speaker location question

[cbudvet]

I have a question about locating speakers in my 240z. Originally (obviously) they only had the one speaker in the drivers side rear. The new interior plastic panels have speaker holes on the opposite site for a second speaker. Classic datsun has custom mounts for a speaker on that side as well. My question is.... Do you have to worry about fuel fumes on that side with a speaker on that side? Not knowing anything about speakers and the electrical circuits, I worry about a spark or something causing a fire or worse an explosion. I appreciate everyones help and patience with some of my questions. Thanks.

Carl

[5thhorsemann]

I built a speaker box that sits over the spare tire well and straps down in the hatch. That way you can use basically any set of speakers you want and it can be unpluged and removed easily to do housekeeping or maintenance opperations. They also make a tail light cover panel to accomodate speakers. If you are dead set on using the vent panels, I don't think you need to worry about explosions, the vapor to air ratio required to create an explosion is pretty high, and would drive you out of the cockpit. Exhaust fumes, if already a problem, will likely worsten.

[Gary in NJ]

I made these:

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo-13.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo2-10.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo4-6.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo5-3.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo2-11.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo-14.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo3-10.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo4-7.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz263/GaryCorde/photo5-4.jpg

[grantf]

Anywhere but the doors. Please do not cut holes in the doors. I hate that. Well it's you're car. I have mine behind the seats. the PO put them there, in the doors, in the pillars and cut holes in the center console. It cost me a little to replace the parts needed to fill up all of the holes, but I left the ones behind the seats. They sound preatty good but I am no audiofile.

[Travel'n Man]

This is what I have in my car along with the MSA rear speaker panel - works great!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240Z-Low-Profile-Kick-Panel-Speaker-Mounts-/250882429775?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3a69c2134f

[Jetaway]

I have a question about locating speakers in my 240z. Originally (obviously) they only had the one speaker in the drivers side rear. The new interior plastic panels have speaker holes on the opposite site for a second speaker. Classic datsun has custom mounts for a speaker on that side as well. My question is.... Do you have to worry about fuel fumes on that side with a speaker on that side? Not knowing anything about speakers and the electrical circuits, I worry about a spark or something causing a fire or worse an explosion. I appreciate everyones help and patience with some of my questions. Thanks.

Carl

The only thing you have to worry about using the back side speaker mounts is sound that sucks eggs. Since I'm not a fan of cutting up interiors for little reason, I don't get that thrilled about door panel mounts either unless you happen to have eardrums in your ankles. Yes, I plead guilty to being overly picky about sound, but the absolute best way to mount speakers in a 240Z is to build or buy some boxes. You'll lose some cargo space, but, heh if you wanted hauling space, you would have bought a pickup.

Buy a good pair of 6*9 coaxials (two-way) speakers. Mount on a piece of 1/2" particleboard not much larger than the speakers, leave maybe 3/4" around the top and bottom and an 1 and 1/4" at the ends. For the side plates, cut at an angle so that the top edge of the plate is 3/4", more or less, shorter than the bottom edge. For the top and bottom, aim for a depth of 9 to 11", with greater depth giving better bass. They will have different depths because the top plate will be shorter than the bottom because you'll want to have the back of the box square to the bottom plate. Cut the back plate to fit. Do the best you can to cut the edges to angles to fit the pieces, but don't sweat too much because you'll be using caulk to seal up all the edges anyway. Drill a hole in the back plate, run the wires through to the driver (speaker). Assemble all but the back plate. If you have some, fill the interior with fiberglass insulation. Don't pack it in, just fill it at its natural fluffiness, making sure that all the interior walls are shielded from the cone by insulation. Did you remember to connect the wire to the speakers? Yes? Put the back plate on.

This gives a very compact, not bad sounding set-up. And by "not bad" I mean a set-up that you can spend 1/3rd of the money to get sound as good, likely better, compared with the rear side mountings. If you want more bass, make the enclosure bigger, though you'll have to double the interior size to produce a readily noticeable increase in bass energy. Two "doublings" and its getting to be pretty big, so I think you'd be happy with the original as described. The fiberglass stuffing dupes the enclosure into thinking it's 30%, more or less, larger than it really is. No, I don't know why, but it works. It should be pretty stable without modification, but if you throw the car around, our good friend velcro will keep the speakers in place. As a bonus, if you leave enough slack in the speaker wires, your Z can become an outdoor party machine by moving the speakers outside of the car or (horrors!) putting them on the hood or roof. For even more flexibility, instead of hard-wiring the speakers, use a set of speaker terminals instead.

Chris

[Travel'n Man]

.................or this..........http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/50-5351

[Jetaway]

.................or this..........http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/50-5351

A viable money for labor swap solution. But allow me to pitch the boxes, particularly their portability, one more time.

1) Doesn't work as a party sound central.

2) Unless one packs very lightly, the sound will be swallowed up by luggage on a road trip.

Personally, I ceased caring about the first more than a few years ago. The second, though, is why I considered, but ultimately rejected a similar home-built system. In my case, I traded the luggage capacity in front of the rear struts (though can still get to the under floor storage compartments) for sound quality, but many people think I'm kinda nuts about audio anyway.

Ultimately, sound quality in a car comes down to cost, compromises, and trade offs with each person having their own equation.

"Sound quality" in the previous sentence might be rendered better as "audio satisfaction." My system sucks as a thumper, but I don't thump, so I don't care.

Chris

[cbudvet]

Thanks a lot for everyones replies. I think I will probably go for the box set up. Not sure whether to build my own or use the MSA speaker box. Rock on.

Carl

[tlorber]

I currently have my speakers sitting in front of the rear wheel wells. The speaker magnets hold them in place. I plan on building some enclosures that I will wrap in vinyl and aim in at about 45 degrees. They will stick to the fender well with neodymium magnets. These are much closer to the driver and will be easily removable. This location is much more audible than when I had the speakers mounted at the back end of the car.

Edited September 4, 2011 by tlorber

[Jetaway]

I currently have my speakers sitting in front of the rear wheel wells. The speaker magnets hold them in place. I plan on building some enclosures that I will wrap in vinyl and aim in at about 45 degrees. They will stick to the fender well with neodymium magnets. These are much closer to the driver and will be easily removable. This location is much more audible than when I had the speakers mounted at the back end of the car.

NOOOOOOHHHHHH!!

Don't do that!

Magnets strong enough to keep your speakers in place will eventually demagnetize the speaker magnets. And although I suspect the magnets would need to be truly epic, it is possible that the frequency response could be dampened.

Take a look at mine:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?32386-Audio-Systems&p=350915&highlight=stereo#post350915

Probably a bit more than you are planning on. I took the photo before I was completely finished and what is missing is a couple pieces of 2*4s that wedge the speaker platform against the lip at the front of the cargo space. If you look closely at picture #4 you can see that I ran aircraft grade wire from the speaker boxes to the shoulder belt anchoring point. In fact, I made another modification after a couple of months using small steel "L" brackets as speaker legs, positioned so that when the back of the speaker was against the shock towers the front legs were tight against the lip.

A saner alternative to what I did would be to make a wedge shaped enclosure that fits snuggly between the cargo area lip and shock towers, or at least large enough (if you want a different angle for mounting the speakers) that you can wedge a piece of wood between your enclosures and the front lip. Use Mr. Velcro for a little more holding power. Finally, (salt over shoulder), you may want to tie the enclosures to the shoulder belt anchoring point to keep it from flying around in case of an accident.

Chris