Replacing the stereo

I just finished mine a couple of weeks back and it took some work but I wound up taking the entire dash out to cut the hole for the head unit. I carefuly used some tin snips and it came out clean. Used a draw file to smooth and finish fit the edges after cutting them too.

I put in a pioneer that was i-pod ready and 5-1/4 speakers in the kick panels. the speakers wound up being a little too deep but only onthe passenger side, ooops. I found that it worked out pretty well to make a 3/8" spacer block to fit between the speakers and the sheetmetal. Once the carpet was in place you can't tell but fitting the air conditioner back in was, well... fun to say the least. It all went together though.

I also installed 6-1/2 speakers in the rear tray. I wound up making a new tray bottom, mine was moldy and falling apart, from 3/8" plywood and putting the two speakers flush mounted on the outer edges. I had to cheat a bit though in order to make it work I moved the ignition computer under the passenger seat and moved the relays over to the left a bit. It all worked wonderfully without having to cut any wires. I used the original carpet, took all of it out of the car and died it black, and it looks pretty good for the original carpet in a 116,000 Spider that was kept in the rain with no top for a couple of years. (before I got it of course.) It all looks good, I'll try to get some pictures if anyone is interested.

While The dash was out I refinished the dash, center console, gauge pods, replaced all the bulbs.... Now I'm working on the doors. The sound still needs work though. In the back I put in some used woofers that I had and I think it really needs a full range co-axial to get adequate sound quality at highway speeds with the top down.

Just thought I'd share, I've had the car for about three months now and it is fun to drive.

David

Caroni said:

I carefuly used some tin snips and it came out clean. Used a draw file to smooth and finish fit the edges after cutting them too.

Click to expand...

Good for you, sounds like you did things properly, unlike my PB (Previous Butcher)

After much swearing and a few faux paus I was able to install a DIN mount radio in the dash of my '82. I fiddled with speakers and finally settled on a $20.00 speaker box that I got from WalMart. I didn't have to butcher the rear shelf and if I need to use the space I just remove the speaker box.

I must admit that I suffer from a hearing loss (too many engines without mufflers) so I have a bit of a tin ear. Fore me a loud speaker without distortion is more important to me than the absolute quality of the sound.

After all of the fiddling I still couldn't hear the radio at freeway speeds so I came up with a solution; I installed an intercom in place of the ashtray. The headsets that I use with the intercom brings the sound directly to the ear without all of the ambient noise. Works great. Now I can enjoy my tunes & a conversation with my sweetie while cruising topless. BTW the driver using a single ear headset is legal.