'95 Vert w/Mach 460 Stereo Upgrade

InstaBurn

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Hey guys,

I have a thread on DIYMA and could use some SN95 specific comments and advice on this system install.

A good friend of mine has allowed me to work my magic, good or bad...hopefully good, on his low mileage 95 vert.

His CD + AM/FM Stereo unit just couldn't help cutting out every few years or so and he was done with buying replacement FORD Factory parts that cost a lot and wouldn't last.

I looked through quite a few posts online on various mustang forums and tried to take notes on what others have done and what works / doesn't work.
I have spent approx 3 months on this... working on it off and on over this summer.

Early in the "reasearch phase" of this build... I was made aware of the fact that the double-din sized A/C radio bezel of the newer model mustangs fit over the older face area of this '95 model.. so I took that approach to the factory head unit area and made sure what I planned would be a good fit.

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I test fit the more modern bezel and it looks like a good match.
The two tabs you can see from the old split style radio config easily break off and allow room for the full double-din sized radio of your choice.

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A, Kenwood eXcelon DPX791BH, is planned for the double-din area...
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_95019.html

Overall, the general idea is to simply "upgrade" every stock component to a better and more modern version( in the same factory location) + add subs in the trunk for some added "boom-boom-pow".

Amps will be all "Old School-ish" amps:

5ch - Eclipse EA3532 - Running the 5x7/6x8" Front Coaxial + Dayton 3" units In the front door pods & the two 6.5" "subwoofers" in the rear pods.

Front Coaxial Speakers:
Infinity Kappa 6829CF
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-bF2fPq8hBKh/p_1086829CF/Infinity-Kappa-682-9cf.html


MTX Amps - Qty2
Dynamic @ 14.4V =800 Watts each.
(MTX 6500D & MTX 805D ) On the Alpine Type R 10' s.

Kenwood head unit will drive the rear 3" Daytons.



This was a project I wanted to be involved with because this is for a friend's son who is turning 17 and this will be his first car etc etc.
At his age, I also had a white convertible with a stereo system and it is a time in my life I will never forget.

My first step was to quickly evaluate the fitment of the eBay sourced 10" sub enclosures.

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You may have guessed.... those are Alpine Type R 10" Dual 4ohm VC subs, circa 1998-1999 time frame.
I kept those subs and used them in every car stereo throughout high school and college.
At some point they lay dormant for 5+ years in my garage while "life" happened and I got married, had kids etc.
I was excited about being able to use them again.

After fitment was verified, I proceeded to remove all panels and see what I was up against.

Since this has the factory Mach 460 system, I planned on simply unbolting the factory amps and replace them with much more powerful aftermarket versions.

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If you've ever removed the factory amps... there are some studs that require "help" to be free of their original locations.

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Take a medium sized pair of pliers and work the stud back and forth... it will eventually come loose and be free.

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Of course, I also recycled my MTX Thunder Monoblock Amps from back in the day.

With the cumbersome studs out of the way, they fit great.

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With the test fitment of the basic components completed, I went to town on the sound deadening and tackled every area I could, knowing the trunk would be the worst culprit for rattles etc.

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Once that was done, I re-mounted the amps and started adding wire... lots of wire.

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Because of the angle of the power and ground terminals, I had to get creative and fashion some creative lug adapters for them so the ring lugs didn't protrude into the back seat area.

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Everything fits pretty good.
Next up, rear speaker pods... and some complications.
 
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InstaBurn

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Rear Speaker pod Woes!

It took some time, but after a while I found some Dayton 3" full range units that fit, sorta, for the factory tweeter location... and some Dayton 6.5" Subwoofers for the original 5"-ish woofer location.

3" Daytons
http://www.parts-express.com/IE--295-380

6.5" Subwoofers
http://www.parts-express.com/IE--295-198

Spacers and massaging of the original 5" holes was required.

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I ended up having some rings made, I may choose to get rid of them and use some Butyl rope to close the gaps due to some clearance issues when putting the factory panels back over the finished pods.

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Currently, the tweeter... and the woofer (I can't see what's going on behind the factory panel) are having clearance issues.

So, with the spacers, the 3" dayton protrudes too far forward and interferes with the factory speaker grille.

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So the plan is to install some speaker grilles over the woofers and figure out a better way to fashion the 3" daytons..
Both solutions may include removing the spacing rings and fill the gaps via other methods due to the tight tolerances of the factory panels.

