has anyone ever installed an aftermarket amp where the factory used to be or where the spare tire was..

 

I had a 4-channel Alpine amp mounted inside the spare tire a long time ago. These pix are a bit small. SoundDomain reduced the size of my photos and I don't have the full size originals anymore.


The board was secured to the spare using heavy duty nylon wire ties. If I ever needed the spare all I had to do was snip the ties and remove the board and amp all at once. It was necessary to flip the spare 180 degrees to have enough depth for mounting the amp. I also had to make a smaller hook out of some threaded rod, invert the wing nut and add a short section of pipe to get everything to fit just right.

 

Might want to consider a fan of some sort as well if it will be behind sheet metal.

 

I actually mounted mine on the opposite side. I wedges in there fine.. Not sure if mounting it vertically led to the sudden demise of the amp, tho.

 

I've got pics as well as directions on how to do what LS1 Rulz is talking about at the link in my sig.

 

Vertically mounting is fine - it probably overheated in there since it looks pretty well tucked in. Also depends on where where heat sinks are, etc (sides usually). (you wouldn't want the most heat exiting at the bottom only to rise back up into the amp - heat sinks at the top is preferred; or blocked in any way is bad obviously...need to have 3 or so inches around heat sinks).

 

I bought a pair of Blaupunkt "class t" (digital) amps.
Sure they probably aren't as powerful, or efficient, or quality (or expensive!) as other amps, but I bought them for one reason. They would allow me to stealth my install, and be much better than stock.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/482801/3

Front amp is in front of the stick shift under the console. Rear amp is mounted directly to the inside of the passenger side plastic panel.

 

Amps mounted on amp rack are invisible from outside with hatch closed. If you are not too serious about your setup, and expect minimal load on your amps, you can mount them almost anywhere (under seats, etc. ). However it is generally very bad idea to operate high current switching devices like amplifiers without sufficient cooling.

 

see what i was thinkin since i dont have a spare anymore i would find some way to mount the amp on the right side so i could still use the factory speakers to connect to the new amp. I just figured i wood secure it to a board and then the board to the car.. i just needed to see some ideas on how people set theirs up..

 

I had three 500 watt soundstream rubicons stacked in my spare tire well for a while along with crossovers for seperates and capacitor.

 

Did exactly this thing. Without interfering with spare tire I've been able to fit an amp plus 2 crossovers in there, using stock wires check:
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=518308

I can take some pics...