Hey all,

I have an EF falcon wagon and the stock system is s**t. Now i've upgraded the headunit and all the speakers (just to brand name 6"ers, nothing flash), and though tollerable it aint ideal. For starters it severely lacks bass, and secondly the tailgate plastic rattles something chronic! I happen to have a set of 450w pioneer 6x9s lying around from my last car, and of course they don't fit in the factory mounting poisitions.

So here's what i came up with - upon exploration the speaker wire is easily accessible near the roof at the last (d?) pillar of the wagon. I can splice in some new speaker wiring and run that down the d pillar and out, either through those little plastic vents (what are they for anyway?) or at the very bottom or even under the carpet if i chose. Then i simply head off to wherever and nab some speaker boxes, hook it all up and voila! More bass, less rattles, and very little cost. Because the speakers are quite heavy im thinking coat the underside of the boxes with velcro and stick to the carpet and they shouldn't slide about at all.

So what do ya all think? I understand it isn't ideal or neat but the main aim is to spend as little as possible, and dont forget i already have the 6x9s, and they go pretty well.

About the only real quetion i have is this - when i splice in the new speakers, do i have to remove the old 6"ers in the tailgate? I'm not particularly great at ohms and watts and amps and all that physicy type of stuff, i'm guessing that leaving them in will double the load and lead to me blowing my headunit so i thought i'd ask you learned gentlemen first!

Thanks for the input!

Daniel.

well yeh id be disconnecting the existing rears and wiring up the 6x9s... sure u will at least hear more low range notes now but not really that bassie if ya know what i mean compared to a nice tight 10,12 or 15 woofer in a ported box.

What car was this in exactly ?

Umm....EF wagon GLi. And yeah i know subs pack more punch but im only doing this coz i have most of the bits lying around at home

anyone? i really dont wanna fry my headunit now!

matey, if your going to go to all that effort and ave two speaker boxs taking up room in your boot, just do it properly with a seperate sub and amp, doesn't have to be anything fancy, could pick up something cheap and second hand in the for sale forums here or on carAudioAustralia, o9r even Autiobarn and that hav e packages quiet often.

i know i know, trust me a sub and amp and the rest will come later on! i forgot that the speaker boxes were free, so far it's cost me $4 for wiring and $7 for the velcro

However i've hit a major problem :- i soldered in the wires on the right hand side just before the plug and socket bit of the wiring (sorry, i've no idea what it's called) at the top of the D pillar. Connected my new speakers, and unplugged the socket set up to isolate power to the tailgate speakers so i don't potentially fry my headunit (my original question still goes unanswered btw!!!). It all worked fine. Did the same thing on the left hand side and guess what? The speaker didnt work. I've checked my soldering and the speaker and they're both ok, so wtf have i done wrong? ANY help at all would be appreciated folks! Perhaps somebody else has had this problem before? I used this chart for the wiring: http://www.fordmods.com/forums/documents.php?doc=27

You sure there the speaker wires?
You don't have to physically remove the tailgate speakers, just disconnect tehm from the circuit (disconnect the wires off them or something). If you try running two sets of speakers it's probably a. not good for the headunit and b. neither speakers will be very loud. By the way, I don't think you'll notice much difference at all by the time your actually driving the car as the 6x9's will be so far away from you the driver.

Mate to be safe Id just take the current speaker wire off the old speaker....tape it up and run new wire from the head unit to the new speakers..

As to your original question - either cut holes to fit, have pods made, use mdf or watever spacers, knock something up your self and mount it...to take the 6x9s......

As to the ohms and watts bizo im not sure what the stock speakers are rated at id say single coil @ 4ohms.

Speakers are generally all the same..4 ohms...the 6x9s u have would also be that impedance/rating....as far as leaving them connected I wouldnt...one it wont sound that good due to you wouldnt really hear the rears with the more powerful 6x9s drowning them out....2nd yes running both together on the same circuit you would be doubling or therebouts the load/resistance also and pretty much halving the power that will be supplied to each.

Id just replace the existing rears with the 6x9's IMO.

ok i know this is a little after you started this thread but i thought id throw you some advice since i to own an ef gli wagon.

to upgrade my system i simply changed my head unit (currently running kenwood) this unit has sub pre out on the rears and is really handy. i didnt touch the original speakers in the car just left them as factory.

what i did was grabed 2 500w amps and 2 500w subs.

so as to not loose space in the cargo area with big a** sub boxes i mounted both subs into the spare wheel cover.

i recut a new cover out of mdf then cut out the holes for the subs.

whilst the cover was off i lined the spare wheel well with baffle cloth.

i then mounted my subs and used around 15 bolts to hold the mdf cover to the floor of the car.

i then placed tough metal grills covered with speaker cloth over the subs and cut 2 holes in my carpet so the subs would come through.

yes you can still have the spare wheel in its place and there is actually enough room for 4 subs using this method.

now the factory speakers act as my midrange and tweeters and the subs supply all the base. the whole wagon shakes like mad when the volume is cranked and its awsome. if you want some pics of my mod let me know and ill post em up.

Pics?
in myy wagon I made an angeled box that fits snug behind the rear seats without takking my room at all.
I've got an LPG tank, battery and amp in the spare wheel well, plus all the usual crap that people cart around!

in my old wagon, i had 6" 3 ways, in the tailgate, and a lot of deadener in the gate. the worst bit was the number plate surround. but after some effort it stoped rattling.

then i got a poineer two 12" sub and box combo, and an amp to suit. some big bits of velcro helped it stay put. and because of that it was easy to remove if i needed the space.