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WJ Custom Infinity Stereo Upgrade/Overhaul *pic heavy*

32K views 147 replies 21 participants last post by  silentbob21 
#1 ·
WJ Custom Infinity Stereo Upgrade/Overhaul *pic heavy* --completed--

well I have been sitting ontop of some parts for a good long while and finally got around to starting this project earlier this week. Its coming along slow at the moment due to school and whatnot but its coming which is whats important!

I figured I would post some pics and keep you guys updated with the progress incase anyone is interested.

Things I am doing include:

-New Head unit (Installed)
-I ran remote USB and 3.5mm headphone jacks into the center console

-New Component speakers front and rear with dash and rear mounted tweeters, Diamond Audio 6x9s and 6.5s
-Diamond Audio D910 sub in the rear with a custom box which I have stared on but not really close to done haha
-Running two amps, 4 channel Kenwood and a Monoblock Kenwood
-also throwing some sound deadening material in all 4 doors and in the rear cargo area, which will hopefully help with my road noise as well
-and of course 1/0 wiring for the amps
-I am sure there is something else I am leaving out but Ill just post as I go along

Here are a few pics of some of the pieces of the build:





Here are some pics of whats done thus far:

before pics




and what I have accomplished and taken pictures of so far:
built a base/mounting point and trimmed rear quarter panel of the plastic I didnt need anymore


building my mold and prepping for the fiberglass



mold turned out awesome, of course with a few imperfections but this is my first fiberglass experience and the humidity didnt help me much, i am fixing it and making it stronger though


The mold is out and looks amazing, I will get some pics of it up tomorrow, when I hopefully get a chance to work on it some more and possibly start the amp install....

much more to come
 
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#3 ·
thanks, you and me both haha

heres a pic of the head unit, simple but effective. Kenwood KDC-X995


couple pics of the base mold so you can get an idea of how it will look ish when finished. tried to use up as much "unusable" storage space as I could to retain what I have for camping and general offroad use.

from front:


from rear:


of course some of the foil didnt come off but thats no big deal, wont even know its there when its complete.

also worked on fabing up the sub ring mounts, gonna make it sit flush inside the box for a cleaner look:
 
#7 ·
Looks really good. Nice work!!! I'm in the process of doing the same thing, using polka audio amp with focal components and Fosgate sub with Kenwood or Fosgate amp (haven't decided yet). Any more pics of the sub enclosure build? Right now I'm just building standard box that i can easily remove if need be but wouldnt mind looking into something custom (never did fiberglass work before though).
 
#8 ·
this is my first time working with fiberglass, and I will say even though I knew it wouldnt be simple I didnt anticipate how much it would suck haha, especially trying to get the mat into small crevices haha

I havnt done anything else to it yet but I am about to go work on it now, and hopefully get to making the outside shape or at least planning it out to get my volume today, we shall see.

In the mean time, here is a pic of some of the cabling for my power needs:

KnuKonceptz style 1/0
 
#15 ·
well I finished the fiberglass on the base mold, started the process of trimming it up but I didnt finish... its turning out to take much longer than I had anticipated haha



also did some cutting to fit the amps under the rear seats, this is just an idea of where they are gonna end up




One issue I have is where I am going to put my crossovers.

The way I see it I can:
1) mount all 4 somewhere not under the seats or try and squeeze them in
2) run 2 crossovers for the front only and run the rear speakers as coaxial making it easier to fit them under the seats
3) run all 4 as coaxial but then the dash mounted tweeters are much harder or out of the question
4) mount the crossovers in the doors which will require lots of new speaker wire

any thoughts ?
 
#18 ·
...

One issue I have is where I am going to put my crossovers.

The way I see it I can:
1) mount all 4 somewhere not under the seats or try and squeeze them in
2) run 2 crossovers for the front only and run the rear speakers as coaxial making it easier to fit them under the seats
3) run all 4 as coaxial but then the dash mounted tweeters are much harder or out of the question
4) mount the crossovers in the doors which will require lots of new speaker wire

any thoughts ?
Seeing you're running 35's is you spare-tire area empty? I'm putting all my stuff in there.
 
#16 ·
I put my crossovers for the front on either side down by the "kickplates" below the dash. They are hidden from view, less risk of getting any moisture on them (i go wheeling with my jeep so water is often present) and they are easy to access if i ever need to change settings on them. It did use extra wire but since i was already running brand new speaker wire to all my doors i didn't really care too much lol.

I don't thing i would put them under the rear seat, seems like it would be a good idea but then you would actually be using more wire then if you put them in your doors or "kickplates". You would have to run long speaker wires for your tweeters and door speakers all the way back instead of just your input wire, if that makes sense.

i can try and takes pics later if you'd like to see where im talking about.
 
#22 ·
I ordered the single amp 1/0 kit because the dual was on backorder and I got the bigger distro block, has 2 imputs and 3 outputs so I can later run a second battery and power cable for my roof lights and whatever else. simple design but seems solid.

