Speaker Upgrade.. well chuffed

[sweetpea]

Hi all,

Well after having to suffer poor sound quality in my 88 944 LUX.. i decided to pop the speaker grilles off to have a look.. it was pretty obvious why when i saw the state of the speakers, they had practically fallen to pieces!

Anyway.... got myself a pair of Clarion 6x4 for the fronts which then showed up the rears, so did them as well!

The rear panels were a bit of a challenge, however i took my time and with a little inginuity, i managed to remove the speaker adaptor plate beneath the panel.. which allowed for a larger speaker fitment.

I reckon i could have probably got away with a 6x9 but opted for some Alpine 6.5" round which again with a little jiggery pokery went in smoothly.

the result.... wow... what a difference.... i don't particularly like my music loud, especially when driving, but still nice to have a decent quality when required..... well pleased! []

Mike []

 

[Wigeon Incognito]

Brilliant! I have my rear panels off and some 6.5" round Pioneers to go in, how did you mount yours?

I'm deciding which material to mount mine on at the moment.

 

[sawood12]

How did you get the rear panel off? Did you go down the route of removing the window or did you manage to free up the panel enough to get access?

 

[sweetpea]

Hi Matt,

The Alpines were actually quite wide so i didn't require any fitting plate... i just used the existing screw holes with washers to secure into place.
Another trick i used was to make life a little easier, was to use a very narrow but long electicians screwdriver. Buy lifting the rear panel slightly, i slid the screwdriver through the holes in the panel so i could reach those awkward to get top screws!
Also you could ulitise the speaker adaptor plate that is already in place, with a little cutting, it would fit in nicely, again using the existing fixtures.

Mike []

 

[Wigeon Incognito]

You don't need to take the window out to remove the vinyl.

I just lifted the rubber seal with a curved piece of metal, and carefully peeled the vinyl away with my fingers. It does leave your fingers a bit raw afterwards and I'd say it took me half an hour per side for the entire removal.

 

[Wigeon Incognito]

Thanks Mike, I guess you left the window vinyl in place then.

My Pioneers aren't so wide, so I'm going to have to make a custom mount. I've considered mutilating the original metal mounts but want to keep them so I can revert to the original setup.

I was advised to put some bass blockers on the front speakers too (100Hz) so I'm wondering what effect that will have when it's all set up - hopefully I'll have a little more volume to play with before distortion.

 

[sweetpea]

ORIGINAL: Wigeon Incognito

You don't need to take the window out to remove the vinyl.

I just lifted the rubber seal with a curved piece of metal, and carefully peeled the vinyl away with my fingers. It does leave your fingers a bit raw afterwards and I'd say it took me half an hour per side for the entire removal.

Yes i agree... this isn't a job to rush, i just took my time and didn't have to remove the vinyl, i found i had sufficient space to do the job without going down that line.

Mike []

 

[Fen]

I took the rear panels off without removing the windows on my S2 coupe years ago, too. It's pretty much as described, though the real trick is getting them back on with the vinyl sitting nicely under the rubber.

I'm not sure all cars have the same available for speaker mounting in the back. I think the 6x4 mount was all there was for quite a while, then the combined 6x4 / 6" round was added, possibly when the 10 speaker pack became optional. In other words not all cars have such an easy way to fit a bigger round speaker in the back panels.