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This thread is simply to document my build with this AP2, mainly for my own records, but hopefully some of this could be of help to others. It is my first s2k. It is an '04 Suzuka Blue with ~41K miles on the clock when I picked it up. I purchased it in June of 2018 with the intention of making it my daily driver, but I soon realized that this will probably not be the case. It's a little too clean and I want to keep it that way. Using it for commuting in stop-and-go rush hour traffic is probably the least enjoyable thing you could do in this car. It was a two-owner car and the only modification is a K&N Intake.
Of course, 'tasteful' is subjective. My intention is to keep the car relatively stock, but make minor changes to enhance the driving experience and I would like for any modifications to be reversible. I flew to Kentucky from Texas to buy the car and drove it home.
This thread will likely be boring compared to most on here. I am not a professional mechanic, audio installer or detailer. I am simply an auto-enthusiast who loves cars and driving. I enjoy the challenge and therapeutic activity of working on, modifying and detailing my own cars. EDIT: As of 4/2019, the car is now a dedicated track toy/weekend cruiser. I wish I could edit the title.
Here is the first picture I ever took of it while I stopped to grab food on the drive home after picking it up.
First wash. The car is pretty clean. Obvious that it was likely garaged all of its life. There are a couple blemishes on the bumper covers that were covered up with touch-up. There are also a couple small dings that can probably be taken care of with PDR.
After the wash, the next step was full detail. I used clay bar, then 2 light applications of Jescar Power Lock Plus sealant, then two coats cotes of Collinite #845 Wax. I wanted to use a sealant mainly to protect the paint from the intense Texas UV rays. This was my first time using this combination, or products of this level for that matter. I chose these products after doing a lot of research and reading rave reviews about the combination. I have to say, it is much better than any OTC products I've used in the past and it really does live up to the hype, in my opinion. I didn't get any great pictures of the paint after, but ~3 months later of Texas summer and 4+ washes later the water is still beading off it like glass. The Jescar was easy to apply. The Collinite was kind of messy, it comes in a sort of solid paste and requires heating up the bottle which turn it into almost a water consistency. Anyways, I will now be using this combo on all of my cars. Not terribly expensive and a great first step into the more premium detailing products.
The current stable. The intention was to replace the Miata with the AP2 for daily duty, and sell the Miata. We will see what happens, but like I said, I don't think I can stomach using this car as daily.
The factory audio system left a lot to be desired. First order of business will be to add a bluetooth receiver, then upgrade the component speakers and add a subwoofer. The receiver I chose was the Alpine UTE-73BT. So far, so good. Has some preset EQs. Not as many features as my >2 year old Kenwood I installed in the Miata, but for the price, can't complain and seems like a good value. As far as quality goes, the display is nice and the HU isn't too flashy. It's very bare-bones as far as settings go. The volume knob could be a little more premium, but for the price I don't think you can expect much. It was cheap. It is mech-less, meaning no CDs, which is fine as I haven't used CD's in years. I thought that this would make the unit more compact and free up more space behind for wires and such, but was disappointed as it didn't seem much smaller in depth than a standard CD HU. I also added a Modifry DCI and Modifry harness. Great products from Modifry. Made install super simple and the DCI works very well.
As far as built in amp goes, didn't seem like too much (if any) of an improvement to the factory speakers, which was disappointing.
I like that it has customizable RGB so I can match the colors to the gauge cluster lights.
Component install time. The intention was to use the alpine universal power pack in bridged mode at 90W per channel to drive the Focal ISS 165 components. I got the Focals by recommendation of those on the forum and people at Crutchfield. I have never owned anything Focal, but know they are well respected in the home-audio scene. I am impressed with their build quality and the sensitivity of these drivers.
Here are the factory speakers compared to the Focals. I liked and chose these Focals because they have in-line crossovers built in. I wanted this install to be as clean and simple as possible and mounting external crossovers in the door panel just adds the potential for rattles and vibrations in my opinion. Being an open-top roadster, I'm not going for monitor-quality audio here and didn't see the need for large external crossovers.
Speaker ring adapters. Another great product from Modifry: Very well made. They are made from a soft foam-like material, so make sure your screws are straight when going in.
Had to disassemble the Focal tweeters to insert them in the factory holders . They don't have a screw thread in the center like the OEM tweeter so I used 3M VHB double-sided tape, praying that it stays there.
The thick section is the in-line crossover for the tweeter. I cut off the factory harness plugs from the factory tweeters and crimped them on to the new wires. I then messily put heat-shrink around the connectors.
I cut off the factory harness plugs and crimped them onto the new components, then heat shrink around the connectors.
The wires are a little long here, so I used some more VHB tape to mount the crossover to the door
I secured it with more tape than is shown here after the picture was taken.
Here are some better pictures showing how I connected the crossovers to the components to the OEM harness plugs. This makes the install clean as I didn't want to cut any factory harness wires (other than the ones going to the components).
Here are the crossovers for the mids:
These useful plugs for the factory harness were included for free from Crutchfield.
Components in. Very impressed with the sensitivity of the Focals. Sound great with the Alpine headunit only and no amplifier. Don't seem to distort even at 100% HU volume. I have decided to hold-off on the install of the Alpine Power Pack for now. I thought that it was plug and play, but it will require splicing into the harness for the speaker connections. Not a big deal, but due to the sensitivity of these components, I am debating getting the other Alpine power pack (not the universal one) which IS plug-and-play with the alpine harness (requires no splicing), but is not bridgeable so it would be sending 45W per channel opposed to the bridged 90W. If anyone has any suggestions or input, please let me know.
Now time for Subwoofer install. I really wanted the JL stealthbox. I know that they are overpriced, but they are quality and most importantly look OEM and take up less trunk space than most other options. It comes with a 10W3v3 Subwoofer. I picked up a used old-school JL Slash 500/1 amp on ebay to power the sub and this KnuKoncepts 4 gauge wiring kit which was very high quality.
So in the interest of doing the cleanest install possible, I decided to run the power wire down the passenger's side. I know this is contrary to popular recommendations due to potential interference on the driver's side for the RCAs, but I read of others being successful and felt that with these higher quality shielded RCAs it wouldn't be much of an issue.
I tapped into the grommet here right by the battery.
You can vaguely see where it drops down right by the passenger door.
09-08-2018, 09:29 PM
Su2uka!'s tasteful AP2 street build
