkt is nice, but way too expensive... and the other one would feel at home in the G.
Rewiring factory amps is a pain in the ***, but glad to see the wires match on both ends. Have you done a simple continuity test to make sure you won't discover any hiccups before you make your first cuts? I had this mishap w my last land rover build and the re-wire ended up taking me 3 full days.
I have the leather re-wrap on my build list, but am slowly digging the woodgrain steering wheel.
Man! Great writeup and process pics! Jealous I now have just the weekends to take on quick projects w the truck!
Loving the idea of those two retro units. Agreed the Blaupunkt is nice, but way too expensive... and the other one would feel at home in the G.
Rewiring factory amps is a pain in the ***, but glad to see the wires match on both ends. Have you done a simple continuity test to make sure you won't discover any hiccups before you make your first cuts? I had this mishap w my last land rover build and the re-wire ended up taking me 3 full days.
I have the leather re-wrap on my build list, but am slowly digging the woodgrain steering wheel.
I'll do a thorough investigation into the factory amp wiring harness before I cut any wires. Plan is to take off the rear door cards and check continuity of the wires to make sure there are no surprises. And then while the door cards are off, install a few layers of sound deadening, clean and lube up all lock and window components, and check for rust in the door cavity.
Ideally I would want to source the OEM connector, male and female sides, and crimp my own sub-harness that will have the breakouts, but that is most likely impossible. I would have to get a blown amp to harvest the connector/pins, and find a cut up/part out wiring harness and solder all the points together.
I would have kept the wood grain (my 2005 wood grain is a much older and less interesting than your 2008) but it was cracking in several spots, and also the leather hand grips were really worn, thus needing to be covered or replaced.
I had my door handles painted satin black at a body shop. It was reasonably priced because I brought all of my parts disassembled.
Take into consideration they will be darker than the plastic side molding.
Do you plan on powder coating your wheels? If so, might as well bring them your brush guard too.
If you love the look of your new headlights, you could ditch the brush guard and get headlight cover grill guards. They'll pair nicely with the turn signal light cages.
Check out this g55. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2005-mercedes-benz-g55-amg-7/
Plastidip really doesn't hold up well on any exterior parts. I've seen decent wrap jobs on the ring for the spare tire carrier.
My thoughts on the gear selector surround piece -
at first glance I assumed the opposite direction was intentional. Easy solution would be making that piece black and it would match the sliding storage.
I have the same issue with scratches on the ac vent. Hoping you find a solution.
Looking forward to seeing your sound deadening process.
And thanks for posting the leather steering wheel link!
It's been a little while since posting but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading, researching, ordering more parts, and working on the truck!
I've been planning a mild stereo system upgrade on the G. Overall, I just wasn't happy with the system at low or medium volumes (I never listen to music or anything loud). The goal is to use as much of the stock system as possible, but to increase the low end, while cleaning up the mids and highs.
As posted previously, I discovered that the bench 6.5" "subwoofer" was completely blown, so I found that a few members had used this as a replacement successfully.
It arrived a week or so ago and I wired it up using the factory connectors from the blown sub, and test fitted it. It DID NOT fit. I don't know if the cutout changed sometime over the years (my car being a 2005), but the outer ring of the subwoofer was roughly 1/8" too large on the diameter for the stock cutout. Super annoying since it was so close to dropping in. I gave it a test run with the factory Harmon/Becker system and found that there is pretty much no difference with the subwoofer working. After some digging it looks like the rear bench subwoofer is only driven by ~10W total power from the factory amplifier, so I did some more research and reading to see how to improve the system with minimal added wiring and complexity.
I settled on using one of these mini amps. Mostly I chose this because it is tiny and I had it lying around from a previous project. Rockford Fosgate PBR300X4
4 channels
300W total - 75W x 4 @ 4ohms
The plan is to change how the factory system works. Adding a dedicated amplifier for the rear subwoofer, and also driving the rear door speakers with this same amplifier, should provide a substantial improvement in sound output, as well as adding the ability to tune in more midrange and bass to round out the system sound profile.
For reference, I do not have the factory 2005 MB head/navigation unit anymore. The previous owner changed it out to a Kenwood KDC-BT572U. It works fine as a headunit and has bluetooth (all I need for hands free calls and streaming music), but I may change this out one day for a more retro looking Single DIN model (I want to stay Single DIN because I love having the storage pocket under the radio and use my phone for navigation on a vent mount) I'm not a fan at all of flashy futuristic looking electronics with lights everywhere and cheap feeling buttons. I much prefer classic plain looking electronics that are high end and function very well (Probably why my main camera is a Leica Q)
Two potential candidates for replacing the Kenwood are these retro/80s/90s looking head units: Blaupunkt SQR 46 DAB
I love the look of this and the build quality is supposed to be excellent, but for $500+shipping, that's a hard pill to swallow. So much want though! Continental TR7412UB-OR
Although this one doesn't look as nice as the Blaupunkt, it would fit the G interior much better than the Kenwood. Also coming it around $170, this is a much easier pill to swallow. Has everything I need (bluetooth + radio + hands free calling) and the classic looking style. I probably won't go to change this for a while until the rest of the truck is done (of which there is A LOT to do)
My goal was not to have to run any additional wires to the door speakers, or the bench subwoofer, so I started looking into the factory amplifier as all speaker outputs come out of here. The Harmon/Becker amplifier is located under the driver's seat. Everything is easily accessible and the wires have plenty of length to cut and splice as needed. I am not too concerned with my modifications being reversible (unplug - unplay), but do want to keep things relatively close to factory and clean as if I ever do want to return this to the stock configuration, it will be easy to reconnect some wires and shrink wrap after soldering.
