Everyone knows I installed a sub in my 2010 Camaro. It was so stupidly simple I could get 4yr old drunk off Danny Tea and they could still install it in under an hour. Well then came the old switch a roo and I traded the 2010 Camaro SS in for a 2010 Shelby GT500. The Shelby came with the Shaker 500 sound system which includes 4x 6x8" speakers at 25w and 2x 8" woofers at... 200w (all peak... RMS much much lower).
After having my Boston Acoustics GTA-312-44 in my Camaro... stock systems just can't satisfy my need to feel my head pound and body shake as I drive down the road. So, after Christmas I proceeded to buy the necessary materials: Q-logic Ford Mustang Box (05-09, more on this later), line in adapter and street wires amp install kit. At this point, all I know is I want a sub in my Shelby. That is all.
Proceed to installation day... well what I thought was installation day. I started laying down the equivilant of dynamat and covered the bottom and sub side of the trunk including the spare tire well. Wasn't too bad... this is the most exhausting activity. Took hours to put down just 1 layer. After said rubber was laid down I proceeded to wire up the amp. I spent 2+ hours disassembling my interior (w/o any guide) attempting to find a place in the firewall to run my amp's power cable through but to no avail. I finally broke out the iPad in my garage and found out that if you remove the interior fender cover on the passenger side tire you can clip a plastic cover in the firewall and run it on through... FINALLY!
So I ran the amp lead through the plastic sheeth in the firewall and along the kick panel/door sill. Then there was the matter of the remote trigger wire (what causes the amp to turn on when the car turns on). Well... despite much searching I found nothing on 2010 Mustangs but I did find something on an 06. They had a general description of where the wire was so I poked around in a wire bundle that was at least 2.5" in circumfrence and pulled out a wire. I then spliced the remote wire to the amp into a wire which was an educated guess at best.
Then there was the problem of where to place the amp. On the Camaro I ordered a rack that sat opposite the sub and blended in perfectly. There was no such option on the Shelby. I looked at the interior I had disassembled and thought. I eventually decided I could suspend the amp from the rear deck. I went to Home Depot and bought some bolts and spacers. I contorted myself into the trunk and drilled 4 holes and suspended the amp and ran the power leads.
Now I thought the amp had power but where do I get the signal? Well based on my research you had 3 options: tap the rear speaker leads, tap the sub signal... err "woofers" in the door, or use the speaker level input adapter Boston provides. Well, I lost the adapter so that option was out so I decided to go with the woof signal for the sub. I thought maybe Ford had a crossover of sorts and limited the bass signal to the woofer amps. After hours of contorting my hands, fingers and body I tapped the leads (the amps are on the driver's side wall to the left of the clutch). I ghetto rigged up the line out signal adapter to the amp and then to the sub just to see if the signal worked. Nothing. Not so much as a thump.
I cut the wires to the line out adapter and proceeded to tap the rear speaker leads. One problem, which wire is positive and which is negative? I had already spent too much time tapping the wrong leads ... so I didn't want to waste more time. I mean, it's 1am and I have work the next day at this point. I found a guy online who did a rear speaker replacement on an 08-09 and based on his pictures I deduced which was positive and which was negative. No idea if I was right at this point. So I twisted all the wires together and crossed my fingers.
MONEY!
The sub worked, finally. So the next step was to splice in the wires appropriately so they wouldn't come loose. I then attached the line output adapter to the rear deck with double sided foam tape. We'll see how it holds. After that I pulled the sub out of the Camaro box which it had been in until this point and threw the Q logic box into the trunk. What I didn't mention before is in the 2010 Mustang's w/ Shaker 500... Ford moved the stock amp/sync module to the passenger side trunk behind the carpet. Right where the sub box is supposed to go. So I relocated the modules to the spare tire well since I don't have a spare.
After that I put the box in it's proper place and bolted it to the body as instructed. The problem was it doesn't fit right. This you would expect from a box made for 05-09 Mustangs. On ebay the auction said it was 05-10 and the seller was Q logic direct. Soooo I went with it despite my gut feeling it wouldn't fit. Well I got the box itself to fit however it also comes with a black plastic cover of sorts to cover up the screws in the woofer, the speaker leaders, etc. I worked that cover for an hour trying to get it into place. I dremeled off part of it which didn't fit the rear part of the trunk well and still I couldn't get the sub installed with the cover. I finally said F it and tossed the "cover". I drilled into the box and tightened the sub down. Everything is installed now... finally. I put the trunk back together and tested it out.
Money!
It's pimping. One problem: trunk rattle. I refused to be one of those people who has a sub and rolls down the street with their trunk rattling.
So tomorrow I have to lay down 2-3 more layers of the dynamat crap and reduce the rattle to an acceptable level.
Parts:
- Boston Acoustics GTA-312-44 12" Sub
- Boston Acoustics GTA-400M Amp
- Street Wires 8 gauge amp install kit
- Q Logic box Ford Mustang 05-09
- Lots of bolts
- Rattle Trap XTreme Kit - Ebay (Dynamat equivilant)
Pictures:
The original car:
Dynamat install:
Interior Disassembled:
Somewhere for the Amp power lead:
Remote wire tap:
Rear Deck:
Amp Installed:
Ghetto Signal Tap:
Final Wiring:
Sub Box w/ Plastic Cover:
Final Sub install:
Car reassembled:
Variable Bass Level Knob:]
All in all it took me 3 days and probably about 20 hours to get this crap right.
Time well spent.
I threw on "Porn Star Dancing" to test it out and I about had my head rattled off. Now I just need to replace the interior speakers next month with Boston Acoustics SR-50 speakers in the front and rear. Then I will be happy.