I'm gonna start installing some Jaycar splits into my 2nd gen wagon, running off the headunit for now, then amp after I figure out something for the rear. So I have some basic questions I couldn't find answers to:

1. When I took the door card out, there was a protective film over the metal frame of the door, and my car didn't come with speakers in the doors, so it's covering the hole for the speaker. How imporant is this film? Could I just fold it away from the speaker hole? What's it's purpose?

2. What type of wire will I need to connect the speaker to the headunit? AWG? I was reading an install guide, and it said that wire is supplied with the speakers, is this true for the Jaycar's?

3. 2nd gen speaker pods seem a bit to hard to come by, so I'm gonna try and fix something up with MDF, what thickness should I go for? It's gonna be 2 piece, one back bit that follows the shape of the door card down there, and another thats going to be an angled spacer.

4. For people familiar with 2nd gens, how hard is it to feed a wire from inside the front doors to the general headunit area? I saw where all the wires from the central locking go from inside the door, but after that, I'm pooped. Would I have to remove the glove box, or other bits? How would I go about that?

That's all I can think of right now.

Can't help with 2 and 3, but I have come across 1 and 4.

1. I think the film may be to stop outside air coming in through the door itself. You can fold it back, but the other option is to just make a cut in the film, possibly roughly in the shape of an "X" or cut a piece out depending on how you do the install.

2. No idea, sorry.

3. Same as 2.

4. The driver side is fairly simple, just remove the cover below the steering wheel (5 screws) and feed one end through the hole to the rubber "pipe" leading into the door (I used a coat hanger or piece of wire to pull it through), the other end into the centre console with the head unit.

The passenger side involves removing the glovebox by the 2/3 screws at the bottom of the glovebox, then unbolt the cover behind. Feed one end of the wire through the hole to the rubber "pipe" leading into the door, the other into the centre console.

It really isn't hard to run the wire through on either side, just a couple of covers and then it's all straight-forward from there.

I'm working from memory here so a second opinion would be best, although i'm fairly certain that's how it's done. :)

With the wiring, use any speaker wiring for now, you'll be fine.
as for the placement, take off those ugly stock map pockets, cut out some thin MDF in the shape of the door insert, cover it with a tiny bit of foam (makes it feel squishy) and cover it in vynal, fluff, sex, whatever

stick speaker in
looks pretty good for a little effort
(Very old pic, pre steering wheel, pre LEDs, Pre leather, pre power windows etc

"Does this look like a Q to you"

"how about now?"

:bowrofl:

Magna91:
Thank you! That's pretty much exaclty what I wanted to hear about 4! And if the film is only for air, that should be all good then. I've been reading about the more experienced guys with their 3rd gens, and water getting in after sound deadening... maybe that's partly what it's for, hmm...

[TUFFTR]:
So like, I could go as far as 24AWG? aka, thinnest/cheapest at Jaycar. The sticky guide stops at 16AWG, so I'm unsure how to go about it.
Good idea about the foam! I didn't think about that, I just thought vinyl itself would do.

As for aesthetics of the install (I've looked through pretty much every thread ever made with the words "front door speaker" in them to see how people go about it), I decided to make a little pod in the same fashion as yours, except it ends where the back side of the speaker ends, and have decide to relocate the map pocket to just after it, as I'm hoping for stock look. And looking over s_tim_ulate, and FHRX installs I decided also to keep the tweeter near the woofer, as what they say about seperation makes sense to me.

"You could ***** yourself out to a thousand fat chicks for 50 bucks each, or 50 really fat chicks for 1000 bucks each...."
lol, Quagmire's the best!

I've been reading about the more experienced guys with their 3rd gens, and water getting in after sound deadening... maybe that's partly what it's for, hmm...

I don't know if it would be a water "shield" as such because of the way it's stuck on the door. It would keep water out of the interior, but not out of the door itself where it's most needed, due to the various electrical devices (central locking, speakers, door lights, etc).

When I took the door trim off i'd noticed it had pretty much peeled off at the base and top corners anyway, no water got in during the time it was off so i'm guessing it's just an air guard.