I started digging around WIS and finally after an HOURS of searching, I was able to find a wiring diagram for the stereo system for my 2005. I did verify that all the input/output connections to/from the amplifier are correct, and verified that all the wire colors match up with the wiring schematic. I have attached the schematic below for anyone looking to do any modifications. I edited the wiring schematic to include names of speakers, some pictures of the connector, and also wire colors instead of having to read the abbreviated text and legend. If anyone needs/wants a full resolution of this, PM me.
The plan is pretty simple. I will be using the preamp outputs from the headunit for the "rear" 2 channels, as well as the "subwoofer". I will use these as inputs to 3 of the 4 channels on my Rockford Fosgate amp. I will cut the existing wires leading to the 2 rear door speakers, and the bench subwoofer and connect them to the output of the RF amp. I'll be able to adjust their levels as the amp has independent gain controls to match the volume of the factory system. I'll add connectors here so the system will be easy to install and uninstall if needed.
I'll be running the Kicker subwoofer DVC in series so it will be 4ohms. I'll technically have a 4th spare channel available on the amplifier, so there are many other possibilities for the future, such as adding another set of speakers somewhere, installing a second kicker subwoofer, and /or running the Kicker subwoofer off an independent mono amp to fully utilize the 150W RMS (currently, I'll only be driving the sub at ~75W due to the 4ohm amplifier limitation)
I did a lot of researching and discovered the following about the factory speakers:
Front Door 6.5" - P/N A463 820 09 02 - 4ohm
Front Left/Right Tweeter - P/N A463 820 10 02 - 4ohm
Center 2.5" - P/N A463 280 11 02 - 8ohm
Rear Door 6.5" - P/N A463 820 13 02 - 3 or 4ohm?
Rear Cargo 4" - P/N A463 820 04 02 - 4 or 8ohm?
I will verify tomorrow what the actual impedance of all the speakers are and update these P/Ns and specs. This will affect how I use the amplifier since the RF amp can only run at 4ohms.
The next task was modifying the wood panel to fit the Kicker 6.75" subwoofer, which means removing the rear bench seats. I couldn't find a tutorial online so here is my DIY walkthrough.
Remove the circular endcaps on the seats. There will be 4 for each seat, so 8 in total. They simply push out from the inside.
Next remove the gas strut by inserting a small flat head screw driver or pry tool as shown below in red. You only need to pry it enough so you can push the captured pin through shown in blue. I tapped it with a small hammer to unclip it. This pin holds the outside pivot point of the seats. Don't loose the spacer when removing! I used a small nail setter and hammer to remove the pin.
Next up is to unclip the inside pin. The red arrow shows the direction the clip is removed. There is a small flap you need to pry up to push the clip off. Blue arrow shows the pin and the direction to remove it.
There are 2 seat sensor/plugs that have to removed. Cut off the zip tie and unplug the connector. I used a small flat head screw driver to gently pry it free.
Below is just showing the nail setter I used to punch out the pins. Don't loose this plastic washer!
With the seats out, pulling up the carpet and removing the subwoofer box wooden top was easy. Just a ton of screws. I marked how far I had to cut using a marker and used a straight cutting bit and a router to enlarge the subwoofer opening. Freehand worked ok as I did not have a circle jig. It's not perfect, but it will work perfectly fine. I may also end up remaking this piece anyway from a better piece of wood in the future.
I measured the volume of the subwoofer compartment and it is ~0.53 ft^3. This is perfect for the Kicker sub and means there is still room in there for other things if needed.
Test fitting the speaker ring into the routed hole, as well as showing how I wired the DVC sub in series. I'll be doubling up on the factory wiring (using both pairs of subwoofer speaker leads) in a parallel configuration to make sure that wiring will not be the limiting factor in driving the kicker sub (shouldn't be an issue, but the wires are there and I might as well use it)
While everything was open and empty, I took the time to vacuum the whole area, the carpet, under the carpet, in the storage compartments, etc. There was a TON of sand, dirt, pine needles, etc down there that I honestly don't know how they got there. I used degreaser to clean out the subwoofer enclosure and went to work adding sound deadening material in there as I don't plan on opening this back up if I don't have to. Added 2 layers of some super old Fatmat I had from a previous project. Didn't do a 100% coverage job or create a 100% sealed enclosure, but it should work well enough. I forgot how much I hate adding sound deadening material to cars. It's a backbreaking, finger numbing process that will test your patience and reason for doing it.
With the kicker sub installed. The OEM subwoofer screws DO NOT fit into the recessed holes on the kicker, so I found some pan head 6-32 wood cutting screws and they fit perfectly. Just remember to be gentle screwing in as the MDF is brittle and old.
Last step tonight was to put the carpet back down, tuck it under the passenger footwell carpet, and reinstall the speaker grill. Looks completely stock and clean which is exactly what I wanted.
I'll work tomorrow more on the amplifier side of things as I will have to find a good mounting location for the Rockford Fosgate amp (under the driver's seat), run power/ground to the battery (luckily it is right there in the center of the floor), run the preamp outputs from the headunit through the center tunnel to under the seat, then cut/splice the speaker output wires.
In other news, I removed the rear spare to repaint/recondition all the parts in there and delete the chrome. I knew the previous owner backed into a tree and damaged the tire carrier back, and subsequently replaced it, and mentioned that the back door was dented slightly because of the mishap. Took a look back there and the dent is quite large, as well as having a large paint crack/chip with the panel starting to rust. I'll have to get this taken care of soon to avoid any further rust issues. When I have the back door card off, I'll try to push out the dent and if succesful, I'll treat the area with a rust inhibitor and some touch up paint. There are a few other smaller panels on the truck that need to be touched up/re clear coated, so I'll tackle all of those at the same time. Below are the dents and rust spot.
