stereo placement ideas anyone?

[nobody]

I have been thinking about a stereo for my GT. The current situation is this; uncut dash with a good am radio, no speaker holes anywhere or speakers, all new vinyl and carpet. I want to keep this clean stock look. My question is if anybody has done a different mounting place besides the dash and if so where and how was it? One other note, my heater control valve is inside like a 69. So I don't think that the passenger side is a good idea. I've also seen the posts about changing the radio into a head unit but the cost and usability seem to rule that out.

I'm fishin for alternatives to cutting anything, or as little as possible. Oh yea, and a walkman is illegal to drive with.

[madhatterpdc]

An idea that immediatly comes to mind is to rely on a remote control and hide the aftermarket head unit and leave the factory unit intact (good stock look, and the sky is the limit for sound potential).

Now you have to find a spot to hide the head. Maybe take the fabric flap that covers the spare tire compartment, replace with plywood and mount the head unit there (also a good spot to mount a couple speakers or a subwoofer). This is certainly not an original idea of mine, I have seen pictures of several variations on this idea, and it may wind up being my personal choice.... someday.

On a side note, I am contemplating mounting the head as previously mentioned, mounting a subwoofer to the plywood (with Dynamat of course), and getting Miata seats with speakers built in to the headrests.

[jordan]

I put 2 pioneer 6x9's facing up into the back window on that shelf thing, they arent that noticeable and they look nice, they are Black with plain plack grills. and if you did that and later on you decide to get it even closer to stock that whole shelf is pop rivited in so you can easily but a new one in. (im also thinking of taking the badges off of the grills that say "pioneer" because I dont need anyone breaking my back window to take them) I want the sound not the name.

[nobody]

I thought about the miata seats bud mine are good with new covers. The package tray is also new and uncut, I really don't want to go there. The remote sounds interesting, but is it infrared? Meaning that if there is no line of sight it doesn't work. I just finished a new cover for under the spare tire flap. I will probably put speakers in it. That will hurt me the least. I have another gauge panel with a break that is easily fixed. It hasn't been cut for a stereo maybe I will cut it. Just thinking about it hurts.

[greensmurf20]

i made a small box out of half in OSB board that the CD player just slid into, and screwed it to the plywood shelf in the back of my GT. i ran the wires down through the hole where the tire hold down hooks to with a protector on them. from there i went under the carpets into the fuseblock. i made another small panel from OSB and put 2 6X9's and 2 4's in that, covered it with carpet and left the origional thin plywood piece covered with vynel intact and uncut. you can use a remote to operate the CD player, or if you're like me you can reach back under the flap without looking and memorize all the buttons.

[Jim Branham]

Rather than put a nice stereo in the dash and worry about the GT being broken into and the dash destroyed and the radio stolen, I am going to leave the stock AM radio in place and use a boom box in the car for music. They come with remotes that make it easy to use and usually have jacks for external speakers as well that could be mounted inside the car if I wanted. Chopping off hands sounds harsh for petty theft untill someone busts up your stuff to steal your radio. OUCH!

[jordan]

im worried about that too, most pioneer head units with detachable faces dont say pioneer on the main part of it. but my kenwood does Id rather take the head unit out and willingly hand it to a theif then have them steal it.

[oldopelguy]

Lots of the "sport compact" guys have mighty flashy stereo installs. One often used trick is to fabricate and install a wiring harness between the detachable face plate for the stereo and the main body itself. The face plate is then mounted on the windshield visor or some similar place and the body can be hidden away.

I'm not sure what a stereo shop would charge to fabricate that jumper, but if you were decent with a soldering iron it wouldn't be too difficult. Mount the face plate hidden away on the top side of the drivers side visor, and the body tuched away behind the vinyl spare tire flap. You would have full control and display functions, and it would all be hidden away from prying eyes.

Food for thought, anyway.

