[Turohith]

I got a 1989 190e 2.6 about 2 weeks ago and the speakers are basically shot. I want to replace them, but they are 4" speakers. I've been looking for about a week on tutorials or any info on the matter, but I haven't any luck. Could someone make one or direct me to a good tutorial or anything. I want to replace them with bigger speakers, so that is where the difficulty lies.
Thanks

 

[AXFT444]

unfortunately, the dash speakers will only take 4" without any serious modifications. I replaced mine and can't even put the stock speaker cover grille back because the replacements i got have a built in tweeter on it.

I've seen some cars that had the door panels modified to put in 5.25"

 

[Turohith]

heh, thanks... I'll probably end up doing some serious modding then. Know any good tutorials on anything like that?

 

[Kynyption]

unfortunately, the dash speakers will only take 4" without any serious modifications. I replaced mine and can't even put the stock speaker cover grille back because the replacements i got have a built in tweeter on it.

I've seen some cars that had the door panels modified to put in 5.25"

Pioneer 4" combo drives with tweeters fit just fine. I just put tweeters where they go and 5.25 mids in my kick panels then 6.5 in the rear.

Look a little harder, or maybe even look into the FAQ for speaker setup and wiring, also for the time beaing you can custom make door pods where the map pockets go with some fiberglass.

Custom tweeter pods - same process can be used on variety of car stereo installation applications, including the custom sub enclosures, kick panels and lower front door map pocket conversion to accept speakers.

Please keep in mind that these tweeter pods would work only if you have both electric mirrors or have an aftermarket set with out the handles going into the cabin

Here are few pictures if you decide to do this yourself. It really is not difficult if you are even remotely DIY person…

What you would need:

Two smaller size caps from the spray paint
Grill cloth (or any other cheap fabric)
Four cheap brushes
Hole saw or Dremel
Glue (super glue, hot glue, what every you have)
Epoxy resin
Zip ties
Sand paper
Paint

Find two caps from the spray paint, big enough to accept your new tweeters and small enough to fit the pillars.

Find the angle of the tweeter position that you would be pleased with and trim the cap to that angle. If you have a belt sender, takes no time at all, but small scissors, hot knife, soldering iron with cutting blade works as well

Position the cap on the pillar to the desired location and glue it once you satisfied with the placement. Measure the distance from the bottom of the pillar to the bottom of the cap to ensure that the distance is identical on both, left and right finished pods

Test fit this mock up to ensure you are happy with the position/angle while it’s in place

Now it’s time for some “tailoring”… Fabric – grill cloth or alike works best, as it is stretchable in any direction and being synthetic, it hardens very well with the epoxy.Cut a piece of the fabric approximately twice the size of the pillar. Wrap it around the pillar tightly, adjust as needed, ensure it is stretched evenly to the maximum.

Once you are happy with the positioning of the cloth around the pillar, use a zip tie from the bottom to prevent it from unwrapping.

Line the vise with a trash bag to prevent the drippings on the table and the vise, leave a gap between the pillar and vise.

Mix epoxy as outlined in the direction supplied with the product. You would need only 1oz per application for each pillar, so don’t mix more than you need as you are only wasting the resin. Using one of your 4 brushes, brush on the resin over the pillar cloth evenly, ensuring that there are no dry spots. Few thin coats works better than just dumping most of it all at once. Don’t forget brush underneath around the entire perimeter.

Let dry as outlined in the instructions from your epoxy.

Apply the second coat of the epoxy, again, you will not need more than 1oz of the resin. Let dry as outlined in the instructions from your epoxy. Trim off the access material from the bottom.

Drill out the opening for the tweeter mounting cap to fit in flush. You can use Dremel if you don’t have the hole saw. Make another hole in the back of the pillar for the mounting ring and the wires (depending on your tweeters) Clean out the edges and test fit the tweeter.

Using 240 grid sand paper, smooth out any imperfections, finish with 400 and 600 as needed. Prime and smooth out as needed

Hope this helps
Paint as you please. Flat black paint is what I used. Mount the tweeter, and here is the finished product

Dark in the garage and so not the best shot:

Hope this helps

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The placement of the tweeters on the A-Pillars also gives a nice advantage of adjusting your imagining and staging, considering there is no room to play with under the stock grills of the dash (at least when you have 3.5” – 4” speakers there.

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Q:any idears on subs?

A:The principle of custom FG sub enclosures is exactly the same as these tweeters.

*You would first make a good frame, ensuring that everything fits well and laid out to please your aesthetic preferences.
*Stretch the material over the frame, attached to the frame with the staples and apply resin.
*Once it dries up, rough sanding first, additional coats to achieve the desired thickness.
*Once you are happy with the strength of the enclosure, rough sand it again and apply the body filler, makes it so much easier to sand than the actual FG.
*Prime and paint.