Either way, the lower 6.5" grilles are probably a good idea no matter what.
The factory panles have some odd spiral plastic shapes that could possibly damage the speaker.
Better safe than sorry.

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ttocs

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looks like fun! FYI the hole in the back of the woofer is for cooling it and its generally bad to have it covered by the back of the enclosure. Its only an issue if your jamming on it for a little while but you normally want to leave some space between it and anything behind it.
 
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InstaBurn

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Yeah, the back of the factory pods is not completely flat and only the edge of the speaker hits certain areas of the back-side.

The major bummer is the factory plastic cover that interferes with the normal operation of the replacement speakers.
Having them self destruct after 2 weeks would be a mistake.
 

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Those factory speaker covers are a PITA and rip easily.

I had big plans for the rear setup in my vert but once I saw the "pods" I gave in and popped a set of MB Quart 6.5 Co Axes and covered the tweeter hole up. It saved me lots of time and when the top is down you don't get much fill from the rear anyway. Focus your attention on the front like Scott did with his. I have Boston Pro 6.5 in the door and matching tweeter in the stock upper door location. I picked up some kick panel pods to add in later so I can add maybe a 5" in there for more sound.
 
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Those factory speaker covers are a PITA and rip easily.

I had big plans for the rear setup in my vert but once I saw the "pods" I gave in and popped a set of MB Quart 6.5 Co Axes and covered the tweeter hole up. It saved me lots of time and when the top is down you don't get much fill from the rear anyway. Focus your attention on the front like Scott did with his. I have Boston Pro 6.5 in the door and matching tweeter in the stock upper door location. I picked up some kick panel pods to add in later so I can add maybe a 5" in there for more sound.
With the vert, I am thinking the bass from the trunk is going to be muffled so having the most amount of bass near the passengers was made a priority.

I am going to remove the spacer rings and try some 3M Butyl Rope / Windshield rope sealer and see how the gaps turn out.

There is a chance I can get away with minimal filler... especially on the 3"dayton.
For the 6.5" ... I may only keep a semi-circle of the spacer since some parts of the woofer lay flush on the factory pod.
It's one of those, "It's close enough" situations where I have to try it before I give up on them entirely.

At worst, I could go the coaxial 6.5" route and install the block-off plates.

The good thing is, I have options.
 

ttocs

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Your going to make a mess I really would not recommend that. If you need space see if there is any space behind the woofer area of the enclosure. If there is cut the back out and its not hard to get some epoxy or a plastic welding kit to put a new back on to make the space needed.

Also FYI the double din dash doesn't mate up with the old style shift ring all that well. IT will fit but there is a gap that looks a little weird IMO so if you can try to get the shift bezel from a new style as well.
 
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InstaBurn

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Your going to make a mess I really would not recommend that. If you need space see if there is any space behind the woofer area of the enclosure. If there is cut the back out and its not hard to get some epoxy or a plastic welding kit to put a new back on to make the space needed.

Also FYI the double din dash doesn't mate up with the old style shift ring all that well. IT will fit but there is a gap that looks a little weird IMO so if you can try to get the shift bezel from a new style as well.
I will be sure to make sure I keep the mess to a minimum...
I hear ya, but I just want to make what i have work... maybe a little too much I guess.
I dunno, I will think about it before going further on this fitment adventure.

I was afraid of the shifter console bezel not fitting correctly.
Thanks for the heads up.
I will get one on order.
 
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I ordered up the AT shifter console plastic cover thing from eBay.
Says it will be coming from a 2001 AT v6 model.

Does anyone know the part number for the dummy round plastic "hole fillers" for the bottom front of the A/C bezel?

I have 3 holes I need to fill...
 

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Are those Alpine grill covers over the subs or do you remember the brand?

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk
 

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With the vert, I am thinking the bass from the trunk is going to be muffled so having the most amount of bass near the passengers was made a priority.

I am going to remove the spacer rings and try some 3M Butyl Rope / Windshield rope sealer and see how the gaps turn out.

I run a 12" JL sub in a small sealed enclosure and it has plenty of bass even when the top is down.
 
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Are those Alpine grill covers over the subs or do you remember the brand?

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk
Those are 10" POLK db series (momo perhaps?) grilles.
Bought from eBay. $20 i think.

I chose them because they look much nicer than the generic black honeycomb style grilles.

They ended up matching with the speakers pretty well... I think.
 
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InstaBurn

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I ordered up the AT shifter console plastic cover thing from eBay.
Says it will be coming from a 2001 AT v6 model.

