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Whew, getting the floor clean enough to apply the Kilmat 80mil butyl sure took a bit longer than I expected, but I can start to see it coming together. For the floor I also put a layer of 157mil foam padding on top of the butyl.
Removed the old asphalt mats by using a heat gun and scraper to get the majority of it off, then put a wire brush on my drill to clean the rest. Wiped down with isopropyl to pick up any dust then hit the surface with a heat gun to prep.
Today I also started taking a look at the speakers, most speakers had wire harnesses available on Crutchfield but the tweeters I'll have to splice into the old wires.
Oh yeah, today I also noticed that I bought an overly expensive 4awg power cable for my sub amp, but then got excited when I realized I can just add a fuse box to split it to 2x 8awg later when I decide to replace the speaker amp. accidentally planning for the future.
Holy smokes, you move fast! Should be beyond an LS460 in the quiet department when you're done with it!
Are those the a & b pillar tweeters? My RX has those but doesn't have any tweeters in the door panels that I know of, but I also have a base model which may have less speakers than a more loaded model like yours. I have some 2005-2012 Avalon JBL speakers I need to throw in but I have been super lazy. Seeing this has given me some motivation to try it! I know you already have a sweet sub setup coming up, but I thought I'd let you know that there are some pre-drilled holes from the previous 1999-2003 RX300 for a mini underseat subwoofer just in case you want to add another sub or anything under the passenger side front seat. The original RX300 "subwoofer" is only 4.5, but the box can easily be modified to handle a 6" woofer or even larger.
Hey you know what, I just got a facebook notification telling me that it was 7 years ago today that I brought this car home from the used dealership! Good timing for an update
I started my new job yesterday so getting it drivable again quickly wasn't optional!
@MattRX Those tweeters are from the l/r a pillars. My system just has the a pillar tweeters, in-dash, front door and rear door speakers, I think that's standard? I don't have the entertainment or ML options.
I was originally going to get the tiny 10" Kicker Hideaway tucked under my driver seat and with that I might have added something on the passenger side, but with this 10" L7S getting a full 600w I don't think I'd notice that addition. I justified that upgrade as a very early birthday present for myself and it's one of the things I'm most excited to try out!
Oh that’s right! I just checked now and found the dash tweeters. Didn’t realize they were there before. Looks like our RXs have 8 speakers after all (soon to be 9 after I put in that little sub)
The funny part is my 1 yr ownership anniversary is in 9 days and I didn’t realize that these had tweeters in the dash. I guess you learn something new everyday lol.
Today I finished off the last of the Kilmat in the trunk then foamed over it and started putting the Siless 2 in 1 200mil on the rear panels and behind the tire.
The headliner is reinstalled! It's not perfect but I'm happy with it for the cost and effort it took
Then I routed the power cables for the amp and dash cam through another hole next to the new one for the drain tube.
Spliced the old tweeter harness to the in-line crossovers that came with the tweeters. Wasn't sure if these were needed since it's getting a tweeter signal anyways, but figured it might help keep the sound clean at higher volumes.
Decided today was time to tackle the front driver door. Had been avoiding it because it was layered with dirt, but it's nice and clean now. Took longer than I expected, but I'm not really working in a rush now and it was a nice day.
Before removing the stock plastic
Siless 2 in 1 200mil on the inside of the door
Dynamat xtreme on the main door panel and new speaker installed
Followed up with some more foam because why not. also holding the speaker wire harness in place.
Last thing I managed to do this evening was pull one of the dash speakers. Ran into an issue with the new speaker harness, it has two female plugs while the speaker wire has one each m/f. idk what going on with that yet.
Didn't remember to take as many pics today, but I wired up my sub and got both power and music from it on the first try. I was pretty stoked about that.
The volume with the new speakers is much lower than the oem, that was expected with them all being 4ohm instead of 2. Maxing out the stereo at 63 feels more like 37-40 before. With a bit of research, I've pretty much convinced myself that I'll be picking up the Alpine PXE-0850X later this year when I get a new head unit and the 25w @ 4ohm it puts out should sound a lot better even before the dsp features are used
Pics continued
Passenger side rear door:
Started to put the front together, was a dumbass and broke the lead off the driver side dash speaker. will resolder and try again tomorrow.
This harness has the leads to the two main speakers, so I tapped it for the sub signal.
Tapped the rear acc outlet to for the power-on signal.
Have everything covered with some sort of sound deadening, still have about 16sq ft of the siless 2 in 1 sheets. not sure where to put them, maybe double up on the floors a bit or idk.
Sides and rear hatch are sound treated, starting to put together the interior panels again.
Resoldered the front dash speaker wires, working great now.
And reassembled the radio and nav after wrapping them. Still need to clean up some details but really like the way it's looking.
I wasn't paying close attention to the old mats I removed but that was probably at least 10lbs? 15?
The new mats come out to about:
18lbs - 36 sq ft of Kilmat 80mil, covered the floor from firewall to trunk
12lbs - 24 sq ft of dynamat xtreme, used on the doors and rear hatch
17lbs - 36 sq ft Siless 2-in-1 200mil, covered the roof, inner panels of the doors and hatch, and anywhere else I thought it'd be useful
3lbs - Siless foam liner 157mil over the kilmat and dynamat
so maybe 35lbs more, pretty evenly spread out.
01-18-23, 07:10 PM
