Dacvolvo's Site.

The standard Volvo sound system was quite horrific, so a sound up-grade was in order. I decided to fit the whole car out with Sony gear as it's what I've used in the past and I've never had any complaints. This was quite an interesting project for myself as I'd never used sub speakers in any of my personal installs.

This is what my boot looked like before I started:

The first thing to do was to create a bass box that would house the two large sub speakers (12" size). I took the Volvo carpet/flooring from the boot and used it as a template. I placed it on a sheet of 19mm thick MDF wood and traced around the template with a pencil and then using a jigsaw, cut out a perfect reproduction of the carpet. With this new base made from MDF, I then used the two sub speakers to make 'resting holes' to which they would be later fitted. The photo below, shows the base of the sub box and the front of the sub box which is held up by a temporary piece of wood:

The next step was to add sides to the base box. Again, these were made simply by holding MDF to the side of the box and tracing guide lines using a pencil. Then the 2 sides were cut out and fixed in place by screws and a thin padding that came with the subs. The padding absorbs any vibrations between the lengths of wood. Once the sides had been fitted the sub box looked something like this:

It was at this point, that I discovered that because my box design was designed to fit perfectly into the boot, I could not simply place it in the rear of the Volvo. Instead, it had to be taken apart and then rebuilt inside the boot. This can be seen below:

I had already taken the time to install a set of Sony 6x9 speakers in the back shelf of the Volvo. These speakers are of the 4 way variant and produce around 200watts. When the main structure of the base box was in place, I then ran the wires from the Head Unit to the boot. This included all speaker wire, RCA cables for transfer of the music to the rear of the car and the complete wiring kits and power leads for the amplifiers. The photo below shows the view of the back seats when folded down:

Next I took one of the Sony amps and fitted it to the front of the base box, located directly between the 2 subs, I ran the wires through the box to keep everything nice and tidy. After This I then added a flat back to complete the base box and then carpeted the entire box with black acoustic carpet from the local car accessory shop.

The finished product. Over 1,100 watts of Sony Sounds:

The 440 was never going to be the most luxurious of cars, but it was given a generous level of equipment. Heated and electric moving wing mirrors, front and rear electric windows with 'safety off/child lock' option for kids in the back: 

Cat 1 alarm + immobolizer, Electric Ariel, Electric tilt/slide sunroof, colour coded mirrors, bumpers + side skirts, Remote central locking, Air conditioning, Electric air recirculation unit, Pollen filter and Boost gauge:

ABS Disc brakes all round, Headlight wipers, front fog lights, Massive Turbo intercooler, Air bag, side impact bars (SIPS) & Triptronic computer with petrol bar graph reader.

I have also added a few 'touches' to the inside of the Volvo. These include a Snooper Radar/Laser detector, Sony head unit & sound system, Toad alarm LED Scanner, Sony Commander stalk, Chrome hand brake lever, Alloy gear knob and Short shift gear stick.

From the first moment I drove the Volvo, I noticed the gear stick was quite long, almost like driving a van or small bus. So I shortened the gear stick by 5 inches and then reconstructed the 'lift reverse' design under the leather cover. The whole gear stick now looks much sportier and feels much better when driving.

Digital-Triptronic on board computer which tells the driver the Volvo's average fuel consumption, overall average speed, total fuel remaining in the fuel tank, oil temp, engine temp, outside air temp, instant fuel consumption (When in motion) and shows the number of miles the car will travel before the fuel tank runs out of fuel:

Note the two orange symbols at the top of the piccy. The one on the left tells the Driver if any of the side lights or brake lights fail and the one on the right tells the Driver if the washer-jet fluid is running low. Two very handy items...

The dial that every car with a turbo charger should be proud to have. Ok, it's a little plain, possibly even a little dull. But when the little needle enters the 'yellow' area, all Hell breaks loose. That's 'Dump Valve' heaven...

When in the 'White' area, this is the engine running as a normal 1.7i engine. When in the 'Yellow' area, the turbo is adding power to the engine as there is enough exhaust gas to spin the turbine, and last but not least, the 'Red' area means "danger" as the boost pressure is too high, although this should never happen as the Volvos all have a safety cut off to prevent the engine being damaged.

The Volvo 440 CD dash display includes rev counter, speedo, numerous Driver warning lights and the Digital triptronic computer. Seen here at night:

The dash controls are also linked to a dimmer switch as to allow the Driver to lighten or dull the brightness of the overall dashboard.

I fitted two Sony 12" subwoofer speakers into the boot. They are Sony XS-L1236 subs, each capable of 900 watts each. They are very similar in colour to the Volvo's body work and although this was not in anyway responsible for my final decision on choice of subs, it is an added bonus.

The two Sony subs are mounted on a one-off sub box which was constructed by myself:

Three Sony XM-255ex amplifiers are used. Amp 1, seen in the piccy below, powers the Sony 6x9's located on the back shelf. Amps 2 & 3 each power one of the afore mentioned subs. The Sony amps each kick out 300 watts and can be run 1/2 channel and are all connected by Sony's "Piggy Back" system wereby the 3 amps "Talk" to each other by passing the music signal to the next amp in the system.

Then finished product looked like this:

All the MDF wood used in the above install came to a mere 10 pounds. Another 10 pounds paid for all of the acoustic carpeting and a jigsaw was also purchased for around 20 pounds.