Does anyone know the part number for the dummy round plastic "hole fillers" for the bottom front of the A/C bezel?

I have 3 holes I need to fill...
Found them.

96FZ-6306202-AA
PLUG - SWITCH HOLE B
 
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InstaBurn

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Allrighty.
Big update here.
(This progress was made over the past 2 days, working at least 8hrs each day.)

After many trials and test fitments, the tweeters in the rear pods were taken out and deleted....they simply would not fit.

So, the blank "tweeter delete" cover plates went onto the rear panels. This will make the car front stage only... which isn't so bad actually, considering the rear tweeters are almost next to your ear when the seat is all the way back and slightly reclined.

During the efforts to make the tweeters fit, I aquired a heat gun and got a little creative with the pods and the clearance to fit the new bigger 6.5" woofers.

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Turns out, the inner plastic was just slightly too tall...
Just apply a little heat and smooshy smooshy... viola! The magnet pushed the melted plastic out of the way just enough to allow for the speaker to fit flush in the cavity. NICE.

After that saga was concluded, I was compelled to make up for the lost tweeter in the back, so I ordered up some Infinity Kappa coaxials for the lower speaker area in the front doors.

http://www.woofersetc.com/p-6696-6829cf-infinity-5x7-6x8-2-way-kappa-coaxial-speakers.html

These are hooked up to the front channel of the amp. They come with a nice little cross-over dongle and some other integrated filters for the tweeter. Just right for lots of sound up front.

The 3" Daytons fit nicely in the upper tweeter pods and are hooked up to the rear channel output of the amp. I engaged the high pass filter for these, which is a non-adjustable 200Hz on the rear channel... nearly perfect for these little guys.

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Both doors got Dynamat Extreme and were looking good.

Once I got the door panels back on, it was time for a sound check to make sure all of my wiring was correct and nothing was amiss.

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Everything sounded great and there were no technical issues whatsoever.

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When turned up, The rear pod area rattled just a bit... so I felt around and applied pressure in various places to see if I could determine if it was the plastic panel or the pod itself.
The rear pods themselves were the culprit, so I got a little creative and landed some Teck sheet metal screws through the back side of the empty tweeter void and into the body panel.
This secured the pods much better and cleaned up any and all rattles in the rear pods... Awesome.

... so I vacuumed up the interior and buttoned up the rest of the car.

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The trunk was a challenge, that's for sure.

The eBay sourced sub boxes and amp rack w/plexi cover didn't quite fit as expected.
The original orientation was to have the gold stripe on the amp going from left to right... this positioned the wires on the left and right hand sides of the amp.
Well... that directly conflicts with having the sub boxes butted up against the left and right sides of the amp rack area. It left zero room for any wiring whatsoever.

So, I had to get creative and rotate the amp and run the wires in a completely different direction.

It all worked out... but it ate an extra 3 or 4 hours of time re-routing wires and cleaning everything up.
In the end, it turned out great and looking pretty.

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Overall, the only thing I am not super crazy about is the fitment of the AC bezel with the lower shifter bezel.

I bought the appropriate matching '01 trim piece, but it has a very different cigarette lighter assembly.
I was unable to confidently remove the '95 lighter housing and since it is fairly secure in its place, I opted to just "make it fit" with regards to the modern double din radio bezel and the older AT shifter plate.
It's not terrible, but not 100% as I would like.

I sourced a cigarette lighter sized dual usb charger insert that accepts spade connectors to match up with the new modern 2001 AT shifter bezel.
When that comes in, I will pop off the original '95 piece and splice in the new dual USB charger with the '01 AT trim to complete the fit-form-function of the A/C Radio assembly.

Until then, I will close this chapter until the next challenge.

If anyone is interested in the massive list of parts used/modded in this build, let me know.
 

ttocs

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to remove the cig lighter all you should need to do is stick you thumb in it and rotate the back side.
 
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to remove the cig lighter all you should need to do is stick you thumb in it and rotate the back side.
Hmm.
I will try that..

Should I lick my thumb before I stick it in?[emoji12]
 

ttocs

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no you will want all the traction you can get. The front/back normally just screw on with the dash in between.
 
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no you will want all the traction you can get. The front/back normally just screw on with the dash in between.
This unit is kinda funky.
It has a hinge with a spring and it really doesn't feel like it's going to come out cleanly.

So, I got this cool usb charger thing that takes the place of a normal cigarette Plug slot.

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