Rob's Skoda vRS

Subwoofer

Stripping the boot trim
Installing the sub amp
Installing the subwoofer

The mission: to install a sub and amp without losing any boot space.

The Before shots:

The usual helper

Stripping the boot trim

First, remove the side trim by the rear seat. The two fasteners can be unscrewed with finger and thumb

Remove the luggage latch thingy - two torx screws

Pop the seat back out of the hinge. Just use a flat screwdriver to flip the latch open and the seat lifts out.

Remove the rear trim. Just six Philips screws

Next remove the corner trim. This one just pulls off once the rear trim is removed. Pull towards the centre of the car. Be careful with the wiring for the boot light.

Now you can get to all of the fixings for the top trim.
Philips screws here:

And a silver Philips screw in the corner - you can see it in the corner trim pic above.

Then all that's left is a 10mm plastic nut:

Removing the big cover is straightforward. There are two metal fasteners here:

Sort of an inverted nut. I loosened then a bit by pushing then a little with a screwdriver then unscrewed them by hand.

Then there's just a screw at the end:

And the trim can be lifted out:

Fitting the Subwoofer Amp

Sound deadening installed, and a bit of work on the existing cables.

Cardboard template

Thin piece of MDF cut to size. Sub screwd to it along with the fuse box, then screwed in place.

Then all that was left was to wire up the power, connect the audio leads, and put the trim back together.

I had a bit of an issue the following morning. I didn't realise I had a single stray copper strand from the live touching the amp's remote-on connection - so the new amp was permanently on.
Doh! Flat batttery!

Installing the Subwoofer

This is going to be the challenging part! The sub I have only needs a sealed enclosure volume of 0.5 cubic feet - which I reckon can fit in the side compartment in my boot.

My plan was to build an enclosure from 18mm MDF. So far this has been something of a challenge as the space is a very awkward shape.

This is how it turned out:

I made cardboard templates for each side in turn then cut an MDF piece before moving onto the next. Screwed it all together to get this:

Then I cut back pieces to fit inside:

The back started off as two pieces as pictured but I had to slice it into three to make the box sit properly in the car.

Next I cut a front piece in a similar way:

The finished box. Not pretty but it does the job!

Next I fitted the terminal plate, which I bought from Ebay here

Hole cut for the sub:

I sealed all of the joins inside and out using clear silicone seal and left it overnight to dry. Then I part-stuffed the box with insulation as recommended in the instructions for the sub.

Next job was to make it look a bit better!
I bought the carpet from Jaycar. It's a bit light compared to the Octavia fabric but it looks a lot better than the bare MDF!