It takes me a while to get everything done. But I did thought of taking some pictures and post it here to give others ideas on what to do. Since I got many ideas and help from here and Scoobymods.

1. The speaker I use is MB Quart DSC216 6.5" component system. I have used MB quarts in the past and they are pretty good bang for the buck. I just put the stock speaker side by side with the Quarts and you can see a big difference in terms of the magnet size and quality of the frame.

 

2. The front side of the speakers. Check out the real rubber surround, spider and cone materials versus the stock foam surround....... the tweeters are 0.5" so it is a perfect drop in replacement of the stock tweeters. In fact, I have already mounted the new tweeter onto the original bracket. Theft is rampant in Vancouver so I want a stock appearance.

 

3. The key to mount the woofer driver properly is to provide enough clearance to the window mechanism. There is not much room between the window bracket and the surface (~0.75"). As a result I have to fabricate a space ring 0.75" thick. I just copy the stock mounting holes (3 total) to the spacer ring and mark additional mounting holes for the speaker. Use MDF to ensure the driver will be mounted firmly on the panel.

 

4. Cross Over. The MB Quart system have a nice 2 way x-over with adjustable tweeter level output. It is quite large and I decided to mount it in the space below the window switches. Yes, the stock panel has only a few pieces of foam so Dynamat is definitely going to be useful in the future.

 

5. Wiring. I found that the Forester have plenty of room for pulling wires. You just need to make sure the speaker wires are clear from the window mechanism. As you can see the tweeter and base driver is a perfect fit in the stock location.

 

6. Souce unit install. I have an old Alpine deck and changer sitting around that will be good for this install. However, I do like the stock 6 disc in dash changer fuction. What can I do? Install the CD changer in the glove box location! I did it in my last vehicle as well and I love the convenience of not getting out of the car to change discs.

The glove box is quite small and shallow so an old Alpine changer is a tight fit, but it poses no clearance problems.

 

7. Subwoofer. One of the constraints I have is that I need to remove the entire subwoofer in case I go rallying or need the extra room for stuff. So I made a classic MDF enclosure housing a JL-W0-4. I mount the enclosure on a 1/2" MDF sheet the shape of the spare tire cover. So it gives it a total flush mount fit.

 

8. Finally, cover the whole thing in carpet and the project is done!! I need to polish my carpeting skills as my wife politley pointed out I am missing a "few spots"........

 

Here is the summary.

Source unit: Alpine CD deck and changer
Front: MB Quart DSC-216
Rear: Stock
Subwoofer: 1 x JL 10-W0-4
Amp: USAcoustics 4050 (4 x 50W)

So how does it sound? Pretty good for my taste. I moved the fader all the way to the front to ensure the best imaging. Using the Autosound test disc and an SPL meter I plotted the frequency response curve. The curve is fairy flat betwwen 100 hz to 4k hz. I know there is big bump in the 40-60 hz region and I need to fix it (any comments will be appreciated). But a nice side effect for this is that it actually sound pretty good when driving.

Transients and imaging is pretty good even though the stock locations are not necessary the best. Overall, I am quite pleased with the result.

Comments and feedback are definitely welcome!

Cheers,
HerbXT.