Where did you drill through the firewall at ? and you removed the front seats to wire it? not bad... I might have to do the same haha, give me a chance to clean it really well too haha. I have plenty of room in the engine bay with the 4.0 but running it in the cab is gonna be another story. did you run in along the driverside or pass side ? curious where you hid it.

I was thinkin of running my RCAs straight back from the stereo through the center console to make it easier for everything else, we shall see... I havnt exactly planned everything out yet just kind of taking it a step at a time.

No work done on it today, bummer

Did wash the bike though haha
 
#23 ·
Where did you drill through the firewall at ? and you removed the front seats to wire it? not bad... I might have to do the same haha, give me a chance to clean it really well too haha. I have plenty of room in the engine bay with the 4.0 but running it in the cab is gonna be another story. did you run in along the driverside or pass side ? curious where you hid it.

I was thinkin of running my RCAs straight back from the stereo through the center console to make it easier for everything else, we shall see... I havnt exactly planned everything out yet just kind of taking it a step at a time.
My battery is on the passenger side. So I stayed on that side due to the limited length of cable (didn't make a difference as there was even less room on the drivers side). The ECM is mounted on the passenger side firewall. I removed both parts of it and found a 4 inch by 4 inch flat part of the firewall. The section I'm speaking of is right next to the master wire harness. That wire harness is closest to the fender, I drilled a small 1/8th hold 5 inches away from the center of the harness (meaning closer to the drivers side) and about two inches down from the center. I ran a small wire through the hole and found that I could just barely reach it from inside, but that's as low as I could make the hole as any lower and I'd hit the inner fender. I used a bimetal hole saw and made a hole the same size as the plastic grommet they provide.

The beauty of that cable is it's soooo flexible. I was able to push it through and eventually get it to aim down towards the floor mat. I then ran the cable right to the back, running it about six inches from the inside of the rocker panel.

My plan was simple, run the 3 RCA's and remote turn-on on the floor closest to the center console hump. Run the speaker wires (3 pairs in my case) down the outside edge of the rocker panel (under the plastic trim by the doors), and run the power cable kind of in the middle.

Taking the seats out was all of about 10 minutes and made lifting the carpet possible.

The only obstacle at this point is how to get all that cable into the spare tire area. There's no way into the spare area except through the obvious lid. Problem is the wires are too big for the cover to sit flush. Will probably have drill a hole in the floor and route the wires into the spare tire area. You won't have this problem if you put everything under the rear seats.
 
#24 ·
nice, I suppose I will just go the under the carpet route as well will make separating the cables that much easier for sure. and will allow me to run speaker wire down either side of the rocker panels so I can mount my crossovers up front and I should be able to squeeze the rear crossovers under the rear seats which will be nice.

I have convertible speakers for the doors and I know the sound stage will be better if I remote mount the tweeters so Id like to make that as easy as possible.

No work on the Jeep today as I didnt have time really, but hopefully tomorrow I can work on it some. Finals this week so its not looking too great at the moment but next weekend for sure and the following weeks until its complete.
 
#25 ·
not a good place for the amps. they will get hot under the seats, and if something ever happens with the amp, its an easy place to set your jeep on fire.
 
#27 ·
The factory amp was fine under there for years... and the amps both have dual built in fans and the seats do not seal there is still some room under there. ive never had an amp catch fire, not sayin it couldnt happen but im willing to take my chances with this setup.

I think anyplace in the Jeep is an easy place to set fire to it haha
 
#26 ·
here is where i mounted my xovers. they are just temp. though untill i get my HU fixed.



and here is how i ran my power cable. under driver seat, and up through the rear.

 
#30 ·
1greg42 said:
4 fat wires throw the firewall...i cant even figure out where to run an 8 gauge lmaoo
If all you are running is an 8 gauge run it through the grommet on drivers side, easiest way just need a little extra cable.
 
#34 ·
You can see the fan vents in this pic, the slits on either side of the rear of the amps are the fans so it should have sufficient enough room to cool. I will keep an eye on it of course but I dont foresee it being a big issue. Im in SoCal so the temps are very mild, I cant even remember a frost haha



you can also see in the carpet where the seats rest in the back, there is a good 4-5 inches of empty space that vents to either side.
 
#35 ·
ok well I got a good start on the wiring today, ill have to snap some more pics tomorrow... but ran the power through firewall and back to where amps will be and ran the RCAs also from deck to amps. Plan to finish the underhood stuff tomorrow and see what else I have time for. Havnt made much progress on the box but I will soon, its too time consuming to work on it with finals haha.

drilled firewall and ran 1/0 pretty much straight back, was relatively easy.


pic of the cabling going to head unit
 
#38 ·
A few more pics of the 1/0 power cable in the engine bay and the fuse holder mounted. I still have to finish the battery terminals and upgrade the big 3 so how it is now is only temporary

you can see the loom covered power cable routed behind the battery then under/behind the overflow reservoir and back to the firewall, almost completely hidden





and the other end of the power cable and RCAs back at the rear seats

 
#40 ·
no they aren't haha, I figure I might as well just do it right once

I should have gotten a little shorter once though, but they only offer 2M and 4M the 2 meter would have been real close a 3M would have been perfect but I can hide a little extra cable no big deal
 
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