Front door speaker installation questions.

[GooeyGus]

Hi everyone,
I just got some new front speakers today and have a few questions before I install them.

To start off, my car doesn't currently have ANY speakers installed in the front doors. Also, my door panels are missing the insert that mount to the bottom of them. It's the insert that uses the little metal tabs that stick through the door panel and get bent down (I dont know what the previous owner was thinking... trying to do something custom that just didn't work out)

So right now at the bottom of my doors, I just have a big hole.

The speakers I purchased are 6.5" alpine SPS-17C2's. Here is a picture:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

So, my question might seem a bit stupid, but I just realized I've never installed door speakers before, as all my other cars have had pretty damn good factory speakers.

That being said, the speaker itself gets mounted to the actual metal of the door, I'm pretty sure I understand that part.

BUT, what do I mount the grille of the speaker to? I dont want to mount it behind the door panel, because that would look ridiculous. And I don't want to just not use the grille, because I would still have an ugly unfinished hole in my door panel. So, do I mount the speaker to the metal part of the door, and then mount the grille to the door panel and tighten the screws to bring the door panel flush (or close to it) with the speaker?

Does anyone have any pictures of their aftermarket speaker installs in a 1g?

Thanks!!

 

[92AWDHX40]

Well those speakers a bit big for your 4 inch location, arent they?

 

[GooeyGus]

Well those speakers a bit big for your 4 inch location, arent they?

All the threads I read said 6.5" fit in the front door just fine, one just needs to remove the speaker cup that is in there (which is already missing from mine)

They look like they'll fit fine

 

[92AWDHX40]

Oh i see, ive looked on this site for interior stuff and i havent seen many 1g speaker aftermarket in the fact locations. Just lots of subs and stuff.

 

[brownfinger]

Most likely, your car had 5 1/2" speakers in the door. They would have mounted to a white plastic bracket, which was screwed to the door metal, not directly to the metal. It sounds like you are missing the plastic bracket. You have a few options. You could go to the junkyard and get the brackets and grilles from a 93-94 car. Those were 6 1/2"ers from the factory. Then you can ditch those silly-looking Alpine grilles. Or you could just screw the speakers to the door panel, and use the Alpine grills. I could swear that on my old 93 (now gone) the dash speakers were 12-ohm and the doors were 3-ohm, wired in parellel, for 4-ohm. But on my 92, the dash speakers say 8-ohm on them, so I suppose the doors are, too. I don't know what anyone else does about it, but I'd be afraid to run two 4-ohms in parellel on the front channels, I don't know if the head-unit's amp would like that.

 

[Foz]

I have two 90 talons both of which are TSI's One has door speakers (factory) and one doesn't. I haven't had the panel off, but would assume them to be almost the same.

If I understand your question though, it sounds like someone else already tried to convert it to door speakers and cut the panel. And you are unsure what to bolt the door grille to, not the speaker. Well, if that's the case the answer is simple. You use the same screw to mount the grille on top of the speaker. If the speaker is indeed going in the door, and will be covered with the panel... then throw the grille out or save it for the next install...

 

[GooeyGus]

Most likely, your car had 5 1/2" speakers in the door. They would have mounted to a white plastic bracket, which was screwed to the door metal, not directly to the metal. It sounds like you are missing the plastic bracket. You have a few options. You could go to the junkyard and get the brackets and grilles from a 93-94 car. Those were 6 1/2"ers from the factory. Then you can ditch those silly-looking Alpine grilles. Or you could just screw the speakers to the door panel, and use the Alpine grills. I could swear that on my old 93 (now gone) the dash speakers were 12-ohm and the doors were 3-ohm, wired in parellel, for 4-ohm. But on my 92, the dash speakers say 8-ohm on them, so I suppose the doors are, too. I don't know what anyone else does about it, but I'd be afraid to run two 4-ohms in parellel on the front channels, I don't know if the head-unit's amp would like that.

