Lupo GTI Build Log - Ascendant Audio, SPL Dynamics, XS Power

[BILTD 60]

2001 VW Lupo GTI.

Kit list,

Alpine 7998R (Old Skool Gem!)

SPL Dynamics ICE-150.4 (Running mids/tweets active)

4x Ascendant Audio 7" carbon fibre Neo Mids

4x Ascendant Audio 1" tweets

2x SPL Dynamics ICE-3500D (1 per sub)

2x Ascendant Audio Mayhem 18" subs

3x XS Power D3100 Batteries

1x 180A Alt

Fitted KW Variant 1s already and will be doing a complete retrim and new seats in this one.

[BILTD 60]

Totally standard in here.

Feeding through Kolossus Flex 1/0 power cable.

Hard to spot after being covered in copex.

Just see it here. Note, the 1.6 16V GTI models have the battery in the boot, no need to run extra ground off the alt (neg field) as it already has one, though we will to TB3 under here too without the battery link. 1/0 going straight to new alt later with inline fuse.

Next up to deaden the doors.

Silent Coat Extra. Compared to Second Skin D amp Pro

Wires ran for speakers.

1 door done.

Both doors done.

[BILTD 60]

Next up the roof. After mulling over this excuse for OEM deadning I conceeded that it had to go.

Stuck on with a PU Flex or Tiger Seal substrate. Not coming off, so I guess we'll deaden over that one

Done. Front area got another layer.

No MDF roof. Never done it in any of my builds infront of the B-pillar so we remain Street class Legal. There is some foam to roof action behind the B-pillar as you'll see later on.

Few random shots of the cable runs.. RCAs down the center with some REM and +12v / -ve sense wiresfor accesorries and gauges, speaker wires on the outside edges and power wire along passanger side and utilising panel gaps to keep it flat under underlay and carpet.

[BILTD 60]

All the wood for the enclosure, cut via CNC machine. There's two of most panels as spares incase of any alterations being required. 25mm MDF.

Measure twice, cut once.. Well thats the idea. Everything gets drawn up and tweaked. Idea is make things go little easier when you work on your own.

[BILTD 60]

Floor section cut and after set level with few supports begin with the rest.

Sides cut.

Glued and screwed

Lower section primered

Then matt black incase when the sun shines through the limo tint there is no ugly bare MDF.

Top section glued and screwed and dry fitted to check everythings square

Piece 1 of the front baffle offered up and checked for square

Pencil line drawn then chopped.

Lower section moved into the car, not easy!

Working on the port for the top section to be added later.

[BILTD 60]

Front face offered up

Couple of 45s added

Quick guide made to run router through for clean opening

Run

Same with second baffle (2" baffle)

Marking up for cutouts.

4 passes.

Cutout out

Offered up again to check if the subs fire right at the back of your head for the soon to be punishment!

Ovolo on inner side cutout

1 side

2nd sides

And cos we can on the outside.

[BILTD 60]

Port divider rounded

Both halfs

Glued and screwed

Internal port rounded

Offered up to the top section of the enclosure

Glued and screwed. Bridge filler also used on all joins. Not to act as a seal but add ever so slight taper than a cold straight join.

All offered up, and needing some tweeks to fit

All metal masked up to avoid resin or expanding foam making permanant contact with surfaces.

Top section rested into the place with PU glue, and left to set over night.

Bridge filler used on seams. Expandy foam used to fill the arch mould, twice and trimmed back and sanded for smooth form then skimmed with bridge filler.

Next up another layer off 1" MDF on the rear of the enclosure.

Maybe its over kill, but couple of screw holes drilled.

Relief cuts to allow bend with the top section of the enclosure

Glue spread

Screwed in place.

Batteries dropped in to check for clearances and room. Fitting the amps in a tiny amount of space is looking more bleak even with me going over dimensions several times.

Edges where the box meets the metal was all masked up, and expandy foamed. The top of the box used 2 of the sub cutouts PU glued to the top of the box, then from top of the metal skin to the top of the cutout was expandy foamed. Foamed down the sides, also masked. Physically this could be removed from the car with probably no sign it ever had a wall. But the way its come out I doubt it will ever be anything but a walled Lupo.

[BILTD 60]

Time for some seam reinforcements. 400gsm cut to desired lengths.

Double layer on main seams

And over arch moulds

The little bubble is old seat bracket which I didn't chop out, incase wall is removed.. though doubtful!

2 coats of resin. 2 hour break between coats. No glass on any other seams other than joining ones.

Bolts, washers and nuts for terminals

1 side done.

Other side. Just see the expandy to the left in this shot. As a side note, only used 2 cans for the entire build.

Rear side labelled

Both sides done.

Next up PU glue brushed on edges for front baffle to go on.

First baffle already on at this stage, preparing second baffle.

Marked...

Holes drilled..

Glued to keep my bond tite

Before penertrating screws there pilot holed then screwed in like so

Other side.

Done.

[BILTD 60]

2 sets of AA Havoc Components (Active)

Since Lupos don't have A pillar trim as such, chose the mirror covers as next best place for them. Not on axis but about 20 degrees off. They have a very balanced response and work well both on or off axis, but for this application feel this will give us best of both worlds when open door playing.

Using my Resin mixing sticks are reinforcements with mitre bond

Few holes in the plastic and keyed surface

Bridge filled

Fine filler before starting on the other side.

Not easy to get them bang on perfect but with mitre bond you can offer rings up, measure measure measure.. before you commit to final position

Same procedure, using the mixing sticks (much like jumbo sized lolly pop sticks)

Still utilising all OEM fixing points.