I also received the leather steering wheel cover that I ordered to cover up the aged, worn, and cracking leather and wood trim. Test fitted it to make sure it was correct as the specs didn't list the 2005 G55 as a fit. I will have to sew the insides together and tuck t all into the button/airbag recesses, but I think this will look very good when it is finished and clean up the interior (getting rid of the wood trim). Of course when I finish it I will report back on how everything fit and how the installation process is. Mewant Custon Leather Steering Wheel Wrap for Mercedes W210, 2002-2005
~$60 and took a month to arrive. You can pick all different materials, thread color, etc. I chose to go with a straight black perforated and black leather, with black thread.
Hope to finish the stereo upgrade (phase 1) tomorrow and see the results.
If the sound still isn't up to my standards, I will go the next logical route (phase 2) and upgrade the speakers to better 2 or 3 way coaxials. Plan is to replace the 4 door 6.5" speakers as well as the rear cargo area 4" speakers with a set from either Rockford Fosgate ($120, and very well reviewed), Kicker ($175 - to keep all the speakers the same), or Polk ($220, also very well reviewed). I don't want to replace the tweeters as I don't want to have to come up with a custom mounting solution. The center speaker is a toss-up since it's such a small size. I don't think it makes sense to spend big $ on really high end speakers as I'm not going for award winning sound, nor do I play music above moderate volume levels.
If completing phase 2 still isn't good enough, I"ll move to phase 3, which will involve removing the factory amp, adding a second amp, and tuning the whole system with a DSP to set the sound stage and balance all the speakers out. I hope I don't have to go this route as locating all the amps and DSP will be a major PITA and get away from minimal modifications.
That is it for now. As always, any comments/questions/suggestions welcome!
I may have that same Blaupunkt from my H1 that you can have. I will check if I still have it and let you know.
I currently have the 6.5 kicker mounted under the bench seat powered by a JL audio amp. Either the amp is not set correctly or there is another issue. The sub works, but provides next to nothing for bass.
My goal isn’t crazy bass, but I want something that sounds decent.
The G is going to the shop on Thursday for a 10” sub install in the rear, as well as any crossover settings that need to be adjusted.
I too hope that I can avoid replacing additional speakers.
I may have that same Blaupunkt from my H1 that you can have. I will check if I still have it and let you know.
I currently have the 6.5 kicker mounted under the bench seat powered by a JL audio amp. Either the amp is not set correctly or there is another issue. The sub works, but provides next to nothing for bass.
My goal isn’t crazy bass, but I want something that sounds decent.
The G is going to the shop on Thursday for a 10” sub install in the rear, as well as any crossover settings that need to be adjusted.
I too hope that I can avoid replacing additional speakers.
You have one of the original 80s/90's Blaupunkt units? Or is it one of the new re-releases? I wonder what type of inputs and outputs the old one has...
With your kicker sub hooked up to an amp, it should be noticeable. Maybe something is up with the input source or the output gain. My goal isn't to make it a concert hall, just to add some more fill to the system since it sounds really hollow and unbalanced. I also want everything tucked away and hidden with no sacrifice to cargo room or permanent modifications (since G wagon panels and interior parts are so freakin expensive)
I started digging down the rabbit hole for speaker upgrades for the G. So many different choices for 6.5" Coaxials at such drastic different price points. It's tough since there's little to no information floating around on people upgrading the HK system themselves, or just replacing the system completely. I found a rip in the rubber surround of one of the rear door speakers, so I'll have to replace them soon, but it looks like any and all options will need adapter rings that no one can confirm works for a G. I'll most likely end up designing my own speaker adapter rings and 3D print them to adapt whatever coaxials I end up getting. Will have to do the same for the rear cargo area speakers as they're a really weird size and I'd rather not cut the panel up.
Took the morning to make some more progress on the audio system upgrade.
First goal of the day was to make absolutely certain that I had the correct wires to cut on the OEM amp wiring harness, which meant removing the rear door panels.
Process was significantly easier than I though it would be.
1) Remove the 3 screws holding the panel in place
A) Under the top of the door handle
B) Pull out the plastic cap, under the door handle/elbow rest area
C) In the door opening lever
2) Use a pry tool and pry from the front of the door opening lever. This has 1 clip and will pop out, and you can feed it through the door (no need to remove the cable)
3) Use a pry tool all around the outside edge of the door. Clips will pop right out
4) Remove the door lock pin
5) Lift he door panel up and out
6) Remove the window switch connector, or use the blue latch to remove the whole switch
What I found was that the door had been previously removed and the weather liner was torn pretty badly in several areas. I plan to replace this all with Sound Deadening to some degree, but will probably buy OEM replacements in the future.
If you look closely, you will probably see a tear in the rubber surround on the rear door speaker. Bummer. I was hoping to actually get to use the system before replacing the components, but it is what it is.
I took some measurements of the OEM speakers for future reference and anyone looking for this information.
Rear Door Speakers:
- Closer to a 6" than a 6.5".
- P/N: A 463 820 13 02 (from a 2005 G55)
- Mounting Height above flange - 1"
- Distance between top of speaker and panel grill - ~1" (There is a foam speaker surround here that compresses against the speaker face when the door panel is installed)
- Mounting Depth below flange - 1.25"
- Total available mounting depth: ~3"
- Cutout in panel: 5.5"
- 3ohm Impedance
- Only plays bass like sounds with the factory system.
