This project is now complete. I put some Peel and Seal in the passenger door on top of the Tite Seal product that I had put in there first. That helped that door to be quieter on the "thump" test and when closing the door. The door closing is nowhere near and quiet and solid sounding as on a "modern" car like my 2002 Golf, but it is a lot less like the sound of slamming the lid on a garbage can. Much deeper sound and less sustain or "ringing" after it's closed. It seems like most of the remaining rattly sound when closing comes from the top window frame's meeting with the van. Sort of slaps and bounces there.

So then for a test drive. I am not sure, but it seems a little quieter up front right from starting the engine and beginning to move. It definitely sounds a little different. I'll have to put some more time on it to see if this is a psychological effect or real. It's not a great big change, but seems better based on one short drive. The speakers do sound quite good. Especially for $15. Rich the original poster had some additional larger speakers in the front, and that would probably round out the sound. The Bass is not great with these but mid and high sound very good to me. I mostly listen to talking people radio shows and rarely turn music up very loud. I do like it to sound good at moderate volume though. Now my rear blaupunkts are not too happy, and I have set the fader way to the front so as not to blow those out right away. I wonder if there is a speaker that would fit in the stock enclosure back there that would be more biased toward resolving the bass?

This was a good little project and I'm glad I did it. Thanks to Rich for the tip on these bargain speakers which pushed me over the edge to actually get this done.

Edward

**************************************************************************************************** I can now tell you the "Tite Seal" I bought does not work. It is sold as window flashing. I put it inside the passenger door and thumped on the outside of the door all over the place and didn't notice much difference from the driver's door with nothing in it. Not much difference between the sound of closing the two doors either. Then I got some Peel and Seal today and put that in the driver's door. There is a definite dampening of the sound and lowering of the frequency of what I hear when thumping on that door, or closing the door. I measured with my digital caliper (whose battery was near death) and got .73mm thickness for the Tite Seal and 1.3mm for the Peel and Seal. There you go. Maybe Tomorrow I'll get the speakers back in the door panels and the door panels back on and really test it out. Edward

At 08:01 AM 10/17/2010, Stephen Grisanti wrote: >I used the Peel and Seal in my front doors and it helps reduce the >tinny sound greatly. You'll be glad you did this, speaker improvement or not. > >Stephen > >--- On Sat, 10/16/10, Edward Maglott <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM> wrote: >From: Edward Maglott <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM> >Subject: Re: Cheap front door speakers sound Great! >To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM >Date: Saturday, October 16, 2010, 1:13 PM > >the new speakers into the housing using "automotive goop." I'm now >going to apply some "peel and seal" type stuff to the inside of the >doors like people do when they are doing this front speaker >project. I found 2 products at Lowe's. The actual Peel and Seal 6" >x 25', and something called "Seal Tite" (or something very close to >that) 4" x 25'. I figured that smaller width would be easier to >apply inside the door and hopefully will do as good of a job >deadening the sound. Quite a bit cheaper per square foot, but not as >thick as peel and seal.