Kenunot
garden gnome
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2016
- Location
- Jersey Shore
So I have owned an 87 245 for almost 2 years with no radio. I had been collecting some things to start off with and now it's time to get dirty. I had been hoping to find another driver's door card without water damage first, but it hasn't happened so love the one you're with.
I wanted bluetooth streaming, a head unit with a volume knob and expandability (lots of pre-outs), and decent sound from decent speakers (not high end but no department store bobo stuff either). I also wanted to minimize custom fabrication with no building fiberglass speaker pods and whatnot, and of course have very little money to throw at this. Here is what I bought:
Alpine HD-138BT source. This was a good ebay find. It was listed as used but everything including the wire harness showed no signs of ever being used. My winning bid was $62 + $15 to ship in 2015. It was manufactured 2012. Basic feature set, 3 sets of 4 volt pre outs (front/rear/sub). I like Alpine purely out of nostalgia, Alpine decks were in all the cool european cars when I was a kid in the eighties and nineties.
Boston Acoustic Rally RX47 4 1/2" coaxial speakers. NOS $75 shipped. from 2000 or so? I didn't want to get into custom fabrication so I went with the factory size for the front doors. This is another brand I like out of nostalgia (they were popular in the nineties) but also for performance for the $. Boston made solid mid-fi speakers and I have owned a number in the past. These have a power rating of 30 watts continuous and a really high sensitivity of 95 db (1 watt/.5 meter), which means they will play loud when only powered by the head unit.
12 square feet of Dynamat Xtreme. This was another good find, the Best Buy near me was getting out of the mobile electronics scene and was clearancing this out for like $20 (It was over $100 previously). Sound dampening is really important, especially in budget builds to get the most from the least. Not just for the obvious reasons (lowering the noise threshold of the car 10 db is the equivalent of doubling the amplifier power), but I am also going to use it to seal up the air space within the door as best as possible. Seperating the air acting on the front of the woofer cone from that behind it can have a large impact on sound even with stock speakers.
Other than that I bought a Metra dash kit, which is cool since it covers a bunch of years it includes a din adapter for the upper dash and lower pocket, so you have your choice of where to put the hu. I also had a Volvo wiring adapter I took from the junkyard, as well as the car side plug since someone had butchered the one in my car previously.
Interesting note about this car- there is no evidence of a radio antenna anywhere on the outside of the car. This generation of wagon seems to have a fixed mast on the driver windshield pillar or alternatively, maybe a power mast on the driver d pillar. I have a mast antenna from an 86, but requires making a pretty good sized hole more or less directly over the fusebox. I really didn't want to do that.
I bought a generic am/fm antenna that adheres to the inside of the glass on ebay for $6 and didn't have very high expectations (any really). I stuck it across the top of the windshield on the driver's side. It works suprisingly well for me (and is still attached a few weeks later), but I live in a metropolitan area.
Installing the speakers. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I did a lot of this outside at night. I'm sure there are really good youtube videos about how to apply sound dampening, I didn't watch any. I cleaned the inside of the doors with some household degreaser before starting, important so the stuff sticks. The only tools needed for installation:
And a bucket to sit on lol. Starting out in the driver's door, you can see the all the large openings on the inside of the door I want to address. A "professional" might suggest not just using the dynamat to cover really large openings, like on the bottom of the door. Maybe attaching a panel of abs or something and laying it over that. That is an excellent suggestion. The adhesion of the newer dynamat is much better so I just went for it.
I should also mention, do no harm when in the door. I won't cover any bolts I may need access to in the future and I'm careful to stay out of the way of all linkages. I held up the sheets to the door and transferred over holes for clips and other interior bits. I fixed and rebuilt the central locking harness before sealing up the door.
I just worked hole to hole and then filled in what was left with the scraps I was making. The box came with (4) 12" x 36" sheets. Both doors only used 3 together.
All done during the day.
Passenger door. I though about running new wires for the speakers, but the only connector they run through is the one behind the radio, so there isn't a lot of signal loss. I did solder on the new connectors that came with the speakers.
The ideal situation would be to mount the speakers directly to the metal of the door, this isn't physically possible without fabricating spacer/adapters. Distance from top of speaker opening to rolled down window.
And from the bottom.
The RX47's are a little over an inch and a half deep, so onto the door cards they go.
So this is all the crap I had to work with between the aftermarket speakers that were already installed in my car, factory grills from my parts car, and the included Boston grills. Note: the vapor barrier (sheet of plastic that comes inside the door between the card and the metal) had been removed by some kumquat, so the bottom 6" - 8" or so of the pressboard had been water damaged and turned to dust. Always leave those in place.
For comparison, the passenger door card which had it's vapor barrier in place.
Long story short, the included grills would not fit in the recessed strip where the speakers mount and using spacers just lifted them up high enough to collide with the window cranks.
Factory grill stealth look it is!
I also broke the car's one remaining door pocket in three pieces by looking at it. Working on 30 year old cars always feels like one step forward two steps back.
