YoungCR Posted March 1, 2023 Report Share Posted March 1, 2023 Nice score! m42b32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted March 1, 2023 Report Share Posted March 1, 2023 I have to you snagged that one after it had been floating around for a bit on FB. I'm glad someone I know snapped it up as I was contemplating it myself, twin screws satisfy most of my desires when it comes to power additions. I'm looking forward to seeing more about it! m42b32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted March 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2023 12 hours ago, P_Roloff said: That is awesome. I figured this post would be about the headers and I was pleasantly surprised! We’re down on FI e30s right now so this should reset the balance quite nicely A very convenient coincidence! They should play quite nicely together. Picnic 2045 or bust! 3 hours ago, YoungCR said: Nice score! Thanks! 19 minutes ago, GunMetalGrey said: I have to you snagged that one after it had been floating around for a bit on FB. I'm glad someone I know snapped it up as I was contemplating it myself, twin screws satisfy most of my desires when it comes to power additions. I'm looking forward to seeing more about it! I've always thought one of these ESS TS2 kits would be my ideal setup if I could ever find one. After staring at the ad and contemplating for like a week I figured how often would one actually pop up locally in good shape for a good price. I'm excited to dig into it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaiserRolls Posted March 6, 2023 Report Share Posted March 6, 2023 10/10 find Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted May 31, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2023 160k After much thinking and hunting around I finally came up with a solution to put 5x7 speakers in the rear parcel shelf without cutting big holes or looking like someone landed a UFO back there. Before I did anything with the speakers themselves I figured now's the time to refresh the parcel shelf itself. I had a spare standard speaker parcel shelf so I used the markings on the back and opened up the speaker cutouts and moved the mounting clips to the premium speaker layout. Since every parcel shelf is now faded to a lovely shade of light blurple I gave it a couple coats of black duplicolor vinyl/fabric dye and cleaned up all the plastic parts. Once that was done (and after letting it dry for about 3-4 months), I got into swapping things out. With the old parcel shelf out, I added some sound deadening over any holes in the sheet metal and a few spots that made a lot of noise when tapping on it. My thinking on doing this was it should help the speakers perform better/keep more sound in the cabin/maybe reduce some road noise bleeding through from the trunk. Side note: I've always hated the tan rear seat in my car ever since I put it in. Its in really good shape and the original plan was to dye it eventually, but I realized I have a perfectly good black sedan back seat sitting in my basement. My car is a coupe so the seat isn't a perfect fit, but I also happen to have the rear carpet section from that sedan so I swapped that in as well to get everything looking as factory as possible. While it still isn't blue, it looks so much better. Back to the speakers. After much hunting around and thinking, I came across these speaker grills from a 90's ford van/ranger/etc. that had an identical grille pattern to the kick panel speakers in the front. I found someone selling NOS ones and ordered a pair. With the new decklid in place, and the grill/speaker (Polk audio DB+ 5x7 coaxial) in hand, I designed and 3d printed the adapter to make it all work. The adapter has slotted holes to screw into the factory e30 parcel shelf premium speaker clips so you can shift them around and maximize speaker clearance, matches the profile of the ford speaker grilles, and spaces the speaker up high enough to require no hammering/cutting of the sheet metal underneath. It is printed in ASA which is UV stable and should have zero issues dealing with the heat inside a car parked in the sun. To finalize the fit and finish, I screwed the speaker grille to the adapter and sanded the outer profile as a unit to get rid of layer lines and align everything perfectly. I obviously didn't want a gray speaker cover, so that got scuffed up and sprayed black with adhesion promoter and SEM trim paint. The adapter was then sprayed with adhesion promoter and filler primer, sanded smooth, then another coat of adhesion promoter to re-coat any exposed plastic, textured black paint, and a final top coat of SEM trim black. I did this same process on the tweeter pods and it's held up perfectly so far. With everything painted it was time to mount it all up! Here is the adapter mounted to the parcel shelf: Then the speaker gets mounted to the underside of the ford speaker grille. To fit the speaker I did have to remove a trim ring/spacer from the top side of the speaker and use a tin snips to remove the outer mounting tabs/trim a bit of excess material on the other mounting tabs. Also, because of the placement of the wire connections, I bent the connectors outwards 90 degrees so that they would clear the parcel shelf without having to cut a notch in it. I then mounted the speaker assembly to the adapter in the car and went back and did the whole thing a second time! Couldn't be more stoked on the end result! It looks very factory and the sound improvement over the previous 5 1/4" coaxial speakers is huge. SteelBlue, P_Roloff and Jdesign 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelBlue Posted May 31, 2023 Report Share Posted May 31, 2023 Speakers look good. I need to do that with my parcel shelf this summer as mine is also a nice grey/purple. Are these running off the stock amp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted May 31, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2023 12 minutes ago, SteelBlue said: Speakers look good. I need to do that with my parcel shelf this summer as mine is also a nice grey/purple. Are these running off the stock amp? Thanks! And nope, my car had the base sound system so I didn't have a factory amp at all. I used a Sony XMS400D amp inline with the speaker wiring. It basically takes the 4 speaker level inputs from the headunit and puts out 45watts RMS to each speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P_Roloff Posted June 1, 2023 Report Share Posted June 1, 2023 Looks awesome, love the creative use of the 3D printer. I’m sure the sound improvement is awesome, and it really does look very OEM. Great work! m42b32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2023 1 hour ago, P_Roloff said: Looks awesome, love the creative use of the 3D printer. I’m sure the sound improvement is awesome, and it really does look very OEM. Great work! Thanks! Having a 3d printer that can print in durable materials has opened up a lot of possibilities for all kinds of fun stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2023 Prime parking spot. I had an awesome time at the Bavarian Classic car show today. Jdesign, KaiserRolls, SteelBlue and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted July 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2023 So I was working on my basement over the weekend and went to move the original seats from this car. As I carried them across the basement at an awkward angle a coin fell out from somewhere deep in the seat and went pinging across the floor. I figured it was a quarter or something. Nope. It's a 1988 Austrian 1 schilling coin. I did some googling and Austria switched to the euro at the start of 2002... so either someone went on a European vacation and lost a coin when they got home, it's been in the seat since the car was built, or the car spent some time in Europe. Either way it's pretty neat. Jdesign, Boris3, P_Roloff and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaiserRolls Posted July 29, 2023 Report Share Posted July 29, 2023 Epoxy that into a shift knob lol jc43089, YoungCR and Jdesign 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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