mandos

It's bigger, it's badder, it's better than ever. And without further ado:

Here is the COMPLETE gutting guide to anything you’d need to pull out of a tC to deaden it or install speakers. As you’ll notice, I don’t pull the dash or anything above the window line as these places weren’t really necessary for deadening and would have just created extra work. So…where to start…

First things first, to start out, I removed the plastic panel running along the door sill:

Before:

After:


Notice the little white clips with the wires in them, they'll be very useful later

Next, the passenger side kick panel. There's one little screw cap back there in the corner, isn't too tight so you can remove it with your fingers.

Before:

After:


There's a nice amount of carpet padding back there to block road noise, I don't know if I'm even going to deaden the floor of this thing. We'll come back to that wire bundle later...It's needed to run the speaker wire out to the door.

Well, after getting this far, you may want to install your headunit, as you should be running RCA's to the back.

Here's a picture of my center console with an installed headunit already:



Now, unfortunately, I went through two steps here. First one, would be to remove the shifter ****. That just unscrews and then you can pull it off. The second step is to grab the very end of the silver part of the console and pull lightly up on it. It will pop, but don't pull to hard to force it, the cigarette lighter adapter is clipped on and you might hurt the connections if you just pull.



That's what it looks like with no console covering the shift ****.

Now you’ll want to remove the plug from the back of the cigarette lighter. It looks like this:

Before:


After:


Just pull straight out and set this piece of your console somewhere safe.

Next step is to remove the portion of the console that houses the climate controls. Just pull on the bottom of the piece next to the passenger seat belt light and the ignition kill light and it will just pop straight out. Slide your fingers up and repeat this until it swings down from the front. I found it easiest to do this step with the door that covers the HU closed. Once you swing the face down you'll see this:



That's the wire bundle that powers the climate controls. Just push in on the center tab and pull the bundle out. Set your console somewhere safe, I didn't and it fell and got some minor scratches

Now you've got this:



Notice directly above and below the edges of the HU there's a metal piece, this is the factory bracket for the HU. Luckily 2 holes in my Eclipse lined up with those as I couldn't find the dash kit anywhere locally, it's currently on order for me. You'll need a socket set to remove the top ones, but a regular phillips head screwdriver for the bottom.

This next image just shows where I wired the RCA's behind the HU. The space back there is cavernous compared to any car I've ever installed a stereo in before. Very nice for installing:



Now to remove the front seats.



Those little plastic covers just slide back and pop off, nothing too difficult



Now the bolts. There's 5 total, 14mm heads, pop those out then tilt the seat sideways, more wires to disconnect for the seatbelt. They also have a plastic fastener on the bottom of the seat. Tricky to remove and I broke mine. No biggie since you can just put the seat back and make sure the wire is OK when doing so.

Now onto something new, removing the center console. This one is a little tricky. Now yes…it’s dirty…but here’s the center console before removal:



Just reach down under the little change cup/cubby hole and directly below the e-brake and pull up. This is a VERY tightly fit piece, and it’ll pop off with some force.

Here’s what it looks like after, you’ll need to carefully remove the LED’s if you got the light kit, they’re attached with foam tape to the side of the cups. Sorry about the blurriness…the pictures looked fine when I was taking them.



Next, we open the center console to see the carpet sitting at the bottom:



Pop the carpet off and we see these 10 mm bolts:

Before:


After:


After these are out, you’re almost done with the console. There are 2 screws connecting it to the dash here:

Before:


After:


Now to just disconnect the wires and you’re done. First wire is for the console cell charger/cigarette lighter:

Before:


After:


Finally, you need to remove the clip connecting the LED/cigarette lighters to the middle of the console. Here’s a view from the top:



And here’s underneath:



Just pinch the sides of that and it comes right out. Now just grab the console and slowly pull back and up and you get this:



Yes, a horrible mess, I know…but this isn’t for cleanliness, it’s educational ;)

Now a quick break from the interior of the car, lets move to the hatch. This is what it looks like after removing all the liners:



Ok, so the things on the left and the right are just styrofoam but held in by some pesky clips. When they pop, it sounds like you're breaking something, you aren't. You can see them here:



They're the dark black things along the top side of the styrofoam. Just pull up by those, then slide the piece forward a bit while lifting. It tucks under the rear plastic piece. Of course, you could remove that first like I'll show in a minute.



