FINALLY! I've been without my empeg in the car so long i almost forgot how to use it!

After a marathon install day yesterday (12 hours), the empeg, amps, and speakers are in. All that's left is to wire up the wireless bluetooth kit and do the sub enclosure. I spent a LONG time doing the bezel... a couple of hours at least... but it was totally worth it. It came out EXACTLY like i'd been hoping it would. I'll post more pics later, but here's the meat of it!

... and just the "Rob" black sled...

I spent a LONG time doing the bezel... a couple of hours at least... but it was totally worth it. It came out EXACTLY like i'd been hoping it would.

Very nice! Looks like the cuts are just perfect. Impressive.

Remind me, though, why everyone doing an install in a scoobie always puts the empeg on the bottom instead of the top? It would seem as though the empeg bezel would fit better in the top spot.

Hahah... i KNEW i should have taken that picture this morning because i knew i'd get this question. There's a cup holder right above the top slot, and it drops down when you open it. So if you have a cup in it, the volume knob is blocked, and condensation often drips on the stereo. The choice was justified this morning when i put my Jamba Juice in the cup holder and could still change the volume.

nice loren!

Did you have fun jamming that sh!t in there?

oh and its a good thing that the pocket has a way to hold cds

heh.

Haha... it wasn't as bad as i'd thought it would be. There's a perfect little pocket for the tuner on the right side... though the PCATS is too big, so i had to use my girlfriends original tuner... i guess she gets my PCATS. The wires mostly go beneath the sled... where they were interfearing with the hvac controls. But after a bit of fiddling it's all working well. There's almost zero space behind the sled though!

And yes, i too noticed the irony of the CD pockets. I wanted to use another pocket without the slots... but that one just happened to be the perfect height and width. None of the slotless pockets fit.

What tools did you use to make your bezel cuts?

If a dremel, how did you then go about smoothing the plastic?

Well, not ALL of us do it that way .



I need to update my pic w. the smoked lens and stainless dead-pedal..

Not to hijack Loren's thread, but Jim Hogan (who I think was the first WRX owner to do an empeg install) suggested to me that I tape off the area with masking tape then "score" the paint and plastic with a razor blade to make a clean line. Then use a dremel (not too fast of it'll melt). I guess the masking tape and scoreing helps cuz it worked for me!

Way to go Loren! I would have put a pocket but I only had a "CDless one" and it wouldn't fit for the life of me.

Very nice install.

I agree on the placement, I have mine in the same spot in my Jetta for the same reason, namely the cup holder. Plus, I can reach all the buttons and the volume know with my hand on the stick, which gives me a reference point so I don't have to look down.

I could do it so much faster after having spent so long trying to find the best way to do it. I scored it with an exacto as was suggested. Then I started using a dremmel cut off wheel on an air tool on super slow to prevent melting. Then i used a small grinding wheel to smooth things out. But what REALLY worked was to use a really large flat file and just slowly smooth it down.

If i could do it over again i'd just score it, tape it, then do a really rough cut with the cut off wheel and do the rest with the flat file. I spent way too long with that cutting wheel. The file allows for a lot more control than i would have figured and made a really smooth edge. It also makes those "whoops" slips with the dremmel wheel a non-issue.

I really wanted the fascia counter-sunk with the bezel, so i measured 50 times and cut smaller than i measured, then filed, fit, filed, and fit until it was perfect.

The pocket took quite a hack job itself. It's just pressure fit in there... nice and snug.

Cool. Very similar process to how I did mine. I've come across a couple vehicles that need the bezel modified for an Empeg install (I'm up to 4 installations now) and am trying to tap the collective experience to get the fastest, easiest, and most precise method of doing these for the future. One of these days I'll probably do a writeup with pictures showing the best practices.

Great! That looks really, really hot... (i love subi porn)

I was a little worried about its position, but I'm glad I installed the empeg in the upper slot. Mostly because the cup holder can be pulled out just enough to cover direct sunlight (when it happens). I havn't had a problem with spilling (so far) and I can adjust the volume fairly easily with my finger even with a cup in the holder (but the passenger can't do/see [censored]).

Is it hard to pull the empeg out with the handle being so close to the bottom of the bezel?

Argh... Now you got me wanting to finish up my install so I can finally show it off... eh....

what's next? (I'm thinking modded xbox w/ 180 gig drive + monitor that comes out of a modified gague pod from center dash...)

but really, i want to get motivated on working on the Rally/ECU mode for our empegs... expecially before boarding season starts... ah, who am I kidding, i can't even find time to get to a race track...

rbenech, post some install pics ! We WRX/empeg owners need a little support group! I'm surprised that Jim Hogan hasn't popped in here yet..

Yea! More WRX prOn! and more Rally/ECU modes! heheh.

I gotta snap some more pics. Those don't seem to do it justice.

I had to trim my bezel, and I roughed mine out with a coarse dremel bit, then went on and did the fine trimming with one of the tiny bits. Mine was trial and error, and what helped me was to take the bezel off and do it on the workbench with the rest of the assembly in place. It really helps to have the dremel "hose" attachment for precise dremelling. My car is a 2000 Subaru Outback.

Here are pics from my riocar.org gallery:

I forgot to mention that the neater you keep your workbench, the harder it is to get a good fit with the bezel.

I'm surprised that Jim Hogan hasn't popped in here yet..

Fark. Ask me about my new job! Someday, at some owners' meet in the future, I will be at liberty to describe (using aliases and sanitized identifiers) how two months of my life disappeared into the battle against the Trojans and the phantom rootkits. Argh. I need a cot.

Loren, looks great. OK, my version 2 was on top but just because of the other HU. Oh, and I took care of that cup holder with a little Crazy Glue. Ain't nobody hanging a double-tall latte (extra-hot, low foam) over *my* Empeg!

Fark.

Jim