My 86 was originally equipped with the Blose system. Previous owner had replaced the headunit with an aftermarket unit (which I will be replacing as well). The door speakers do not work (will be removing these bulky items from the doors when I upgrade the window regulators). I picked up a pair of 4x6's to put in the dash, for front sound. When I pulled out the dash board, last night, I found that it did not have speakers under the grill covers. In fact, the grills are solid! The cloth is faded to a blue (too many years here in South Florida), so I figured I would recover with speaker grill cloth and cut slits in the grill cover, to allow for sound to penetrate. Has anyone done this with decent results? Also, did you mount the 4x6's from underneath or from the top? Thanks in advance.

I thought it they were just for show and to have something that would fade over time

I think if your really going to do this, you would be better off not cutting slits, you need a hole that matches the speaker or you might get some nasty buzzing sounds from the plastic vibrating.

I think I would just stick to the door panels. JMO

I didn't install my own system, but those 4x6's might be a little big. They put 4" speakers in the dash for me, 6.5" in the doors and 6x9's in the back. I have a Kenwood system with XM radio. It sounds awesome. I went with all JL Audio speakers and had them rewire the whole thing. I do not plan on putting the Bose back in. I will probably keep it in case I ever do decide to sell the car. If a new owner were to want to put it back in, then it would be their problem.

There actually were standard 4x6" speakers in NON-Bose cars located in the upper dash. There were no door speakers on those cars. I've also added speakers there in addition to the Bose speakers by using the power from an aftermarket stereo by splitting the signal then using an interface for the Bose amp.

I know that the 84 at least has the grills with the holes already pre-drilled. No doubt they can be found used somewhere or like you suggested drill them yourself. And yes you can recover them easily. I've also spray dyed the material as long as its just faded and not wrinkled.
Hope that helps.

On my previous C4 Corvette I did the same thing that Oaklands did, except I put 4X6 in the dash, 6.5" in the doors, and 6X9" in the rear hatch. I used all 2-way Infinity speakers and this amp, which fit perfectly in the rear storage compartment:

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produc ... p;i=500MRPF450&tp=115

Wow, was that ever a great-sounding stereo, it sounded ten times better than the Bose in my 2005 coupe.

The 4X6's in the dash were a really tight fit, I had to shave down the mounting brackets and I just zip-tied them to the speaker frame before re-installing in the dash pad. For the record, they never vibrated, the zip ties worked perfectly.

I also ran all new speaker wire, and while the interior was all apart anyway, I used B-Quiet ultimate on the floor, door panels, the console, and the rear hatch. It took me a couple of weeks to do all this, but wow it was like a totally different car, much quieter ride which of course improved the sound of the stereo.

Should have kept that car.

Ugolino,

I bet it was a sweet sounding system.

Put a good set of 6.5 components in the door and be done with it. :tongue: