We are Custom Audio/Visual Installation Experts

It’s not easy to find someone that can bring your imagination to life. At Westside Sound and Image, we love transforming vehicles into mobile masterpieces of sound and image. Whether it’s for your car, truck, motorcycle, RV, or boat, our skilled technicians are experts at custom installations, and will help you design your system, right down to the last detail. We’ll guide you through the process to ensure the correct fabrics and components are used, which will guarantee you a high quality, great looking installation.
 
Custom work doesn’t have to break the bank – we have solutions to fit all budgets. Just come visit one of our in-store specialists to discuss options for customising your vehicle.

Popular Custom Installations

Here are some of the most popular materials and techniques in custom installations today.

The advantages to using fiberglass are that it has a higher strength-to-weight ratio when compared to many other materials, and it provides the flexibility required to create elaborate or complex shapes. Panels and enclosures can be seamlessly blended into a vehicle’s interior or other custom build materials.

Fiberglass typically involves making a framework out of wood, then covering that framework with a cloth material. The cloth is then coated with fiberglass resin, allowed to dry, sanded, then a body filler and fiberglass mat are used to fill in the voids to further strengthen the structure. The piece is then sanded and covered in vinyl, carpet or paint.

The number of installers that are able to work with fiberglass in WA is limited and has decreased significantly. At Westside Sound and Image, we are experienced in working with fibreglass, and can create a custom installation that will blow your friends away.

Paint and Vinyl Work

Paint and vinyl can be combined with other techniques, such as fiberglass, to increase aesthetic appeal. Rather than covering your panels with box carpet, we can use vinyl and paint to colour match your vehicle’s interior, or to create a contrast in colours.

A mediocre paint job can result in an ‘orange peel’ texture. Painted pieces have to be prepped and sanded properly, or surface imperfections will show on the finished product. At Westside Sound and Image we send the piece off to a local body shop to ensure a perfect finish is achieved.

Plexiglass and Neon

Plexiglass is most often used as a panel on a subwoofer enclosure or as an amplifier rack to allow a view of the equipment, while simultaneously offering a protective enclosure. Coloured and mirrored plexiglass are also available, but come in limited thicknesses.

Note: Plexiglass is the generic version of Plexiglas which is a trademarked name. The generic term is acrylic which refers to the actual material itself.

Neon is usually used in conjunction with plexiglass, to provide a backlight glow that is usually matched with the colour scheme of the installation, or as a standalone accent. A wide variety of neon products are available; classic tubes in varying lengths have been supplemented with neon speaker rings, shift knobs, flexible lighting and a variety of other neon accented equipment.

Under car neon kits are also popular, and a few competitions for neon use are being seen at some of the major sound-off events.

Ask our team at Westside Sound and Image for information on pricing and availability.

Motorization

Motorization brings a normally, static installation to life. Amp racks can move, hidden panels can reveal their contents and speaker pods can be positioned on the fly. Just about anything can be made to move with the right motorization technique.

Our installation team is familiar with most motorization devices, and can help you choose the right one for your custom build. Linear actuators, which are electrically powered devices that resemble a piston, tend to be more expensive, and are generally used on show cars. There are other electrical devices that can be used though, and are similar to the motorization used for power seat and windows. They tend to be strong, especially those found in luxury cars, are already adapted to 12 volt usage, and are much smaller than linear actuators, so they can be used where space is an issue.

The Sky’s the Limit!

There’s virtually nothing our innovative installation team can’t build at Westside Sound and Image. We’ve even added computer controls to a customer’s system, which created a virtual network among the components that display voltage, temperature and output for each component, and allowed for control of motorization and preset stop points. If you can dream it, we can build it.