I don't know if it would be a water "shield" as such because of the way it's stuck on the door. It would keep water out of the interior, but not out of the door itself where it's most needed, due to the various electrical devices (central locking, speakers, door lights, etc).

When I took the door trim off i'd noticed it had pretty much peeled off at the base and top corners anyway, no water got in during the time it was off so i'm guessing it's just an air guard.
It's for stopping water getting onto the trim and into the car. The door itself does its best to keep water out of itself, but you're going to cop water in there.

I pissed my protective **** off when I couldn't get it back on, it looked **** anyway.

Now that, I did not know. I assume it protects from when water runs down into the door via the window, or to a lesser extent around the handle? (although i'm fairly certain that has it's own seal)

Well either way, a cut in it should be sufficient to run a speaker through without removing it.

I'm gonna start installing some Jaycar splits into my 2nd gen wagon, running off the headunit for now, then amp after I figure out something for the rear. So I have some basic questions I couldn't find answers to:

1. When I took the door card out, there was a protective film over the metal frame of the door, and my car didn't come with speakers in the doors, so it's covering the hole for the speaker. How imporant is this film? Could I just fold it away from the speaker hole? What's it's purpose?


The film is mainly there to protect your door card from moisture and dust. Leave it there, unless you are fully (and properly) sound deadening your doors.



2. What type of wire will I need to connect the speaker to the headunit? AWG? I was reading an install guide, and it said that wire is supplied with the speakers, is this true for the Jaycar's?

I would suggest a minimum of 16gauge. Sure, thinner wire would work, but it's just better to be running a thicker wire, since the cost difference is minimal, and you wouldn't need to upgrade the wire, if you do decide to upgrade, and use an amp later onwe.



3. 2nd gen speaker pods seem a bit to hard to come by, so I'm gonna try and fix something up with MDF, what thickness should I go for? It's gonna be 2 piece, one back bit that follows the shape of the door card down there, and another thats going to be an angled spacer.


Most speaker pods tend to be custom made. I have been seeing those pre-fab ones at autobarn etc though. For MDF, I would be choosing the thickest 'practical' size. By that, it would be something that wouldn't cause you too many troubles in fitment, but won't be too thin that it will just flap around. Make sure you waterproof it with a sealant of some kind. You can paint it, just make sure you prime it properly. I used a tar based rust-sealer my dad used on the bottom of his 4wd. I used 18mm for my 'pod baffles' I probably wouldn't do anything under 12mm.



4. For people familiar with 2nd gens, how hard is it to feed a wire from inside the front doors to the general headunit area? I saw where all the wires from the central locking go from inside the door, but after that, I'm pooped. Would I have to remove the glove box, or other bits? How would I go about that?

That's all I can think of right now.

I used to have a 3rd gen. I don't even have a magna anymore. As for feeding wires, Im not familiar with the 2nd gen, but I'm sure there is a rubber conduit/flexible pipe that runs from the car body to the door. You will need to feed your wires through that. You can remove dashboard panels if it's easy, otherwise just use a coathanger (or whatever method you prefer) to feed the wires through. I have found that with most cars, you can feed wires around without removing panels. It just takes a bit more time. Be patient!

Hope that helps.

Easiest way with the grommet is to pop the grommet out on both ends.
try and it it as straight as possible and then run a piece if coathanger wire down with some speaker wire taped to it.
takes a while but you'll get there

Thanks for the reply eek!

If moisture can get in the door, should I be weary of mounting the speaker off the door card (well, off the pod, which will be attached to the door card), as the rear end of the speaker cone and and magnet will exposed inside the door, so under heavy rain, it could have some water drop onto it? I looked at the workshop manual on how Verada's and that had it mounted, and they had this plastic piece which mounted to the metal frame where the rear end of the cone could hide. Also on the 3rd gen installs I've seen on here, they have a similar plastic item, and the speaker is attacted directly into the door, and then the door card just pops over it.

16awg wire actually cost twice as much as any thinner wire below it at jaycar, so I'll probably go for something thinner, as later with an amp, I'd be running the wires to different locations, so different lengths will be needed, so I'd have to end up getting new wire anyway. And yeah, I was thinking about 18mm aswell for MDF. And the coat hanger sounds like a pretty good idea too, I'll be sure to give that a go.

