Door Speakers

[mossystone]

Hi   Can anyone come up with a clever way to route speaker wires to door speakers in a vitesse.   As previous owner has cut speaker apertures in the door cards I would like to use these to avoid further surgery. There is no sign of how he/she might have connected them to the radio  

[Colin Lindsay]

You'll have to clear the gap between door and bulkhead, and make sure that everytime the door closes the wires aren't severed! You can run them along the door checkstrap but make sure they're not going to be sliced, otherwise the other solution is to have a loop of cable on a spring that stretches as the door opens but tightens again, out of harm's way, as it closes. I'll have the same problem on my 1200 when I get that far, but I've also cheated by putting large speakers in the footwell, into the trim pads on either side so the door speakers may end up as dummies. I'll see, when I get there...

[poppyman]

I have seen speaker wires run out of the door card where it clips to the door and the same on the footwell, not pretty but wires don't get trapped and no holes need drilling.

Tony.

[mossystone]

Thanks for the suggestions.  The gap between door and frame is not great. The check strap slides in and out of the door pillar so might slice the wires. I did wonder if anyone has engineered a sliding wire carrier (like the strap) . Second best is to use rubber gromits and a loop with a spring but that would have to be pretty slim to fit in the gap. Have looked at various modern cars but they all have much more space made possible by the later generation body design.

[mossystone]

Thanks Poppyman,  Had hoped to avoid that.

[dougbgt6]

My GT6 PO installed speakers in the door cards, bodger couldn’t even get them straight! 😡

However, they are as Colin describes, a hole drilled under the curtesy light door switch and a matching hole in the edge of the door. Grommets in both holes and sufficient slack in the wire when the doors are fully open. When the doors close the wires fold down. 

Sounds a bit Michael Mouse and inviting failure, but it was like it for 30 years until I replaced the speakers and the wiring. Lately I’ve considered installing a concertina plastic pipe over the exposed wires as they have in moderns.

Doug

 

[mossystone]

Your suggestions have prompted me to go and have another look at the car.  I think I have been looking in the wrong area!  By lifting the bonnet the area around the hinges offers more possibilities  Two drillings and grommets plus a loop of protected wire might do the job. Has anyone done this on their car?

[mossystone]

28 minutes ago, dougbgt6 said:

My GT6 PO installed speakers in the door cards, bodger couldn’t even get them straight! 😡

However, they are as Colin describes, a hole drilled under the curtesy light door switch and a matching hole in the edge of the door. Grommets in both holes and sufficient slack in the wire when the doors are fully open. When the doors close the wires fold down. 

Sounds a bit Michael Mouse and inviting failure, but it was like it for 30 years until I replaced the speakers and the wiring. Lately I’ve considered installing a concertina plastic pipe over the exposed wires as they have in moderns.

Doug

 

Thanks Doug,  I think that similar but in the proximity of the hinge mounts might be my best route. 

[RogerH]

On my TR4A I had my wires coming out near the top of the forward front face of the door.

The wires were wrapped in 'Spirrap'  and this allows the cables to hang down in a controlled fashion.

 

https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk/c-58-sleeving/p-513-spiral-wrap

I don't know if you have the same space between door and A post

Roger

[mossystone]

30 minutes ago, RogerH said:

On my TR4A I had my wires coming out near the top of the forward front face of the door.

The wires were wrapped in 'Spirrap'  and this allows the cables to hang down in a controlled fashion.

 

https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk/c-58-sleeving/p-513-spiral-wrap

I don't know if you have the same space between door and A post

Roger

That looks like the best solution so far.  Thanks 

[Mark B]

I recently fitted a stereo and speakers to my Vitesse. The car had never had a radio fitted in its life and I initially fitted the speakers under the dash as I was reluctant to cut the door cards. I knew I was loosing sound quality as it sounded like the speakers where shut in a cupboard, when under the dash, but came to life when held top front of doors. I knew all Heralds and Vitesse's have a hole cut in the door behind the card, not sure if they were intended for speakers.

Two things that concerned me, speakers getting wet, and how to route the wires. To keep the speakers dry I made a couple of fiberglass pods and sealed them to the door shell.

I didn't want to risk the speaker wire getting chopped, and I couldn't see a way of doing that by going anywhere near the hinges, door check strap, courtesy light area. Instead I went in through the side. Tricky as once I committed and made a hole, I came up against a structure inside, not sure what but continued drilling, being careful not to catch any wires that may have been there. Lots and lots of fiddling and poking around cursing and almost giving up, I managed to feed the speaker wires under the dash. The speaker wire is a flexible type I bought from Halfords. As the door opens the wire peels away. The holes and grommets allow the wire to slide slightly.  The hole in the bulk head is slightly higher than the one in the door so hopefully any rain water will run down the wire and into the door and not the foot well.

I also had to be careful where to drill the hole as it can be seen in the gap between the front edge of the door and bonnet, this is acceptable to me, but maybe not to others

Time will tell if its a good idea or not, if it doesn't last I can just plug the holes with grommets and have a rethink.

 

 

[Colin Lindsay]

Interesting! I have this ahead of me, when I get to the trim / ICE stage... incidentally, why the two courtesy light switches?

[Badwolf]

I suspect that one is a burglar alarm contact. I have a similar arrangement for my alarm.

[mossystone]

9 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Interesting! I have this ahead of me, when I get to the trim / ICE stage... incidentally, why the two courtesy light switches?

 

21 minutes ago, Mark B said:

I recently fitted a stereo and speakers to my Vitesse. The car had never had a radio fitted in its life and I initially fitted the speakers under the dash as I was reluctant to cut the door cards. I knew I was loosing sound quality as it sounded like the speakers where shut in a cupboard, when under the dash, but came to life when held top front of doors. I knew all Heralds and Vitesse's have a hole cut in the door behind the card, not sure if they were intended for speakers.

Two things that concerned me, speakers getting wet, and how to route the wires. To keep the speakers dry I made a couple of fiberglass pods and sealed them to the door shell.

I didn't want to risk the speaker wire getting chopped, and I couldn't see a way of doing that by going anywhere near the hinges, door check strap, courtesy light area. Instead I went in through the side. Tricky as once I committed and made a hole, I came up against a structure inside, not sure what but continued drilling, being careful not to catch any wires that may have been there. Lots and lots of fiddling and poking around cursing and almost giving up, I managed to feed the speaker wires under the dash. The speaker wire is a flexible type I bought from Halfords. As the door opens the wire peels away. The holes and grommets allow the wire to slide slightly.  The hole in the bulk head is slightly higher than the one in the door so hopefully any rain water will run down the wire and into the door and not the foot well.

I also had to be careful where to drill the hole as it can be seen in the gap between the front edge of the door and bonnet, this is acceptable to me, but maybe not to others

Time will tell if its a good idea or not, if it doesn't last I can just plug the holes with grommets and have a rethink.

 

 

Great work.  Had just about come to the same solution but I like the speaker pods. Looks like the job is developing to a minor project.  many thanks

[PeteH]

Hi. My answer to speaker pods? was Polystyrene Soup/Pudding Dishes, They where a perfect fit in the doors of a Fiat?.

[Mark B]

I used a ready meal bowl as the base to take a fibreglass cast from. I extended the top edge with a return so that it could be pushed through the hole from the front and sealed with silcone. 

2 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

incidentally, why the two courtesy light switches?

Yup, for a car alarm. I have an FIA type cut out on the vitesse which caused all sorts of issues. The only answer was to run an independent circuit, switches and siren for the alarm.

[Colin Lindsay]

Much bigger speakers than mine, which I think are five inch. I bought these ready-fitted to a nice set of door cards, with elastic pockets, at Stafford a few years back. For pods, I'll just use these old TR7 pods which are half-cups; I was more worried about water coming down than up. By the time it gets that high I'll be worried about more than the speakers.