Glovebox radio, hidden CD player - www.OffroadingSubarus.com

Glovebox Radio and Amplifier

Written by Thomas Paine - Phizinza
look further down the page to see my speakers.

Because the tread plate panel eliminates a spot to put a radio (not that I listen to the radio, but my brother insists I need one) I got my brother to make me a radio and amp holder under my glovebox. Next thing I know I don't even have a glovebox anymore! Here's what he came up with.

There's a captive nut welded to the body just above the glovebox insert. He made this to fit that nut. on the last picture you can see a alloy elbow he bent, that has a hole in it now that bolts into place.
The amp screws onto that alloy frame from the bottom and also pushes on the bar that the glovebox lid screws to for more support. Wired it all in and then the radio didn't seem to be able to pick up any stations... After following the wire from the radio to the fender trying to find a problem I found my aerial as very muddy. Some WD40 and a few times pulling it out and pushing it in and it works great now!
My amp, a Alpine 2ch, has the PDA/PocketPC wired into the low level RCA inputs and the radio wired into the speaker level inputs. Only problem that I encountered is when I play any sound on the PocketPC it silences the speaker level inputs (radio) on the amp and will only go loud again after turning the amp off and on or pulling the headphone jack out of the PocketPC. But I can live with that.
I needed the Amp as I needed to be able to power my 6.5" speakers as my PocketPC can't do that alone
Now, I also happen to own a Bluetooth GPS. So now that's in the glove box, with the antenna I bought for it bolted to the bullbar, I am able to map, track, waypoint just about anything. Plus it gives me a good speedo. Here's what it looks like with the GPS in place.

I give full rights for anybody to copy this idea/design.

Indoor 6.5" Speaker boxes

I needed some good sound. So what could be better then 2 6.5" speakers in BOXES (speakers sound shite without boxes!) So I got out my cardboard and made a template of the shape the box needed to be. Grabbed the 12mm MDF board and started cutting.

The Speaker spaces I got needed something to screw to. Also it couldn't be to thick as that would intrude onto the door trim to much. I found some 5mm thick Ply board, cut it to shape. Screwed it on, with LOTS of silicone, for sealing the box. Without a sealed box the box basically does nothing!

Cut the door trim to fit the spacer. Screw the spacer the the 5mm thick Ply.

A 6.5" speaker fitted to a door spacer attached to a box in the door of a Subaru Brumby or Brat

And there you have it!

But nothing ever goes smoothly. You may be able to see it in the picture, the window winder stops on speaker now...
Never fear, there's always great ideas just around the corner. And bad ones too.

Found this on the wrecked 2.2 Mazda 626 my brother has. It is a adjuster for a seat. I cut it's fitting so it would not stick out too far. Drilled a hole through it. Drilled a hole through my splined window winder shaft. And stuck a split pin through it. It does the job. But I wouldn't try winding that window while driving...

I plan on modding some winders to fit and be short. But that will come later. I also need to find some speaker grills.

At the moment I have a Alpine Amp powering these speakers. I have my PocketPC wired to the RCA inputs and the Radio wired to the Speaker level inputs. There's a little more about this up the page.

I give full rights for anybody to copy this idea/design.

Thanks for having a look. I hope I am giving you ideas!