Stereo install on Prius V

So here's what we have going. Looked around a while for a sub enclosure for a Prius V that would fit into a corner pocket. Cant find a prebuilt one and my time is a bit more valuable- I have to work for a living 24/7 and I'm an independent LLC that uses my vehicles as business.

Someone on Ebay on built one, and it gets me in the ballpark. Some good work. I decided to work it some more. Let's fix some things.

1. Cannot open the storage area underneath the floor without removing the speaker. I cut the front out and recessed it in some. JB Weld was my friend for doing this. Some reshaping is needed also. Like I said, good job, but could be better.

2. Cut the bottom and built a mold in the left storage area to iincrease the volume of the enclosure.

 

JL Audio XD800 mounted to aluminum for the passenger side seat base

 

So now I have an Alpine ILX-509.. Biggest radio I can fit without interference with the vents or the power button- in a Prius V, that's 9" max. All steering wheel features and vehicle controls retained. Used a Maestro interface and a bypass module to disable the lock features for video and access to some of the radio features that would require the vehicle to be in park with the parking brake on. To the naysayers, I also get a bit more than what the OEM radio gave me.

This was a low mileage 8 year old vehicle that had some butchery done to the JBL system.The person I bought it from had some Best Buy POS Boss radio installed with a receipt for $275 and it was unlistenable _ distortion above 1/4 volume, no rear door speakers and no functional steering wheel controls. He also handed me over two factory Toyota radios- one a JBL. There were adapters connectors and chopped wires. I own five different Prius vehicles. I looked into upgrading it with a better OEM and decided this was the best route as (1) I could not get a straight answer regarding upgrade options from anyone here or from any resellers and (2) given the butchery, I wouldn’t even know if I had a good radio to begin with.

I have also set up a 3rd gen with the OEM radio using a JBL DSP amp and a sub- and that worked out great. But that was something that was already working to begin with.

I highly recommend Crutchfied for getting everything you need to do this right. I SAF wouldn't go to some Corporate Dime Store. Either you spend some time to study it and figure it out, or you find a small shop Pro.

 

Crutchfield supplied a faceplate made by Metra. It fits perfectly- no gap. The radio fits in a one Din opening and they give you shelf- it serves me no purpose as the shelf is desisned to fit in the bottom part of the face. Thats where i need this large radio to go. Im going to cut a piece of aluminum or plastic to fill in the gap.

Ill get better picks as I move along. Still tackling the four individual parts of this project.. the radio, the amp, the front speaker setup and the sub.

 

Some more work on this. Audiofrog GB15's in the pillars.

 

Finishing up the subwoofer

 

Yeah, but I never grew up.

I had one of those Alpine ERA-G320 EQ's that i velcroed the eq to the sun visor on a Jeep TJ Wrangler. For years afterwards, the thing drove a 50's era Dynaco tube amp in my shop until the head display went bad and I sprung the cash to by a decent preamp DAC. Still, I miss it.

 

Finished up the sub and anchored it. Lots of Peel And Seal. The audiophile people will tell you to use fiberglass insulation over polyfill because they can hear things that my cat hears when you line your speaker boxes with fiberglass insulation and use gold plated power cables. I didnt happen to have any gold plated power cables, but my neighbor has volumes of fiberglass insulation.