Euro enthusiast Olivier Duong had everything taken care of: engine upgrades, performance modifications, a roll cage and even a hard-to-find bike rack atop his 2000 Volkswagen Golf. But his ride lacked one thing every well-rounded show car needs - an A/V system. He could have gone simple by swapping out the head unit, throwing in some headrest monitors and getting a prefab box to bring in the bass. Fortunately for us, that's not his style. Instead, he searched for an installer who could work some fiberglass magic and transform his souped-up ride into a bona fide show car.
Duong's search resulted in his discovery of Lorenzo DiMichieli, a young installer who had recently opened his own shop, Quality Mobile Video of Glendale, CA. Duong didn't know exactly what he wanted, but he knew it had to turn heads. With his extensive experience, DiMichieli had no doubts that he could meet the challenge. He came up with a gleaming design that fills the rear cargo and former rear passenger seating areas with ICE heaven.
Starting in the very rear, a pair of square subs courtesy of Hifonics rest in separate boxes made of MDF and fiberglass. Angling towards the center, they're set off by a gleaming cover of black-painted fiberglass. As you can see from the pics, DiMichieli didn't skimp on the fabrication, using up plenty of Select Products mat and resin to bring the black-painted pieces into being. "I ended up using 10 gallons of resin," he reveals. As for the 1 1/2-ounce chopped mat: "I don't remember, at least ten yards... it was a lot."
Towards the top of the fabrication close to the rear doors, a Hifonics component set brings the highs to any show-goers lingering around the rear. And why would anyone be lingering? Though a few people might be craning their necks to check out the clean workmanship, more might be checking out the pair of Icon TV monitors suspended between the subs. "I had to come up with something to work with the square subs, but it got pretty boring," DiMichieli states, "so that's why we did the monitor bridge." Constructed initially of ABS plastic and finished with fiberglass and body fillers, the arc complements the amprack in the rear seat.
Although the cargo area and rear seat area were available for the audio/video transformation, DiMichieli did not have completely free rein. The main obstruction: the previously installed roll cage. Whatever DiMichieli dreamt up, it had to fit within the restraints of the metal tubing. Working in place, he managed to install three Hifonics amps on an amprack built upon a 1in2 tube-welded frame. Fiberglassed with a one-piece cover, the rack is bolted to the two sub enclosures to keep them exactly parallel to each other.
Below the amps, the glossy cover hides an MDF and fiberglass base. Here DiMichieli decided to display the Scosche wiring. Duong expressed interest in adding a PlayStation someday, so DiMichieli made the acrylic window removable so that a console could be added here. Beneath the acrylic, LED light-strips from Accele Vision set the Scosche product aglow. The soft blue also permeates throughout the rear, the color cued in by the Hifonics gear. From the dust cap of the subs to the cones of the mids to the lettering of the amps, the distinctive Hifonics-blue lights up the install. Further accenting it, DiMichieli ran a narrow strip of backlit acrylic betwixt the two subs.
In the front doors, DiMichieli swapped out the factory junk with a Hifonics component set. The rear doors match. First he took the entire door panel off and created a new baffle from concentric rings of 1/4" and 1/2" MDF. Then, after dampening the doors with Scosche Accumat, he reinstalled the improved door panels.
Heading up the system from the dash, an Alpine 7200 DVD head unit boasts a flip-out 7-inch LCD monitor. While the rest of the install may have tested DiMichieli's skill and patience, this was a simple swap. He didn't even need to use a dash kit! Though Duong doesn't often use this Euro creation on the road, the head unit's monitor comes in handy at shows. He can lean back and watch a few movies from the comfort of the driver's seat. The rest of us have to stand at the opened hatch and dream.