- Wire colors: Left Rear Door Speaker - Green(+)/GreenBrown(-), Right Rear Door Speaker - Yellow(+)/YellowBrown(-)
Rear Cargo Area Speakers:
- Close to a 4", but the cutout is smaller and the mounting pattern is larger.
- P/N: A 463 820 16 02 (from a 2005 G55)
- Mounting Height above flange - 1/2"
- Mounting Depth below flange - 1.75"
- Total available mounting depth: ~2.5"
- Cutout in Panel: 3-11/16"
- 4ohm Impedance
- Wire colors: Left Rear Door Speaker - Blue(+)/BlueBrown(-), Right Rear Door Speaker - Black(+)/BlackBrown(-)
After poking around under the driver's seat, I found the amp could sit really nicely directly under the stock amplifier. I mounted it with some foam in between and zip ties. I know this isn't the best solution for mounting, but I plan to eventually make a mounting plate that will sit under the factory amp that can mount the amp. This plate can also double as a full mounting plate if I decide down the road to ditch the OEM amplifier all together.
Airflow should be fine as I don't plan to ever play music very loud, and there is still space between the top of the RF amp and the carpet.
After confirming over and over, I made the cut to the 4 sets of speaker output wires. No going back now!
All the OEM amplifier outputs terminated on the left, and the rest soldered and shrink wrapped on the right. Please excuse the electrical tape on the Green wire. I forgot to add shrinkwrap before soldering and when soldering 14AWG to 16AWG, you don't really get a shot to do it a second time without cutting the wire again. I'm only using 3 sets of the 4 that I cut. The last set is the second channel for the DVC subwoofer under the rear bench. My Rockford Fosgate PBR300x4 doesn't allow bridging, so I'll be running the Kicker CompRT 6.75" sub with 1x75W channel @ 4ohms. Should be fine, but leaving the wires in there allows for future flexibility in the event that I want to remove the OEM amplifier altogether.
Last step today in the truck before the rain started was tucking everything back down where it is supposed to go. I wrapped the wires back up with the OEM black sheething, as well as replacing the OEM fabric tape. When the rest of the input cables are completed, there will be very little visible down there. I also ran the power and ground wires under the A/C duct, under the carpet, and into the battery compartment, terminated with ring terminals. Should have no issues since the run is under 3ft, the power side is fused at 40A, and the wire is 10AWG. Theoretical maximum power draw from this amp is 45A, but I'm only using 3 of the 4 channels, so 32A max.
Still to do to finish phase 1:
- Remove the headunit and run RCA's for pre-amp outputs and a remote wire. Will need to run 3 RCA's, Rear Door Left, Rear Door Right, and Subwoofer mono
- Install the Axxess AWSC-1 to regain steering wheel controls
- Wire in 2 12V cigarette ports behind the dash, first for 2x USB-C charging cables (1 to the cubby pocket under the Single DIN, and 1 to the passenger seat area), and second for my rear view mirror/lcd that is also a 2ch dashcam (Auto-vox X1). Will run add-a-fuse lines from under the glove box
- Fix the glove box handle that is broken on one side
- Fix the shifter surround carbon fiber vinyl wrap to go the same direction as everything else
- Wrap the grab handle wood accent in carbon fiber vinyl
- Repair the center vent again and try satin clearcoat, or plastidip for the rubbarized touch
- Take some information on the center dash speaker
- Hook up the RF amplifier and tuck away all the cables under the driver's side chair
Hope to get this all finished up by the weekend.
Knowing I had to order new rear door speakers, I went down a really deep pit of researching 6.5" coaxial speakers. What a headache. I jumped around from cheap Rockford Fosgate OEM replacements, to tried and true Infinty Kappa's, to Alpine Type-R's, and even got lusty after some Focal RCX-165's, then their K2 systems, etc. Too much reading, spec comparing, random review sites, etc. I ended up with the Polk DB+ series. Main draw was that they're water resistant, so I won't have to worry about them ever. Well reviewed and didn't break the bank. ($140 for 2x 6.5" and 2x 4" package)
Polk Audio DB 652
6.5" Coaxial
Marine Certification (IP55)
100W RMS
4ohm Impedance
92dB Sensitivity
I'll have to make custom speaker adapter/mounting rings to work with the door panel. I'll design this in CAD off the OEM speaker mounting flange and the Polk mounting flange and 3D print it so it's spaced perfectly. Of course I'll be adding sound deadening material to the door skins and door panel, and adding a speaker baffle behind the magnet to get as much quality sound as possible.
And got the matching set for the rear cargo area speakers.
Polk Audio DB 402
4" Coaxial
Marine Certification (IP55)
45W RMS
4ohm Impedance
90dB Sensitivity
I'll also have to make custom speaker adapter/mounting flange to work with the rear cargo area interior panel. Same process, design in CAD off the speaker mounting flange and the Polk mounting flange and 3D print it. And again, there will be sound deadening material everywhere behind the panels and adding a speaker baffle.
Will be back at it tomorrow when I'm not busy working or playing with the kid. Hope this is all worth it in the end! It's been a lot of research, reading, planning, and work overall (and some nominal amount of $) but I love doing this type of stuff, whether it's mechanical, electrical, or detailing related. The reward is not only the final product, but also the process of getting there and knowing how much you learned along the way.
As always, any comments/questions/suggestions welcome!
Now that the amp wiring is finished, it's time to tackle the Kenwood head unit, check that the install was done correctly, run the preamp rear and subwoofer lines, and the amp remote wire line.
One thing that never work was the steering wheel controls with the aftermarket head unit. I read a few old threads about using an Axxess/Metra ASWC-1 to decode the steering wheel controls for a 2004+ truck, and I just happened to already have one from a previous audio project with my Volvo, so recycling free parts! Of course there was little to no information on how to hook the ASWC-1 to the truck, so I had to do more research.
Of course, there is no documentation for a 2005 G55, or any same-era G-wagon for that matter, so after some digging, I found that the information listed for a C32 AMG was the same (same head unit/nav system and wire colors)
This is the OEM connector you have to tap into with the Axxess ASWC-1. Pink wire (on ASWC-1) to skinny red (upper right) and blue/pink wire (on ASWC-1) to skinny brown wire (upper left). Then connect to switched power, and ground, and follow the instruction on how to connect to your aftermarket head unit. Was a breeze after finding the correct documentation!
Apparently when you install an aftermarket head unit in the G, you're left with a ton of unconnected plugs (terminated fiber line not shown, but also needs the loop back connector). The wiring in here needs to be cleaned up a lot, so waiting for another spool of solder to show up Saturday to dive into this.
In preparation for the new Polk Coaxials arriving next week, I did some clean up on the rear door panels and installed 2 layers of sound deadening material behind the speaker area. Also peeled back the vapor barrier and installed some sound deadening material on the larger flat sections. When I get more time I'll come back and do the entire door, but this should be a good start.
Also added some sound deadening material to the back side of the rear door panels. Will come back at a later date when I fully disassemble the rear doors to do a full install for more complete coverage.
Hooked up the amp to the head unit and ran all wires and the system works!...But not what I was expecting.
The rear door speakers are a nice addition to the rear sound channel, as you aren't limited now to the rear cargo area speakers from behind you, but I'm getting a good amount of alternator whine through the speakers and the sub is barley doing anything, so will have to do some more investigation into better grounding options, better shielded cables, and properly the gain for all 3 channels. Will also test the sub with a more powerful mono amp to see if it's a power issue - not enough power. (I'm currently only driving the sub with 1 channel 75W @ 4ohms, where it is expecting to see 150W @ 2ohms DVC. I have an Alpine 300W @ 4ohm amplifier that I'll hook up to see what the Kicker CompRT 6.75" sub can actually do, that can fit nicely where the CD changer currently is)
All this is more work and more playing with configurations, but will be better than the stock system when I'm done, with no loss of cabin/truck space! It's definitely not for everyone, or probably a majority of G owners, but hopefully it can be an information resource for the future.
SOLVED all of the feedback/whine that was coming through the rear door speakers. I shortened the length of the power wire to the battery as well as moving the ground wire to the factory grounding point under the amplifier (shorter span). Also replaced the RCA's with higher quality wires and fully separated from all power/remote wires. I also took the time to properly adjust the amplifier gain to match to the headunit output level (50Hz test tone @ 75% volume and measuring speaker AC voltage output and adjusting according to power limits, in my case 75W/channel @ 4ohms, so V = sqrt(75 x 4) = 17.3V) and it made a world of difference.
The sound is significantly improved since you get the full range 6.5" rear door speakers now filling the bass and mids. However, it still isn't very clear and the highs are all very muffled and inaccurate, but that probably has to do with the speakers themselves being just single way's. All of the sound should really clean up and be much more crisp when the Polk coaxials arrive next week. This may also accelerate my want to upgrade the front speakers and tweeters also to a Polk component set, but the front speaker setup is much more complicated.
The bench subwoofer is now also working correctly, but I've found that driving the Kicker at 75W @ 4ohms when it is expecting 75W @ 2ohms x2 (DVC) really isn't doing as much as I want it to. I'll play with the Alpine amp I have to drive it at the full 150W and see how it does. Overall it does improve the sound fill of the low end a good amount, but since I'm already 90% of the way there with these audio mods, I may as well match everything as well as I can, even if it means more complexity and a little more $. I'll start doing research on small 2 channel amps that can drive the sub at full power.
I wanted to completely redo the headunit wiring since I'm not a fan of crimp connectors and only use them when absolutely necessary. Also there were too many tangled wires to my liking, so I cut, stripped, soldered, and shrink wrapped everything and zip tied the harness in a nice neat package. Last step is to wrap in OEM fabric tape, but I will have to make sure everything is working 100% before doing that.
No before pictures since I couldn't wait to cut off the crimp connectors and untangle everything, but one mid process, and the 'final' result as of tonight. You can also see the Axxess ASWC-1 located below the head unit.
I also found that there are 2 MORE speakers in the front of the vehicle??!! This guy and it's matching twin are located on the kick panels on driver's and passenger's side pointing down at the floor. Anyone know what these are for? It's not listed on the audio system wiring diagram so maybe it's for the integrated phone system?
Still a long way to go and many projects to finish before putting the dash all back together.
- wiring in USB outlets
- wiring in spare 12V cig socket (in glove box)
- wiring up 2ch dashcam/rear view camera/lcd
- painting AC center vent again
- removing left and right AC vent trims and refinishing them also
- taking inventory of all front speakers to replace in the future (or near future since everything will be apart)
- tucking and routing all wires nicely
- fixing glove box handle hinge
- sound deadening on roof, all 4 doors and door panels, and everywhere else I remove the trim panels.
- cleaning and lubricating all door locking and window mechanisms
- remove and install new headliner fabric
- paint all chrome bits matte black - brush guard, skid plate, lower bumper bar, turn signal cages, tail light cages, spare tire ring
- source and purchase all new hardware for from all of the above in SS
- seal windshield chips and cracks (several)
- wash, decon, clay, compound, polish, ceramic seal, etc.
