# newbie with a frontier



## dj.eph (Oct 27, 2004)

hey everyone, I know introductions are probably in another area, but this is more gearded towards an audio setup with my frontier. 
I picked up this truck about a month ago and, just like with any "new" car I get, a sound system is crucial. I find that the acoustics in the cab are pretty bad as well as the amount of noise caused from driving. I know that can be fixed with dampening material and am looking into that as well.

What I'm curious about though is if anyone else has a frontier or king cab with a system in it, and where the hell they are mounting all thier amps and what thier sub positions are. I graphed the hell out of the back area (it's an extended cab) and decided to remove the passenger side jumper seat in order to accomodate the sub and amp. What I plan on doing is removing the seat and then building a custom sealed enclosure that will go from the passenger side wall out about 14". Since the jumper seat will be removed, I plan on mounting an amp in that recessed area. The sub should partially cover the opening left from the seat, but it shuld be enough so the amp gets enough ventilation and is still easy to access incase of adjustments. 

I've been going nuts over this, especially with the design of the sub box, since it will have to be formed to fit the curves on the floor in that area. Which basically means that there will be a 7" x 8" section on the lower part of the box that will be recessed. It's a lot of work for a stinkin sub box, but I prefer to keep as much room as possible in the back for day to day items. 

Just so you all know, my current setup is a clarion dxz545mp3 head which feeds a DEI Directed 500 4 channel amp. The amp runs a set of Diamond Audio CM3 seperates in the doors, and then is bridged for an 8" pioneer sub in a bandpass. 

For upgrades, I'll probably throw a clarion eq560 (??) in the dash to add more power to pre-outs and give me some more tunability, and then a pocket of some sort to fill up the dash. I plan on upgrading the amp to a earthquake 120.3 6 channel amp, and have 4 of the channels bridged to power a diamond audio DVC 12" sub in a sealed box. The other two channels on the amp will go to the seperates in the doors. Ultimately, I'd like an Eclipse AVX2454 DVD/LCD headunit for the dash... but that's a little out of my price range right now. 

well that's about it. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. And my frontier is a '99 ext. cab with the 6cyl. ,4wd, and 5speed. I'm loving it.


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## Punkrocka436 (Jul 8, 2003)

I've seen amps mounted on the back wall, as well as under the front seats in frontiers.

I'm a little confused though, is your car 4 door? I am not familiar with the sizes of trucks and the terminology that goes with them. If you have full back seat, you could try taking it out, mounting the amps and putting the sub box under there if you have enough space.


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## dj.eph (Oct 27, 2004)

i wish it was a 4 door. it's an extended cab, which means that there's about 15" of space behind the seats. There's two jumper seats that fold out from either side of the back. I'd like to remove one to mount my amp there and then have the sub up against that area.


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## Punkrocka436 (Jul 8, 2003)

happen to have a picture of the area in question?


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## Jasper (Apr 2, 2004)

personally, i'd skip the 6channel amp (most of the are $$)...get a 4channel to run the seperates and a class-d monoblock sub amp. what are you looking for (as far as RMS wattage and ohm load). sub amps are pretty cheap depending on what you get.


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## dj.eph (Oct 27, 2004)

sorry. no p icture. The main reason I wanna 6 channel amp is so I have a moderate amount of power for the seperates, and then a decent amount of power for the sub. here's a link for the amp I'd like to get:

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=12592

so it'd be 85 watts per channel and then 260 watts per VC for the sub. One of the other reasons I'd like to go with this is because of the size of the amp. It allows me to put it in an area that will be out of the way, like where the jumper seat would be removed. I already have a 4 chall amp, and it's just not enough power.


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## Yellowsentragirl (Dec 30, 2003)

Picture of the seat in question..


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## dj.eph (Oct 27, 2004)

yellowsentragirl. you're my hero. :thumbup: 

Right now that black thing against the wall is out. That's the stock subwoofer, which was blown when I got it. 

I'd like to remove that jumper seat and put the box in it's place.