One final note about putting the door back together- make sure you get this mother****er situated before putting everything back together, or else the top of the door pull won't grab and you will have to disassemble the whole door and start over (sometimes a few times). It sort of twist locks into its hole and will fall out (inside the door) when installing the door pull if you do it wrong.
Edit: DO NOT DO THIS OR USE THESE! they choked low frequency response and were removed. Leaving this here as a warning.
I also had these waterproof speaker baffles which were way too deep to install in the doors, but I trimmed them up to help keep that airspace in and out of the door separate.
Sealing up the airspace in the door does not have to be perfect, it's an every bit helps proposition. It also helps the door KA-THUNK like an S-klasse.
Installing the source.
I went with the upper dash location and it just drops in with 2 screws. I soldered the harness together, I don't like crimping for that stuff. I did need to grab the "illumination" wire, which isn't in the factory harness, so the display knows when to dim. The parking light wire is perfect and right behind the switch (white in this car). You could probably find it without pulling the cluster. I wasn't following a wiring diagram so I just went right for the switch. yolo
And gave it a Volvo brand quick-disconnect from the parts car. I just taped up the speaker wires that I'm not using for now.
I also had to find a place for the comically large microphone and clip for the hands-free business. I put a double din Pioneer with bt in my gf's car a couple years ago and it's microphone was a third the size. In that car I just stuck it on top of the steering column, but this thing was really intruding on my view of the instruments in that location. It has to go to the top of the A pillar along with the antenna. I had to dremel the trim piece a little to get them both to fit. Don't mind the butyl (or dum dum) on every-goddamn-thing near the windshield. Such a pita to clean up, here in sunny FL 30 years later it is always semi liquid. The dynamat is made of the same basic stuff I believe, just more manageable.
Here's the now really busy top corner of the windshield. Most of the antenna is at least hidden from my view by the multi-segment blink mirror.
In conclusion. Everything works really well. The source is a little light on features but the bluetooth is reliable with my android device. The voice quality from the giant microphone is very good (as it should be) even when on a call with the window down. The radio reception is remarkable. The speakers play great- clean and tight mids and highs with lots of volume. Absolutely no bass response at all because physics.
Edit: removing those baffles noticeably improved low frequency response. Sounds great! or as good as a pair of 4 1/2's is ever going to
It was a strong start for the money that will be easy to upgrade, which is something I will be in hurry to do for low frequency response. I am thinking about trying to find the 6 1/2" version of those speakers and putting them in the back door or rear hatch. Eventually I will add a single 10" or 12" sub and probably an amp for the full range speakers.
Knowing what I know now if I were installing just a pair of speakers in the doors alone, I would go with a larger 5 1/4" or 6 1/2" as others have done and make them fit- if it required making spacers, etc.
I wanted bluetooth streaming, a head unit with a volume knob and expandability (lots of pre-outs), and decent sound from decent speakers (not high end but no department store bobo stuff either). I also wanted to minimize custom fabrication with no building fiberglass speaker pods and whatnot, and of course have very little money to throw at this. Here is what I bought:
Alpine HD-138BT source. This was a good ebay find. It was listed as used but everything including the wire harness showed no signs of ever being used. My winning bid was $62 + $15 to ship in 2015. It was manufactured 2012. Basic feature set, 3 sets of 4 volt pre outs (front/rear/sub). I like Alpine purely out of nostalgia, Alpine decks were in all the cool european cars when I was a kid in the eighties and nineties.
Boston Acoustic Rally RX47 4 1/2" coaxial speakers. NOS $75 shipped. from 2000 or so? I didn't want to get into custom fabrication so I went with the factory size for the front doors. This is another brand I like out of nostalgia (they were popular in the nineties) but also for performance for the $. Boston made solid mid-fi speakers and I have owned a number in the past. These have a power rating of 30 watts continuous and a really high sensitivity of 95 db (1 watt/.5 meter), which means they will play loud when only powered by the head unit.
12 square feet of Dynamat Xtreme. This was another good find, the Best Buy near me was getting out of the mobile electronics scene and was clearancing this out for like $20 (It was over $100 previously). Sound dampening is really important, especially in budget builds to get the most from the least. Not just for the obvious reasons (lowering the noise threshold of the car 10 db is the equivalent of doubling the amplifier power), but I am also going to use it to seal up the air space within the door as best as possible. Seperating the air acting on the front of the woofer cone from that behind it can have a large impact on sound even with stock speakers.
Other than that I bought a Metra dash kit, which is cool since it covers a bunch of years it includes a din adapter for the upper dash and lower pocket, so you have your choice of where to put the hu. I also had a Volvo wiring adapter I took from the junkyard, as well as the car side plug since someone had butchered the one in my car previously.
Interesting note about this car- there is no evidence of a radio antenna anywhere on the outside of the car. This generation of wagon seems to have a fixed mast on the driver windshield pillar or alternatively, maybe a power mast on the driver d pillar. I have a mast antenna from an 86, but requires making a pretty good sized hole more or less directly over the fusebox. I really didn't want to do that.
