New Plans For My Lexus Is200, Need Inputs From You Guys.

[Angrykid]

Hi. First of all, I think this is my first post on this forum. I live in a small town just north of Trondheim in Norway. I'm 29 years of age, and I have built sound systems in every car I've owend since I was 18 years of age. Just recently bought my is200 sport edition, with the manual 6 gear changer and the stock sound system. I think it's not loud enough, and I don't like the sound of it. Kind of flat and boring, to be honest. And the awesome casette player.. hehe :D don't get me started.. :)

I love all the ideas and the knowledge found on the site, and that's why I thought it would be a nice place to start planning my build. So, I'll let you in on some ideas I have, and I hope to get some inputs from all of you. So, I'll just start then.. :)

Here's my thoughts.

New headunit, of course. Thinking for a 2din player with dvd and a screen. I'm not too sure about the screen, though, since I have a sat-nav in my car, but it's the CD version of the system, so I'm thinking about just skipping it all, and just use the screen to show dvd's on. I'm not too sure about this, but I'll have a look at what I can use it for.. I've heard of some kind of adaptor that can be bought, which makes the screen able to display 4 inputs. Is this correct?

Front speakers. I'm thinking about getting some Rainbow Germanium CS265.25. I have these in my MR2, and I love the sound of them. :) So I will continue to use them. If you have not heard about the system before, please take a while and read up on their homepage, www.rainbow-audio.de :)

Rear speakers will be plugged out and removed. I don't like it when the sound comes from two different directions. :)

Sub woofer will be a Rainbow Hammer which I've bought a while back, and it has been lying on the shelf for quite some time now. I'll be making a ported box where the element and the port itself will be placed so it all plays right in through the ski hatch in the back seat. Custom made box of plywood is what I have in mind. Roughly 45-50 litres I reckon should do the trick for that sub. :)

Amplifiers will be a rainbow KW4150 for the frontset, bridged to 200w pr side. Should be more than enough to control the front speakers. The sub will get a Rainbow Kw2000 which is a mono amplifier which will put out around 1kw into 2 ohm.. Specifications can be found at the same page I linked to earlier.

Now, the plans for the car is as follows. I will for the first time, try to sound deaden the car as much as possible. Think I will be using a material called SPLEN and BITOPLAST, which all can be found close to me. Most of the serious audio builders in norway uses it, and they have a very good reputation in europe also, so I will be using SPLEN and BITOPLAST for this build. The trunk have an original spare tyre, which I will have removed, and use the space there for a custom build amplifier case with some glass on top so the amps are visible. I will also use the same on the back side of the subwoofer enclosure so the inside will be viewable.

That was for the trunk. The inside of the car will remain close to stock. If I am not able to use the screen for anything else, then I will have it removed, and use the space there for something more fun, maybe a carputer. Got all the parts needed for it to be built, even got a 120gb disk so I can have lots of mp3's and movies on it. If I can't use the screen from the sat nav, I will buy a 2din dvd player with touch screen to mount in the original slot.

So, the first few questions are allready approched here. :D

- Where can I go from the Battery through the torpedo wall (if there's such a name for it in england) through the coupe of the car, and back to the trunk with a quite thick power cable? Are there any good places to fit it?

- Where can I find a users manual on how to dismount the plastic interior of the dashboard so I can remove the head unit, and see if there's anything I can do about the screen from the sat nav?

- Are there any good ideas on how to dismount the tweeter housings? are these just pull of, replace tweeter, and put back up? Standard toyota clips?

Hmm.. think that's enough for now. I'll probably start building this in september, when I get back from my long awaited holiday in Spain.. :D I'll keep you updated as soon as I start working on the car. :)

[84Stoney]

Good luck with the system. Sounds like it wil be pretty good! Rainbow stuff is good.

There are guides to every aspect of installing on this forum if you search.

[Monster-Mat]

yup, you cant go wrong with Rainbow stuff

[hodaz]

other option for the headunit is to keep it and use a Rockford Fosgate 360 proccessor box, which you can tune off a PDA or windows based mobile. its a serious piece of kit and allows you to use the standard headunit (so looks nice and neat) and work around the stock sat nav. one being installed in mine as we speak. where also doing full Audio Systems ICE install, mid, mid bass and tweet in front doors, two 12's in the boot in an infinite baffle enclosure and amp hidden under the rear shelf.

[sparkystav]

In answer to your questions,

Where can I go from the Battery through the torpedo wall (if there's such a name for it in england) through the coupe of the car, and back to the trunk with a quite thick power cable? Are there any good places to fit it?

Theres a gromit beside the Battery on the outer side that you can go through, easiest to remove the Battery to do it.

- Where can I find a users manual on how to dismount the plastic interior of the dashboard so I can remove the head unit, and see if there's anything I can do about the screen from the sat nav?

To remove it, theres a cover infront of the screen, unpop that and undo the two bolts then just pull the whole top, vents and all forward and it should unclip, not too far though as theres wires to the screen.

For the bottom, just put your hand under the heated seat buttons and pull, it should pop out, Then you'll see 4 bolts, two above the aircon, and two below the stereo. undo them and the whole lot comes out.

