Project for the Weekend, Speaker Installation (front & B

jamesac · Post by **jamesac** » Tue 10 Aug, 2010 19:45

Hi all

i am new on here but since buying my Zed, there are a couple of things i wanted to sort out,

this weekend (weather permitting) i will be looking at replacing the speakers in the car and adding a sub,

ive got for 5" 2 way components in the front and back and hoping these will fit ok, i can always go and get spacer adapter thingies but i believe the fronts should go straight in, the back ones will need a bit of work but ill get the dremmel out and im sure they will be ok, ill be disconnecting the tweeters in the doors and replacing them with the new high freq units.

Ive been out and stripped the storage cupboard and other bits to look where the wiring will go etc and will take the whole lot out on saturday for ease of use as i dont want to be removing the seats!

i will do some pics of how progress is going,

I have a kenwood amp to power the front speakers, an inphase one to power the back ones and the sub is powered, fingers crossed this will all go in without too many hiccups!

i am concerned as ive read some people report dissapointing results placing a sub in the boot, any opinions on how to improve this.

jamesac · Post by **jamesac** » Sun 15 Aug, 2010 19:01

Update on the install!

i started this today as it was chucking it down yesterday!

anyways, i stripped the car, took the side plastics, rear plastics with cover and started to run cables.

first was the fronts, i had bought some vibe 5 1/2" components for the mid to go in the footwell and tweeter in the door.

First thing that went wrong was the speakers didnt fit!!! so i am going to order some plastic spacers to convert 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 to go in the front.

The back speakers however have been a disaster. the originally had 4" speakers in which someone had fitted aftermarket as there was plastic shaffing (think thats how to spell it) everywhere. ive hoovering all this up and tidied the mess up, I then proceeded to cut the back plastics bigger to fit the second set of components.

after doing this (silly me) i then put the car back together and realised that due to the depth of the speaker would not fit (seatbelt roller in the way) so i am going to make some spacers from MDF and then finish them in the same colour as my interior plastics (which is beige) to try and make them blend in as much as possible, then remount and they will fit.

as for the sub, i bought a sub which when i got the measurements, would fit, however due to the lack of space and tricky boot, i couldnt actually get it in the boot so i made a box to match the volume that was 17cm high,

so with the sub in i cranked it up and the sound is awful. no boom from the sub just a rattle from the boot, so im going to scrap the idea of having a sub in the boot and going to try an underseat one or two

anyone have any experiences with these?

thanks for reading and fingers crossed next week will be a bit more productive!

Oh and also, i am going to put a PC in the car with a lilliput motorised screen instead of a headunit as for what i want out of a head unit, i am looking at double din, and unless i can move my heater controls to the bottom of the console. (i have a manual roof so only have a clock there)
its going to have to be a single din with a motorised screen

shantybeater · Post by **shantybeater** » Fri 20 Aug, 2010 22:13

Like you've found out i was recommended to leave the rear speakers altogether because of lack of space to make them any bigger.

Also a sub in the boot is a total no go unless you port to the cabin. You need one inside, some members have put enclosures in the passenger footwell and others behind the seats. There is also the storage box which you can use (check out the stock exchange section since dooby is making custom enclosures to order)

I've been upgrading my sound system over the past week from scratch, I've bought and fitted 5.25" Focal K2 components for the fronts and rewired decent speaker cable to a 300/4 JL amp behind the drivers rear seat. They sound great but lacking bass, I'll be investing in one of Dooby's sub's to wire into the amp which should give me the low sounds i'm after

I'll put some photos up tomorrow in my progress thread once i've got the other door card on

Best of luck with your build

jamesac · Post by **jamesac** » Sat 21 Aug, 2010 14:07

i have been considering the sub that goes in the "cupboard" as my missus calls it, but i have bought an underfloor one from ebay, hopefully it will be ok but if its no good ill be sending it back, its not arrived yet but when it does, ill be looking at fitting it under my seat

so far i have managed to do the following.

remove the old speaker from the footwell

replace with Vibe 5 1/2 component, i needed to buy spacer rings to fit these as the speakers did not fit properly,

Remove the doorcard to replace tweeter

this was not as easy as the footwell mids to put in,

As the tweeters would not fit in the hole, i got a piece of cardboard wrapped in black insulation tape to jam the tweeter in place

I then used a strip of metal to hold the tweeter in and then put a couple of drops of glue with the gluegun.