That's what I need! 93-94 speaker brackets. Do these plastic brackets seal well with the door?

How would sound quality be effected if I mounted the speakers to the door panel? I would assume I would lose a lot of low end, since it would almost be like running the speaker without a box.

I didn't even know I had dash speakers until I was wiring today and realized I had too many speaker wires. Then I hooked one of my new speakers up, sounds was coming from the front, but the speaker wasn't working... It was the dash speaker!! The driver's side speaker is missing, but the passenger's side is still there. It actually makes me want to do a component system... but maybe I'll do that a bit later on down the road.

I got one speaker installed today before it got too cold. I'll get a picture of what I'm talking about with the whole fitment issue.

 

[brownfinger]

Personally, if the door panel has indeed been cut, then I'd just scre the new speaker and grille to the door panel. As long as your door panel is held on with all the original clips and such, the seal is going to be about the same as you'd get with the factory set-up. I'd expect a slightly more solid bass due to the more solid mounting of the factory set-up, but as far as the door being an enclosure, there are way too many air leaks in the door card to really think about it that way. It's a lot of work to seal-up the door card well enough to make it worth the effort. I'd screw 'em to the door panel and forget about it untill I found a junked '93-'94 to rape the door panels and brackets out of. About the components: It won't work with out cutting the factory harness: You can't mount one crossover box in two different places.

BTW: Don't forget to disconnect that one dash speaker when you hook-up the doors.

 

[Achelea]

BTW: Don't forget to disconnect that one dash speaker when you hook-up the doors.

Why is that?

 

[brownfinger]

Why is that?

It throws-off the impedence. The dash and door speakers are wired in parellel on the front channels. If you replaced both pairs with 4-ohm speakers, your front channels would be running a 2-ohm load. This could fry the head-unit's internal amp. It could also cause the amp to produce enough power to fry the dash speakers really quick. Some dash speakers were 8-ohm, some 12-ohm. The factory set-up always had them paired to sum to 4-ohms. If I had 12's, I'd just leave them connected, if I had 8-ohm dash speakers, I'd do some research. There is another thread going in this forum about this same topic.

Right now I have two 1G's that are currently undergoing stereo upgrades, albeit very slowly. I intend to take the 12-ohm dash speakers out of my '94. It's going to recieve my full-boogie aftermarket sound-system out of my old, dead '93 (RIP). I will put them (the 12-ohm dash speakers) in my 92, which currently has the original 8-ohm/8-ohm combo, when I slap in some aftermarket 4-ohm door speakers. I let you all know how it goes.

 

[Achelea]

Oh. Great. And I thought I could just throw some in. My GSX has 6 speakers, and the GS i pulled them out of the junkyard only had 4. I guess I gotta figure out the resistance before I try to put them in the doors.

Both cars had the 4" dash, but the 5.5" in the back of the GS looks like it would fit where my door speakers are.

 

[brownfinger]

Oh. Great. And I thought I could just throw some in. My GSX has 6 speakers, and the GS i pulled them out of the junkyard only had 4. I guess I gotta figure out the resistance before I try to put them in the doors.

Both cars had the 4" dash, but the 5.5" in the back of the GS looks like it would fit where my door speakers are.

The impedance should be marked on the magnet of all speakers. Every 1G I've ever pulled apart had 6 1/2" speakers in back, 4" in the dash, but the doors were 5 1/2" up till '92, and 6 1/2 afterwards. Door panels for 5 1/2" cars have round speaker grills, and those for 6 1/2" speakers have larger, rectangular grilles. This also means that there are 5 1/2" and 6 1/2" speaker brackets available which mount to the door shell, behind the interior panel.

 

[brownfinger]

I've resolved some mental issues I've been having: The impedence on the 93-94 speakers was/is 12-ohm dash, 6-ohm door. This sums to 4-ohms. That makes more sense. It's been over 10 years since I tossed my original car's speakers, and I remembered it wrong.