I lost all of my images from the prior installs when my old computer crashed, but check out this guy's site, it’s a little rough but should give you good visual idea how it is done

http://web.njit.edu/~cas1383/proj/Glassing2/index.htm

Hope this helps!

D

 

[Kynyption]

Also all you need to do is pull out the rear deck and cut your holes bigger to fit bigger speakers but dont go too big or you need to cut sheet metal too, here is how you can make custom grills to cover your shit up.

If you choose to make a custom grills for the rear deck, here are few steps that would guide you through this rather simple process.

Tools and materials needed

Quarter round or what ever shape wood base molding of your choice
Carpenter’s glue
3M spray adhesive or alike
Grill cloth
Small wood screws (for securing the grills)
Screw driver
Frame angles (recommended for true 90 degree angles)
Files and sand paper for finishing

Measure and cut the frames to size
Using carpenter’s glue and frame angles assemble the grills
Let fully cure

Using file, round off the corners for smooth appearance if you wish.
Precut your grill cloth ensuring there is enough edge to fold under the grill
Spray 3M adhesive onto the grill, let dry for 7-10 minutes (or as directed on the can)
Apply the grill cloth stretching it firmly over the frame.

***You may wan to practice the stretching prior to using the spray to get a good feel for the material. It also helps to have two people in this step, while both of you holding the material from each end, ensuring the even stretching as you lay the cloth over the grill.

Trim off any excess material, ensure that the cloth is tucked and glued neatly under the frames.

Finished grills attached from the bottom of the deck or glued from the top – your choice.

Hope this helps

 

[Kynyption]

And for your map pocket pods....

This is my first attempt at door pods and I can only hope they end up as nice as my tweeter pods that I made recently. I have a Mercedes 190E & the stock speakers are in the dash and measure in at a mere 4 inches. The door panels are not very forgiving and require a lot of work especially if you have manual window handles. I originally had Audioscape door pods but they are intended for electric window 190E's and in my case foul with the manual window handles, I got rather hot last summer lol


Day One

The map pocket compartment detaches from the main door card and is an excellent template for the door pods. In the picture below you can see a pipe that is 6 inches in diameter picked up from B&Q Warehouse.

I cut 3 inches in depth.

Next I set about making Mdf baffles for my Genesis Audiophile 6.5 inch Drivers out of 12mm mdf. Genesis very kindly include dimensions of the baffle size & using the plastic baffle/grill I set about making these below.

Next I worked out roughly where the speaker would sit on the pocket and scribed the edges of the pipe on to the pocket. I cut the marked area out with dremel style tool. I assembled the pod and hot glued it together so I could test it on the door of the car.

As you can see looking through where the driver sits I need to cut more door away to properly vent the speakers. Please note there is no hole as standard in the doors in this location. The doors need to be drilled so a jigsaw blade can carefully cut the desired location making sure no wires are cut & any double thickness mild steel is left as this is there for a reason.

After I was happy with the location I set about making sure the pod was secure and hot glued any location where it was not sealed properly before the fibre glassing takes place.

Next I got out the old Fibral to make sure everything is solid and sealed

 

[Kynyption]

More...

Part2
The next stage was to shape the pod.

Materials required: -
Old sheet
Polyester Resin
Catalyst
Brush
Pot
Gloves (essential!)
Duck tape / masking tape.

I carefully stretched the sheet across the pod and secured it with tape.

I made the resin by adding the recommended quantity of resin to catalyst in the plastic pot & gave it a good stir. I started applying this to the pod until the resin had completely soaked through.

 

[Kynyption]

More....

Part3

The next step involved coating the pods with filler. I used U-pol QUICKSAND Universal Body filler. Once coated & set I sanded the surface going through the grits as they say, working from a course grit rated paper to a smooth finish.

 

[Kynyption]

Last but not least...

Part 4

Trimming

This was by far the most difficult bit of trimming I've done so far (first bit of trimming was on my tweeter pods). The pods will be covered in vinyl fabric (black value stuff off CAD) I coated the pod in contact adhesive which I got from Audioscape. The instructions say coat the back of the vinyl and leave for an hour, coat the vinyl again for 30minutes and coat pod and leave for 30 minutes.

The tricky bit with lots of Patience! A heat gun is your tool of choice for this operation

After a stupid amount of time, trial and error this is the final result A pity i fitted these to my old Merc to sell it to remove the holes in the door lol

 

[Turohith]

You are a god. Thank you!

 

[Kynyption]

You are a god. Thank you!

This I am well aware of, give me a minute to get the rest of the pictures re uploaded.

EDIT: Posts updated with pictures.

 

[kings]

great great tutorials Kynyption,
I like the idee of using polyester over the speaker cloth cause it gives such a design shape with little effort.

Rik

 

[datila]

it would be great if you reload the images sometime Kynyption