[shuvc]

If you have seen this initial ownership thread, (ShuvCivic -Tafeta White VM/T) you'd know I really stretched my finances to buy the car. So there was precious little to spend on ICE. Butttt at the same time, I HAD to upgrade to something I liked. I'm used to a PioHU+Illusion Electra+75.4amp+MBQamp+GZsub in the Baleno. It's a setup I'm extremely happy with and it has raised expectations from ICE too. The stock Civic ICE felt decent at low volumes, but needed some juice.

Due to the lack of funds, I toyed with the idea of transferring the Baleno ICE into the Civic. Although I really wanted to retain the Baleno setup - since a lot of it was tweaked/installed personally. Thankfully along came @razor as a saviour. He was letting go of the ICE in his Scorp. And it had tried and tested equipment which I was very comfortable with. Illusion Electra 6.1 comps, JBL 75.4 and a JBL GT4 sub. I did not need a HU, since I wanted to retain the stock look and was willing to compromise on any resulting SQ loss. Perfect timing and the deal was struck.

Quickly setup an appointment with Karan (@ace6120) and the install happened on Wednesday. Kudos to his team to make it happen on the same day. Due to some unprecedented road-repairs being carried out, the start got delayed to almost 5pm. And then the team worked non-stop till 11 to finish off.

Special mention must be made of the guy he entrusted the primary installation job to - Amirul. Extremely patient, cool young lad with an eye for detail and a real intent to do a good job. Even at the fag end of the day. Impressive.

The plan was simple.

- Retain stock look as much as possible
- Avoid opening the dash
- No wires to be cut
- Damp doors liberally
- Just have a front stage. Disconnect the stock rear speakers
- Speaker level out from the HU to a Scosche Line Out Converter. Tap the front and rear speaker wires at the harness ends.
- Tap the ignition (accessory mode) harness for the amp remote switch on
- Locate the LOC and all sundry wires behind the rear seat-back
- Xovers to be located on the amp board. This meant extra wiring, but I felt it would look good !
- Tweeters to be installed in stock tweeter locations in the dashboard
- Use good thick wires. No fancy branded stuff required
- Carry over Scosche RCA's from @razor's setup

Pics coming up in the next post

[shuvc]

Since it was a simple install with pretty common equipment, I wondered what snaps to post. Having gone through the Civic ICE threads, I felt that some more WIP install snaps might help others. Hence here goes, whatever I could record from time to time. (I had to manage office work too, sitting at Karan's showroom). Will just post the damping snaps in this post. Rest of the pics in the following post.

Wanted to seriously damp the front doors. So put approx 15 sqft in each. All 3 surfaces. It is quite obviously some 'Chinese' material. I had done the damping in the Baleno myself with NoiseKill. So had some idea about handling damping material. Found this material quite decent and went for it. It comes in around 5 sqft sheets.

The door pads come with this stock padding. This had to be removed to make way for the damping material


The door pads with the stock padding removed


Then the door pads were damped


The stock door looks like this. Note the plastic and foam cover in the centre. This 'protects' the power window motor/mechanism.


We started with the inside surface of the door



Then the stock foam was put back on. This was done so that the final damping sheet does not stick to the power window equipment. Instead it would stick to the foam. Some of existing glue around the edge of the door was used to stick it.



Finally the top layer went on



Rest of the snaps coming up.

[planet_rocker]

congrats. Will check out the pics tomorrow. Posting from team bhp mobile.

[shuvc]

Rest of the install snaps.

The OE speakers



OE Tweeter. Ignore the casing. Just happened to take the snap with the tweet in some random casing


Front speaker wire being tapped at the harness for the input. I know some may cringe at the sight of tape etc. I must mention that he was willing to use spades et al for a more 'professional' connection, but asked me if this way is ok with me and I gave him the go ahead.



Amp being fitted on the board. We used a stock i10 (or was it Santro) tray. This was a snug fit height wise, with a bit of a gap at the sides due to the contours. It looked good enough to me and I gave the go ahead.


Amirul in the boot. Having a compact physique does help !


The wiring behind the board before it was cleaned up.



Power cable used for the amp. 10mm sq normal cable. This was thicker than the 6.5mmsq Scosche I got off @razor's setup, which fell short in length for the Civic


The Scosche fuse was pasted to the body. And the cable passed behind the panel to the battery.



