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I decided I'm tired of being cheap and driving around with a Bluetooth speaker, so I figured I'd invest in a decent, but not too pricey sound system. At the moment, I'd be happy with a nice stereo and speakers, with a subwoofer to come in the future.
As you can see from the pictures, it has never been changed, ever... Still rockin' with the cassette player that came stock. It doesn't work, at all. None of it.
As far as I can tell, there only seems to be two small tweeters on the sides of the dashboard, and possibly two speakers in the hatch of the trunk? I definitely want one in each door, if it's possible.
Any suggestions?
Thank you in advance! Stereo. Dashboard tweeter, one on each side. No speaker here. Front door. Also no speaker here. Back door. Maybe a speaker here on each side?
I have several different style speakers that might work well for you, new still in packaging... I will pull them out and send you some photos as soon as I can, possible by the weekend... I may also still have a Pioneer Stereo w/ CD new in the box...
I have several different style speakers that might work well for you, new still in packaging... I will pull them out and send you some photos as soon as I can, possible by the weekend... I may also still have a Pioneer Stereo w/ CD new in the box...
That would be much appreciated if you could send me some photos at your earliest convenience.
The front dash speakers are 3 1/2 inch full-range, not tweeters. Because of their small size they are easily damaged by base-heavy music. The best sounding replacements are the Kenwood 3 1/2 inch dual cones. Google says they are available at WalMart nowdays. A high-pass crossover is recommended, an amp with a high-pass crossover or a 300 uf capacitor. $10 a pair on ebay, http://www.ebay.com/itm/300uF-100V-N...0AAOSwrklVCZVR
. If you want them to sound GREAT, use an adhesive rubber membrane to fill and cover all of the little gaps in the plastic mounting location. Be very gentle with the mounting screws because the dash plastic gets sun-baked and becomes very brittle. Make sure you get the screws started back into the original thread tracks or the plastic can break apart.
The rear speakers are probably 6×9. Use a good quality 6×9 coaxial replacement speaker. Pioneer, Kenwood, or my favorite, Alpine will give good sound quality as well as good volume with deck power or a small amplifier.
Your factory stereo is a high powered unit and will work for now but the output sound quality will suck rocks compared to most any aftermarket head unit. A high quality one will be even better, not to mention mp3 input, CD player over cassette (cassette can be better than CD but not with a Delco radio), even remote control is available.
Last edited by cjsdad; July 8th, 2017 at 02:11 PM.
That would be much appreciated if you could send me some photos at your earliest convenience.
These are two stereos I have, but they are old school without an aux jack or USB port for IPOD use... Probably not what you really want based on today's stereo standards and although new, I don't know if they work without testing them... As for speakers I have two styles... The Kraco 5" would most likely fit well in your door panels and the Audiovox surface mounts could mount to the rear sail panels or the lift gate... All in all you may be better off just going to an electronics store and hearing and seeing what you are actually buying...
It looks like you have room for a double din radio there. I purchased 2 Kenwoods, one for the work van (04' E-250 Ford) one for the every day driver pickup (06' Chevy 2500 XLT). I use the pickup to plow snow as well, so both have back up cameras. That and the Bluetooth was the main reason for the purchase. You never know how handy that camera is until you have it. Any way, I use an iphone 6 & not to happy with the way it connects. If you have a droid it might work better. Each with the camera and brackets cost just under $500. They were cheaper than the pioneer so that was why I went that route. When it connects it works great, both bluetooth and playing songs off my phone.
Before I purchased the Cutlass I had a 95 Toyota pickup that I installed a single din pioneer into. That worked much better than the Kenwoods. I sold the Toyota when I bought the Cutlass and the gent who purchased it synched his phone into the Pioneer not problem and it works great. Both produced great sound with factory speakers, thou the 06 Silverado has Bose speakers.
I don't know if you have ever looked at Crutchfield or not. They are an outstanding company and very knowledgeable people. They have some pretty good sales too. I bought a unit I put in the glove box of my 54 that was on sale. I have always been satisfied with them. Here is the link:
Thank you everyone for the replies. I always liked Pioneer, so I think I'm going to go with that brand. I know I'd have to cut a hole in the door panel for the speakers to fit, but where would I run the wires through? I put underglow under my dashboard, and made the mistake or not running it through the dashboard and lazily did it through the side of the hood into the door, and slamming it shut all the time eventually cut the wires.
Back when I was installing stereos I would cut holes in doors for speakers without a second thought. Now days I am a little more conservative. If you are going with a factory style stereo with speakers in the original locations, the Kenwood speakers I mentioned above are truly your best choice for the front. I have never worked for a shop that sold Kenwood but have always recommended the 3 1/2 and 4 inch dual cones. They just sound that good. The rears will almost certainly be a 6×9 and a good quality coaxial will work best. Don't wast your money on a triaxial, they don't sound any better.
If you want to go with a custom sound system, the dash is a great place for a pair of tweeters. The doors are not a bad place for the midranges but those doors don't look too speaker friendly. You will need to take the door panel off to find a place where the speaker will fit without interfering with the window mechanism as well as the window crank on the outside. Crank the window up and down with the panel off to make sure! If you do manage to put speakers in the doors, you have rubber boots between the doors and the vehicle itself. That is where you run the wiring. It can be frustrating getting the wires into the cabin through those boots but do not skimp on that or the wiring will flex and break in short order or scrape the insulation and short out.
The basic Pioneer equipment can be very budget friendly but the nickname it has in the stereo industry is "fry an ear". The Pioneer Premier line is where the real value is at. Much better sound and features. Don't cheap out on the head unit going onto such a nice wagon! You are better off with the factory stereo if you are only going to put a $69 Pioneer CD player in it.
You want good sound fairly cheap..
I'd put 6x9's or 6.5" in the wagon back side walls.. and 3.5" in the dash..
And whatever fits in the rear doors..
run the 3.5's off the head unit.front speaker leads and run the other 4 off a small amp.. using the headunits rear rca outs. this will allow you to use the fader to control how much power those small 3.5's see..
If you had a budget..
I'd put 5.25" seperetes in the front woofer in front door and tweeters in the dash.. or even 3 ways with mids in dash tweeters in the pillar and woofer in the door, 6.5" if they fit.
good midrange priced coax in rear doors.. and 2) 8" drivers in the back..
unless you are playing rap you don't need 10-12" subs..
Remember gm radios of this era are short 1 1/2 din most aftermarket radios are deeper, you may need to do some fab work if you want the radio to sit flush.
my last 80's car, I had put the radio inset 1/2" and used magnets and the old am/fm delco radio face with glued on buttons /***** to hide the kenwood deck.. no one steals a delco am/fm radio..lol
My SS is getting a later g.m. am/fm/cd player monsoon out of a t/a that I had an aux mini plug added to.. It looks like the radio that came in my 86 but cd instead of the cassette player..
The miniplug input will allow connecting to my ipod, or I can get a Bluetooth adapter and then stream from phone.. all with a radio that looks oem that no one will try to rip out of the dash.. Your wagon has metal around the door glass making it harder to get into than a gm , g body's and f body's that you can reach in and unlock the door with the glass up..
Last edited by midnightleadfoot; July 11th, 2017 at 01:55 AM.
July 5th, 2017, 05:54 PM
