MGF DIY - Rear Speakers

Updates:

1. 28th October 2000  - The whole Page

The Reason:

The usual one, when going along the motorway (with the roof down), it's difficult to hear the radio (or more appropriately, the MiniDisk).  So time to add rear speakers.  Lots of mentions on the BBS and didn't sound too hard.

The Idea:

Remove the T-Bar, cut a pair of holes, fit the speakers add the grills, wire in and use.
 

The Parts:

1. Pair of Rover Speaker grills from the 2000 model (about £10 each).  Note separate part codes (and parts) for left and right.
2. Set of Speakers.  Kenwood KFC-4625C,  from Halfords about £53.

The Process:

1. First Remove the T-Bar, fairly easy, apart from the seat belts.  

2. Cut the holes for the speakers.  The speakers are actually quite small, and there is quite a bit of room between the metal cross bar and the top of the engine bay.  However the T-Bar itself is fairly curved so makes measuring where to drill/cut a real problem.  To help this, I made a template of the cut out and the holes for speakers and grill fittings.  I used Visio for this, but have converted to BMP and zipped it here.

3. Then using the template, drill the holes, noting that the left and right grills are not identical, as the alignment pins are different.

4. Once the holes are drilled, the main cut out can be removed.  I first used a drill to and Jigsaw.  However the material is fairly deep, but soft, and I found that a hacksaw blade on its own and by hand was easier.

5. This provides the holes shown in the following pictures
   
   .

6. Then try dry fitting all of the components, and guess what, the grills foul on the speaker centres.  Although the grills are curved, the speakers aren't.  So it is then necessary to sit the speakers slightly recessed into the t-bar,  for this I used a sharp stanley knife and cut back about 1/3 of the depth of the material.  This produces the effect shown below:
   
   
   

7. The speakers can then be fitted and bolted/screwed into place and importantly tested. As once the grills are on, it would not be possible to remove them.

8. I then used a combination of hot melt glue and Epoxy resin to ensure the grills are fixed to the T-Bar, which I left to cure overnight.

9. While the glue was setting, the wiring can be fed down the back of the boxes and past the gear change and up to the back of the Radio unit, which will need to be removed..  

10. At this point I remembered an article on lighting the cigarette lighter fitting, and decided that I would also do this.

11. Wiring into the Radio unit will depend on the type and make of the unit, in my case a Sony unit with wiring ready for connection.

12. The T-bar can then be brought back to the car and the wiring connected to the speakers and again tested, this time with the actual radio unit.

13. When all is well, the t-bar can be re-fitted (job done).
    

The Result:

Once fitted the sound is much better and clearly audible even at speed, with the added advantage that there is less of the slow down, turn down radio, speed up, turn up radio that I used to do.