6.5" speaker fitment

[ian332isport]

Great job Ian! Looks really stock as well.

Now. What about the rest of the world's e30's that have the glove box on the other side? :D

Ahh, yes, I forgot about that :D

[Ray Smoodiver]

Howdy Ian, long time no see! Do you have pics of the pods / mounts you'll be doing? If they're on the zone, just point me in the direction of a link.

Cheers,

-Sam

[ian332isport]

Howdy Ian, long time no see! Do you have pics of the pods / mounts you'll be doing? If they're on the zone, just point me in the direction of a link.

Cheers,

-Sam

Hi Sam,

It's been a while man, how are you doing ?

I'm not really making pods as such. I'm getting some 3mm stainless steel rings laser cut to mount the speakers on. This is mainly to give a good solid mounting than anything else. The metal in the kick panel area is not exactly thick.

These rings will be bonded to the car with some Sikaflex (polyurethane adhesive/sealer), so it will be a good solid mounting. I would liked to have used more than 3mm steel, but the glovebox won't open if I space them out too far.

As far as trimming goes, I'll probably use the standard panels as a base to work from. I'll cut the centre out so that they sit flush on the car, but with the new speaker sticking out of the new hole. I'll then build them up with MDF and fibreglass so the surface is level with the speaker grills. I'll post pics when it's done, but still waiting for the rings to be cut.

I'm upgrading the amplifiers as well. I've got a pair of Genesis Dual Mono's to run the front components fully active, and a Genesis Miniblock to run the subs. Should sound sweet when it's all fitted :D

Ian.

[Ray Smoodiver]

Tis good, there is a pic of my new whip in the "rare E30's" thread in the zone members ride section. I'm in discussion with ant over some sort of "forced" mods.

Interesting way to get around the 6.5" dilemma, sounds like it could be the best compromise, without resorting to pods.

I'll keep an eye out on both sides of the pond for updates!

-Sam

[ian332isport]

Here's a bit of an update.

I got the rings laser cut and they are now securely bonded to the car with Sikaflex. This gives a really nice solid flat mounting surface for the midrange speaker. It also makes it easier to seal the area where the wires pass through.





This is a trial fit with the speaker in place and the standard kick panels trimmed to allow the new speaker to poke through. I was actually very pleased with how it looked, as I was originally going to re-make the covers. There's a small gap between the kick panel and the speaker trim ring, but if I recover the kick panels in vinyl then this gap will completely dissapear.



Ian.

[sweetride01]

You make it look so easy... and Rainbows too.

[DSchultz325e]

Sweet Jesus that stereo must be so freaking nice. Good choices!

[DrMcDave]

nice work, i am needing to do the same thing in my car. Laser cut rings might be out of my league though.

[ian332isport]

Thanks guys :D

I'm really pleased with the Rainbows (CS265 Profi Vanadium Kickbass). I was originally running Q series MB Quarts (5.25") and was pleasantly surprised how the Rainbows sound. Midbass is so much better with a real punch to it. It's going to be even better when they are running off a pair of Genesis Dual Mono amplifiers. This will give each individual component 150w RMS as opposed to 57w RMS they are getting now (Genesis 5 channel). I'm going to be using a Genesis Miniblock for the subs. This will give 470W RMS into a pair of Crystal CMP8's in sealed enclosures.

I'm sure there's no need to have the rings laser cut, but it was the easiest I could find locally. Not many places have a big enough press/punch to work with 3mm stainless.

Ian.

[Ray Smoodiver]

I like how the miniblock is under-rated from factory... 14.4v, 2ohm, 440w RMS... I like.

[ian332isport]

I like how the miniblock is under-rated from factory... 14.4v, 2ohm, 440w RMS... I like.

Hi Sam,

Genesis are famous for under rating their amps.

The Dual Mono is only rated at 100w RMS, but put's out around 150w in reality. Each amplifier comes with an individual test sheet showing exactly what that specific amp is producing.

Gordon Taylor (the man behind Gensis) is one of your fellow countrymen as well :bow:

Cheers,

Ian.

[sweetride01]

I've been working on a solution for this very problem (also fitting 6.5" speakers).


I did it like this:



I used an Audi TT release lever. You need to make a mounting plate that screws in the original holes, and then screw the Audi lever to it. You also need to space out the cable slightly, but the standard cable fit's the Audi lever just fine.

You just need to open the glovebox to pull the release handle.

Cheers,

Ian.

Ian, please could you list all the exact parts you used to make this lever, I kinda need to make one in a hurry.
Thanks!

[dude8383]

in response to the pic above:

so by the looks of it, the right hand drive cars have their hood release levers on the left side, just like our cars do?? wtf is up with that? i would expect that if bmw could move a whole steering assembly to the right side that they could create fuckin hood release on the right side so that the DRIVER can pull it from his/her side...

sorry to take it OT but my mind was boggled by the pic.

[808BMW]

Considering they designed the steering on that side anyway, maybe the lever is meant to be out of the way when not needed, and BMW was just too lazy to move over to the side

[sweetride01]

Considering they designed the steering on that side anyway, maybe the lever is meant to be out of the way when not needed, and BMW was just too lazy to move over to the side

Germany is left-hand drive... I'm confused ???