Mounting speakers into door card?

[Emma&Al]

I am planning on putting the new plywood door cards on tomorrow but need to cut holes for the speakers. I've never done this before and am a bit nervous that I might get it all wrong.
So, do I need to mount the speakers onto some sort of hardwood and then drill them onto the plywood cards first? They wont be going into the original speaker holes as they are much larger - instead they will be mounted at the bottom of the two front doors, I think the previous owner may have cut into the metal as there are 2 large holes at the bottom, conveniently.

Thanks all , really appreciate the help.
Emma

[Titus A Duxass]

I put mine on an MDF base board (which I sealed with varnish).
In your car I would put them on a base board made of plywood which you can varnish along with your door cards.

[Bubble Meister]

I would take a look at YouTube. There's hours and hours of information. Also Talkaudio forum is a UK based in car entertainment forum that is us helpful for beginners. Understanding how a speaker interacts with the structure and environment around it will allow you to decide the construction .
For quality of sound, the speaker needs to be held firm to the door so that the speaker had some thing to react against. This will, however cause the door to vibrate hence it will need mass loading (MLV).

IF you're not really after high quality, mount the speaker to a wooden ring (strength) and attach to the plywood. If you can get the screws through to the door structure try and use some foam between the ply and metal. Self adhesive door Draft excluder will do. Good luck and enjoy your tuuuuuunes.

[Bubble Meister]

Forgot to mention. Instead of ply or MDF you could use Masonite. It's like the stuff they used behind diy cupboards in the 70 and 80s
.

[Emma&Al]

Thanks everyone - thats really useful, much appreciated.

[Emma&Al]

I've just had a thought - the person before had mounted fairly large speakers into the side panels at the rear of the van, as well as 2 in the driver and passenger door panels. They mounted them next to the rear seat, either side.
Im not considering mounting them into the kick panel on the rock n roll bed - are there any obvious disadvantages to doing this? If I did this (with help, because im a beginner to everything!) I would have to cut into the kick panel which is very thick mdf as its an original Westfalia bed that I fitted several years ago. Im wondering if that would effect the sound etc.
Hmmm...thoughts.

[CovKid]

Doors are the most inhospitable place for speakers, both in terms of damp and acoustics. I mounted my speaker pods right under the dash about 8 years ago and they sound great, as well as being invisible.

[Emma&Al]

Thanks covkid - sounds like a great idea but not sure my ability to do that stretches that far !
So mounting the rear ones in the kick panel might be more effective and practical than in the rear doorcards?

[MidLifeCrisis]

Doors are the most inhospitable place for speakers, both in terms of damp and acoustics. I mounted my speaker pods right under the dash about 8 years ago and they sound great, as well as being invisible.

Got any pics ??

[CovKid]

Well no, you can't see them now.

Basically you mount speaker pods on front bulkhead deep under the dash. Lot easier with dash out ofcourse in terms of drilling. And no, they're not muffled.

[New Kentish Campers]

Thanks covkid - sounds like a great idea but not sure my ability to do that stretches that far !
So mounting the rear ones in the kick panel might be more effective and practical than in the rear doorcards?

Sure you can! Just remember that when you fit your new speakers, you use the correct impedance, particularly if going down the 4 speaker route and your radio handbook will advise you on that, and away you go.

The under-dash route is the best instead of cutting good door cards up, and I'd certainly think of fitting both front and rear speakers because most car stereos are plumbed for 4 speakers anyway. Fitting a couple of speakers beneath the bed to the kick plate would give a great sound, particularly due to the thickness of the mounting that you'd be using. Thin wood isn't going to give a good support to the speaker, speakers need to have a decent baffle so that they can resonate and give a good sound.

Oh, and don't use cheap thin bell wire, use good quality speaker cable for the job and crimp the cables onto spade connectors so they are a nice snug fit onto the speakers.
And if you do go the 4 speaker route, you can, assuming your stereo is fairly modern, you can adjust it so that you get a good sound balance between front and rears.

[CovKid]

What I've never fathomed out is why speaker pods shoved under a T25 dash work. I just happened to have my dash out for some other reason (blower I expect) and screwed the pods in more as an experiment. Plenty of room under there - quite surprising.

It sounded great (still does) but technically it shouldn't. You've got this great tin dash that will presumably smother them and wreck the stereo image but for some reason it doesn't. I'm guessing the high end frequencies leak around gaps and via vents and this gets reflected off the windscreen. Anything below 50hz is in mono anyway. It sounds a weird solution but it does work and everything is kept nice and dry.

The elephant in the room is the dash-out part but as others will no doubt agree, its not all that big a job to pull one. Next time dash is out in mine I'll add some dampening/insulation under the dash to improve it further but not something I'd go for on a whim. Summer job that is.

[boatbuilder]

Any chance of sticking a camera up under the dash for a few pics? My dash is out at the moment...

[keytouch]

It sounds a weird solution but it does work and everything is kept nice and dry.

Unless the bottom edge of your windscreen leaks.
I know it's raining cos my alarm goes off.

[300CE]

If you mount then in the front doors your best bet is a set of component speakers with mountable tweeters for the top of the dash otherwise you will lose the sound. I picked up a brand new set of Pioneers on eBay for £30 posted and they sound great:



You can just see the tweeter in the corner:



Before fitting them, I put Dynamat around the hole in the door which stops any rattles.