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About a year after I bought my 77 F-150 which had the OEM AM radio, I installed a 70s Ford AM/FM radio and installed door speakers. Took the advice from Rich (77&79 F250) and had Gene Cochran check, clean and install an aux outlet. Removed the single under dash speaker. My questions are:
- (a) Has anyone installed tweeter speakers on their door panels?
- (b) Is there room to install tweeter speakers without having to drill a hole into the metal door? No problem drilling a hole into the plastic door panel, just don't want to drill a hole into the metal door to accommodate a small ~ 1 1/2" speaker.
- (c) Can I wire the tweeter speaker into my existing door speaker and obtain the distinct sound tweeters make?
Depending upon responses, if tweeters speakers are doable, thinking the best location would be toward the top forward portion of each door panel. Thanks in advance for your input on this.
Pretty sure all door shells have the speaker holes. You might have to drill some screw holes if your doors never had speakers, but you can certainly fit tweeters in the doors. The doors are also a good spot for mid-range and full-range speakers.
MeanGreen92,
Copy all and thanks for your reply.
Checked your public profile and see your in Ohio. Before enlisting in the Navy, I worked for D. Hamilton Trucking Company in Bedford, a suburb of Cleveland. Started working there when I was 14 washing trucks, re-fueling, working the dock transferring load. Then when I turned 18 and got my commercial license, I loaded steel. The business closed back in 2012 when the owner (Robert Hamilton) passed away. Ford Motor Stamping Plant out of Walton Hills, Ohio was the biggest client. That Ford Stamping Plant also closed about the same time 20212.
If anyone has a picture of the door with the plastic panel removed, would appreciate providing it. Thank you
it sounds like you already have speakers installed in the factory hole and are wanting to add stand-alone tweeters? If so, and you are concerned with drilling additional holes, there are plenty of options for 2-way speakers with a tweeter built-in.
MeanGreen92,
Thank you the door pictures. The door speakers I put in my door looks just like the one in your picture.
Attended Fall 1976 Bob Evans farm festival, drove my former 71 F-100 Custom Bumpside there, it had the 240 six cylinder, (an old East Ohio) gas company truck. The only rare option on that truck was the 16" wheel with the regular 5 bolt hole patter, so I changed tire size to 7:50 X 16.
BLBurch,
You're right, I did install Ford Premium speakers in the door at the time of installing the 70s Ford AM/FM stereo. Got the Ford speakers out of a 1996 F-150 from my local junk yard.
TheMonson,
Thanks for the wikipedia link. Just finished reading most of it and you're right, one of my original questions is answered; "parallel crossover".
I think those Ford Premium Sound speakers sound pretty good, even when they're old and slightly crispy.
They sound good in the doors, and fill up the front of the cab with sound, pretty well.
Mean Green 92,
Agree, the Ford Premium speakers do sound good and they fit our dentside doors perfectly. My 1995 Ford F-150 Lightning has the same speakers, which gave me the idea to get a set out of the junk yard for my 77 F-150.
Enjoying this week, being on vacation, working on the 77 and the weather has been cooperative. I still say, "things are better than I deserve". Keep a running "Junk Yard" list on the China cabinet, and decided I'll source a set of tweeter speakers next time I go there. I've been dealing with the same guy for the past 22 years and send him a Christmas card every year thanking him for the help he's extended me. Know Lincolns used JBL speakers, so I'll see if there are any Lincolns, or Mercury's, LTD / Crown Victoria or Navigators.
If your radio is only a 2 channel and you simply wire a 4 ohm tweeter in parallel with your current 4 ohm speaker your radio will see a 2 ohm load and that will probably kill it. If you can find a 8 or 16 ohm tweeter that might be ok but it won’t output much sound.
If your radio has 4 separate speaker outputs you could wire the tweeter their own channel but you would also need to find some way to cut the low pass frequencies out of the signal going to the tweeter.
I would suggest going aftermarket for this one. Low cost component speakers are out there and they have 6.5” mid range, small tweeter and passive crossover that sends the right sounds to each speaker.
I run these in my 79, they sound great but I am also running an amp for them. I mounted the tweeters into the dash (metal part, froward of the dash cover). This puts the tweeter sound into the windshield and gives better high range sound distribution than ones mounted in the door up high. The closer a tweeter is to your ear the more you will only hear the tweeter sounds.
Mean Green 92,
Agree, the Ford Premium speakers do sound good and they fit our dentside doors perfectly. My 1995 Ford F-150 Lightning has the same speakers, which gave me the idea to get a set out of the junk yard for my 77 F-150.
The ones in my '88 Mustang still sound good.
Originally Posted by buckin69bronco
I run these in my 79, they sound great but I am also running an amp for them. I mounted the tweeters into the dash (metal part, froward of the dash cover). This puts the tweeter sound into the windshield and gives better high range sound distribution than ones mounted in the door up high. The closer a tweeter is to your ear the more you will only hear the tweeter sounds.
Tweeters (high frequency) bounce around the sound around our mostly metal interiors like a cell phone signal.
Woofers (low frequency) send their sound into and through, to the outside of our mostly metal interiors like a shortwave radio signal.