So, the next morning and the weather was definitely kinder to me. Didn't get out to start on the car until mid afternoon as the Grand Prix takes precendence but once that was out of the way out I went.
First part of today was to strip the passenger door back off and tidy it up and finish off what I hadn't had time to do yesterday as well as fit the tweeter.
So, I stripped the door back off, tidied up all the bits and bobs I'd rushed yesterday. Then sorted out the damp proof lining with a can of this stuff.
Much better 😃
I then fitted the tweeter housing and connected the tweeter up and replaced any broken or missing panel clips on the door panel and fitted the door panel back on, wiring everything up and remembering to re-connect the door handle (something I forgot yesterday). No pics of this but you all know what the interior of a door looks like so no major loss there.
Moving on from this, the next challenge was to get the new speaker cable through the car side grommet and into the car. This isn't quite as easy as it sounds with the veccy c because Vauxhall fit the main fuse box and relay housing over the top of it so it's necessary to move that out of the way first.
Here's the offending article in question. Viewed through the hole left when the glove box is removed.
One very awkward to get to nut at the bottom of the unit needs to be undone, then the unit can be lifted up and out of the clips and moved to one side to allow access to the main grommet to the door. Once this was done, I pushed the grommet through the door frame into the car to allow better access as shown here.
Here's the inside view again from through the glove box hole with the fuse box now moved over out of the way.
Different people have different ways of getting cables through existing grommets, I prefer the following.
Find a very long screwdriver (remember this grommet goes through the entire door frame and out to the door so it needs to be a longun. Very carefully feed the screwdriver through the centre of the grommet from the inside of the car.
With a little patience and jiggling of the screwdriver you should fairly quickly end up with it poking out the door end of the grommet like so.
The trick is then to take some insulating tape or similar and tape the cable you want to feed through the grommet to the end of the screwdriver poking out. That's the fiddly bit, once you've got it secured, gently pull the screwdriver back through from the inside, helping it along by pushing the cable from the outside. If you do it right you'll end up with something like this.
Pull all the spare cable through carefully and gently and once you've got all the cable through, replace the rubber seal and plastic clip on the door joint and that part is now done.
At this point as this part is still temporary I coiled the spare cable up behind the glove box and using scotch blocks, just tapped the ends into the back of the head unit. Obviously once the amps go in, these cables will be run to the boot where the amps will be mounted but I want music in the meantime so scotch blocks will do the job. Replace the fusebox assembly, kick panel and glove box and the passenger side is done.
A quick test to make sure everything was in phase and working and it's time to do the other side.
This side looks a bit tidier than the passenger one did and looks like no-one's been in here before, this should be easier. A couple of broken clips on the right that may have been me to be honest but we'll replace those at the end.
I removed the old speaker and followed exactly the same process as for the other door, running the new tweeter cable through the double skin as before, hooking up the crossover to that and a new cable for the woofer ready for the next phase.
Drill out a couple of holes in the door fittings as before.
Inner and outer parts of the connector drilled and cables through. ready to fit the crossover.
Door connector re-assembled with new cable through waiting to be fed through into the car.
And the crossover sitting inside the door once fixed into place, you can just make out the feed cable routing round the outside of the window runner to make sure there's no snagging.
Fit the speaker, re-glue any parts of the damp-proofing and tidy the door up ready to re-fit the panel.
Running the cable into the car on the drivers side is slightly easier than the other side but still a bit fiddly. First remove the main light switch from the dash board by pressing in the main switch and turning it to the right to release the clips that hold it in place. Unclip the cable connecting it to the car.
Now undo the screw just at the top inside of the light switch fitting. Then undo the three screws right at the bottom of the panel and the two inside the panel under the steering column and unclip the entire panel off from underneath the steering wheel.
You can now see and reach through to the grommet, so as before, push the grommet into the car from the door pillar side and feed a screwdriver through it.
Same as before, attach the cable to the screwdriver using tape.
Carefully and gently pull the screw driver back whilst feeding the cable through from the outside and hopefully the cable will pull into the car.
Re-connect the rubber boot to the door connector and fit the plastic clip over it and pull the grommet back through into place in the door pillar.
Again I temporarily ran the cable to the headunit over the top of the steering wheel mounting plate so it's away from any moving parts and tied up the excess out of the way. Again, just clipping the cables in using scotch locks as a temporary connection pending amps in the boot.
Re-assemble the drivers panel in the reverse procedure of removing it.
At this point I tested everything was working correctly and all was in phase. It already sounds ten times better than standard and that's without the rear speakers being changed and any amps or subs being fitted yet.
So, happy bunny, both front doors are now kitted out with their new speakers and are ready to be amped up when I get round to it. The door panels will be off again at some point to add more sound proofing to the doors but again that won't really be needed until the amps come into play.
