Stereo/speaker install question

[Guest zfan]

Hey Guys Im currently installing a cd stereo in my 71 240Z. Has anyone installed front speakers? If so where did you mount the speakers, in the door? There is not a damn bit of room up front. I may try the doors!

 

Any ideas would be appreciated!

 

Mike

[fl327]

people cutout holes in door panels for speakers, i dont like it, it messes up door panels, and they get in the way sometimes, you can cutout holes in the tops of those little tool boxes, on my car they took the liberty of cutting holes in the front of the boxes so they once had speakers facing the back of the seats, which i guess is ok. msa makes a great little panel for speakers that goes in the back, i was also looking at mounting a set on the headliner like a jeep. ive been stockpiling good speakers waiting to set it up, a four 6x9 speaker system with a nice cd unit, nothing special, but it will make music.

[RPMS]

Go buy a pair of old door panels that have already been cut up, put your virgin panels in a safe place, and put your speakers in the doors. I've had four Z's with door speakers, and I've pretty much come to the conclusion that it's about the only way to get good sound. The fiber kick panels have almost NO space behind them (adequate for a 4" speaker, perhaps) and they're poorly placed. The toolboxes can be used for bass reinforcement, if you can find a 6" or 6 x 9 woofer that is tuned for 1 cubic foot enclosures.

 

Make sure that when you buy speakers, you get some which have rigid baskets. The ideal place in the doorpanel IS NOT FLAT, and when you tighten down the screws holding in the speaker, if it doesn't have a rigid basket you'll warp the speaker and end up rubbing the voice coil inside the magnet, making a crunching sound. Not good. But you have to balance the need for rigidity with the limited depth of the door, too. Make sure that wherever you purchase from will take them back if they don't fit.

 

Whatever you do, don't buy a crappy set of thin mount speakers. The sound isn't nearly good enough to justify cutting up a pair of doorpanels, and they warp very easily. I've got Infinity 6 1/2" speakers in my doors, and the sound is very good. I have no clearance problems with them, either. A pair of good 6" speakers in combination with a 6" Bazooka Tube in back will be plenty for a small car like a Z.

 

I'm running a Kenwood CD/MP3 deck, Alpine amplifier, Blaupunkt eq/amp, the aforementioned Infinity door speakers, and a 10" subwoofer in the hatch. I'm pretty picky about sound, and it's good enough for me.

 

Let us know what you decide to do.

[Mike C]

I agree with the doors. Only place to put a speaker. I hate the thought of cutting panels, but that is what my car came like, so I had no qualms about putting better speakers in the holes! I have an Alpine 7903 CD player, Kicker 40x4 mounted vertically behind drivers seat(bridged mono to the rear) running a pair of 4's in the doors and a single 8" mounted in a board under the carpet. I drilled the spot welds and removed the spare hold down, then I flipped the tire over which left room for the 8 flush mounted in a 3/4" piece of particle board. I eventually plan on welding a nut to the floor and using a bolt and bent strap for a tire hold down with no loss of clearance. This is not the ideal way to do a sub, but it is the least intrusive. If you have new carpet without the hard plastic backing of the original, it will sound better.

[nullbound]

i used a universal q-logic panel for a midrange to mount 5.25" kicker midranges and tweeters in the kickpanel area. the cool thing about the kickers i bought were that the tweeters mounted on the grilles. i hated the idea of cutting my door panels or my doors. i only had to cut the original kick panels to allow space for the magnet of my midrange. i cut the panels to the size of the section behind the panel that houses the bolts for the door hinges.

 

i was at a local stereo shop and they had a bin full of these that they let me look through and take to my car to test for fitment. q-logic has a website , but doesnt list the particular panel i bought. i'm sure if you contacted them, they could get them for you. i tried the ones with the tweeter mounts, but they wouldnt clear the blower motor on the passenger side. i still need to trim the q-logic panels to tuck behind the weather-stripping.

 

for the rear, i am using the 6x9 enclosure that msa sells. i am pleased with the results and the imaging is good.

 

[David K]

Is anybody here at hybrid good with plastics? I would love to see pillar pods for speakers that lay right next to the corner of the dash so no view obstruction occurs.

[RPMS]

I guess you could beg and plead for Terry Oxandale (BlueOvalZ) to make you a set out of fiberglass. Looking at his car, he really knows what he's doing!

[Guest zfan]

Well I installed the speakers(5 1/4") 3 ways in the doors. Man was it tight! used metal for reiforced backing to insure they were really secure.