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## Yellowsentragirl (Dec 30, 2003)

no problem...glad to help


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## captain_shrapnel (Sep 10, 2004)

Yick, I don't envy your situation with that interior. I am kinda familiar with the backseat area (my friend had a truck with back seats like that), but forgive me if these ideas don't work. Fiberglass is definitely your friend here. Maybe you could mold an enclosure under a front seat somehow. I have seen kickpanels incorporate subs before, but they have to be small, with small enclosure requirements. Best bet is possibly door pods, although you are still gonna have the same size issues as kickpanel subs. Anything possible with the center console? Could it be removed and replaced with one of your own creation? Just ideas, very hard to say w/o seeing your interior up close.


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## dj.eph (Oct 27, 2004)

meh... 

I've never working with fiberglass although I would love to. Unfortunately, I don't have the space or the time to be messing with things like that right now. This is my daily beater / utility ride. I'd like to keep the modifications next nil, but at the same time want better sound then what the pioneer 8" sub is doing. Damn that lack of rumble.

anyway, all the fiberglassing work will be done in the celica. :thumbup: 

With things at the moment, I should be getting that 6-ch. amp for x-mas, and I'm actually gonna start ripping out the seat and building the box tomorrow. 

wish me luck!

And if by any chance that amp turns into a camera, I'll be sure to post some pics.


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## ravnos5811 (Sep 30, 2004)

I have the same problem as you. What I did is mount the amp under the seat and have a simple box built for the amp the fits behind the driver's seat. It's not show quality but it is very functional. I'm in So. Cal. if you need any help. 

Josh


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## stevem5000 (Apr 16, 2003)

DJ...

I think I'm the guy you need to talk to...
I have a 2000 Fronty king cab...here is what I have...

HU is Alpine 9833...
Front are Boston Acoustic...
Rear...6x9 Boston and RE8 subs...here is where it gets interesting...

I built 2 boxes out of 3/4" MDF and mounted them in the space where the rear jump seats are located...

I removed both jump seats, measured the area and built a box that fits in the space, using as much of the space as I could and made the front of the box essentially flush with the sidewall of the cab...

I divided this box up into 2 sections, made the top section just large enuf to hold a 6x9 Boston speaker...that left me about .2 cu ft left to mount an 8" RE8 sub...both cavaties are stuffed FULL of stuffing as the ct ft of each space is too small for the speakers and I had too much "booming" on the low end...but with a lot stuffing, they rounded out very nicely...

I was able to design the box to bolt into the same mounting holes that the jump seats were originally bolted to...

Both the front and rear BA's are powered directly off the Alpine and I got a Sony XM-2100GTX amp to power the sub's...I put the amp under the passenger seat...

I had to cut out the carpet backing material, not the carpet itself, to create a little more height between the floor pan and the bottom of the seat...then I had to put a couple big washers under the rear mounting feet of the seat to lift it up about 1/4" and the seat will move forward and backward on the tracks and clears the Sony amp by about 1/4"...works fine as long as your 300# girl friend doesn't ride along...

I have a bunch of pictures on the box construction which I plan on putting on cardomain.com, but haven't done so yet...

This is the very first time I tried to build anything audio for any of my vehicles...and I am NOT an experienced sub box constructor by any means...

I worked on this on and off over the summer and found that it took me an entire 4x8 sheet of MDF to build this, a number of mistakes...several changes of plans, but the final outcome was just beautiful...

This system takes up NO interior space and with the amp under the passenger seat, there are NO space takers at all...

How does it sound???

There are audio pureists out there that will say my sub box is way too small and this will sound like crap...that you can't get good sound without a 4 channel amp...my sub amp is not big enuf...etc..etc...etc...

I know there are systems out there that cost thousands of dollars, but I bought almost everything off eBay or directly from the mfg...wireing from Radio Shack and Walmart and all in all I put about $1000 into this project and I think the sound quality is very, very good...

I have a gray interior and took a piece of the jump seat plastic cover to Home Depot and they custom matched some exterior enamel paint to match the interior color perfectly...this whole thing almost looks like a factory job...if I do say so myself...

Still have a couple of things to do...I have grills for the 2 subs but not installed yet...they are currently black and I'm thinking about painting them to look more like the BA grill covers...and I need to get a piece of floor carpet so I can cover up the areas where the jump seats used to be mounted to the floor...

I agree with you...the cabin is pretty loud from highway noise etc and I think next year I am going to look into some sound dampening material...


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