Tweeter Mount Project

I had posted about a month ago about enhancing the sound with tweeters and had the idea of flush mounting them where the existing squawkers are. Just finished with the mod.

Started with removing the A-pillar covers and then the squawker covers. I removed the squawkers, which reveals a harness that I discovered could easily take the prongs of a tongue-spade terminal which acted as jumpers and also allowed me to add the tweeter wiring. In other words, the prongs would preserve the signal to the door speakers with the two prongs of each piece connecting the +/+ and -/- of the source to the door speakers, while the crimp of the terminal would accept the tweeter wiring. Just look at the pics if this description doesn't make sense. I used Polk db 1001 tweeters. I actually thought the Kenwood tweeters had sounded better, but these Polks are supposed to be marine-quality so they're completely weather proof(UV, salt, rain, etc) so I figured they would last longer.

When I realized that the tongue spade terminals would allow me to complete the project, the rest was easy. After removing the squawker covers, I cut out and opening which coincidentally ended up being approximately the size of the cover outline which you can see from the underside of the cover, or if you hold the cover up to light. I made a cutout just big enough to accomodate the tweeter's flush-mount holders. The tweeters also had these cross/spider brackets that helped secure the mount holders from the underside. After popping in the tweeters into the mount holders which was actually very difficult to do as it was an incredibly tight fit. I had to push so hard that I put a small dent into the metal grill of one of the tweeters. The mount holders were inferior to the Kenwoods as swiveling was extremely hard to do to customize sound imaging, but since the high frequency sounds do bounch off the glass I suppose swiveling wasn't crucial.

I taped all the connections multiple times as I was afraid of the tongue spade terminals coming loose even though it felt pretty snug in the harness. I also added zip ties for extra measure. Even though the tweeter came with a long wire and I didn't want to trim it and create another weak/exposed point that might short out later, the squaker opening was large/deep enough for me to stuff in all the wiring and crossover. The last part was replacing the cover and A-pillar.

Sound was initially a bit harsh, but the HU actually had tons of sound adjustments so I was eventually able to get a very satisfying sound.

I was a bit worried about the security issue as the tweeters look very obvious to a passerby. I had initially thought about adding another grill over the entire squawker cover to hide the tweeter but didn't find anything ideal at Home Depot. I might just paint the tweeter to match the cover later on to camouflage it better.

 

The tweeters are about 1.5". The flush mount holder adds about another 0.5", hence the large appearance. They fit perfectly within the squawker outlines on the underside of the speaker cover.

I didnt preserve the squawker crossover as it was fixed firmly on the bottom of the squawker. The tongue spade allowed me to wire the tweeter and door speaker in parallel. Again, the tweeters have a simple crossover that is already incorporated into the included tweeter wiring.

Call me paranoid, but i had my civic stolen years ago while i was home taking a shower. Dont really feel like having that or a break in happen again.