Amplifier Mounting Idea - Kia Forte Forum : Sedan / Koup / Forte5 Forums

21shabutie13 · 02-07-2012, 09:48 PM

Ok, so I have been trying to come up with an amp mounting solution that is safe, reliable, functional, and most of all clean. After my latest brainstorming session, where I just lay in the trunk and stare at it until I think of something, here is what I have have come up with.

D113 mounted his equipment to a board that appears to have been mounted to the back of the seat (at least, that's what I gather from his pictures). And in doing so, he lost his 60/40 split. I felt around, and the back of the seat does not seem to be solid enough for my taste to want to screw a board to it and trust that it will hold. I started digging around by the hinges and found the zipper to the carpet on the seat backs. Sure enough after unzipping them I found that there is a sheet of corrugated plastic (essentially plastic cardboard) attached to the crossbar supports on the back of the seat. I am thinking about removing them and using them as a template to cut matching sheets of 1/2" or 3/4" MDF. The MDF could then be attached to the crossbar supports to replace the corrugated plastic sheets. There appears to be enough slack in the carpet on the back of the seats to allow this to fit. And I suppose this board could be mounted either inside or outside of the carpet, depending on if I want to cut holes into the carpet or not. This would provide a solid mounting surface for an equipment board or even just the equipment themselves. If I go with the "equipment board" idea, i would cut and carpet it so that it fits perfectly in the arched pass-through between the cabin and the trunk.

So this brings me to the point of "am I biting off more than I can chew"? In all honesty, it would be cheap and easy to do. It would also give me much more flexibility in creating a custom fiberglass subwoofer box, since I wouldn't need to account for space for amp mounting and such. There also won't be any issues with amp damage due to mounting the amps the subwoofer enclosure. Lastly, this could be done in a way such as to preserve the 60/40 split. One amp and the wiring would mount on the 60, the other amp would mount on the 40. Anybody have any experience/ideas with mounting equipment to the back of the rear seat?

Crap. I think I'm going to do this...

SketchedOut · 02-07-2012, 10:47 PM

In my civic I have my amp bolted right to my seat, no board. just used self taping screws and screwed it down.

noodile · 02-07-2012, 10:50 PM

if its a small amp, i saw a guy custom make a small shelf that mounted in the trunk under the rear deck. it was hidden, and when he needed, he's unclip something and it would slide out.

21shabutie13 · 02-07-2012, 11:23 PM

The main issue with the Koup back seat is that there is no sheet metal to screw the amps to. It's just carpet, then corrugated plastic, then the seat foam. Otherwise that'd be perfect. I don't think the shelf idea will work for me because I am planning to run two largish JL amps. Sweet idea though!

Side note: I'll probably want to think about ventilation for the amps with the custom fiberglass box I am planning. I could do an intake vent on the bottom right with a fan pulling air in and an exhaust vent on the bottom left with a fan pumping air out.

noodile · 02-08-2012, 12:21 AM

if i remember correctly, theres something like a vent or something behind the rear wheels i remember a while back some asian dude installed a ventilation fan there

21shabutie13 · 02-08-2012, 12:33 AM

Cool I'll look into that. Thanks for the heads up.

noodile · 02-08-2012, 12:39 AM

Here's what i'm talking about:

21shabutie13 · 02-08-2012, 01:16 AM

Awesome thanks for digging up that photo, noodile. Now I know what I'm looking for. Do you know off the top of your head where the other side of that vent comes out?

noodile · 02-08-2012, 08:32 AM

as i said, not 100% sure if it goes completely through to the trunk. I'm 99% sure that you;ll need some modification, *maybe cutting).

SX FORTE · 02-08-2012, 10:09 AM

It goes all the way through, you can see it behind the trunk interior/carpet stuff

_AnGeL_ · 02-08-2012, 10:15 AM

I had my 4 channel amp bolted to my rear seat the "40" side, and I had my mono block in the "trunk" (in my case hatch area). As of now they are both in the "trunk" though lol.

sje0123 · 02-08-2012, 11:14 AM

You aren't going to be able to pull air into the vent while driving. I'm sure that vent is louvered to allow air to pass out only. Plus, it is to drop the pressure in the cabin so air is constantly being forced out of it. If that weren't there the trunk seals would blow out from air pressure when the windows were down.

SX FORTE · 02-08-2012, 02:30 PM

What about mounting them underneath the rear deck? I may try that if there's room

21shabutie13 · 02-08-2012, 03:22 PM

Mounting under the rear deck would be pretty cool. The two amps I want are basically 10" x 14" x 2.5". Without actually measuring to see, I am guessing it would be a very tight fit side by side if they fit at all.

Thanks for the update on those vents, btw. No sense in messing with them and trying to change their function.

SX FORTE · 02-09-2012, 02:38 AM

I measured under the rear deck and I'm pretty sure that's were I'll be mounting my two...they have to be suspended 1" 3/4 to clear the trunk release rods and the adjustment knobs will be pointing towards the front but it will be clean, out of the way and add extra weight to the rear deck...not to thread jack but are there any spots other than the trunk I can stick my Optima yellow top?