For Ben Ruset:
Ben,
If you put your speakers in that panel, I suggest the method I used. It
allowed for good sound reproduction without advertising to a would-be
thief that you have speakers in the rear panel.
1. Remove the panel from the car.
2. Securely cover the front (interior side) of the panel with a stiff
wire mesh (use material with 1/4" to 3/8" holes such as is used on rabbit
hutches). It is cheaply available by the foot at most hardware stores.
3. Place the speakers behind the panel (toward boot). Using a beveled
screw (so that the top of the screw will be flush with the top of the
mesh) securely bolt the speakers in place. You may alternately use a
round headed screw/bolt so long as you insure that the heads of the bolts
ares flush with the surrounding surface. Assembly order looks like this:
Bolt Head \/
Mesh -------
Panel _____
Speaker =
Nut ~
4. Once the speakers are installed, trial fit the panel. See if the
weight of the speakers cause any bowing of the panel and fabricate
supports out of light wood or metal as necessary.
5. Cover the entire interior side of the panel, including the speaker
opening with some inexpensive automotive carpeting in the same shade as
your interior. It can be glued in place with contact cement; make sure
you leave enough excess on the sides to allow you to wrap the carpet to
form a finished edge. I found a cheap roll of the carpet at the local
Western Auto (4' x 6') for $10.00. The inexpensive carpet is essentially
acoustically transparent. Make sure you mark your mounting holes. Since
you have a piece of wire mesh protecting the speakers, there is no need
to mount the grilles, thus providing a bit of concealment....
6. Mount your finished piece. Before you do this, make sure you have
your speaker wires already ran through and accessible to your speaker
connections.
7. Once the assemble is in place, you can consider cutting a piece of
1/4" plywood to cover the assembly from the rear. You could fabricate
this cover so that it acts as a bass reflex box by separating the
channels with a divider, and sealing them off from the exterior with the
judicious use of foam padding.
I suppose this could be done with the door speakers if you had some
really shallow ones that:
a) could be essentially flush mounted to the door panel; and
b) did not interfere with the door internals.
I would just try to find a way to mount the door speakers in the foot
wells as much out of sight as is possible....
Further, I would caution you to find out how much mounting depth you have
behind your console, and make sure that your shifter will not interfere
with your proposed unit (I don't think that's a problem on MGB's, but on
a Midget, well...). You should also consider using a 90 degree antenna
adaptor to place the male end of the antenna cable in the female antenna
input on the receiver, if the antenna input is built into the case --
otherwise you might have an interference problem with the depth of the
case and the firewall.
Finally, I would recommend running a new 10-12 guage power line from the
power side of the fuse block (power at ignition only) and fuse the unit
separately, perhaps in the glove box or other accessible location.
Luck,
Rich
|