Without the styrofoam. Just begs to be custom glassed and have a sub built into the corner, doesn't it. Look for those in the future ;)

Other side, same thing, pop the pins and pull it out, only a before shot here:



Now you’ll want to fold the back seats down to get the bolts out here. First, you’ll need to open the tie downs to get to the bolts…to do this, just pry up where you see the knife in the next picture.

Before:


After:


Now just unscrew the 10 mm bolt and you get this:



You’ll need to do this to both sides, then just pull up on the carpet piece starting on one side, it’ll just pop up and you’ll be left with only the plastic retainer here:



This thing confused me for a bit. Turns out you just need to pull up on it and it pops off to.

And now, on to the back seats. To remove the back seats, just pull up on the front corners of them. They're held in like any other back seats, just 2 little pins up front that pop when you pull. You'll have to pull kinda hard to get them to pop, but once you do, just pull the seat forward and it's out. Make sure you pop both sides before pulling forward, you'll bend the metal bracket in the back if you don't. You can fix it easy, but best not to screw it up in the first place.

Before:

After:


Now let’s get the seat backs. Let’s start with the passenger side(note, all bolts for seats are 14mm. Bolts holding belts are gold, bolts holding the seat are black.)



The three you’ll need to remove here are the black one on the far right side, the gold one on the right being pointed to, and the black one on the right.

After you remove these, fold the seat down again to get at the back. There’s one bolt on the outside of the passenger seat:



And one on the inside of the passenger seat:



Sorry the plastic piece is in that pic, got it a bit early on.

Now for the drivers side back seat, here’s a pic of the front:



You’ll need to get the two black ones for this seat, and the gold one to get the belt out for deadening.

Again, flip the seat down to get the bolts behind it.



And the one on the inside:



Now, the side panels in the door. There's a small plastic pin fastening them to the metal bar under the seats:



These are easily replaceable if broken, but why break it in the first place ;) You just need a large flat head screwdriver. Push it under the plastic and pry slowly:



Now for the tricky part....the grocery hooks:



That's a low angle shot of the pesky little bugger. Notice the little pin thing in the middle. The trick to these guys is to push that in. I used a very small screwdriver. Once you do that, turn it 90 degrees clockwise:



After you do that, just pull on the hook and it comes out. Sorry this image is so fuzzy.



Now that you've got all the non plastic snapping type fasteners out of the door, just start pulling at the bottom straight below the speaker. I used the cup holders to pull on and that worked pretty well. Just go all the way around the gray plastic piece while pulling.

Here's what you get:



See that speaker baffle? It’s slightly smaller than the front one, and held with bolts instead of rivets. Much easier to remove…but a fairly poor location for a speaker due to it being a very small baffle.

Now for that pesky plastic piece in the back:



All you do with this little guy is pull up:



Now for the side panels:



In that picture towards the top in the center there's a phillips head screw that you need to remove:



In the back of the panel is a tie down for luggage and other stuff:



That's a 10 mm head. Just remove that and the metal piece comes out. The top has a small tab that slides into the metal, you need to pull out and slide down to get the tie down out.



Now if you look at this image again, there's another grocery hook type thing. To remove this, just put your fingers underneath the plastic panel at the top and pull straight out:



On the drivers side of the car, you’ll need to disconnect the power to the hatch light:



Just pull the panels straight out, they’re held in with the little white plastic pins. All you’ve got left is the carpet.

