Well, if you follow daily chat you'd know I'm PO'd about the way the last guy wired the stereo, etc. Basically it was done as poorly as possible. Guy put 5.25s in the door and 4s in the back. Huh? When he did the door, he just drilled them into the bose enclosure w/o any modification which caused them to hit the plastic grill and get all distorted. The 4s in the back were damaged from the old bose wiring that they cut and never removed properly that poked through the cone. Ran the wires on the outside of the door (classy). Ugh.

On a happier note, I did get all of the bose boxes removed today (front and back) along with disassembling some of the interior to help rerun all of the wiring for the amp and speakers. Plus, I'm gonna change the rears to 6x9s and found a great deal at crutchfield on closeout on some Polk Momo 3 ways. Rears are easy to modify since the 6x9 cutout is already there. Fronts I still have to figure out how to mod the bose box to keep them watertight.

I'll post up some pics of my adventure later.

Matthew

The stock speaker covers leave really no room for the speaker. I had to space mine into the door a bit in order to keep them from hitting.

I did manage to retain the stock covers though! I like the stock look. I reused half of the front bose enclosures and built a plywood cover for the front of it to mount 5.25s.

Yeah Kevin I briefly looked at it. I am probably going to either cut out the front portion of the bose box and epoxy in a face area or maybe make a plexiglass plate that matches the contours and then cut out the speaker hole. I just want to reuse the stock covers because I don't have any other covers and I don't want to make some. The stock ones just have the look that is appropriate for the car.

Matthew

I only used 1/4" plywood for the top of the box, and mounted the speakers on top of that.

The box was barely deep enough. In fact I had to cut out some of the plastic webbing in the box to clear the magnet.

You simply can't put very deep speakers in there.

I originally wanted to put 6.5s, but they were too deep to fit in the box. And I think the square cutout in the door was a little small for them. I guess I could have mounted the speaker flange to the backside of the wood and overcut the hole in the wood larger than the door fiberglass, but then it would need an even deeper box.

They sell speaker covers that are a sort of cup for the backside of the speaker, mostly to keep them dry. I should have just bought those. It's not as if the flimsy plastic box is going to help any with sound quality.

Got my new 6x9s from the big brown truck today. I'm stoked to get them installed on my next days off!

Matthew

Let us know how it works out when you get it all done. Thats going to be one of the upcoming projects on the C6; the stereo in that thing is horrible.

DG

Got to tinker for about an hour this morning before wifey and baby woke up. Unfortunately, I loaned my sawzall to my cousin and he hasn't returned it yet. I need it to cut the speaker grills on the back and the bose enclosures for the front. Tried using the jigsaw and rotozip but they didn't really do what I wanted. Rather wait another few days and do it right. On a positive note, got all the wiring done except for hooking the front speakers up and connecting the the amp.

Long road....

Matthew

wow... someone is finally attacking a C4 with a Sawzall... I have been suggesting for years...

Keep us posted!! I want to hear your reviews on SQ and such!

Sawzall to cut holes for speakers? I think I used a rotozip. Or maybe I cut an octagon with the dremel then rounded it out with a different attachment. Plus you need to cut the webbing out inside it.

I cut a hole in my floor pan with a sawzall.

I am working on bastets 87, and I took the entire bose out of the doors. Completely. I hated that box.

A quick fix is to remove the box, insulate the inside of the doors, install the speakers on a baffle and put a grill through the fabric of the interior door panel. When you wire the speakers, be ready for a 160 hz choke. The door acts as a resonance chamber and can amplify that frequency.

I am going to use truck bed liner as the insulation material. I will keep you all posted on the end result.

Quote:

That's one option. I want to keep the rear of the bose box, at least, for waterproofing. For some reason my doors seem to have gotten a lot of water in them (based on how rusty the screws were on the bottom carpet portion of the door panel. I think my new outer door seals should help that. Currently I'm trying to cut the front out of the bose box and epoxy in some plexiglass. That's my idea, at least. We'll see how it works in practice. If it's a no go, I'll just use a sheet of plexi behind the door and mount the speaker in it and maybe use the bottom of a pail or tupperware type container to waterproof.

As far as the sawzall, I need that to cut the bose boxes and the speaker grills. The rotozip isn't working too well with the front boxes and kind of hacks the speaker grill. Could be I'm using drywall bits, lol.

Matthew

Improving the back speakers will REALLY give it a nice sound. I have ordered some dynamat extreme. I am going to rip out the carpet next weekend if I have time and install it in the back first and then move to the front if I am satisified. I am also ripping out all the old wiring, cutting all the stereo shit out that the shop installed, and removing the connections that ran the subwoofers. The bose wiring is bundled up behind the CD player. I am going to track it down and cut off as much as possible. I tried it before but gave up because I did not do my homework on it like I should have and learned the wiring set up. ;) Factory service manual gives good pointers plus a shop class at college did not hurt either. :D

If you rewire it, make SURE your wires do not touch the firewall. I stapled mine in place. That causes it to skip and pick up interference. I wish they had put in 6's in the front like I requested but it will do for now. I am starting to get back on track now. I recovered my speaker covers while I was gone from here. I had my itnerior carbon fibered by flordia sunshine. GREAT IMPROVMENT. It looks real and it is heavy. Not a stick on but dipped in the actual liquid.

I got a digital camera for christmas so I will take pics of it all installed, along with the dynamat installation if any one is interested. I am eager to quieten the interior down. If all goes well, I am going to put in new back carpet and when if I install dynamat in the front, throw in some new stuff as well. It's winter time and I do not drive it. I have been driving a escort for gas reasons. I am quite satisfied with the plan and have researched it all and have a plan from where to start and where to end to prevent mistakes. It's really not all that difficult. Upon removing my door panels, the wiring in there is tangled up so I am going to untangle it and zip tie it together and hopefully find a place to keep it out of the way. Dynamat makes door insulation so I may go that route.

Hope your project goes well and goodluck. There is alot of wiring in these things or atleast on mine there is.

Got my sawzall back today but haven't had a chance to work on anything. I'm thinking this is gonna be too much work to use the bose boxes. I am considering just buying some speaker baffles and doing it that way, but I have to measure the depth of the door before I order anything. Found these on ebay that should work nicely as long as they aren't too deep (specs are 2.75"). Looks like it would be a much simpler install.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... eName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=003

Matthew

PS - NC, I'd like to see the interior.