Stereo upgrade for the '91 begins!

[85crownHPP]

I've finally made some progress, I forgot to consider how daylight savings puts a damper on my weekday fun time...!

My grand plan is to upgrade interior speakers and wire/arrange things so I can easily swap the amps and subs from one car to the other, and easily switch back to non-amplified in either one. This is largely inspired by my cheapness - it's one thing that's more powerful than my laziness. This laziness led me to do something... terrible.
Instead of running new wire through the door wire run, I opted to incorporate the factory wire It's plenty adequate size, and there was no need for additional connectors, aside from the connector pigtails for the speaker itself. I'd rather crimp than use the plug-in adapters!
My original plan was to snip the factory speaker wires behind the kick panel and feed them through it to the crossover attached to the other side. My disgust grew as I mocked up the crossover and prepared to drill, then I got some better ideas....
I found enough space to mount the crossover above the under-dash trim panel, and de-pinned the speaker wires from both halves of the convenient connector right there Just as I was thinking that it was working out a little TOO well, I remembered that the dash trim for the drivers side was missing. Lucky me, work was slow and I had just enough time left of my half-day for a solid hour of junkyard time. I still need to figure out where to attach the drivers side crossover, it's a bit tighter on that side.

The trim in the the last pic is only loosely in place for the pic, not done back there yet

[85crownHPP]

These are an eBay score from waaaay back when that had been hibernating patiently. I'm pretty sure they were hot shit back in their day, but were already outdated when I got them.

The zip tie in the pic is a pull-saver of sorts, always a good idea. I like using nylon crimp connectors, they don't split open like plastic ones do. I know lots of people don't like crimping, but I feel like a poor crimp or over-load is to blame for most crimp related misfortune. Good quality connectors and a good crimp has served me well. Most crimpers suck balls, I use the kind you can crimp steel brake line with

[sly]

[jaywish]

Yup good connectors and a good tool are keys to good crimps. It is probably overkill but I like to squeeze in a bit of silicone grease into both sides of the connector before I insert the wire. Unless I am using the heat shrink kind.

[gadget73]

Heavy duty crimp tools and decent connectors are the only way to fly. Go cheap on either and it just falls apart. For years i wouldn't even use those things until I finally figured how to make them work. There are still a lot of soldered connections in my cars.

[pantera77]

Solder and heat shrink are the only way to fly

[Mainemantom]

I like those speakers. Make the covers color keyed to the interior ?

[sly]

Solder and heat shrink are the only way to fly

This is how I roll too. I use the cheap stuff, but the solder the hell out of it. My stuff doesn't come apart. I does however come through the shrink rap on the rare occasion, but a few wraps of tape fix that.

[DerekTheGreat]

I used to solder everything but once I picked up crimping plus adhesive lined shrink tube, I said F dat noise. Takes about 1/3 of the time and you don't have to worry about solder burns or any of that crap. Never again, except of course with eyelet connectors and stuff where I'm joining multiple leads into one eyelet. Oh, if the speakers were hot shit and sounded great back in the day, they'll still kick just as much ass so long as the cross over networks with their electrical bits haven't shit the bed. Newer isn't better nor will it sound better. I like to show people how great the Ford JBL shit is from the box town car era. I laughed so hard at a salesman who tried to get me to buy some $1,200 Focal speakers. F dat, who the F is Focal anyway? Stuff sounded tinny & flat compared to my JBL's. Anyway, speakers be speakers, unless you go back to the 50's. By the 70's & 80's I'm confident they reached their peak, just like with turn tables. Sure sure you can spend 30K plus on B&W's but old stuff will fit the bill nicely too, why the shit is collectible.

[tjc78]

Good connectors and a Thomas and Betts crimper has never let me down.

You could always pick up the wiring for the front speakers directly behind the head unit and stash a crossover back there if needed.

B&W speakers are awesome. I have them in my primary home theater system. They weren't even close to 30k.

[DerekTheGreat]

Their upper end stuff can exceed 30k, I believe JBL Everests are over 35k. Low teir/entry level stuff is much more obtainable. All B&W stuff used to be built in England but they've moved their entry level stuff to China along with JBL who made their garbage in California then Mexico before caving to the fatter margins cheap labor and lax industry standards China has to offer.

[tjc78]

My B&Ws are over 10 years old and I'm 90% sure they were made in England. Yes, the top of the line Nautilus series can exceed new car prices.

[sly]

I like my musics and stuffs... but my wallet tells me to piss off when I think about stuff more expensive than Pioneer and Kenwood.

[DerekTheGreat]

I like my musics and stuffs... but my wallet tells me to piss off when I think about stuff more expensive than Pioneer and Kenwood.

LoL, hence my poverty JBL Northridge set-up. An upgrade to me would be their Studio series with L890's and the rest of the series. A pipe dream would be an entire JBL LS set up.

[87Topaz]

Becomes an issue of "buying for name value" or "hearing the difference". Most "quality" consumer parts will serve well unless you are blessed /cursed with relative or perfect pitch! Can most people REALLY hear the difference or just think they do??