I want a T5
Friday 6th April 2012, 08:39
With a head befuddled with jet lag and fighting off frostbite, I fitted up the 3" mid range drivers in the existing placement for the door mounted 6.5" drivers.
I had bought a while ago, a nifty set of adapters from eBay that replaces the OE speakers that are actually one piece thingies of the mounting baffle and speaker. The existing speakers pop off easily enough and the replacement baffle mounts back on with one screw and 2 trim clips that were supplied with the kit.
As the mid driver is only 3" wide, I cut a piece of 1/2"mdf to fit in to the plastic mount using my home made circle jig fitted to my trimming router. This was screwed and epoxy'd in place and then offered up to the door with the trim back on so as to be able to then mark up the best location of the mid relative to the door when closed.
To make sure there was enough clearance for the domed face of the driver, I rebated the face of the mdf baffle so the driver sat in about 4mm. I used the circle jig again for this. I then cut the hole for the driver with a jig saw becuase my home made jig fell apart (must make another now!).
Using 1/2" mdf was a near flush fit with the inner surface of the door card and to make a good seal, I shall glue some thin, soft foam to the door card to form a gasket between the card and the mdf. I shall also paint the mdf with some spray matt black paint so it blends in with the rest of the door trim and isnt visible from the front so much.
As you can see, I have made the fitment of this component as stealthy as possible, using the existing front grille which I removed from the door card (it's held in place with melted over plastic stand-offs which I carefully trimed off and will fix back on with thin, pan headed screws from behind.
I shall experiment with the sound of the driver once powered up and may not use both the new speaker grille and the OE grille as this may impede the sound waves. I would like to use the new grille as this protects the fragile face of the new speaker. I have also removed the inner, thin sponge layer from the OE grill to further reduce any loss of sound quality (even though it is probably sonically transparent).
Next installment will show how I am going to make a new boxed baffle for the 6.5" mid in the bottom of the door with some butchering of the front section of the door pocket.
Pics below show so far how it looks:
I had bought a while ago, a nifty set of adapters from eBay that replaces the OE speakers that are actually one piece thingies of the mounting baffle and speaker. The existing speakers pop off easily enough and the replacement baffle mounts back on with one screw and 2 trim clips that were supplied with the kit.
As the mid driver is only 3" wide, I cut a piece of 1/2"mdf to fit in to the plastic mount using my home made circle jig fitted to my trimming router. This was screwed and epoxy'd in place and then offered up to the door with the trim back on so as to be able to then mark up the best location of the mid relative to the door when closed.
To make sure there was enough clearance for the domed face of the driver, I rebated the face of the mdf baffle so the driver sat in about 4mm. I used the circle jig again for this. I then cut the hole for the driver with a jig saw becuase my home made jig fell apart (must make another now!).
Using 1/2" mdf was a near flush fit with the inner surface of the door card and to make a good seal, I shall glue some thin, soft foam to the door card to form a gasket between the card and the mdf. I shall also paint the mdf with some spray matt black paint so it blends in with the rest of the door trim and isnt visible from the front so much.
As you can see, I have made the fitment of this component as stealthy as possible, using the existing front grille which I removed from the door card (it's held in place with melted over plastic stand-offs which I carefully trimed off and will fix back on with thin, pan headed screws from behind.
I shall experiment with the sound of the driver once powered up and may not use both the new speaker grille and the OE grille as this may impede the sound waves. I would like to use the new grille as this protects the fragile face of the new speaker. I have also removed the inner, thin sponge layer from the OE grill to further reduce any loss of sound quality (even though it is probably sonically transparent).
Next installment will show how I am going to make a new boxed baffle for the 6.5" mid in the bottom of the door with some butchering of the front section of the door pocket.
Pics below show so far how it looks: