Has anyone cut the

[Espresso]

metal behind the seat? I know it is a structral part of the car. I am not talking the entire thing just like the small section where the armrest comes down.

I already had to take out my rear deck speakers because they would never turn off with the fader or nothing(rear doors would fade though). I need to get some air space back there because I am already creasing my trunk lid & it is gettting harder to open.
I already have all my dynamat for the car. Which I will be doing next week.

Just wondering what you have all done & if anyone has come across this problem in their MB.

[1995c280]

i know of a few people on here that have done it for better (DB'S) from their sound system and for more ventilation to the amplifiers. personally i haven't done it yet, i just pulled out the rear deck speakers and the first aid kit and that's enough free flowing air for me and my system is loud enough already . i don't want too much air going into the trunk because i have a ported box/sub!

Jason

[Espresso]

Yeah I have the MTX spec square port box myself. But it just drowns itsself because of the lack of airspace.

I know it has ALOT more in it. You cannot hear it outside of the car(besides for the trunk trying to rip itsself apart & the glass flexing). But inside the car it rattles your teeth. But you know it it coming from the trunk. Granted it is loud but sounds horrible(to me).

I do not want to alter the looks of the car by removing anything. This is a daily driver & I carry our 3 year old, his toys & such.

[1995c280]

that's about how mine is set up. when outside of my car, you get alot of rattle and i have it all dynamated already. when you start gettin into competition level system's it's hard to stop outside rattle unless you lay the dynamat on really thick but i'm not worried about what people outside my car think cuz inside is a totally different story. you see big flex in the glass and especially the trunk lid. but the second you get inside my car, your eardrums pop right away. i had 2 chicks in it last night and as much as they love loud music they made me turn it down. (this is results of good quality products!). kinda sounds to me like maybe your system isn't tuned all the way like the gain and volume or the frequency are set way to high if you say it sounds horrible or your port size may be too small. check the website of your sub and look for recommended port size's for your application. what kinda sub do you have and what amp are you throwing at it? also look into a pamametric equalizer like the planet audio (PEQ15). it is able to fine tune your speakers and expecially your sub to perfect performance.

Jason

[1995c280]

my box is 30" wide, 15" tall, and 17" deep. it's basically a box for two subs but i placed one planet audio big bang 12" sub all the way to the right and then put the port (5" x 5" square) in the left side of the box and ran the port to the middle of the box. had it custom made by my friends audio shop. came out really nice and sounds perfect! he knew the exact dimensions to made already so it made it easy for me!

Jason

[rollinrealbig]

I cut mine out.

It looks really messy when you take my seat off cuz I didnt have the right tools so I used whatever I had. when the seat is put back you dont even know its cut out. sounds better. also take out the stock subs and have those as ports. :)

[Proven Guilty]

i removed the first aid kit, and cut the hole there, so i could most of the structural integrity in check, as well as leave the rear deck speakers in to drop in a nice set of components for imaging.

i would highly recommend not cutting out the rear wall behind the steat, as it does serve as a structural part of the unibody. i looked pretty hard into doing a retro-fit of fold-down seats since i never noticed it didn't have the option when i bought my c230k used.

if you take a look at the cars with the rear-split folding seats, the back wall is designed much differently (similar to how a convertible is when compared to a standard roof car) for strength.

on a side note, i was a robotics engineer for the automobile industry, and after welding together 3 different models of cars, i had developed somewhat of a knack for knowing what is safe, and whats not. the job helped me understand from the engineering standpoint of whats going to break and what is built like a tank while being part of the crash-test team and unibody design aspect (since i would have to re-program the weld spots on the body after CMM and crash testing proved weaknesses in design).

the cars i worked on were the 3 new chrylser products;

dodge caibur, jeep compass (ugly POS!) and jeep patriot. i know the calibur got a 5star safety rating, and i've heard the other two are expected to be 5star as well, so hopefully my credibility will hold some water; don't cut out the entire rear plate :)

like 'rollinrealbig' did, i wouldn't cut out any more than where the arm rest goes. just the steel back there is very thick, so i would probably measure it, and tape it off to get a cleaner cut. you're kind of limited on what you can do, but a hole-cutter drill bit and a saws-all is a good start to a cleaner cut.

just remember; it's never good to sacrafice safety for "bling" especially with a 3yo on board

[rollinrealbig]

I wanted to cut the entire back panal out ... I dnt know why maybe a slight weight reduction but that wouldnt be noticed in performance besides I dnt have the rite tools for the job and id rather work on other parts of my car.

Proven Guilty said its there for a safty reason I cant agree with him more, but IMO ... if my car was hit hard enough to make that back panal act as some sort of protection - id be dead already, but thats just me and my stuborness. LoL

[Proven Guilty]

Originally posted by rollinrealbig
I wanted to cut the entire back panal out ... I dnt know why maybe a slight weight reduction but that wouldnt be noticed in performance besides I dnt have the rite tools for the job and id rather work on other parts of my car.

Proven Guilty said its there for a safty reason I cant agree with him more, but IMO ... if my car was hit hard enough to make that back panal act as some sort of protection - id be dead already, but thats just me and my stuborness. LoL

lol@that last line

while that may be true, it serves more than just protection from being hit by the rear. if you take a t-bone collision hit, roll the car, rear end accident etc - it serves as more stability over-all for the entire cabin. its a lot more important than you might guess by simply looking at it for its obvious structural merits ;)

edit: i guess in short, its like a poor man's integrated roll cage. without that, i doubt the car would pass any sort of crash testing because of how unibody cars absorb the energy throughout the car during an accident.

if you ever wanted to go the route of roll cage in the car, by all means cut it out, because you would have a lighter, superior replacement for it. with as thick as that sheet metal is, i'm sure it would cut off nearly 25lbs where chromolly tubing to replace it would only weight about 15 and serve twice as much strength.

[rollinrealbig]

so your saying that sheet thing weights 25lbs ? now say I do cut it out ... what REAL gains would I get besides the bass going in better ?

I would lose strengh in the cars' body structure, cant say 25lbs will increase MPG or HP. whats the point then ?

EDIT: say I shave 100puonds off my car. what are my pros and cons ?

[OCKlasse]

Originally posted by rollinrealbig
EDIT: say I shave 100puonds off my car. what are my pros and cons ?

The pro to shaving weight is it handles better, is better performing, and is more fuel efficient. I believe the rule of thumb is for every 100 lbs taken off your car you lose .1 sec in the 1/4 mile, but I might be wrong.

[ryhi]

that metal piece doesnt seem that heavy/thick.... ?

[rollinrealbig]

Originally posted by ryhi
that metal piece doesnt seem that heavy/thick.... ?

it isnt. im guessing its about 20lbs. but I can remove my spare tire w/all the accesories, then take out a few other things in my car. I have no system besides a deck so its stock, and my car is ALWAYS clean inside and out.