Fg Speaker Install - Pics And Notes Included

[Jizza]

Well completed the install on the weekend, 6inch VDO Dayton splits in the front and 6inch Kicker 2 ways in the rear, no amp, no sub, just upgraded the standard speakers and the difference is well worth the effort......however.

I recommend anyone thinking of undertaking this change do some research BEFORE you buy your speakers. I got lucky with the fronts as they went on (rather than in) the factory speaker mounts without any trouble, however the kickers in the rear went on fine until I tried to put the door trims back on and they wouldnt fit. Ended up having to modify the speaker mounts twice to get them to fit. Note that the inside of the door trim is also moulded to fit around the speaker so if your speaker is too wide sitting on top then the trim will not sit flat (the issue I had with the Kicker's)

As a guide 5 1/4 speakers will go in the mounts, 6inch will sit on the mounts and 6 1/2 will not work unless you are prepared to modify the mounts completely or make your own. If you use 6inch speakers make sure they are low in profile at the rim (the VDO's were aprox 2mm thick, the kickers were about 9mm) as the surround on the inside of the door trim meets up with the foam on the outer surround of the speaker mount. A modification of the mounts to remove the outer ring and have the speakers sit on the inner ring (angled towards the passenger) is pretty simple if you have a dremell or similar and will allow for 6inch or 6 1/2 inch to be mounted provided the holes lineup with the rim:

Standard speakers in their mounts:

Be prepared to hack apart your new car as the speakers and mounts are a one-piece product and the guts of the speaker will need to be removed. I used an angle grinder, a 4inch just fits for the finishing:

Identifying speaker wires etc is tricky unless you know what your doing, however take note that the speaker mounts have clip in terminals and one of these on the outer side of the casing shows a + sign for positive (something I noticed after I had done a stack of trial and error :( ) For the rears what I did was locate the side marked + and used the wires and connectors supplied with the speakers to solder on to the inside of the terminal lugs so that the factory plug in loom could be used.

VDo's installed in mounts, I also mounted the crossover to the same mount, just fit inside a cavity, did some measuring to check, your may or may not:

Cant imagine why the new speaker sound better than the old ones, perhaps size does matter:

I have the tweeters in the front mounted inside the rearview demister vents on the dash so it all looks stock and they cant be seen, but can be heard. Sound is great and really punchy mid bass with enough low bass. I didnt want a doof doof boot rattler just a nice pronounced sound with good imaging. I ran the wiring for the tweeters down through the shround on the side of the dashboard under the side area of the footwell and through the rubber sealed tube into the door skin where the factory wires go. This takes time to access and patience to get the wires through. I removed each end gently but firmly and used a reasonably firm tube of plastic 4mm sprinkler hose to get through the rubber tube and when both ends were exposed I taped the wires to the tube and pulled them through, doing each section at a time. There is also a recessed white plastic box on each side of the car containing an assortment of wiring loms etc, these pop out pretty easily for running the wire through.

Be patient as it can take some effort to find the holes to get it through but persist, only took me a few goes blind. Also, be prepared to remove the glove box and the shroud it sits in (with its 13 screws holding the damn thing on). The glove box has a clip in the middle at the top which stops it pulling forward, you can maneuvre this clip to get it further forward where it will lift out, again be careful not to snap anything.

Glove box shroud:

After glove box and shroud removed:

Tweeters hidden in vent:

Tweeter cables down side of dashboard behind shroud piece (easy to remove, dont set off airbags!) Made sure any holes I drilled were as small as possible, and I mean small enough that the terminals would not fit through with the rubbers on them!

Finished interior looks like I never touched it which is what I was going for.

All in all a great sound and worth the effort. I spent $69 on the splits at JB's at 30% off and the kickers for the rear were $59 at 30% off, pretty cheap spend after all. Very punchy, great mids and highs. Be prepared to spend a little while defining the sound through your new speakers......songs will sound different, you will hear things you may not have noticed before and that includes harsher mids and highs on some music. I listen to rock from old stuff to very new, no dancy stuff.......

Enjoy chopping.......as per usual practise I did have the normal one screw left over.....still dont know where that goes (?)

Fell free to shoot questions, other than which wires are positive and negative, go with the labelling on the speaker mounts for that one (wish someone told me that before I started)

[timbos99]

Nice work... what sort of beer should I buy for when you come over to do mine

One a serious note, I picked up a little dremmel type thingo for $49 full kit of stuff at bunnings on the weekend, it even has a 3yr warranty. Won't be as nice as a dremmel, but for that price?? I'm itching to test it out, been looking around the house at things that need trimming

[Jizza]

Yeah the one I used was a cheaper one, not a dremel and worked just fine, easy to use.

Have a crack at the speakers yourself. As a guide the fronts were the trial and error for me, passenger side was first which took a few hours, driver side an hour and a half, rears took less than 2 hours (till I found the speakers were too big and needed some mods to the mounts and door trims).

If I had a guide to go by probably would have cut the time in half. I did see a few guides around which helped a little knowing what too expect, the whole reason I did this one was for that little extra information I didnt have.

[ZAP]

Jizza,

Thanks for taking the time and effort in producing this info for the forum.

It is a great help and will be stickied so all can find it easily

[cruze]

good job & great progress pics !

I am doing the subs & amp for my FG at the moment (try and progress also)

[Rogue01]

Another great write up, I did this today.

6.5's fit both front and rear (rear in the ute anyway) but as you say, the fronts definitely need to be slim.

So yeh; thanks for the help :D

[Jizza]

Good to hear, how have you found the sound quality?

[tab]

As Zapper said...thanks for taking the time. Stuff like that makes this place what it is.

[Rogue01]

Sound quality is vastly improved; I only put in 4x 6.5" Fusion Reactors ($50 a pair) as an interim. Main focus was on the sub+amp and seeing if I could DIY it

Next stage is probably some Alpine splits running off a separate amp. The head end seems to have enough herbs to crank the volume up on the new ones though! And there is so much more clarity compared to stock setup.

[PSI40T]

just quickly how do u remove the door trim? I know there is a couple of bolts hidden??