- repaint the sunroof cap and rear fender to fix clearcoat failure
- reinstall all the matte black bits
- maybe install Bilstein yellow/blue G500 shocks.
- rhino bed liner on the rear bumper grip steps and side steps
- tinting the emblems slightly darker
- start the rust-proofing process
In other news, NJ MVC has extended it's closure of all locations until May 26, so I still won't be able to legally drive until then at the earliest. Such is life, and now I have more time to do all of the above!
You have one of the original 80s/90's Blaupunkt units? Or is it one of the new re-releases? I wonder what type of inputs and outputs the old one has...
With your kicker sub hooked up to an amp, it should be noticeable. Maybe something is up with the input source or the output gain. My goal isn't to make it a concert hall, just to add some more fill to the system since it sounds really hollow and unbalanced. I also want everything tucked away and hidden with no sacrifice to cargo room or permanent modifications (since G wagon panels and interior parts are so freakin expensive)
I started digging down the rabbit hole for speaker upgrades for the G. So many different choices for 6.5" Coaxials at such drastic different price points. It's tough since there's little to no information floating around on people upgrading the HK system themselves, or just replacing the system completely. I found a rip in the rubber surround of one of the rear door speakers, so I'll have to replace them soon, but it looks like any and all options will need adapter rings that no one can confirm works for a G. I'll most likely end up designing my own speaker adapter rings and 3D print them to adapt whatever coaxials I end up getting. Will have to do the same for the rear cargo area speakers as they're a really weird size and I'd rather not cut the panel up.
Ya the head unit I had was from early 2000s. Turns out I had thrown it away.
btw, I got my amp and sub hooked up and I don’t have a need to upgrade the other speakers. It sounds great.
I'm gonna experiment with the larger Alpine amp I have to drive the 6.75" bench sub at it's full 150W RMS. I'm pretty confident it should be more than adequate for what I want it to do. If that's the case, I'll get a second Rockford Fosgate amp, the PBR-400x4d and just completely remove the factory amp. Build a metal mounting plate for the 2x RF amps which will make the mounting and wiring much cleaner, and drive the 2 front speakers with 2x100W @ 4ohms, the sub with 2x100W @ 2ohms, the rear door speakers with 2x75W @ 4 ohms, and the rear cargo speakers with 2x75W @ 4ohms. Then there's a good chance I'll also add my Kicker Front Row DSP to fine tune everything since the Kenwood head unit really isn't up to the task of creating a realistic sound stage. I'll order custom length high quality RCA's to clean everything up, and wrap up this project by replacing the front door speakers with the same Polk DB652 coaxials, or maybe the DB6502 Component + Tweeter setup and just remove the front 3 dash speakers.
The trial and error part with all of this is the most frustrating, as well as the waiting for parts to arrive as everything is now 1 week delivery vs the normal Amazon 1-2 day, but I know the reward in the end will be completely worth it.
I'm gonna experiment with the larger Alpine amp I have to drive the 6.75" bench sub at it's full 150W RMS. I'm pretty confident it should be more than adequate for what I want it to do. If that's the case, I'll get a second Rockford Fosgate amp, the PBR-400x4d and just completely remove the factory amp. Build a metal mounting plate for the 2x RF amps which will make the mounting and wiring much cleaner, and drive the 2 front speakers with 2x100W @ 4ohms, the sub with 2x100W @ 2ohms, the rear door speakers with 2x75W @ 4 ohms, and the rear cargo speakers with 2x75W @ 4ohms. Then there's a good chance I'll also add my Kicker Front Row DSP to fine tune everything since the Kenwood head unit really isn't up to the task of creating a realistic sound stage. I'll order custom length high quality RCA's to clean everything up, and wrap up this project by replacing the front door speakers with the same Polk DB652 coaxials, or maybe the DB6502 Component + Tweeter setup and just remove the front 3 dash speakers.
The trial and error part with all of this is the most frustrating, as well as the waiting for parts to arrive as everything is now 1 week delivery vs the normal Amazon 1-2 day, but I know the reward in the end will be completely worth it.
I'll do a full rundown when I finish.
The amp is JL Audio XD600. As for the sub, it is a JL 10” however (I don’t know the model), JL has been shut down, so they threw a 10” kicker in until the JL sub arrives.
Shop said the JL will provide similar amounts of bass to the kicker, but that it will be “cleaner” and “tighter” and overall will be an upgrade to the sub that they installed now.
I am happy with the setup now, but if I had to have something improved, it would be reduce the “boom factor.” From the sounds of it, once they swap the sub, it should only get better.
The amp is JL Audio XD600. As for the sub, it is a JL 10” however (I don’t know the model), JL has been shut down, so they threw a 10” kicker in until the JL sub arrives.
Shop said the JL will provide similar amounts of bass to the kicker, but that it will be “cleaner” and “tighter” and overall will be an upgrade to the sub that they installed now.
I am happy with the setup now, but if I had to have something improved, it would be reduce the “boom factor.” From the sounds of it, once they swap the sub, it should only get better.
Nice! That's a good looking amp setup. Any idea what the 6 channel outputs are powering?
The 'boominess' should be cleaned up a lot with a sealed enclosure with a JL sub. The Kicker sub box is ported so will have a little bit more reverberation vs a sealed enclosure that will have very clean and crisp bass.
It's been a little while since the last update but things have been rolling like normal. I usually get about 1-2 hours per day to spend on the truck with varying levels of success so this will be a long update as I've made a lot lot of progress.