Thanks for the reply eek!

If moisture can get in the door, should I be weary of mounting the speaker off the door card (well, off the pod, which will be attached to the door card), as the rear end of the speaker cone and and magnet will exposed inside the door, so under heavy rain, it could have some water drop onto it? I looked at the workshop manual on how Verada's and that had it mounted, and they had this plastic piece which mounted to the metal frame where the rear end of the cone could hide. Also on the 3rd gen installs I've seen on here, they have a similar plastic item, and the speaker is attacted directly into the door, and then the door card just pops over it.

16awg wire actually cost twice as much as any thinner wire below it at jaycar, so I'll probably go for something thinner, as later with an amp, I'd be running the wires to different locations, so different lengths will be needed, so I'd have to end up getting new wire anyway. And yeah, I was thinking about 18mm aswell for MDF. And the coat hanger sounds like a pretty good idea too, I'll be sure to give that a go.

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I have no idea how a 2nd gen door card works. People tend not to mount speakers directly on the door trim, since its basically just cardboard with vinyl over it..I'd mount to the metal frame if I could. As for waterproofing there are heaps of ways of doing it. Most car speakers are actually pretty waterproof, but its still better to give it some sort of protection. Yes, the 3rd gens have speakers mounted on a plastic frame, which acts as an umbrella and bolts straight into the metal door frame. You can get creative with bits of polyproplene or similar products.

As for wires, if you really wanted, just use the existing stock wires there, and if you get an amp later, run fresh wires. I just run fresh wires every time, because that way I can keep the stock speaker connectors and wiring, for when I want to revert the system back to stock (even though that pretty much never happens). Either way, I'm a rather obsessive-compulsive kinda person.

w00p w00p, lite update, for those of you playing at home, and a question!

Update:
Due to Christmas, I'm going to amp the splits now, I'm thinking jaycar 4 x 50wrms, but my dad was all "get a brand name thing" so to make him happy, if someone could suggest something similar in price (~$200), 4 channel, with similar power, with similar or higher quality sound (how are the jaycars for SQ? Catalog says some of the higher power rated amps won Car Stereo Australia awards, but I couldn't find anything about that). And I have came up with a way of mounting to the door frame, but it's gonna be pretty layered.

Question:
But my question comes to wiring of the speakers, the splits actually came with some wire, but it's really thin. Would it be fine to run 18awg wire from the amp, to the cross-over, and then use the thin wire that came with the set from the cross-over to the woofer and tweeter, as they came with nifty little spade connectors that would make life easy!

w00p w00p, lite update, for those of you playing at home, and a question!

Update:
Due to Christmas, I'm going to amp the splits now, I'm thinking jaycar 4 x 50wrms, but my dad was all "get a brand name thing" so to make him happy, if someone could suggest something similar in price (~$200), 4 channel, with similar power, with similar or higher quality sound (how are the jaycars for SQ? Catalog says some of the higher power rated amps won Car Stereo Australia awards, but I couldn't find anything about that). And I have came up with a way of mounting to the door frame, but it's gonna be pretty layered.

Question:
But my question comes to wiring of the speakers, the splits actually came with some wire, but it's really thin. Would it be fine to run 18awg wire from the amp, to the cross-over, and then use the thin wire that came with the set from the cross-over to the woofer and tweeter, as they came with nifty little spade connectors that would make life easy!


Using that speaker wire would be fine mate.

Tell your dad they ARE a brand name in amps. They aint no LIGHTNING AUDIO!
Its hard for you to get "higher quality sound" for $200 without actually hearing this amp in your car already. The jaycar amps have been voted best bang for buck amps many times so i dont see why you wouldnt be going with one :)

And if you were still iffy on the thinner speaker cable I'd just pick up a 10M pack from jaycar or similar

Yeh as TUFFTR said jaycar are good stuff, I guess your dad has just never heard of them. Maybe try explain that they are not you never heard of brand, are very reliable, unbeatable for the price, and just not well known of because they only do car audio etc.