 

One more question: I am also installing a 250 watt.small amp. I know very little about amps, where would be a good safe place to install it.

I was thinking about under the passenger seat.

 

When I am finished I will have a pair of three ways in the front and back with a 10" sub. and 430 watts of power. Not a lot by todays standard but should get good sound and that is whats important. Quality not quantity.

 

Mike

[BAlford]

Put them behind the seats.

 

http://www.waskomtexas.com/zcar/re_car/woofers.html

[Guest JAMIE T]

I've made custom Kick panels out of fiberglass, MDF and Bondo. They can be sealed so the bass is tight. I haven't made Kicks for my Z, YET. But I did do some for a Fiat Spyder. They turned out pretty well. I still don't have the vinyl covering part perfect, but I sure can get the shape right, and more importantly, the sound right. In my El Camino, I had 10's in the kick panels and custom compression horn tweeters under the dash. Plus, a 12" sub for the real deep stuff. It was the best sounding system I have ever heard. It was powered by a couple of McIntosh amps and a 7949 Alpine. I still have the compression horns and I will install them in my Z under the dash, and 8" woofers for midbass in the kick panels and a 12" sub in the rear for the deep, deep stuff.

 

Not to offend anyone, but, I cringe whenever I hear someone say put the speakers in the rear. That is awful sound stage. Like, when you go to a concert, do you turn backwards and listen to the music?

[Guest Anonymous]

David, making them out of plastic (thermoforming)would be a piece of cake. The hardest part is making a good positive mold of the mounting area, make a frame with a cutout over the positive mold basically a hole that matches the positive mold at it's base to stretch the plastic over the positive mold piece. Once you get the mold plug right the hard part's over. Find some good textured plastic sheet. Kydex is probably the best for this in terms of strength and cost as well as color availability, Kydex is used alot with custom knife sheaths and because it's easy to work with and has pretty good heat resistance and won't melt outright but just softens. You can pick it in white, gray, and black from places like McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com) You just heat it to a point it becomes elastic and stretch it over your mold. Leather gloves recommended as it's going to be 300+ degrees. You have to throw it on the mold plug and then stretch it fairly quick as it will cool quickly, so the easiest way is to have the mold on the floor, throw the plastic on it put the piece with the hole over it and then just jump onto the thing and stand on it for 10-15 seconds. Cut off the excess and finish the edges with sandpaper and you're set.

 

You can make your mold out of MDF or whatever so it's really cheap. (probably could use bondo even if it's not too big a chunk for easier formability.)

 

Here's a nice little page on thermoforming.

 

http://www.empirewest.com/academy/index.html

 

It's probably as cheap to do as fiberglass if not more so. (less mess too) and you can get black textured ABS so there's no finishing involved whereas you'd have to cover or paint a fiberglass piece. (No offense Terry, your work is still absolute art.) A little practice and you can do all kinds of stuff that looks pretty good by thermoforming. It won't have the overall strength of a glass part of course, but for this sort of application or a guage pod or whatever that's never going to be an issue anyway.

[nullbound]

i put my two channel orion amp under the passenger seat. seemed more secure there.

[Mike C]

Under pass seat seems like a good option, but mine wouldn't fit. Kicker 40x4 behind drivers seat.

[Guest 280Tom'z]

the guy who had my z when i bought it used pressed board and plyed two pieces to form a smooth rise in the door panel sticks out like an inch and 3/4 and fits 6.5's in the door no prob and it actually makes the panel look like it came like that pretty easy to make by the looks and when wraped in speaker carpet they look good then i have holes for tweets on dash and planning on 2 12's with four more 6.5's on back with amps and caps

[zmaster]

I put two 5' 1/2" speakers in my caenter consol they are where it curves to the dash. they fit nicely, and sound great

[Silver Mine Motors]

i have put my speakers in the doors in my last three z cars but this time i decided to put them right next to the gas pedal. it looks like it woul get in the way but it actually doesen't, and my wear size 13 shoes so this might be an option for you.

 

by the way the speakers sound the best when they are in the door panel.

 

and you should definatley buy this box.

 

http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/SP

 

 

 

look to the right of the gas pedal.

[zmaster]

heres a few pics of mu stereo, and speakers.

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm195/hybridzmaster/066.jpg

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm195/hybridzmaster/065.jpg

 

That is not my current cd player. I have a Pioneer head unit right now. Here are a few ideas forr you to think about. And my knees really don't hit the speakers, so you won't have to worry about that. Plus they sound great right there.