To remove the carpet, just push the white clips running along the door out towards the door and pop them up, the carpet slides right out. Now you’ll need to remove the plastic pins at the front of the carpet near the console:



To get the carpet out, just push the wires from the seats back down through them, then lift at the back(you’ll need to pull it down around the seat belts, the plastic covers on those just slide down) and pull it out. There’s Styrofoam under the carpet up front so it’s rather ridged and you need to be careful. After you do this, the car looks like this:



See those recycled plastic panels? They’re excellent sound dampeners. You’ll just need to pick them up and set them aside for now.

Now, to remove the door panels for running the speaker wire. The little chrome ring on the door panel is where you start to remove it. Underneath, just pop your fingernails in there and pull. Be very careful when pulling this panel off....the very top clips on mine broke on both door panels, still work fine, but kinda sucks that they broke.

Once you get that off, you'll need to unscrew 3 screws, here's the first right behind where the chrome ring was:



Here's the second:



These are just philips head screws again. They're really tough to start and make an awful squeaking sound. Plus, they're HORRIBLY long.

Now, one last screw here:



Yes, fuzzy pic, sorry. The little box in front of the lock flips open. You'll notice a small gap, put a very small flat head screwdriver in there and pry it open. It's hinged on the far side so don't pull to hard or you'll break it. Under that is another philips head screw that's much shorter than the previous 2.

Once you've got all the screws off, just start below the speaker portion of the door and pull. Move your way around the door pulling all the clips off. Once they're all off, just slide the door out, you'll need to disconnect the door electronics. I have pictures of that, but not uploaded yet as well. On the passenger side there are 2, drivers side has one. Both are just like the one behind the center console, just push the center and they pop out.

Last thing, just pull the hatch panels out. I didn’t do anything with it, but here’s how.

Remove the two screws in the gray hatch piece:



Now just pull off the beige hatch piece at the top of the hatch, it’s covering the side pieces. Once it’s off, remove the side beige pieces, and finally the gray piece. The gray piece is a bit tricky as it has 2 thicker snaps at the top of it:



Once this is all done, it should look like this:



Here’s what your car should look like now:



Now, set your door panel somewhere safe, time to deaden. The following are several pictures of the deadening progress. Just so you guys know, the amounts used are:

30 sq. ft. for the floor.

5 sq. ft. per layer on the doors. I did 2 layers on the outer skin, none on the inner skin as I may be doing some mods soon. I also laid 1 layer of v3 on the back of the door panels.

12 sq. ft. per layer on the rear quarter panel. As this is a huge sheet of metal, I did 2 layers here.

8 sq. ft. for the front half of each rear wheel well. I triple layered these as this was where most of the road noise came in.

30 sq. ft. for the entire hatch floor(including the back ½ of the wheel wells). I did not do the actual hatch as I didn’t want to cover the wires there…plus I’ve got some thoughts for stuff I may put in there later, didn’t want to deal w/ eDead on it.

Total eDead v1SE for a tC = 120 sq. ft.

Tools required to deaden the car, roller, deadening, and heat gun(if it's cold). Best way to do it would be to cut the deadening into 2-4" wide strips and just lay them down. Heat it up after you apply it then press with the roller, it won't go anywhere. And make sure you clean the surface first.

And now, pics:

10 sq. ft:





20 sq. ft:



And now, the done pictures…I did a lot by myself and just got into the work, forgot to snap pics as I went.

Drivers side hatch:



Passenger side hatch:



Hatch floor:



Interior from behind:



Driver’s side back seat:



Passenger side back seat:



Passenger side floor:



Drivers side floor:



After this, run wires and reassemble the car. Here’s a bit of a how to on running wires.

For the power wire, here’s what I did, first, run through the boot w/ most of the interior wires:



Now run it up through the metal in the top of the brake:



Then through the same hole on the clutch:



Just be careful running it through there, the metal is rounded, but you should still take care when running it.