First thing I wanted to test was how the Kicker 6.75" CompRT subwoofer would perform at full power (150W RMS) vs the 75W I was driving it with but was underwhelmed by. I temporarily wired up an old Alpine 250W @ 4ohm mono amp and calibrated the gain to output 150W @ 4ohms. Bottom line, the Kicker sounded AMAZING. The low end fill far exceeded my expectations and I had to TURN DOWN the subwoofer output to balance out the overall sound.
Unfortunately, this means complicating my overall stereo plans even more. I'll go over the new amplifier+DSP setup at the end of the post.
First order of business was removing the front door panels and doing some investigation into speaker part numbers, dimensions for future upgrades, etc. I was pleased to find out the weather liner was in very good shape overall.
Front speaker - 2005 G55 - P/N A463 820 12 02 - 2ohms (The front speaker is wired in parallel with the front corner dash and center dash speakers, so upgrading just speakers is not so straight forward. The plan in a few months is to replacing the fronts with the matching Polk DB6502 Component Set)
Of course, while I the speaker was removed, I added 2 layers of sound deadening material to the door skin, and also took the time to wrap the seat adjusting switch panel with carbon vinyl. I did this on both passanger and driver side front doors.
For upgrading the rear door speakers, I knew there was a very high possibility that the mounting adapters included with the Polk DB652 kit would not fit. I couldn't find any information about adapter rings for any W463 chassis, so I was prepared to make custom speaker mounting adapters. I started by stripping the door down to the speaker mounting bracket, and using contact paper (blast from the past!) I marked the location of the mounting holes and all important features that I would have to avoid. I did this for both the left and right rear doors.
After a few failed attempts at this, I ended up with what you see below. I laminated the contact paper templates onto white paper and scanned the outlines.
I'm a Mechanical Engineer in consumer product design by trade, so designing custom speaker mounting adapters was par for the course. I took the above outline drawings and loaded them into my CAD software, and scaled the templates based on dimensions I took from the car. I took the mounting dimensions for the Polk speakers and played around with different arrangements of hardware to mount the speaker to the ring, and the ring to the car without having to cut or drill any new holes. Of course the right and left read door speaker brackets are completely different so that was annoying, but not completely unexpected. I took these models and 3D printed them. Overall, I had to repeat this process 2-3 times to get the adapters perfect, but this was also expected. Best part of 3D printing is the material is cheap (FDM using PLA) and quick to get final parts. The parts are plenty strong, but I may redo these parts at a later time using ABS or PET-G for better temperature resistance and strength.
I decided to use a completely custom set of hardware that I sourced from McMaster-Carr, so it only made sense to also update the hardware used to mount the subwoofer since my MDF panel has seen better days. I used long socket head cap screws and a washer+nylon locking nut on the back side so this will never come loose.
I also rewired the Kicker subwoofer back to the factory configuration, using the factory plugs, since I'll be running the subwoofer in the 2x2ohm configuration. i took some extra time to add EPDM foam to the wires to prevent any rattling, and wrapped it all up using fabric Tesa tape.
I did the same wire treatment on the factory subwoofer car-side harness and did a better job at sealing the rear bench subwoofer enclosure using foam and more sound deadening material.
Next step was to assemble the rear cargo area speakers with the custom hardware, and the 3D printed speaker adapters.
Below you can see the top and bottom side of the 3D printed adapter and how it transitions from the 'sqare' stock speaker shape to the round Polk DB402 shape. Mounting hardware was kept in the stock location so there is no modification necessary on the factory trim panels.
Secured to the trim panel using a backing washer, and a nylon locking nut. This won't back out no matter the vibration. And here is a view of the front side of the panel with the new speaker mounted. I'm not the biggest fan of the speaker grill since it's trying to be an aggressive and modern. Would definitely have preferred something with a simple grill (like the Focal RCX-100's) but wasn't willing to spend double the price for probably minimal gain.
Both rear cargo speakers installed and back in the truck. Everything fits perfect and looks fine overall. The sound difference between these Polk's and the OEM speakers should be night and day. Please excuse the droopy headliner. I ordered headliner material over a month ago and it still hasn't arrived.
For the rear door speaker install, I wanted to keep the factory plug in case there was any need in the future to go back to the stock setup. I decided to depin the speaker connector and solder wires in-line and shrink wrap. This would be fully reversible in the future if needed. Here are some tips to depin the speaker connector (this goes for all the speaker connectors on the truck since they're all the same). First, use a small flat head screwdriver and open up the body locking flap, shown below. Second, you'll need a depinning key (or you can get creative) and insert as shown below. The pin will slide right out.
Here shows the custom 3D printed speaker mounting adapter to the right rear door. I maintained the OEM speaker 'baffle' and the weather door seal. I used custom hardware here too, and attached the speaker mounting adapter using encapsulated hex head bolts with washers+nylon locking washers behind the speaker bracket. This was done, in similar fashion to the sub and rear cargo speakers, so they won't come loose with vibration. Below, you can also see I added in a connector to be able to remove the speaker without having to cut or desolder any wires. These connectors are commonly used as RC car battery connectors and are great. The wires all got the same treatment as elsewhere in the car using EPDM foam and fabric Tesa tape.
Polk DB652 Coaxial 6.5" Speakers installed in both left and right rear doors. I'll add the included speaker grills later but need to order longer hardware.
The weather also took a drastic turn for the summer a few days back, so I took some time to FINALLY wash the truck. Didn't have the time to do a full detail and paint correction, but a wash was desperately needed. Got a chance to test out the new foam cannon.
Love these soapy shots and hope this actually helps to not add more swirl marks.
The truck cleans up really nice! It'll start to look better and better as I get more time to detail and paint correct, but that will come later.
