Jack brought his gorgeous, perfect and super clean BMW 325ci cabriolet to our store in hopes of upgrading the stereo system.  He had visited several other stores but didn't get a good vibe, and even after meeting with us he was still nervous about entrusting anyone with his car.  Add to that the fact that I (Rod) became ill during the time we had Jack's car, slowing down progress and we really tested this poor guy's patience.

Look at this machine!  Jack was justifiably nervous about having anyone take his car apart.  I like to think he came to the right place.  I think we've probably installed systems in 20 or 30 E46 BMW's, I mean just this generation, 99-04 or so, 3 series specifically.

Despite Jack's fears, we proceeded to take his car apart.  ;)  Actually, he left a digital camera for us to take photos of the process, since he was fascinated by what exactly we'd be doing to effect the audio upgrades.  We therefore took plenty of pictures of his baby in parts, with bonus pictures of the doors without panels, the actual speaker mounts to the door panels, the inside of the car without any rear interior section.  It was kind of fun!

As we've done with a few other BMW E46 cab's, we built a subwoofer enclosure with dual 8" subwoofers firing through the rear passenger "pass through", behind the rear armrest.  We mounted a single amplifier on the back of the box, a Hertz EP5 5 channel to run everything, then fashioned a trim panel to cover the wiring and make the amplifier look like it belongs in the trunk.  We were able to leave quite a bit of space in the trunk for Jack, while providing a dramatic improvement in sound overall.

Here's that "pass through", where the factory subwoofer is sometimes mounted.  The subwoofers are behind the opening, firing from the trunk with a clear path into the interior.  This photo is with the rear seat still removed, so with the seat back in place it's cosmetically similar to before, in fact there are no permanent changes to the car whatsoever.  We interfaced with the factory radio and also upgraded the front door speakers with some Hertz Hi Energy component speakers.

When we were all done, we did some testing, tweaking, and we are very satisfied with the improvement in overall sound, volume, and full range of this finished system.  Now Jack can rock out with the convertible top up or down, with volume and dynamics that trounce the meager output of the factory amp and speaker setup.  Thanks for being patient Jack, 'sorry it took 2 long days instead of one!!!

Good job Charlie, our installer Charlie did 90% of the work himself.  Yowza!