More or less complete, needing final 240 grit rub down.

After offering them up the tweeters ended up being deep and thus not clearing the doors body work, so another 5mm ring added and moulded. This is at 120 grit before finishing till there 240 grit. Sorry not got every pic on this build, my camera goes dulally as you'll see later!

Next up the mids. Came across these door builds whilst looking at another build in the SQ section. Didn't feel like cutting corners but they had the look and position I wanted so went ahead and ordered them. Took 2 weeks to come from Germany. Made entirely of fibreglass with gel coat outer layer.

Took few goes to make them fit till I was happy.

So with our Lupo having electric windows there no need for the indentation for the window winder

Couple of holes for better bite

Bridge filler

Before finishing with body filler.

To remove some of the brittleness and add mass/weight for better midbass/midrange response the back side will have 2mm deadening mat, foam pad much like SS rattle pad.

[Mac N Cheese 90]

And i thought I was the only one doing a build in a GTI. Was it pretty difficult running the 1/0 through the vehicle? Luckily the battery is in the back for your build, I am going to try to get 3 runs back but we will see. Love the build so far.

Good luck!

[BILTD 60]

Making the battery box which is ever so tight.

Secured to back of the wall with some 1" thick 45s, also on the sides in the same manner onto the floor piece which is 2" thick to avoid the weight of the batteries bowing the wood, around 100 kilos for just the 3 batteries!

M24 stud bar..

Cut

Test fitted... don't worry there are square washers inside and out coming as you will see later

and slightly recessed lower nut to clear back of the battery case.. As you can tell theres no luxury when it comes to room.

Sourced M24 dome nuts for the front.. not easy to come by!

OK, so now to face the amps...

After alot of head scratching and messing about with ideas.. figured best way to mount all three amps.

1st of the ICE-3500Ds to be mounted on a baffle mounted off the top of the back wall

2nd to of the ICE-3500Ds to be mounted on a bracket made from MDF

The ICE-150.4 mounted off a bracket suspending it over the 2 amps..

Using M6 thread insets and machine button head screws

Like so

Everything getting a coat of black paint along the way..

Starting the panels for the battery cover

Routed out hole

Cut

Quick round over

Checked for position

Amps installed

Mock up for panels

top and bottom

And we leave it there. The panel will be removeable with the floating amp still in place, which can be removed in less than 5 seconds to access any fusing later on.

[BILTD 60]

Adding some initial pieces to help form the shape

Few more

Starting with this then applying bridge filler

Right about now camera has gone tits up. Its an old Ixus 75 which spent most of its life in a pile of dust or next to a dozen subs, so it was no suprised it went grey eyes lol

Fine filler

Couple of skils at a time over the bridge then sanded

Repeated till the panel was close to how we need

Like so

Next to work on something to hide the wires on the floating ICE-150.4

Camera flash not working, sorry!! couple of pics time I use my other Ixus 90IS...

Starting with this..

3

End up with this..

Adding some dowel pieces to make things flow

End caps and other accent pieces on the install getting painted 2 pack gloss black as you'll see later on.

[BILTD 60]

Working on getting the batteries in...

Using 8mm thick copper bar (60mm wide)

Earth bar installed, with 2 runs of 1/0 earth.

Lower part of the box is screwed down, but for extra safety using some 45s to anchor it down some more..

Same on the top and other side.

Finishing off the panel for the battery cover..

Almost there with the panel.

+12v bus bar installed.

Next up installing a Bosch 180A Alternator.

Engine had to dropped about 15mm for me to remove the lower bolt, so undone the engine mount bolts on the top side of the engine lowering the block slowly till I could extract the offending bolt.

Once removed you can see the old alt is quite a bit smaller, its a 70A unit.

Installed the new unit which was extremely tight getting inside the bay but got in there albiet with a couple of grazed knuckles!

Inline fuse installed and secured safely out of harms reach.

[BILTD 60]

Wired up the amps..

Got some lighting going too..

More or less completed here, just the panels left to install/trim.

Moving back to the wall.

Piece of large acrylic for the front face

Using template from the front wall

Test fitted.

Time to paint the port, first up 2 coats of MDF primer

Followed by 2 coats of black gloss.

Thin skim of instant grab adhesive.. before applying the panel ontop...

And on the front face.. Few screws to help it which are removed following day.. masked up ready for panel work next..

[BILTD 60]

Making up panels for the front wall

Mocking up lower panel

Making an outer frame to dress the wall

Little more work on the lower section

Rounded and smoothed off

All done, cept need some lighting

SMD LED tape.

Should provide a nice glow.

[Mark LaFountain 1,054]

holy $hit thats a beautiful build!

[sefugi 166]

Gonna be big sound in a little space!!! Great work!!!! Looking forward to how you fit the amps in the back, gonna be tight!

[ssh 924]

When I saw another build posted by blade ice I knew we were in for a treat

This build is amazing. Wish you weren't so far away!

[poundindak69 15]

OMG!!!! i love that carr and this build is sick man!!! love it love it love it:)

[Sencheezy 689]

wow, this is insane!!

[Ohjay 116]

Excellent work, this build is bad ass.

[onebadmonte 235]

Gas mileage on that Lupo is going to drop to that of a Suburban. I love it.

[QuinnyGT 4]

Looking forward to the finishing updates on this Am Seriously good work as always

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Brilliant work sir.

[ssh 924]

To be honest, I didn't want to post and interrupt the build log, but I felt that I needed to tell you how wonderful your work was.