As you’ll notice in this picture, I ran the wire under the metal braces in the bottom of the car. Also, at the front of the car, just run it down behind the stock wires that go into the door:



Remember that bundle of wires behind the kicks from earlier. Here's where you use them:



You'll want to pull them out of their clips and pull the rubber boot out of the door. Notice in the pic above the wires are just dangling out of the door jamb, this is the easiest way to run them.

Now, that big hole there, slide your wire through it and out the car. The rubber boot you've just removed has slits in it. Slide your wire in there and push it through until it comes out inside the door. Normally you can use a coat hanger but I used the 4 strand 12 awg from Knukonceptz...huge stuff. Each door took me about 1/2 hour to run wire in. Once you've got enough wire through and inside the door panel, just pop the boot back into it's hole. You might need a screwdriver to get the pressure all the way around it.

Here's proof that I used the boot with that wire without hurting it:



It's a pain, but worth it, no drilling necessary. And if I can fit that wire through there, anything will fit.

Remember those white plastic clips with the wires in the doors, here they are again.



You can remove the carpet from them by pushing in slightly then pulling up like in this picture. Also, once you run your speaker wires/RCA's they fit nicely into the clips and the door sill still goes on. That allows you go get under the carpet where there's a perfect space to run 0/1 AWG power wire to the trunk

Now, here's 2 pictures of the wire running from the back on the passenger side.




Notice in the second one how the wire is in the little clips. I love those things.

In that first pic, I just ran the wire around that rear panel in the trunk, you can pull the front out far enough even w/o removing the back clip to run wire back there.

If you have any questions on how to do anything to the car, ask away and I'll do my best to take a picture of the answer or explain it to you as best as possible.

ScionDad

Perfect.....Simply perfect

TheBigGuyRy

Youre a beast. How many hours of work is that?

NY_BSP_Scion

The half full killians was my favorite part.

mandos

Yeah...didn't realize the Killian's was in the pics...this was done during the ICIX meet...there was no drinking and driving.

Total hours of work, probably about 10-12 hours of actual work...I'm distracted easily though ;)

toastbox

can't quite tell from the pix...is there enuff room to mount an amp vertically in the wheel well area,near the reear speakers, rather than in the trunk?

mandos

Absolutely...it's cavernous back there...

That's actually where mine will be going...for now, I've just got a temp system of comps and an amp...nothing worth pictures which is why there aren't any ;)

toastbox

sweet, i want pix when you mount those amps. Someone else suggested it to me, but I haven't paid close attention to the tolerances in that spot, so thats why i asked.

adam1026

So how much did you spend on this project as far supplies go? And how has the return been? Was it worth it?

Crafter

what material did u use... what brand..

mandos

eDead V1SE.
120 sq. ft. of eDead with the ScionLife discount would cost $144 plus shipping.

Also, we did a before/after dB test...unfortunately it's been too windy here to get an accurate after reading. My hatch noise is now below the wind noise caused in the tC

jmiller20874

$144, damn that's cheap! You just got yourself a future customer (near future I hope), although I won't be doing the uber install you did, I'll still do the doors and hatch area. How much do you think I'll need then?

BigBaby

if I had a tC I would be VERY comfortable with this DIY. nice walk thru.

ssdm7683

Nice werk!

bpu_TC

nice!

Crafter

dynamat it is then...
man i'm only going to do my doors... this matting stuff is soo heavy...

wilder

Nice job!

I've only done the trunk area with a layer of v.1 and a coat of v.3 of eDead.

NY_BSP_Scion

Nah, dont get me wrong wasnt assuming any drinkin and driving (considering the tc was gutted) I was commending your choice in beer. Nice job on the write up btw.

mandos

Ahhh...in that case...thank you Needed quality beer...everyone else had bud light ;)

engifineer

VERY nice job! Also nice choice of beer, one of my favorites next to guiness

I plan on doing the hatch area and probably the doors, so the write up is appreciated!