- Are there any good ideas on how to dismount the tweeter housings? are these just pull of, replace tweeter, and put back up? Standard toyota clips?

And the tweeters just pop off.

Be good to see pics when you finish.

Stav

[DJ Wozza]

An ambitious project, best of luck with it, just remember to tape off the dash area as the Lexus OE Head Unit

has metal bracketry on each side and as you remove it, the surround will get scratched very very easily :tsktsk:

re Power cable at right hand side of the Battery viewd]ed from the front of the car

then down behind the kick panel on your passenger side, then in with other cables in sill at the front door,

straight through to the rear seat, then behind the seat back there is a suitable hole for threading cables to

the boot through.

If you are replacing the Head Unit, the replacement facia will normally come as a kit that can be adapted to

fit Double DIN or Single DIN Head Units. However it doesn't match the dash texture. It can be easily modified

to match corectly, see my thread here (same process can be applied to Double DIN as to the Single DIN version).

Re Sat-Nav

If you replace the Head Unit, the Sat-Nav will no longer function correctlly if at all. There is a solution however, PM me if you need the details.

If you are not worried about using it as Sat-nav any further, you could put an LCD screen inside it and match it up with your new

Head unit (if it has a seperate Video output), so 2 screens, or use it for a reverse or front mounted camera ?

I haven't heard of the 4-way video adaptor you mention.

Hope this info helps, and BTW welcome to LOC :D

Wozza

[Rabster]

the screen input adapter if i read it right after a few bevys your after a quad input to display 4 images at once or are you talking about a AV switcher to flick between sources

btw sounds like a top quality project hope it goes well mate keep us all posted

WELCOME TO LOC btw

[TigerFish]

Welcome to LOC :)

Re Sat-Nav

If you replace the Head Unit, the Sat-Nav will no longer function correctlly if at all. There is a solution however, PM me if you need the details.

What is the solution? it may as well go in this thread??

[Angrykid]

the screen input adapter if i read it right after a few bevys your after a quad input to display 4 images at once or are you talking about a AV switcher to flick between sources

btw sounds like a top quality project hope it goes well mate keep us all posted

WELCOME TO LOC btw

Hi all, and thanks for fast replies. :) Great to hear you all so interessted in my little project. :) Hopefully I will get started on the sub enclosure during the weekend now.

Rabster; Yes, it's an AV switcher that can flick betweeen sources. I've read about it somewhere, but I can't remember where. But it looks like I'll just get a 7inch monitor and replace the OEM one with a new one, directly connected to my carputer or whatever I find suitable. :)

[redz_UK]

the screen input adapter if i read it right after a few bevys your after a quad input to display 4 images at once or are you talking about a AV switcher to flick between sources

btw sounds like a top quality project hope it goes well mate keep us all posted

WELCOME TO LOC btw

Hi all, and thanks for fast replies. :) Great to hear you all so interessted in my little project. :) Hopefully I will get started on the sub enclosure during the weekend now.

Rabster; Yes, it's an AV switcher that can flick betweeen sources. I've read about it somewhere, but I can't remember where. But it looks like I'll just get a 7inch monitor and replace the OEM one with a new one, directly connected to my carputer or whatever I find suitable. :)

i can help you with a convertor box to use your sat nav as a monitor and still keep the sat nav working...

[Angrykid]

Hi again..

Does anyone know if there's a chance to fit 8" midbass speakers in the original spaces for the 6x9? Without too much customization? And if so, can I still use the original covers for the speakers?

[Angrykid]

i can help you with a convertor box to use your sat nav as a monitor and still keep the sat nav working...

Hi redz_uk.

A quick question about that box of yours. I'm planning to remove the original head unit completely, and probably remove the wire harness to the amps also, and I have the cd version of sat-nav, which doesn't work here in Norway where I live. So I see no reason why I should keep the sat nav at all. But I may want to use the monitor for something, maybe a car puter of some sort. Is this possible with your box, or can it be done in an easier way? Thanks in advance.

Kindest regards.

Sture

[84Stoney]

in the boot in an infinite baffle enclosure and amp hidden under the rear shelf.

Not 100% sure in this, but isn't an infinite baffle one that has NO enclosure? Or is it a very large, sealed enclosure? Be carful if you plan to mount your amps upside down.

[hodaz]

yeah infinite baffle was going to use entire boot as enclosure, but when we stripped the boot down there was too much metal in the way to get a good sound, without resorting to panelling the boot out (thus defeating the point as a space saving idea) it would have sounded a little echoey. instead just went for a simple box setup, sounds great though, i'll have to get some pics up once its all trimmed up

[Angrykid]

Hi again :) Been a while since I've posted. This is because I've been away for some time, and haven't had the time to work on my car so much. But I've almost finished the sub enclosure now, will make the hole for mounting the woofer tomorrow, and glue the whole thing together. :)

I'll put out some pictures of the enclosure here. I will also try to make a mounting bracket for the amps to fit where the spare wheel is right now. That will be my next priority on this build. :)

[DJ Wozza]

I hope that sub is not very deep ?

Did you see the specification of the Sub Box required by the Subwoofer ?

The internal volume and any port dimensions (if a port is fitted) are vital

to get the best fromk your subwoofer.