Monday, September 16, 2013

Phased Update

Let's do a recap now that I've seen everything exposed (but behind the radio).

  1. Install rear speakers. Run wire and pass into B-Pillar. (1.5 hr each)
  2. Install front speakers; crossovers are in the cabin so the door can be buttoned up. (2.5 hr each)
  3. Install amp and power, but no audio.
  4. Tap off of stereo out and keyed power. Bring it to the amp. Switch over front speakers audio to amp.
  5. Switch over rear speakers' speaker wires and button up rear doors. Run wire from B pillar to amp.
My time estimates reflect being slightly distracted. 

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Passenger's side front door

Front doors are definitely more work than rear doors - and NOT because I'm using components.
Let's see if I can remember.

  1. Remove door panel
  2. Unclip speaker wire and remove speaker
  3. Pull wheel well molding and unclip electrical connector.
  4. Remove wire channel from car and door.
  5. Run speaker wire through wire channel - this took about 30 minutes. I'm not sure why, but it's tighter in there with the existing wire. I passed the heavy copper fish wire from the top to the bottom, then I tape the speaker wire to the fish wire. I was using 10 gauge solid, insulated wire for this. I had to unscrew the door stop for this - even if it only got me 1/4" more room
  6. Replace the wire channel - this was difficult too - The upper portion wasn't challenging. The lower portion is secured to a large plastic, uh, thing. You need to remove this plastic piece from the lower a pillar - it snaps out. Then secure the wire channel to it, it only snaps on in at 120 degree angles.

    Wirechannel hanging off the top of the plastic pass through. It has to secure all the way around. then you click the pass through back to the A pillar.
    Once the wire channel is secured, the plastic pass through clicks back into the A pillar.
  7. Before you secure the lower portion of the wire channel to the car, you need to clip the speaker wires in the harness, so that you can pull them back into the cabin and connect them them to your cross over. So I think it's the brown/green wire and dark green wire. Clip and pass back into the cabin.



Monday, September 9, 2013

Rear Door - start to finish


  1. Unscrew two Philips head screws in door. Use a small flat-head screwdriver to remove cover. 
    Exhibit A - rear door

  2. Pull bottom of door away from the door frame. You will hear the plastic fasteners pop out of the door. This is fine. The top of the door-panel rests upon a lip where the glass recedes into the door. You just pull the door-panel up and over the lip. No more than 1". 
  3. Unclip the window connector, and unsnap the ball-ended cables from the lock and latch.
    Press in on that tab to pull out of door plug.
     
    pull the yellow and black tubes out of the lock/latch mount. You can then pop the ball on end of the cable out of the lock or latch. 

  4. Place the door-panel somewhere safe.
    Exhibit B - door panel removed. Window wire connector, lock, and latch all hanging.
  5. Unscrew the 3 screws that secure the speaker to the door. After that, cut the speaker wire so you can remove the speaker. My replacement speakers needed bare ends. I believe there are drop-in plugs for the OEM connector. I'm not going that route. You could easily unclip the speaker from the connector and go from there. 
  6. Line up your speaker spacer and mark the face where you will pre-drill the holes for the speaker, i.e., we are noting which side of the spacer faces the door and which faces into the car. I wrote ND (no door) on the cabin-side of the spacer. I also wrote a "R"ear on the thin side that's oriented toward the back of the car - where my hand is. You need to get up close to the spacer/door to eye which way the pre-drilled holes align with the nylon nuts embedded in the door. You could insert your screws as a test.
  7. OPTIONAL - At this point I want to run my larger gauge speaker wire through the door so I don't have to do it when I install the amp. You will see a rubber wire guide run from the B-pillar to the door. Pull this out from the door and from the B-pillar. Fish a piece of thick wire through the wire channel, tape ~6' of speaker wire to one end of the fish wire and pull through. I end up leaving about 1' inside the door and 5' inside the pillar. This should be more than enough because the speaker will be mounted under the driver's seat. 
    Pull the wire guide out of the B-pillar.
    Pull the wire guide out of the door. This image shows my fish wire exiting the wire guide.
    I taped my speaker wire to the fish wire and started feeding it into the top of the wire guide.
    Pull the fish wire through and feed the long end of your speaker wire down the wire guide.
    All pulled through. I will stuff this back into the B-pillar for later.
  8. Place your speaker on the spacer and line it up exactly. I dot a sharpie to where I should pre-drill the holes. I will use #8 x 1/2 machine screws and a 3/32" drill bit. You don't have to drive the screw all the way through the 3/4" spacer, but either way is fine. 

    Place dots where you want to predrill the holes, by placing the speaker over the spacer. I made a small awl mark over the dots to give the drill something to bite into.
  9. These speaker mounts don't seal flush to the door. We need to put > 1/2" of gasket between the mounts and the door. I used the 5 year foam weather stripping, 3/4" x 7/16" single sided adhesive tape from home depot. I cut the gasket into 1" pieces and create a circle around the speaker opening in the door. I do the same thing on the speaker mount itself - the side that faces the door, but in addition to cutting 1" strips, I cut them in half so they are about 3/8".
    One piece of gasket tape installed. Continue all the way around
  10. This is with gasket tape only stuck on the door. There is a gap, so we have to put gasket tape on the speaker mount also.
    Half-width gasket tape run around the spacer - on the DOOR side.
  11. Mate the speaker+gasket tape and door+gasket tape together and screw through the spacer to the door. I believe I used #10 x 1 1/2" screws, which should work perfectly in the plastic nuts that are already in your door. As the screws secure to the door, the gasket tape compresses a lot. Try to keep the pressure from each screw equal to the others.  
  12. At this point I screw those two ends to the speaker connector. Since the speaker wire connector is a small, matchbox sized-object and This is somewhat temporary, I used two zipties to mount it in the door. One ziptie to the wire bundle in the door, and through that, to the speaker connector. I zip it tight. Use this page as a guide so you know which wire is + and which is -.
     
  13. Finally I mate the speaker to the spacer and screw it in. Note: there's a gasket that goes between the speaker and the spacer, but I will install that when during the amplifier install.
  14. Disassembly is reverse of assembly. Plug in the wires to the door-panel, reattach the cables to the lock and latch. Place the door panel over the top lip, ensure all the fasteners are in place and close up the door. You are done.
    Place the door panel up and over that lip on the left, under the fixed window.