I bought a generic am/fm antenna that adheres to the inside of the glass on ebay for $6 and didn't have very high expectations (any really). I stuck it across the top of the windshield on the driver's side. It works suprisingly well for me (and is still attached a few weeks later), but I live in a metropolitan area.
Installing the speakers. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I did a lot of this outside at night. I'm sure there are really good youtube videos about how to apply sound dampening, I didn't watch any. I cleaned the inside of the doors with some household degreaser before starting, important so the stuff sticks. The only tools needed for installation:
And a bucket to sit on lol. Starting out in the driver's door, you can see the all the large openings on the inside of the door I want to address. A "professional" might suggest not just using the dynamat to cover really large openings, like on the bottom of the door. Maybe attaching a panel of abs or something and laying it over that. That is an excellent suggestion. The adhesion of the newer dynamat is much better so I just went for it.
I should also mention, do no harm when in the door. I won't cover any bolts I may need access to in the future and I'm careful to stay out of the way of all linkages. I held up the sheets to the door and transferred over holes for clips and other interior bits. I fixed and rebuilt the central locking harness before sealing up the door.
I just worked hole to hole and then filled in what was left with the scraps I was making. The box came with (4) 12" x 36" sheets. Both doors only used 3 together.
All done during the day.
Passenger door. I though about running new wires for the speakers, but the only connector they run through is the one behind the radio, so there isn't a lot of signal loss. I did solder on the new connectors that came with the speakers.
The ideal situation would be to mount the speakers directly to the metal of the door, this isn't physically possible without fabricating spacer/adapters. Distance from top of speaker opening to rolled down window.
And from the bottom.
The RX47's are a little over an inch and a half deep, so onto the door cards they go.
So this is all the crap I had to work with between the aftermarket speakers that were already installed in my car, factory grills from my parts car, and the included Boston grills. Note: the vapor barrier (sheet of plastic that comes inside the door between the card and the metal) had been removed by some kumquat, so the bottom 6" - 8" or so of the pressboard had been water damaged and turned to dust. Always leave those in place.
For comparison, the passenger door card which had it's vapor barrier in place.
Long story short, the included grills would not fit in the recessed strip where the speakers mount and using spacers just lifted them up high enough to collide with the window cranks.
Factory grill stealth look it is!
I also broke the car's one remaining door pocket in three pieces by looking at it. Working on 30 year old cars always feels like one step forward two steps back.
One final note about putting the door back together- make sure you get this mother****er situated before putting everything back together, or else the top of the door pull won't grab and you will have to disassemble the whole door and start over (sometimes a few times). It sort of twist locks into its hole and will fall out (inside the door) when installing the door pull if you do it wrong.
Edit: DO NOT DO THIS OR USE THESE! they choked low frequency response and were removed. Leaving this here as a warning.
I also had these waterproof speaker baffles which were way too deep to install in the doors, but I trimmed them up to help keep that airspace in and out of the door separate.
Sealing up the airspace in the door does not have to be perfect, it's an every bit helps proposition. It also helps the door KA-THUNK like an S-klasse.
Installing the source.
I went with the upper dash location and it just drops in with 2 screws. I soldered the harness together, I don't like crimping for that stuff. I did need to grab the "illumination" wire, which isn't in the factory harness, so the display knows when to dim. The parking light wire is perfect and right behind the switch (white in this car). You could probably find it without pulling the cluster. I wasn't following a wiring diagram so I just went right for the switch. yolo
And gave it a Volvo brand quick-disconnect from the parts car. I just taped up the speaker wires that I'm not using for now.
I also had to find a place for the comically large microphone and clip for the hands-free business. I put a double din Pioneer with bt in my gf's car a couple years ago and it's microphone was a third the size. In that car I just stuck it on top of the steering column, but this thing was really intruding on my view of the instruments in that location. It has to go to the top of the A pillar along with the antenna. I had to dremel the trim piece a little to get them both to fit. Don't mind the butyl (or dum dum) on every-goddamn-thing near the windshield. Such a pita to clean up, here in sunny FL 30 years later it is always semi liquid. The dynamat is made of the same basic stuff I believe, just more manageable.
Here's the now really busy top corner of the windshield. Most of the antenna is at least hidden from my view by the multi-segment blink mirror.
In conclusion. Everything works really well. The source is a little light on features but the bluetooth is reliable with my android device. The voice quality from the giant microphone is very good (as it should be) even when on a call with the window down. The radio reception is remarkable. The speakers play great- clean and tight mids and highs with lots of volume. Absolutely no bass response at all because physics.
Edit: removing those baffles noticeably improved low frequency response. Sounds great! or as good as a pair of 4 1/2's is ever going to
It was a strong start for the money that will be easy to upgrade, which is something I will be in hurry to do for low frequency response. I am thinking about trying to find the 6 1/2" version of those speakers and putting them in the back door or rear hatch. Eventually I will add a single 10" or 12" sub and probably an amp for the full range speakers.
Knowing what I know now if I were installing just a pair of speakers in the doors alone, I would go with a larger 5 1/4" or 6 1/2" as others have done and make them fit- if it required making spacers, etc.
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