RE: Wiring an amp?

["Neal Tovsen" <ntovsen@piper.hamline.edu>]

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>- What's everybody doing for custom installs of hardware in our
>(relatively) small cars?
>
>TBerk

I built a "shelf" of sorts out of wood that sits vertically flush with the
back of the rear seat. It is just a bit wider than the distance between the
rear shock towers and thick enough so that it gets pinned between the towers
and the seat. I also had a beat-up spare rear deck, so I ripped the carpet
off of it for use on the shelf, and it looks almost factory-installed. It
takes up almost no space (though my sub makes up for it). The wiring is all
behind the wood, and I cut holes in the wood (but only small slits in the
carpet) for the wires to pass through, so it looks like the wires emerge
right out of the carpet and go into the connecting block for the amp. Very
simple, very clean. If you were at Cincy last spring, that was my car in the
garage getting the custom component speaker install from Jody Baily. I think
I've got some pictures around here somewhere...

There are no screws or anything, but I've autocrossed with it in several
times and had no trouble at all. It can barely move at all (as long as the
rear seat is in, of course!). I just finished a quick-disconnect setup for
everything, too. We're talking a lot of wires here: a two channel amp for
the sub, a four channel for the mains, all the power wires, RCA cables, and
relay wires. For the high-power connections to the speakers (out of the
amplifer to the speakers), I used some connectors that I've been using for
years in my radio controlled cars. They're super low resistance and about
the right size for a good set of 12ga speaker wires. They also snap together
into blocks, so all the wires come apart as one big connector-block! For the
power wires, I just used regular car audio distribution blocks.

The quick disconnect works great for pulling the assembly out for
autocrossing or carrying large loads. I can completely gut the back half of
the car (including the sub, amps, spare tire, and rear seat) in less than 5
minutes with only 4 screws (two for the sub, two for the seat bench). Works
pretty damn well, if you ask me, and sounds great to boot. I have a friend
with the 15" spare-tire-sub setup, and it works great for him, but he has a
mk1 Rabbit with a full-size spare. My mini-spare doesn't have enough volume
to make a good enclosure (at least for the 10" I'm running).

Next I'm going to build an in-car MP3 player, but I haven't decided whether
it will go in the Scirocco or the 2.5RS yet. I didn't want to spend all that
time and money on a system that would be in storage for 5 months of the
year, but now that I'm moving to Florida, I can drive the Scirocco
year-round!

~Neal
88 16v


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