The 1" Illusion tweeters were a comfortable fit in the OE slot. To ensure they do not rattle, they were bound and taped.

[shuvc]

The listening space/environment does matter. Be it at home or in the car. Wifey commented she could easily hear more detail than in the Baleno. So I realised it was not just me. Since the equipment is almost the same, I guess the only reason for this enhancement in detail is that the Civic has an extremely silent cabin.

Damping has been satisfactory. Midbass is really tight and punchy. Loving it.

The HU does not seem to be that bad. Or maybe my main reference point is the old Pio 4150 in the Baleno. Whatever it is, bottomline, I'm quite happy overall and really enjoying the setup. Which is what matters. (@shuvd, stop sniggering )

ToDos

- Will switch the JBL sub with the GZ in the Baleno. Although am happy with the JBL. But since the option is there, will try it out.
- Slight whine/krrrrr to be sorted out. Relocating the LOC today removed it but it has started again although not as much as earlier.
- Rear tray rattles a lot. Not very audible sitting at the front even at fairly high volumes, for 90% of the songs I listen to.. But does creep through in songs with heavy bass notes. Specially soft numbers (like say Norah Jones) Some amount of - foam inserts have reduced it somewhat. But still some more work is required.

Amirul mentioned he had tried to remove the rattle in another Civic with a more powerful setup and had used a whole lot of damping etc but there still remained some residual rattle. As of now he's advising against damping blindly. Any inputs/ideas would be appreciated.

That's it. That's how the boot looks now. Haven't taken any other snaps of the 'finished' install since everything else looks stock.


ps: Ignore the 'Fiesta' rubber boot mat. I had to have one today, and the 'Civic' specimen was not available.

[sabret00the]

awesome. congrats on the ICE. Shuvcivic is now complete

[razor4077]

Quite a journey for the equipment:
Phoenix - Scorpio - ShuvCivic

Congrats! Glad you're enjoying the music!

[NOS Power]

Congrats ShuvC, Civic gettings its due of good ICE. Demo please.

[sabret00the]

Originally Posted by razor4077

Quite a journey for the equipment:
Phoenix - Scorpio - ShuvCivic

Congrats! Glad you're enjoying the music!

What plans for the Scorp now? What do plan to get for it?

[Sankar]

Congrats! OE speakers look exotic for an OE item. Its the first time i'm seeing OE speaker with neodymium(?) magnet and ABS basket! Damping looks good. Could you share the per foot cost of this damping material?

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by NOS Power

Demo please.

Anyday ! Although, it's same old wine, albeit in a new packaging !

Originally Posted by razor4077

Phoenix - Scorpio - ShuvCivic

And the sub might continue the journey on to the Silver Arrow

Originally Posted by Sankar

Its the first time i'm seeing OE speaker with neodymium(?) magnet and ABS basket! Damping looks good. Could you share the per foot cost of this damping material?

Yep. I believe they've used neodymium magnets. I found the stock system quite 'listenable' at low volumes.

Not sure about the exact price, since Karan gave me a bundled quote. I think it's around Rs.150/sq ft.

[dinu2506]

Good setup. Nice to know you are liking it. I would suggest relocating the tweeters from the stock location (firing upwards into the windshield) to a position firing into the cabin. It made a world of difference to me even though the stock location was pretty good.

See my thread, Post #93
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/sound-...upgrade-7.html

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

Good setup. Nice to know you are liking it. I would suggest relocating the tweeters from the stock location (firing upwards into the windshield) to a position firing into the cabin. It made a world of difference to me even though the stock location was pretty good.

See my thread, Post #93
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/sound-...upgrade-7.html

Referred to your thread many times ! And was quite apprehensive about using the stock HU - based on your experience. But it has turned out fine. Must thank Karan for insisting on trying out the stock option before splurging on a dash kit + 2DIN DVD HU or a good 1DIN CD HU.

I like good audio, but I've realised that I am really not that perceptive about the subtleties by any stretch of imagination. The Baleno has tweeters positioned on the dash pointing at the driver (on-axis?). And yet the Civic still sounds better with the tweets firing at the windshield. So I'll live with the stock look, not worry too much about the finer nuances and enjoy the music

[thedreamcatcher]

Neat stuff. How much did you pay for the damping material you installed

[Saurabh M]

Congrats. You're doing injustice to us by parking the Civic at the basement. When is the ICE demo going to happen?