Figured out the door speaker problem

[Stocktrader]

As most of you know, our door speakers are an odd size and not manufactured. When new they were ok for the day but 40 years later they suck.

I put 5.25 coaxials in a couple of years ago and they do well. I've put 3.5's in the dash (I drilled about 300 3/32 holes on both sides of the dash to make grills that match the single speaker location) and sail panels and dual 12's in the trunk. So it actually sounds pretty good for SQ and SPL.

I didn't like that part of the 5.25 speaker cones were covered a little bit. Imaging needed to be better also.

So here is what I'm going to start on. It may take a couple months so don't expect 3 hour updates.

I'm cutting out the old recessed speaker location and welding in new sheet metal flush with the door. Then I'm going to weld in and cut the new metal to match the cutout for a stock speaker grill. Paint new metal to match with left over PPG paint.

Next, I'll CNC mill something out of a block of PVC that looks like a linear power bass vent and mount what I hope to be (2) 6.5 mid bass speakers.

Here is one on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130946739205?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_154wt_1395

The door glass isn't an issue. I'll set the glass stops so the window doesn't roll down all the way. It's only the last 4" the window won't go down. Why should I care? The A/C is on all the time anyway and the back windows don't even move at all!

End result is alot more cone area.

I'll also experiment with mids/ tweets in the door- pillar area once I know what the 4 midwoofs sound like.

All powered with sweet old school USA manufactured battery eating amps.

My 18 year old nephew saw my amps and ragged about them. Clueless kid had no idea what SQ nirvana he was staring at.

 

[wwhite72]

or you can try a set of these. I have not seen them on the market before: http://www.retrosoundusa.com/products/details/id/358 can handle 60 watts constant, 120 watts peak....or are our door speakers 4x10? http://www.retrosoundusa.com/products/details/id/68

 

[Stocktrader]

Too late.

5-1/4 is moved up to just in front of the window crank.Had to do a little work with my pick hammer and dolly to get it recessed in. Also had to narrow the plastic knob looking thing on the glass to clear the magnet. I'll buy another window stop and weld it to the original to add some length to it to get it to meet up with the shortened knob.

The stop keeps the window from going too far up when you close it.

The imaging really improved moving that speaker.

I also cut out the old door speaker location.

No pics yet. I'm too cheap to buy a phone with a camera.

 

[Stocktrader]

Finally made more progress on the install. I've tried a few different ideas. Here is where I'm at now.

Still have a 5.25 mounted in front of the window crank. It clears the window and the crank. It plays so well in that location that I've decided to go a couple steps better and replace it with 2 dynaudio dome midranges and a tweeter in a line array that follows the contour of the dash. I'm going to custom build a flush mount speaker grill to make it blend seamlessly in the door panel.

I built a box from PVCC sheet to hold the 6.5 woofer. The idea was to test the design and see if there were any obstructions. I also wanted to have it play through a stock speaker grill.

Now that I know it will work I'll be drawing up the dimensions for a CNC router. I'll add a flange to the box to work with the rectangular flange I'm welding up for the door sheet metal.

Plan is to thread mill for metal inserts in the box and screw the woofer to the inside the box while it is inside the door.


This is the daily driver it's in.

Parked in front of a Chase bank shadow inventory house across the street. Vacant for 3 years and a guy comes by every two weeks to mow the yard.