The crossovers have been hidden behind the carpet in the footwell.

I ran a new cable through the door cable management system and wired the cross over up, the tweeters sound crisp and nice midrange from the footwell. I am going for a pair of 3 way components in the back where the rear speakers should be for fill. they are 6" so i will be making some spacers for the speakers to mount them and covering them with some beige PVC if i can find them (same as the trim colour inside so they look as stock as possible. hopefull yill get around to it this week.

BTW can someone tell me why the photos are all thumbnails?!

shantybeater · Post by **shantybeater** » Sun 22 Aug, 2010 16:58

at a guess its because of their size, try resizing to say 640*480

I used rubber sealant on the tweeters to hold them in place

Give us an update on the sub as i'll be interested to see the outcome. There isnt a great deal of space under the seats though thanks to all the electrics

wonderloaf · Post by **wonderloaf** » Mon 23 Aug, 2010 05:16

jamesac wrote:replace with Vibe 5 1/2 component, i needed to buy spacer rings to fit these as the speakers did not fit properly,

Hi James, did you mean 6 1/2 (not 5 1/2) component, didn't think you needed to use a spacer ring for the standard size speakers? Also, where did you buy your spacer rings, thought they were a DIY job?

I'm interested on how you get on, as I'm considering doing the same myself, wanted to see if I could get a set of 6 1/2 Vibe components in...so I'm counting on you!

jamesac · Post by **jamesac** » Mon 23 Aug, 2010 06:17

hi wonderloaf, i bought the spacers from thompsons in macclesfield for £6, i then took the original BMW speaker out and drilled the holes, the original is a silly size and unless you want to drill into the bodywork. the 6 /1/2 are too big and the 5 1/4 although i think they are 5" are too small, this spacer gives you the option to mount other speakers,

link is here for them http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWNX:IT

i also had to cut the footwell grills as the current design did not allow the plasic to go back without sitting back in its place so i cut the piece out and the plastic raised bit and then screwed the grill on, more for show than anything else but they look good,

the ones on the back i am going to make myself, i have glued 3 sheets of MDF together and will get the router out tonight when i get home from work (weather permitting!) once these are done i will do a few photos.

shantybeater · Post by **shantybeater** » Mon 23 Aug, 2010 06:57

My focal k2's (which are 5.25") fit in the original holes with no drilling needed, the panels didn't need modifying at all, are you sure your vibes are 5.25"??

wonderloaf · Post by **wonderloaf** » Mon 23 Aug, 2010 10:17

Now I'm getting really confused, been looking around this and other forums and thought that by making up a spacer ring you could fit 6 1/2's with a squeeze, 5 1/4's will definitely go in without any modification. Think I'll just have to take the footwell panels and have a look. I definitely don't want to start cutting the panels so it show's externally, so 5 1/4's may be the way to go.

shantybeater · Post by **shantybeater** » Mon 23 Aug, 2010 10:21

Yup I heard 6.5's were possible with spacers

jamesac · Post by **jamesac** » Mon 23 Aug, 2010 11:57

the spacers i bought are designed to mount 6.5" speakers in a smaller hole, the speakers i bought VIBE SEK 50 Kevlar 270w 5.25" Components and deffo the right size, but the screw holes dont fit, so i took the original speaker out and remarked the holes and drilled into the spacers for the original screws, it seems they are off by only a litle bit so maybe it would vary depending on which speaker brand you use.