[NolaVeloce]

Hi all,

I'm replacing all of the speakers in my '89 spider. I bought 2 pairs of Polk 5.25" speakers for front and back. According to Crutchfield, these speakers fit...but I'm having issues with the front doors. The replacement speakers are about an inch deeper than the originals and dont quite fit.

There is a roundish opening in the door panel behind where the speaker magnet goes...and had this strange little plastic cover over it. I took this off and found a small metal tab...which looks like it might be designed to cut out for speakers?

I noticed the original speakers do not recess into the door panel...everything sits "on top". What have folks done with their cars? I don't want to cut on the car any more than I have to...would like to preserve the original shape of the car as much as possible.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[89veloce]

I'm at the same stage but opted for the Retrosound 5 1/4" speakers from Crutchfield. These require just a little modification of the mount and may require a bit of nibbling of the round cutout in the door frame in order to get the frame of the speaker to mount without touching. Having said that, I think you can mount the deeper speakers but definately need to modify the door frame cutout. Before doing that however, be sure to check for clearance from the window mechanism when up down and in transition.

 

[QuadraManiac]

Practical not Purist

Hi all,

I'm replacing all of the speakers in my '89 spider. I bought 2 pairs of Polk 5.25" speakers for front and back. According to Crutchfield, these speakers fit...but I'm having issues with the front doors. The replacement speakers are about an inch deeper than the originals and dont quite fit.

There is a roundish opening in the door panel behind where the speaker magnet goes...and had this strange little plastic cover over it. I took this off and found a small metal tab...which looks like it might be designed to cut out for speakers?

I noticed the original speakers do not recess into the door panel...everything sits "on top". What have folks done with their cars? I don't want to cut on the car any more than I have to...would like to preserve the original shape of the car as much as possible.

Thanks,
Greg

On my 89 Quad I found the door speaker woofer surrounds had crumbled into dust...so my low-cost Yankee engineering solution was to fit the two stock BMW E30 M3 front woofers that were removed when I went to some Boston Acoustic Pro components in that car. I disassembled the separate tweeter from the Alfa front speaker and re-soldered the Alfa tweeter to the BMW woofer. Upon installation, I found two problems: the BMW woofer was deeper and therefore the "spacers" (that support the speaker on the door panel) and mounting bolts were too short now. I saw a little plastic tab screwed into the speaker hole so I removed that ,but the magnet still wouldn't fit. So I did a bad hacksaw job and cut out the tab. A trip to the hardware store for longer screws and some longer brass tubes to use as new spacers and I got things to fit. The BMW woofer is probably right against the door grille now, but the door grille foam has also gone to dust. I also bought some Infinity Reference 5032cf speaker for the rear. These have a "steerable" tweeter as well as a +3db switch to pump up the highs. I am not inspected but they sound OK on my driveway at 20mph Hope these suggestion help you along...
PS My windows work as slowly as they did before this operation

 

[relaxxx]

Hi all. I'm a newbie here and I know this is an old thread. Just purchased an 89 Spider Veloce with 27,000 km on it. Body and interior are MINT. So stoked. BUT, the speakers are cooked...as some have noted the foam has disintegrated. I used to work in the car audio biz and know a thing or two (25 years ago) but seems like the magnets on the speakers I have bought are too big for the circular sheet metal cutout. Have any of you had any luck recently finding 5.25" speakers that will actually fit without modification?