Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 10:12:36 -0700
Reply-To: Brian Sassone <brians@xwarecorp.com>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Brian Sassone <brians@xwarecorp.com>
Organization: Xware Corp.
Subject: Re: Westy speaker replacement??
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I'm not sure how the 85 differs from my 87, but my speakers are mounted in
plastic bezels that have a threaded ring that hold them to the door panel.
The speaker is glued in, but came out pretty easily by gently prying along
the inner edge from the back. (The outside plastic is much stronger than
the thin glue bond holding the speaker in, but I'd be careful just the same!
Go a little at a time and keep working your way around and around till it
loosens up.)
I've decided to replace these with a set of 3-way Boston Acoustic component
speakers. The mid-range is actually a 4.5" and doesn't quite fit into the
bezel. So, to preserve the flat grill (so you can still roll down your
window) my plan is to cut the threaded ring off the grill plate (using
either a dremel or a bit of work with a utility blade).
The next part I haven't quite decided on yet (since all of my time has gone
towards the rest of the work I've been doing on the van and the speakers are
still on order....) but, I'll do one of two things. My first thought was
to mount the new speaker to a piece of MDF (fiber board) that will then bolt
to the plate through the door panel as a sandwich (using some nylon
spacers). Of course, this requires you drill some holes in the now flat
grill. This will probably put to much stress on the grill, so instead, I'm
thinkng that I'll just mount the fiberboard to the door first, and either
screw or glue the grill to the door panel.
The 6.5" woofer will fit in the bottom of the door, but part of the sheet
metal will have to come off and I'll loose the map pocket on the driver
door. (But, with my new dash and overhead consoles, this won't matter. :-)
The little tweeters will mount flat, so I'm not worried about them. My
biggest problem is finding a place to stash the two 6"x8" crossovers. ;-)
To protect the speakers from the dirt that floats around in the door (it
acts as a air conduit for the back of the van), I bought some foam speaker
enclosures from Crutchfield. These will keep the dust out but not sacrifice
fidelity as these speakers are designed for an infinite baffle.
I saw some photos of a westy where the guy had mounted very similar speakers
in the rear using the stock speaker holes in the overhead cabinet for the
mids, and mounting the woofers in the panel of the seat box facing forward.
I'm putting my sub-woofer and amp down there, so I don't have the room, but
I will replace the other speakers with BA 4.5"s. I wanted to put 6"s in
there, but they were just two tight and would have required extensive grill
modification on both sides as well as trimming of the air duct over the
door. Blech!
Brian
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