02 Mercedes Wagon Build

[funnyent]

Hey Everyone! I wanted to go ahead and start this thread now even though I won't start the build for about 2 weeks.

I am going to be building my very first system for my brother in his 02 Mercedes C320. I have a nice system in my car, but I had it professionally installed... since then I've learned a lot from this forum and have decided to take on this build on my own.

My brother is 17 and has worked really hard to be able to buy all of this equipment, he has a budget of $1400 and I think we got him the best equipment we could for his budget.

Here's what we've got ordered:

Rockford Fosgate P3 2x12 Subs (pre-fab enclosure)

Rockford Prime 1200 Watt Amp

Rockford R250x4 Amp

Axxess Steering Wheel control Interface

Pioneer AVH-X2600BT Double Din

KnuKonceptz Amp kits and Rockford Distribution blocks

4 Rockford Prime 6.5 Door speakers

2 Rockford Prime tweeters

And a bunch of cable and of course the dash kit

I also have a SMD distortion detector I just bought... it made my shop tuned sub amp in my car sound so much better than what they had done and I can't wait to use it on my brothers!

I'm sure I'll make some mistakes along the way so please be easy on me I've learned so much on this forum and I can't wait to start the project!

Tim

[ColoradoDream]

Tuned in for this. Sounds like a pretty damn good budget build.

[Smoove]

updates ???

[funnyent]

Here are some pictures after day 1! It's been a long day for me figuring all of this out. This is my first build, and this is not a very common car (only a few thousand wagons sold in the US) so it was hard to get any help online. Anyway here's what I did...

Here's some of the equipment laid out in my room:

Brand new higher capacity battery:

Old Radio... yes it was a tape player!

Here's the car, it still looks pretty good for being 12 years old... and it's been recently tinted up:

Another view of the old interior:

Started pulling panels to run the amp wire from front to back:

[funnyent]

Found a hole in the firewall, but boy was it a PITA to get to!

After applying Crisco to the hole and to the cable, it finally went though.

Cable running inside the cabin:

Running to backseat (had to remove most of the seat):

And taking apart more...

Finally made it to the trunk Found a way to run it under and then up between the seats. And yes, That's my headlamp! It works so well.

Looking at the current Bose fiber optic sound system. I'll have to re-run all my speaker wires from here.

Starting to take apart the dash

Getting there...

All out:

[funnyent]

Tapping into switched power from cigarette lighter... Stock system only used constant power and would let system run without the key.

Finally found the cig lighter positive lead

Making the wiring harness! I have the Pioneer one, a parking brake bypass, and steering wheel control harness I had to all put together. Took some time but was pretty easy once I knew where all the wires should be connected.

Got the RCAs run up and behind the dash

Plugging it all in:

Fishing Usb wire under driver's footwell:

Took a while with all the other wiring in the way, but was able to drop the USB cable down through:

All finished up front!

[funnyent]

Now time to figure out which speaker each of these wires go to:

The old bose amp:

Found a good ground location under/beside the seat:

All of the wires run:

Door panels off and replacing old bose with new Rockford Prime speakers:

Rewiring the speakers to new amp location:

Getting out the amps!

Anyway that's what I got to yesterday! First build so I'm working slow to make sure I don't break something I'm about to get back to work today and hopefully finish this thing up! I'll post again soon. Thanks for looking at my build!

Tim