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Subject:Re: Cheap front door speakers sound Great!
From:Richard Koerner
Date:Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:23:35 -0700

Edward....my old Blaupunkts just "fell" out...literally...there was nothing holding them in, or whatever was had long since evaporated.� But that doesn't help your situation.� I read in some old archives that someone used a Dremel or something, and another guy used brute force and a handy knife.� Of course, you don't need to worry about damaging the old ones, so I would probably go the Dremel if you've got one and the "brute force" method if you don't.

Hope you like them!� I do!� Pretty cool for 15 Bucks!

Rich
San Diego

--- On Wed, 10/13/10, Edward Maglott <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

From: Edward Maglott <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Cheap front door speakers sound Great!
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 4:34 PM

Well I "ran" right out and bought some of these and they are already
here.� How did you get the old speaker out of the enclosure?� Mine is
an 86 Wolfsburg and it looks like it has the speaker glued into the
enclosure.� The enclosure is held to the door with the big threaded
ring.� Seems like I've read in the past about people braking the old
speaker to get it out?� good/easy� way to do this without damaging
the enclosure?

Thanks,
Edward

At 07:38 PM 10/9/2010, Richard Koerner wrote:
>After the last few roadtrips, noticed that the front factory door
>speakers (25 year old Blaupunkt) were sounding weak and fuzzy.� I
>have a second pair of 5 1/4" speakers mounted down by the footwell,
>but the fuzzy speakers were annoying.� Did hardly any research to
>find 3 1/2" speakers for to replace the factory ones (I'm not a
>serious audiophile...just want it to sound "pretty good").� Found
>these Legacy 3 1/2" 120 Watt Co-axial speakers on Amazon; bought
>from CarAudioDeals, $11.23 + $3.73 shipping.
>
>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002M792S/ref=oss_product
>
>Removed old Blaupunkts...sure enough, the paper cones were
>split.� Installed the new Legacy's...NOW we're talking!!!� I think
>they sound really good, amazing actually.� Plenty of base, good
>highs, look like solid speakers....especially for under $15 for the pair.
>
>Some installation caveats:
>
>1.� The speakers come with side mounting tabs.....no problem, just
>fold these back.
>2.� The tweeter extends beyond the rim of the main speaker by about
>1/4".� The original speaker grills are slightly convex...but not
>enough...the tweeter will rest on the interior of the grill.� So I
>made a "spacer washer" out of an old neoprene wetsuit, about 3.5" OD
>and 3.2" ID, and used 2 layers of 1/8" thick wetsuit, glued
>together.� I epoxied this spacer washer to the mounting face of the
>new speakers, and then applied more epoxy to the face of the spacer
>washer and placed inside the speaker grill enclosure and let it cure
>to mount the speaker in the grill enclosure.� I think you can buy
>spacer washers if you want; or, you could probably build up
>thicknesses of cardboard or something to achieve the same
>effect.� Anyway, it all worked just fine, solid, no buzzing.� And it
>fits the factory plastic shell on the door panel.� Of course no
>problem with the window cranks either since using the factory grill.
>
>Very impressed by the sound...can really turn it UP if I want
>to...and I do a lot of driving with windows rolled down.� By the
>way, my radio is from a Honda Civic that I got on ebay for about
>$10...nothing fancy but a good unit, LCD display matches the
>instrument cluster clock, looks "factory" except that it says Honda
>on the cassette tape door (need some black paint and an artist's
>brush to take care of that I guess).
>
>Extremely pleased with the final result....should last for years.
>
>Rich
>85 Vanagon GL
>San Diego