[pvcar]

well these stereos now a days if u ever pop one open ther alot more complicated indside due to all the new technology so im pretty sure it would be hard to find someone willing to take a risk on a 200 to 400 dollar radio, atleast i wouldnt i mean if some thief is gonna steal ur set up hes gonna no what yah got befor he does.

[runagt2]

Why not jump into the 21st century and forgot old fashioned CDs? Buy a iPod or similar MP3 hard drive player, load your entire music collection into the thing, then get a miniplug-to-RCA adapter to wire it straight to an amp hidden in the back. They even sell a cradle to keep your iPod in place while you drive.
Sure, MP3 doesn't sound as good as a CD, but are you really going to notice the sonic loss in a noisy GT?

[cees]

This might help?

[cees]

speaker placement

[nobody]

I looked at the jumper thing on this deck and found that I have both electrical connections and physical buttons, so that idea went away. I decided to remove the center support for the spare tire tray and do this. I got a wild hair and decided to cut the panel and picked up a pair of el cheapo speakers to try it. I made the panel and if I hate it I can just make another one.

[jordan]

thats similar to what im going to do but im putting pioneer 6x9's there and leave the head unit in the dash. I also have 2 pioneer 6x9's in the back tray under the rear window. I just wanted nice sound and nt have it too noticable and tacky.

[opeldean]

I followed ru2agt's idea ...here is how I hooked up my mini-disc
to my sony cd deck,that had no place to plug into .

the key is a $20 radio shack av switch box..since i only had one audio input on the back(and none on the front)...this got my audio cables outboard (and external and reachable)..now I can plug in my minidisc(which I love),or an ipod..if i had one.or an old
cassette deck,a tape recorder,a laptop,....upto 4 devices at once..
a button will switch between the 4.

the switch box can be hidden in the glove box or on the floor or passengers seat.

I dont know why they dont put front inputs on deck..rarely seen.


works great

[SoCalOpelGT]

Here's my two cents - When I finally got tired of the original Opel GT AM radio; I agonized over the idea of replacing the original and loosing that vintage look.

Considered all of the other options where one might think of to install a CD player in a different / hidden location.

Decided on this Blaupunkt because it seems to fit the vintage and look of the Opel GT's interior. I've seen to many new cd players installed in vintage cars that ended up looking cheap or cheesy.

Go to this link to check it out. Be sure to click on the more photos tab to see detailed enlarged images.

Suggested retail from Blaupunkt is $399.00. However, because this model is a year to two old...you can pick it up at a great price!

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-QDrosju...p?i=023HDLCD51

[bosco]

I've been reviewing threads about speaker placement and I think I'd like to put two 6x9's in the rear shelf (under the window). My thinking is the sound won't be blocked when there are items in the rear storage area. The only downside is fitting in a spare tire.......so I was wondering if anyone knows if this set-up would work with a space-saver spare???

Also contemplating a couple of 4" speakers in the front kick panels but not sure if the sound from those would actually reach the cockpit........

Any input on these ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[billiard13]

You could use one of the spare-tire subs that came in a few of the newer cars out there. They're flat and fit right on top of your spare tire. Depending on the size you choose, it would give you a nice bit of bass without having to modify anything in the back with 6x9's. Instead you could put a few 6 1/2's in the back which would be easier to install and put a couple of 4's in the front kick panels. Between the four speakers and the sub, should sound pretty good.

[opeldude]

hi everyone ive been reading all the threads about the speaker placement and ill tell you what i have done in my gt. first off i put a sony deck in where the oringal was, then i put tweeters in at the very end of the dash( farthest on each corner) then i put two 4 inch woofers in the kick panels with a little modification, then i hooked up two tens in the spare tire area. i needed to cut a notch out of the box to beable to fit in there put looked awesome. the gt also came with a way of hiding the subs, that vinyl flap used to cover the spare tire area, now i use it to cover my subs. haha anyways thats all i got for now

[bosco]

I'm wondering if there is any way to have a spare tire.....space saver or otherwise.....if I have speakers mounted in the shelf under the windows.

Hoping for the best of both worlds I guess.