Mk1 Cabriolet Speaker upgrade help

[gldgti]

Hey fella's,

well we've just picked up a mk1 cabby ('91 car) and as its for cruisin and going to be the missus car, its gotta play music respectably.

trouble is, its a bit of a tricky one to put speakers in. comes with 4 standard speakers, in factory build outs in the doors and rear trim panels (next to rear passengers butt ). stock speakers a 4x6" one-way speakers and they are all buggered (suspension gone, eaten away by time).

no way you can fit bigger than a 4" speaker vertically in the recess provided, and no way to put speakers in the rear parcel shelf (roof folds down onto it).

spoke to a dude a JB, he pointed me at some 4" Alpine splits that come with a 4x6" surround adaptor.... but even then, 4x4" speakers isnt going to carry much bass when the roof is down.

any suggestions? (apart from get another car)

[Brisben]

Hey fella's,

well we've just picked up a mk1 cabby ('91 car) and as its for cruisin and going to be the missus car, its gotta play music respectably.

trouble is, its a bit of a tricky one to put speakers in. comes with 4 standard speakers, in factory build outs in the doors and rear trim panels (next to rear passengers butt ). stock speakers a 4x6" one-way speakers and they are all buggered (suspension gone, eaten away by time).

no way you can fit bigger than a 4" speaker vertically in the recess provided, and no way to put speakers in the rear parcel shelf (roof folds down onto it).

spoke to a dude a JB, he pointed me at some 4" Alpine splits that come with a 4x6" surround adaptor.... but even then, 4x4" speakers isnt going to carry much bass when the roof is down.

any suggestions? (apart from get another car)

OK, Upgrade the standard ones in the front door pockets, use same size just new ones, same in the back. Then I did put a couple of 6 x 9'sinto the rear shelf, as long as you have the covers on the roof will be fine when you drop the top. This gives me OK kick. sounds pretty good too.

However if you want real thumping bass. then upgrade fronts and backs. Then stick a small sub in the boot with a built in amp.

Also the head unit makes a big difference to the sound you get out, so let us know how old, new it is and what model, what power output it has etc.

[gldgti]

ahh well the old headunit was basically dead so we just put a pretty basic Sony GT240(i think) in it - i like the sony HU's, they are reliable and i've found good bang for buck. 4x52W output.... though i've never been one to run large speakers from a headunits amp. i reckon it will cope just fine with 4x 4" speakers.

[Brisben]

ahh well the old headunit was basically dead so we just put a pretty basic Sony GT240(i think) in it - i like the sony HU's, they are reliable and i've found good bang for buck. 4x52W output.... though i've never been one to run large speakers from a headunits amp. i reckon it will cope just fine with 4x 4" speakers.

Yeah your right, head unit sounds more than capable.

the problem with 4" no bass as you stated, could run something like a 6" in the parcel shelf and use a crossover to remove all the unwanted frequencies so it doesn't fart (Sound crap and distorted)

[Joe Bellissimo]

Upload some pictures mate. Might be something that can be worked out.

[gldgti]

well, yesterday and today we installed 4 new speakers.

i put in 2x alpine 4" in the front doors, and 2 cheaper JVC 4" speakers in the back.

the story goes like this:

The alpines are the only speakers stocked at JB that come with 4x6" adaptors, and seem like nice speakers for their size. so, we thought we'd stick them in the factory spots in the doors (ours is a 1990build car) and put the JVC4" speakers in the rear trim panels also in the stock positions.

anyhoo, after getting all the stuff home and pulling the lot apart, we found that there was just not enough backspace to accommodate the large magnet on the back of the alpines, mainly because of the electric window mechanism.

we gave up for the moment and moved to the back, which infact uses a 3.5" speaker as the factory fitment, in a special sheet metal bracket. we just unbolted the speaker and bracket together, and fitted hte 4" speaker to the steel frame using one of the bracket bolt positions and a new hole in hte top sheetmetal. easy! the trim panel went on straight over the top and so the install looks completely stock - sound makes its way out of the holes in the panel infront of the old speakers.

back in the front, we decided to fit the alpines up the top in the front of the door, where there is a square hole in the inner skin under the quarter window as some of you will know. this is out of hte way of all moving parts and another advantage is its closer to the level of the occupants ears, important considering the small speakers being used.

however, the main problem was what to do with the trim panel - not wanting to cut a hole in it, i decided to go for a more stock appearance, like the rear trim panel - so we used a craft knife to cut through the masonite on the back of hte panel to make a round hole for the speaker to protrude through. then trimmed away the backing foam layer, and finally, used a 5/32" drill to dril a grid of holes in the vinyl covering. hence, the trim panel appears uncut, apart from a neat grid of holes under which the front of the speaker resides.

basically, the whole setup is totally stealth, and considering theres only 4x4" speakers, it soudns quite good.

i suppose maybe a little sub will be on the cards for some bass, but as it is, i'm surprised at just how well hte little guys do. i think having the fronts elevated to the top of the door rather than down near your feet has made the biggest difference.

thanks for the help, cheers.