If he doesnt liek the idea, your best bet would be alpine if you can afford it for amps, I think their lower end stuff is quite reasonable, and will be better than pioneer, kenwood, sony etc

Ollie

Edit: For speaker cable, if it came with stuff I think it should be OK, you dont need big stuff for spits really. If you get a sub with some power then you will need to use something a bit thicker. And you will need some reasonably thick power cables for the amp though, 8 guage would be nice.

Also thing about your future plans for the stereo, if you want to add a sub later, a good option would be to get the bigger 4 channel response amp, they have a lot of power, so you can get some good volume for some front splits, and also bridge the other two channels and run a decent sub from it. Then you wont need to replace anything.

Thanks TUFFTR and opilot87 Should be all fine and dandy then! Looks like I'll get the Jaycar amp as well, dad's being a douche now anyways, lol.

For the amp power wires, I think I'll be getting some 4awg from the battery, then a two or more way distribution block for 8awg to the amp, so if I get more amps, I can just add wire to the block. And right now with this car I'd only would go the path of trying to see if I can fit a tiny sub in the wheel well, I saw a thing on the Mobile Electronics Australia forum with a fibre glass thing done over the wheel well with the spare wheel in it. So I'd have to take a look if it's possible. If only I had a sedan, lol. I was also thinking some rear roof speakers, but thats hard, lol

If your thinking of getting a second amp in future then yep 4 guage is a good idea, then you dotn have to re-run the wires all over again and pay for more stuff!!

Why do you say you wish you had a sedan, to hide the sub? I think in a wagon or hatch the sub is a lot louder and clearer than in a sedan or coupe. I have a cargo blind to shield from pryign eyes. Dunno about yours but my rear speakers are in the roof, I reckon it would sound alright when your in the back with some good speakers, but got no idea what would fit in there. apparently room isnt too bad.

Ollie

Yeah, sedan to put everything in the boot, and have a parcel shelf! Still thinking about the amp and wiring, I was at JB the other day, so I got a look at what else is out there.
And I checked the wheel well, and theres an evil metal bracket in there right in the middle, so you can't flip the wheel over and mount an under-cover sub, grr.

Update: w00t w00t

Finnnnnalllly installed the speakers, took 3 nights of work, and about 2 months of thinking!

I was fortunate enough to come across Josh'93TR selling some 2nd gen door pods, so big thanks to him, made my life a lot easier. I didn't have the plastic speaker/door mounting bit, so I had to mdf it up a knotch!

Pictures!

Shape of door holder
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/lozer2090/Image116.jpg

Hole in door card
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/lozer2090/Image117.jpg

MDF ring in door card
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/lozer2090/Image118.jpg

Complete door holder thing
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/lozer2090/Image119.jpg

Speaker's new home
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/lozer2090/Image120.jpg

More pictures!

Left side during testing
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/lozer2090/Image121.jpg

Complete Happiness
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/lozer2090/Image122.jpg


Things to be noted/learned:
* On left side speaker, I cut the hole in the bit that's bolted into the door first following the curves of the hole in the metal frame, then lined it up with the mdf ring in the door card. Turns out the positioning was slightly to one side, so you see a gap between the ring and the holder thingy.
* Last pic you can see the mdf through the tiny gap between door card and pod, haven't painted the wood yet, shouldn't stand out so much when painted black.
* Tweeters are mounted on top of the little plastic covers on the side of the foot well near the door, held there with our friend Velcro!
* I used 16mm mdf for this, which turns out is too think to line up with the inside of the door card, so theres about a 5mm gap between door card and metal at the bottom under the speaker. I tested and off cut of 18mm I had and though that wasn't enough, but it must've sat in a groove lower or something. 12mm would've been sweet.
* Should've just bought some of that flakely glue stuff they use to keep the moisture guard on and ripped the thing off whilst I was working on it, started becoming a major hassle when feeding wire.
* Attaching the cross-over to the door card, rather than somewhere on the door frame was a crap idea. (But it fit oh-so snuggly on the inside of the arm-rest!)

So yeah, that's what happen... Now I just have to figure out how to run a power wire from the engine bay into the cabin, and get the amp in there and it should be pumping. So I'll be searching and PMing people about that, or you can beat me to it, and tell me here, either way!