danglerb

Body shop has the door panel off my 83 for some other work. I pulled off the 5x7 (almost) panel with the factory Blaupunkt speaker, no surround left on it at all, surprised it made any sound at all, not surprised it had no bass.

The depth measures 1 5/8 inch, and about the closest fit I have found is 1.75 from a 4x6 Alpine panel 2 way, or just put in a cheesy 3.5 to 4 inch driver.

Any recommendations for the perforated panel?

Mine are really in nice shape, so I am not inclined to update to a newer grille style panel.

bronto

Blaupunkt has a low profile line that I'm hoping will fit when I get around to it. Is it really 4x6 behind the perfs? I thought it would be a round 4"

jpitman2

Just done this myself. The mount panel for the speaker is 5x7 bolt pattern, but its a small round speaker glued to a plastic plate. I searched high and low, and the shallowest I could find was a nearly 2" deep x 4" dia Sony 2 way, with almost nothing protruding forward of the mount face. I made a 1/8" ply plate the same as the original plastic, cut it out for the speaker to mount on the back. After a couple of trials with blue tack on the door hollow to check clearance, I found it would not clear the door inner. I then mounted the speaker on the front of the ply (ie closest the door panel, not the back side of the ply), and made almost no impression on the blue tack. 'Almost' leaving me unsure, I gave the door metal a few smacks with a ball pein hammer to be sure. So far so good - no signs of unwanted resonance due to contact etc. There sure is no space in there to fit anything larger.
jp 83 Euro S AT 50k

danglerb

Here are some picts of the Blaupunkt speaker and the plate its mounted to. The plate slips over four posts on the perforated area of the door panel and held on with nuts. Front of plate has an oval of foam, and a circle of fabric covering a hole with the driver behind that. What I am not sure about is how deep the "dent" in the inside of the door metal is that the back of the speaker fits into.

bronto

Is the 1 5/8 the depth from the backside of the plate, or the front side of the plate? IOW, does the plate mount on the outside of the door frame or inside the door frame?

Here are the 5.25 slimline Blaupunkts I found:
http://www.shipsound.com/product_inf...ucts_id=100394

danglerb

I saw some older Alpine 4x6 plates that were barely 1/8" deeper, but this one looks spot on, gonna chase on down in person tomorrow. Pioneer TSP462
Specifications: Impedance: 4 ohms. Frequency response: 45-32,000 Hz. Power handling: 50 watts RMS/150 watts max. Sensitivity: 90dB. Mounting depth: 1-5/8".

Its total magnet on the table to front of the plate, 1 5/8" What isn't clear is how much space is behind it.

bronto

Check out this one:

http://www.blaupunkt.com/us/7606200228_main.asp

I have no idea what they sound like; none of the dealers in my area carry them. The whole TH line seems to be very low profile:
http://www.blaupunkt.com/us/loudspeakers_122.asp

bronto

Wow, that does look ideal. Even the mounting plate looks like it's got holes in the right place. The fact that the larger code is offset from center suggests that if depth is a problem you have at least two mounting choices; if it's too shallow with the large cone forward flip it over so that the large cone is rearward. Let me know if they pass muster.

Do you know anything about the rear speakers?

I'm assuming that my '79 is like yours, but that may not be the case(?)

danglerb

Not sure on the 79 vs 83, but knowing Porsche the only difference between a 79 door and a 95 might be in the interior panel, not the metal. I think somebody told me newer models than 83 have more depth in the door, but it could just be the grille in the door panel allows a greater depth with the same door metal.

Something to watch out for on many newer coax speakers is that the tweeter is about 1/4 inch in front of the rest, which is too far for us.

The face of the speaker plate mounts flush against the inside of the door panel with a foam cushion between them near the edge of the plate. The door panel is then mounted on the door and everybody hopes it fits and doesn't touch. Taking the speaker plate off the door panel, then putting the panel back on the door and using a depth measure thing through the perforations would be some good data.

The 4x6 plate from Alpine I looked at did not match the post pattern of the door panel. The distance in the 6" direction was ok, but the 4" direction was too short, so one side at least will need a bracket of some kind to hold it down.

Optimator

I recently replaced the REAR speakers in my ‘78. The stock speakers are neither 4x6 nor 5x7, but somewhere in between the two sizes. There is also a “metric” 4x6m size – maybe that’s what they are. A 4x6 plate speaker will not work well with the stock mounting bolt locations, as the bolt pattern hits outside of the plate area, as described by danglerb. The available back mounting depth is almost exactly 2” at the center of the speaker. I purchased a pair of slim-mount coaxial 4x6 speakers (look on ebay, they are sold under the Lanzar and Pyle brand names). I managed to back-mount them in the stock location using 3/8” plywood adapter/spacers and the stock mounting bolts. With the adapter/spacer, there is virtually zero clearance between the tweeter and the back of the quarter panel, and virtually zero clearance between the speaker frame and the car body. You could gain perhaps 1/8” more clearance by removing the sound deadening material adjacent to the speaker magnet. You have to shape the plywood adapter so that it clears the quarter panel clips enough to allow re-installation of the quarter panel. I had to improvise special hat-shaped washers because the top two mounting bolts do not extend through the plywood adapter (they are short because clearance is very minimal). Last, but not least, you need to paint the plywood adapters black or you will be able to clearly see them through the rear quarter window. I would have taken photos, but I misplaced my camera. Removing the stock speakers is tricky because the flush-head mounting bolts will probably start rotating as you loosen the nuts. If so, then you will need to use long-nose pliers to carefully grab the bolt head through the perforations in the vinyl (don’t mess up the vinyl!). Since you can’t see the bolt heads, you have to feel for them while moving the bolt from the back.

Or you could forget all that and just cut holes in the quarter panels for whatever speakers you want

anonymousagain

Dang, seems quite clear why the speaker mounting changed from hidden-behind-perferated-panel to external on later years !! Appreciate the details for IF wanting to remain stock though.

bronto

Geez, that sounds nasty. So were the orginal speakers round, and mounted to a plate similar to the photos of the front speaker danglerb posted? I'm thinking that the most elegant solution would be to find some speakers that would mount to the existing plate. The holes may need to be enlarged by a machinist, but the plate itself may be very useful.

Does anyone have photos of the original rear speakers from an OB, including the plate?

Jim bailey - 928 International

the late inner door panel aluminum has two "dents" for the two speaker install early doors lack the second dent and to mount deep speakers you need to cut away the aluminum inner door panel and fabricate a new larger recess not so deep that it hits the window glass....

bronto

Thanks Jim. I've had my driver panel off once, and saw that there had been some cutting done. Now I know for sure why. What's the break between "early" and "late"? No doubt my '79 is early, but which "late" people's experiences aren't relevent to me?

RicerSchnitzzle

Best Buy sells 1" spacers for 6.5" speakers that will allow you to mount any 6.5" above the door skin. Why sacrifice sound quality for the stock look of the disco era's perforated skins? I did the same in the rear and back deck. System sounds huge and clear now with top of the line Premier speakers. Sorry but the stock sizing plus the muffling of the skin add up to lack luster audio performance. Plus if you add a satalite tweeter in line and mount it next to the 6.5 you almost achieve the later year's look.