I also started to plastidip the chrome bits that I removed previously. So far I've completed the front turn signal guards and the rear taillight grills. They came out ok overall. Will definitely be powder coating in the future, but this will be a good temporary solution. The matte black plastidip provides a nice textured finish and also a nice contrast to the glossy black paint on the truck. More pictures of this when I get more of the parts finished. Also took out the shifter surround piece, removed the wrong direction carbon vinyl wrap to plastidip as well.
Now for the amplifier upgrades, this is how the system will perform. Final components are shown below.
Left: OEM 2005 G55 Amplifier (located under the driver's seat)
Middle: Rockford Fosgate Punch PBR amplifiers
1) PBR-300X4 - Front door speakers (75W @ 4ohms x2) and Rear door speakers (75W @ 4ohms x2).
2) PBR-400X4D - Rear cargo speakers (50W RMS @ 4ohms x2), Subwoofer (100W RMS @ 2ohmsx2)
Right: Kicker Front Row DSP
So the setup will look like this:
Kenwood KDC-BT572U
- Front Component Output
- Rear Component Output
->
Kicker Front Row DSP
->
RF PBR-300X4
RF PBR-400X4D
->
OEM Front Speaker Set (LF Door, RF Door, LF Dash, RF Dash, Center) - to be replaced by Polk DB6502 Component Speakers (100W RMS, 35Hz to 23kHz - 4ohms - 92dB Sensitivity)
Polk DB652 6.5" Coaxial Rear Door Speakers (100W RMS - 40Hz to 22kHz - 4ohms - 92dB Sensitivity)
Polk DB402 4" Coaxial Rear Cargo Speakers (45W RMS - 60Hz to 22kHz - 4ohms - 90dB Sensitivity)
Kicker CompRT 6.75" Subwoofer (150W RMS DVC - 30Hz to 500Hz - 2ohms DVC - 82.6dB Sensitivity)
The Kicker Front Row will use the full range audio signal and create a subwoofer channel that will be much more configurable than what the head unit can provide, as well as filling in missing frequencies from compressed music (that we all are listening to these days). It will also allow me to adjust several parameters including input/output gain, high pass, bandpass, and low pass crossovers for different front/rear/subwoofer outputs, clip limiters, and subwoofer phase. I've used this in the past for a previous audio project and the results were amazing with OEM speakers (volvo), so it should really shine with the RF amps and the Polk speakers.
I'll be making a custom mounting plate for the 2x Rockford Fosgate amps, and the Kicker Front row. Still figuring out the dimensions for that, but should not be that difficult to fit everything very nicely under the driver's seat so everything is hidden away.
I'll upload the speaker mounting adapters onto Thingiverse as well as any other custom parts I design for the G and link it here when this project is all wrapped up.
The running total of cost for this project breaks down like this:
- Kenwood KDC-BT572U - $130 (previous owner installed this)
- Axxess ASWC-1 - $50 (had this from a previous project)
- Knukonceptz Krystal Kable 2-ch RCA 2m twisted pair - $13.50x2
- Kicker Front Row - $250 (had this from a previous project)
- Rockford Fosgate PBR-300X4 - $200 (had this from a previous project)
- Rockford Fosgate 10AWG Amp Wiring Kit - $25
- Rockford Fosgate PBR-400X4D - $165 (on sale and being discontinued)
- Rockford Fosgate 8AWG Amp Wiring Kit - $60 (had this from a previous project)
- Polk Audio DB6502 Components - $180 (future purchase)
- Polk Audio DB652 Coaxials - $80 (for the pair)
- Polk Audio DB402 Coaxials - $60 (for the pair)
- Kicker CompRT 6.75" Subwoofer - $110
- Miscellaneous wires, connectors, shrink wrap, crimp tools etc - $50
So raw total cost is ~$1400, which is pretty steep. My total cost for this project thus far (not including previously purchased things) is ~$500, which I am fine with given how good I know the system will sound compared to the OEM system.
As always, any comments, suggestions, and feedback are welcome!
Awesome progress....I'm watching closely and taking notes. What kind of foam cannon and soap did you use for the wash? I also want to powder-coat my G's chrome turn-signal cages....what color are you going with (my G is also 040) and what advice can you give me to pass along to my shop? Thanks.
Awesome progress....I'm watching closely and taking notes. What kind of foam cannon and soap did you use for the wash? I also want to powder-coat my G's chrome turn-signal cages....what color are you going with (my G is also 040) and what advice can you give me to pass along to my shop? Thanks.
I purchased this foam cannon from amazon based on reviews and several 'best foam cannon' articles and Youtube reviews. Also it was cheap, but don't expect it to wow you in the quality department. However, it works well overall so far.
For powdercoating the chrome bits, I would suggest a matte or satin black with a medium texture. I like that contrasting look to the gloss black paint and also the more rugged look of adding some texture, but your preference may differ. I think any Satin or Matte black will look great overall against gloss black paint. Just ask them for powdercoating samples of the color and texture first to compare in different types of light. Starting with small pieces first would be a good safe bet without throwing money away.
Ughhhhh definitely see some of this in my future. Love the stock setup now that I have bluetooth going, but jeez... this is next level.
Great work!
If you eventually do want to upgrade the sound system, I think you'll have a much better time at it since you still have the OEM radio/head unit. With my aftermarket single DIN, I have no fine controls and I would venture it sounds significantly worse than the OEM system since the head unit, amp and speakers aren't matched. Now if you decide to change the head unit, then welcome to my world!
I can 3D print you the speaker adapters since the ones I designed should work with minor tweaks for any aftermarket set. Just need to know which set so I can adjust the mounting holes. Just LMK.
04-22-2020, 12:13 AM
