We are finally here, it’s been a long road to get to this point, with the holiday season, Remote Starter Season and other delays, it took us longer than normal to get a job of this size (or any job for that matter) done. But we feel that it was well worth it!
Everything came out just as we had hoped/planned. For anyone who missed the first 5 posts on this vehicle and those who can’t remember them, I will recap what was done up to this point as well in this post.
Brodheadsville Chevrolet wanted to maintain the factory radio so we used a new product from Memphis called the 6iX, which is a 6 channel line out converter. You can run 2, 4, or 6 channels of input (high level) and run 6 channels of output (low level), 2 of which are sub channels with a remote level knob. We flush mounted this knob and status L.E.D. in the dash above the radio.
For the front stage we chose Memphis Msync5 components with the mids mounted in the factory door locations. The tweeters were flush mounted into the factory A-Pillars, and yes the swivel option on the tweeters still work! For the rear fill we chose Memphis MC6 2-way Coax’s mounted in the factory rear door locations.
The rear hatch is where the excitement really comes in. We flush mounted the x-overs for the front components in the taillight access panels and added blue L.E.D.’s to light up the x-overs, these panels were then covered in black ultra suede. We took out the filler panel where the factory sub option would have went if equipped as such. We added a piece of acrylic that we painted to match the vehicle with one of our Custom Installation logo’s in blue on the front, we then edge lit the acrylic with white L.E.D.’s which gives the logo a “floating” effect.
The box/amp rack were built as a single unit and fit into the area above the spare tire well. We added steel angle stock across the back of the hatch for added support. The box was then attached to this steel using 4, 4″ heavy duty hinges allowing the box to lift to give access to the spare tire. The box was sprayed with a black truck bed liner to give a clean appearance. The Memphis 5 channel amp was mounted in the amp rack portion of the box and covered with a piece of 1/4″ acrylic with a hand cut Chevrolet “bowtie” logo in it, we then “frosted” the acrylic to help with the edge lighting effect we wanted for the bowtie. Blue L.E.D.’s were used to achieve this effect.
The sub portion of the box was covered with 1/4″ acrylic that we painted to match the vehicle. This piece of acrylic was also edge lit with blue L.E.D.’s. We added 2 nylon finger loops to allow easy lifting of the box for access to the spare tire. Underneath the box is a 1/2″ metal rod that we painted to match the vehicle attached to 2 heavy duty brackets to create a hinge for the rod, this rod can be lowered into a vertical position to “prop” the box up while accessing the tire and or the vehicle’s battery. To finish off the installation we added a matching suede covered beauty panel.
A couple of questions that you may have are:
Why didn’t we motorize the box?
While we agree that motorizing the box would have been cool, with the weight of the box, subs, amp & trim, it would be hard to have a standard actuator be reliable with the angle needed to lift it high enough to allow access to the tire but allow the box to still close fully, without getting into a telescoping actuator which could literally have cost as much as if not more than the entire installation we performed. And in all actuality, how many times will you need to get to the spare tire or battery, to where you would need it motorized?
Why did we use the Chevrolet logo for over the amp rack? Why not use something cooler or trendy like flames?
Well, flames can be just that, trendy, this is a vehicle that is owned by a car dealer, a Chevrolet one specifically. You don’t know who will end up purchasing this vehicle, not everyone would have liked flames, or a tribal design etc… Anyone purchasing this vehicle will be comfortable purchasing a Chevrolet, that is why they bought it at that point. The bottom line is: The Chevrolet “Bowtie” is recognized worldwide, and no one would be turned off by that logo being on/in their new Chevrolet.
Well, that about wraps it all up, I hope you like the final product, and as always we look forward to your comments, simply click below to leave one.
This audio build is so awesome, i wish i would have found it 6 months ago.
For monthes i wanted the same design done to my 08 Chevy hhr LT and a co-worker referred me to a audio shop in Wilmington, DE so i went with it. In my opinion they did a very poor tacky job of making the hidden box for under the floor. I have lost my spare tire area completely so that i no longer have my spare tire or jack in my car just to fit one 10″ DIrected Sub and 4 channel Extreme and 2 channel Extreme Amp’s and my Cap. If your store wasn’t two hours from where i live and i had the money i would strongly consider in dropping my HHR off and having you replicate this build to my HHR.
Major Kudos’s