Ok probably a rookie question, but what is the best way to remove the front bose speakers from my 1989? Should the door panel be removed? It looks like the hole for the speaker assembly is small compared to the speaker assembly itself.

Thanks in advance!

 

http://carstereohelp.com/stereoremov...etteFspk89.htm

This site has everything you need to know, and how to diagnose.

Also, check out the audio/electronics forum under general corvette topics. Anything else you would need to know would be in there.


[Modified by Chosen Won, 10:46 PM 4/17/2004]

 

The 89 door speaker takes some time and effort to remove. The finished panel must come off first and then the inside, center aluminum plate. The speaker itself has a sealing compound on it and is a difficult to break loose from the fiberglass door material. I have done this several times on my 89. I think I have something written on this as a fellow forum member asked me for it. If you want a copy, let me know! Initiallly I was not able to open the above link. I saw it on the second try and it is darn good!!!!
SAM


[Modified by Sam Lam, 7:30 AM 4/18/2004]

 

If you decide to use the stock enclosure, a standard 4" speaker fits perfectly, you just have to drill the mounting holes for it and a hole to route the wires. It's what I did with mine.

Chris

 

Do you know who sells speaker grills for the door speakers?

I've been to several stereo shops, Radio Shack, Best Buy, Fry's, etc., with no luck.

thanks,

Jake

 

Did you hook your 4" standard speakers to the Bose Factory stereo? If so, how does it sound? I thought there would be a problem using standard speakers with the Bose head unit. Was it difficult to route the speaker wire through the door boot?

Thanks, Nick

 

Sam,

Thanks for the offer on the instructions, but I read over the instructions on the above link and they are very good and should be sufficient. Thanks Chosen Won!

 

Chosen Won: The one thing that is not metioned in the "good picture" article is how to break loose the speaker from the fibergalss door material. Get a 1 or 1.5 inch, thin putty knife and stick this between the speaker and door (from inside the door). Doing this breaks loose the bond in the area of the putty knife. Work this around the perimeter of the speaker box and she just falls out.
Hope you get it fixed!
SAM

 

I used the stock grills for the doors, as well as the rear. The fit fine over the 4" speakers mounted in the enclosure and the 6x9's fit under the rear grills with the enclosures removed.

You can't hook the speaker directly to the bose stereo. I ended up installing a whole new system, nothing too crazy, just a pair of 4" in the doors and 6x9's in the rear, with an alpine head unit. My rear amps started crackling and I didn't want to deal with repairing them.

BTW, there's a plastic frame thing behind the stereo that the bose unit backs up to. If you trim the tab(you'll know what I'm talking about if you pull the stereo) you can mount an aftermarket stereo flush with a little creativity and a universal stereo mount kit. I just used the bose mounting brackets trimmed a bit and the flat stereo surround in the universal kit.

Chris

 

Just as Okinawa86Vette indicated below, you cannot use the standard 4" speakers with the Bose amps...they have a different level of impedance. If you're having troubles with the Bose (and who isn't) you're in for a long, painful ride. I spent almost $1,000.00 trying to make my Bose system work properly. Finally decided to tear it all out and installed aftermarket speakers & head unit....no problems ever sent.

If you opt to change it out, you can use a 4" up front (I think its even possible to use 5 1/4") and up to a 6" X 9" (I simply used a 6 1/2") in the rear. You shouldn't have any trouble mounting you stock speaker grills over the new speakers.

As for the wiring and trimming, I didn't really feel like doing all of that...For $130.00, Circuit City had no objection to spending an entire Saturday afternoon tearing it out.

 

Wiring wasn't really a problem. I ran the fronts using new speaker wire cause I didn't remove the enclosures and I didn't want to try to dig out the stock wiring. With the dashboard off, it wasn't very difficult.

For the rear, I used the existing wiring after I figured out which wires ran to the radio. Since I spliced the speaker wires and didn't try to find a wiring harness adapter, I simply took not of which wires I used as the speaker power and grounds. I even left the plug that goes to the amp with enough wire to splice back together if I decide to return the car to stock.

Really wasn't a bad job. I did the whole thing, from all bose to all aftermarket in about 3 or 4 hours, and most of the time was spent fussing with the head unit, getting it to mount like I wanted. The rears were very simple. Once you have the enclosure out, it almost seems as though it was meant for a 6x9.

My old 86 had 6 1/2"s in the doors, but the one who put them in used some sort of wood piece about an inch thick finished with vinyl and the speaker grill that came with the speakers in there. The wood was needed cause of the depth of the speaker. I imagine a 5 1/4" would fit with the enclosure removed. May even be able to keep the factory grill, which I like. The reason I went with the 4" was so I could take advantage of the accoustics and angle of the bose enclosure.

Chris