Audio System Install
First off, let me say that without the efforts of others before me, I could not have done this, or at least not without breaking many parts of my car. The pictures, instructions, and how-to's that I found on MINI2.com, minicooperonline.com, and the MINI Roadfly forum were indispensible and I thank all of those brave souls for their spirit of sharing.
I brought the car home straight from the dealer into the garage, where I stripped the interior for the install. The following forum threads were very helpful:
Dynamat, Front Speakers, and Deck Installation
SWI-X
Installation
Rear Speaker Enclosures
DIY
How-to Remove Interior Bits
Removing Rear Seats and Side Panels|
Running
Power Cable from Engine to Cabin
ToreB's Diagram of Underseat Cavity Dimensions
Woodman's Cavity Pics
Here are some pics of my stripped interior (get your mind out of the gutter!). Click on an image to get an enlarged view.
I then started work on the front speakers. First I applied sound deadener membrane to all parts of the doors that resonated when tapped with my finger. I'm cheap, so instead of ordering dynamat or any of it's clone products, I went to Home Depot and bought 2 rolls of Peel and Seal, which is a 25 ft X 6 inch roll of asphalt-based membrane sandwiched between foil and an adhesive backing. They cost $11/roll. I also applied the membrane to the backside of the removed door panels, and around the woofer holes.
Next came the spacers for the woofer. 6.5" Infinity Kappa Components were going into holes that originally held the 5.25" stock speakers, so a spacer was needed to bring the deeper speaker out so it wouldn't interfere with the window track on the inside of the door. I figured out that the spacer need to be the mounting depth of the new speaker minus 1.75 inches. The Infinity's were 2.25" deep, so I needed spacers that were .5 inches thick. I used the stock speaker to trace onto MDF and cut them with a scroll saw. I then mounted the spacers to the doors, applied membrane to the spacers, and mounted the new speakers to them. I attached the crossovers to the door beside the woofer. The door panel is shaped such that the crossover fit there without any modification.
I had originally planned to run new speaker cable through the door hinge loom to the crossover, but after a few minutes of examination, I decided to use the stock wiring. It was obviously going to take a large amount of time, and I figured I could do it as a future project if I felt the sound would benefit from it.
The tweeters were another project all by themselves. As a matter of fact, it was so involved I forgot to take any pictures. Basically the stock tweeter is described as a 1 inch tweeter, as is the Infinity tweeter. Well, guess what - it seems that Infinity and MINI use different definitions of "1 inch". The Infinity tweeter was slightly larger than the stock tweeter, and didn't quite fit into the plastic brace that the stock tweeter came out of. Enter my favorite tool: the Dremel! After some artistic carving with the Dremel, the Infinity tweeters fit well enough.
At this point I was so tired I also forgot to take pics of the door speakers before re-installing the door panels. Oh well, the next time I have the door panels off...