Audio

Spent a little time playing with the audio stuff today.

Got drivers door finished.  Stripped door card off, added sound deadener in door and began some crafting.  I chose to replace the stock speaker with a 4 inch Rockford Fosgate and to install a new 5.25 in the bottom of the door. 

I ran two new 16 ga wires through the door, up into the air vent in to the head set hole in the dash.  My concern with wiring is always the chaffing against a metal edge, so I made sure there was plenty of protection.  The wires themselves were encased in a flexible sheath, then covered with a heat shrink tubing right up to the connectors for the speakers.  Tight, clean and will never have to be done again.  The door had the stock rubber grommet that was still in good condition, as was the grommet in the dash area on the top of the air chamber.  Both of these were reused and the new wires for the drivers door were checked for any iterference in the dash with cables or whatever and secured.

The door itself had a plastic air dam in which the glue would no longer stick.  I remedied it with some duct tape.  Sealed it up real nice.

The upper speaker was a bit more involved than I had originally planned.  After stripping out the older speaker, I opened up the hole a bit to accommodate the slightly larger Rockford Fosgate 4 inch speaker.  Two precisely placed metal clips with screw holes would allow for a secure mount for the diminutive speaker.  The process was that the 4 inch RF speakers came with no grilles.  Additionally, there is little to no space for a grille around the manual crank windows.  Those with power windows have less to be concerned with, but that's not my situation.

What I did, was to reuse the stock speaker grille.  I fastened it to a piece of scrap 2x4 and ran it across the table saw a few times until I got what I wanted: a 1 inch tab to which I could locate the grille where I wanted.  Here, I thought I was good, but the tweeter part of the speaker was interfering with the modified grille.  This was cured by a precision 1 inch diameter cut with a hole saw in the center of the grille.  It may not look totally stock, but it works for me.

As for how I secured the modified grille to the door card and still allow for free movement of the speaker?  Shoe goo.  It secured without eating into the vinyl and allowed or ample time to position for a even space around the tweeter.

I still have to refinish the door handle trim.  It was well worn and dried to a point of no longer looking brown.

The bottom speaker was a bit easier, although more anxiety laden.  Cutting into a nice condition door card is bothersome at best, but ensuring you have a secure placement with no interference is key to the install. 

There is a rectangular hole at the base of the door that I used as the majority of the clearance for the 5.25 speaker.  I had only to cut a 1 inch radiused relief in the sheet metal to clear the back of the speaker.  Aligning up the cut in the card was the interesting part.  Keep in mind: measure three times, cut once.  It worked out well, everything lined up just as I had planned.  The top two screws in the speaker are secured tho the door card with two screw clips, and the bottom are directly into the sheet metal of the door.  Secure and clean.