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Been meaning for a while (nearly 3 years!) to fit a set of CDT Signature Series 642HDs.... in the cab.
They are three way. So rather than your usual 4" mid and a tweeter... you also get a 6"
Got stuck into it this week and lots of people are asking how I did it all.
(FYI, info on my main dash install, including paint are on my other blog about my dash, pick the right one from here)
So, here goes.
Firstly, these are not going to be running from the Head Unit.
Will be using a combination of Genesis Profile amps.
Long term I will be going to try and go for an active setup with a Four and a Two...
But for now, I will just use a (bridged) Four to power the 642's using the crossovers, so passive.
6" first(well, 6.5")
Mounting them in the doors. Using a set of Audio Sport door pockets, with speaker mounts. That fit with a double passenger seat.
These door pods are great. Audio Sport say to screw them in from behind but ... me being me, I decided to take a different route.
Lined it all up and drilled some small holes through the back of the door card into the pod, in the extremities.
Then, made the holes much bigger in the pods, for some rivnuts!
The scary bit is making sure the rivnut is tight enough to grip on but NOT destroy the GRP!!!
I did this in the quiet, so I could hear the GRP cracking a little as I crushed the rivnut onto the GRP.
Just enough to get it secure.
Trimmed out the hole the pod came with, as the 642's are actually 6.5, 4.5, 2's...
Bolted from the back of the card, using large washers to spread the load.
Very happy with the finish. Just need to clean up and paint the door cards.
4" (well, 4.5") [B]next/B].
These were a little more tricky, as I had to make the mounts for them.
... but they are still pretty easy to do!
So, here are the 4's.
This is the stock setup.....
With a little 'normal' 4" sitting under the grill.
The over sized 4" won't fit.
Took a pair of old grills (badly flocked by the previous owner) and a 4.5" MDF ring that the speakers fit in.
The MDF doesn't need to be too thick for structural reasons, as the hard fabric keeps it all solid. I went for 12mm bought pre-cut from eBay.
Used the ring as a template, I marked out where a hole needs to go.
Cut the hole with a SLOW jigsaw. (Use a fast one and the plastic melts again after you have cut!)
Missed out a step in the photos here, sorry!
Screw (with SMALL screws!) through the remaining plastic into the MDF ring to fix them together.
Take some stretchy cotton (an old tshirt is good but I use extra stretchy stuff from eBay) and stretch it over the top of the whole lot.
Ball up the fabric on the back. I used a couple of cable ties and twisted it to get it tight.
Once it is tight, staple the fabric in place on the back. I added a few slits into the fabric to let the clips used to click into place on the dash through the fabric. As we will used those to attach them.
Also stapled the fabric to the inside of the ring from the top, for a little more stretch.
Can't stress enough how important it is to make sure there are no creases anywhere in the fabric.
Remove staples and re-staple if you need too. Well worth doing that as many times are you need to get it perfect.
Mixed up some resin and got painting.
Took a stanley knife to the top and removed all the staples to reveal the ring.
Also used a sanding wheel to get the inner ring smooth.
Then did pretty much the same on the bottom. Cut everything back, making sure to keep any structural bits if required to support the whole lot.
The coutersunk drill through was used to help bolt down the adapter to the dash, if it was loose at all.
(Turned out I didn;t need this as they fit perfectly!)
Finished!
Testing the speakers in the dried resined adapters.
I scuffed up the black cotton in order to paint them.
Primed with rattle can...
Painted, with the Valspar Manhattan Mist textured paint, to match the rest of the dash.
Then, finally fitted!
These are obviously off axis (all though they reflect of the screen well, so they may be pseudo on-axis!) but if I decide to try for on-axis, these will be great as a base to build something.
VERY happy with them... Tweeter mounts, coming soon!
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After lots and lots of thought and searching... I found a guy in Germany who sells these directional pod stalks.
You can set them to any angle you like, then tighten them up in position. With the cable running through it. Pretty cool.
Taken a punt with them and with a couple of 52mm gauge visors(!?!?!) I came up with this.
Will need to close the back of them for a better sound but I will work on that at a later date.
Option 1) low down the A-pillar, close to the 4.
Will probably effect the sounds from the 4.
Option 2) Higher up the A-Pillar. May be too close to your ear and too far from the 4.
Option 3) On the inner rear corner of the new 4 build....
Hopefully they should do the job. Just need to stick them in and see how they sound. I'm happy to move them a few times.
The EASIEST option will be option 3....
Though that will make them closer to the middle of the van, I will only be loosing about 10cm width of stage, on an already VERY wide stage.
Where do people think I should put them?
