siberian

the top part of the speaker is actually sunk into the door.. thus giving my tons of room to work with. And the bottom is sticking out... but that's no problem because the glove box stops right about at the top of the speaker. If you angle it like I did.. you'll be fine.

siberian

it was a total BITCH! to put it mildly.

some proplems and f*ck-ups I ran into...

1. I had trouble getting the mounting rings just right. It took me about three tries to get them to where I was happy with them.

2. When I wrapped the grill cloth around the whole thing, It sort of got really wrinkled when the resin dried... so the sides weren't very smooth. I had to really sand the f*ck out of them and keep adding more layers of resin to fill in the "valleys" and get the side walls smooth.

3. I tried wrapping them in vinyl.. which I bought a color that almost perfectly matches the darker grey vinyl at the top of the doors... but I couldn't get the vinyl to lay right... so I gave up and painted them instead.

4. When I finally put them on to the doors, the top part pulled up a little and they didn't fit snug like I had planned. I think when I wrapped the grill cloth, I pulled it too tight and bent the back plate a little, thus pulling it away from the original contour. So on the drivers side, if you look straight down from the top, you can see about an 1/8" gap there. Not a real obvious flaw unless you look for it... but it's there nonetheless and I might try to fill it in with some kind of putty and contour it... then repaint the whole thing a lighter color.

5. The fumes from the polyester resin really f*cked me up! Seriously, my girlfriend thought I was wacked out on crank or something after I came in from the garage. I had this spacy look in my eyes. I had to check myself into Betty Ford clinic after that... I was a junkie!

6. Just my luck, during the three weeks in the middle of July that I did these things.. it happened to be really humid.. so it took a long time for the resin to harden enough so I could sand it.

7. I originally tried to fix the wrinkles mentioned above with duck tape.. then resin over it... well, the duck tape is too slippery to hold the resin, so It started to peel off. So I had to back up and pull off the duck tape and replace it with grill cloth, and re-resin.



and that's about it.

I still have to make the grill covers. I bought metal grill mesh from Selectproducts.com. I'm cutting disc shaped covers out to protect the speakers from accidentally being kicked. And I still might re-mount the tweets in the kick panels... we'll see.

when I sell the car (in about 30 years), I'll go out and buy a cheap pair of Kenwood 6" speakers and throw'em in there... since I can't undo this mod. Then I can just put the whole stereo back to original form... except the front speakers. Aw, hell, I plan on driving this car into the ground... so it won't really matter.

siberian

and yes, I was sh*ttin' some serious brick when I held that dremmel tool to the door!

siberian

I tried vinyl wrap... but it turned out ****ty... one thing I couldn't figure out is how to upholster something... so instead, I "simulated" a vinyl look by painting them with a texture spray, then sanding it down to create the bumpy texture of vinyl... then painted them charcoal grey to try to match the charcoal trim around the door handle... they look pretty good, but the paint turned out a little glossier than I wanted.. so they sort of stick out. I think I might re-paint them with a lighter color to match the rest of the door and make them less conspicuous.

Dan Harman

<p>Dan
99 1.8TQMSX K04 Santorin
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/AudiWorldPics/2000/dh-sig.gif">

siberian

although it IS angled inward somewhat, it isn't quite aimed right at the seat.... due to a slight miscalculation on my part.... but nonetheless, they sound great and imaging is awesome.

Dan Harman

<p>Dan
99 1.8TQMSX K04 Santorin
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/AudiWorldPics/2000/dh-sig.gif">

siberian

you just have to sink the front edge into the door... sort of like how I did the top edge. I just didn't sink it in enough.... Although it's not angled as much as I'd like, it is more angled than the stock location... and, these diamonds seem to have a pretty wide sweet spot so I still get really good imaging... and, I think the tweeters have more influence over imaging than the midbass drivers...

One reason I know I have good imaging is when I lean over towards the center of the car so I'm centered between the speakers, the sound barely improves.... so that's good. Usually, in a stock car, you lean to the center and all of a sudden it sounds tons better.

Dan Harman

Did I say that out loud?? <p>Dan
99 1.8TQMSX K04 Santorin
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/AudiWorldPics/2000/dh-sig.gif">

CDNA4LOVR

now you need to make grilles so that ppl won't kick in your speakers.

i wanna put mine inside the doors so that my car doesnt get broken into again.

oh yeah 1 thing, its DUCT tape....you know, for ductwork. i've tried it the other way, but the ducks always try to pluck out your eyes.<p>Jonathan Fingold
Pearl White 1998 2771cc 30 Valve Quattro