Coupe Rear Speaker Install

[FM79Turbo]

Hi everybody!

Does anyone have experience with installing rear speakers in a 79 mustang coupe?
Do I have to remove the rear seats and the rear covers to access the speaker holes and if so how do you do that?
Or what is the best way to do the job?
Any help and tips are greatly apreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[82GTforME]

We added rear speakers into a '79 that never originally had them. It may be to your advantage to remove the rear seat to run the speaker wires properly along the driver's side to the front.

Our car never actually had the holes or perforations in the package shelf so I had to DIY and redo the fabric at the dsame time.

Here is some quick info but if you search "speakers" in the thread you may find more! http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...t=rear+speaker

So we had a good plan to cut the holes for the back speakers as there were none but the outline was there.



I made a small attempt to remove the mesh off and it came off quite easy. The board and mesh are actually stitched together with the back seat insulation and are all one piece. I tried to drill 1/2" holes like speaker perforations but that didn't work. We tried an Olfa knike and still couldn't get through. I decided on the jig saw which worked great!

I was quite happy with the result until I turned it over and noticed I didn't quite peel one side back enough!




I'm led to believe that the Coupe's (at least the '79's) had no speaker grills but now that I have a little cut out to deal with I am going to try to improvise and incorporate a set of speaker grills into the installation. I don't think it will look out of place if I can get it to work as I envision. Some adhesive and a light spray paint to touch up and the mesh fabric should look like new.

So after kicking myself in the spring for not getting a decent replacement off a junk yard coupe, deciding to "refurbish" the existing one while adding speaker holes and then wrecking the deteriorating fabric in the process had me now figuring out the "new" way to do this. http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...=1#post1646882

When I was looking for other headliner fabric options I saw this mesh they called "bug screen" oddly enough and thought it would look and hopefully work great.

The original mesh seems to be natural material (top). Kind of like hemp or manilla. The new material appears to be almost rubberized with a mesh nylon core.



By cutting the holes in the board for the speakers, I was worried that the new mesh adds no protection for our newly added vintage '82 speakers. I got out the glue gun, found some old aluminum screen and secured them good!



I used the old piece of fabric for the template and cut a new piece of mesh. The board is a pressed fibre board and was previously black looking (looked painted) with the black mesh. I gave it a good coat of primer and then some flat black enamel paint before laying the new mesh on. The old stuff was stitched at the back seat end but this is hidden where it folds down so the hot glue was the perfect choice! It holds good!



I argued over wanting to do a spray adhesive to glue the flat part all down also. What ever I chose would need to be invisible. I chose to just wrap it as tight as I could, fold it over and glue it. It ended up quite taut.



I think it looks great! As I said though with it being "rubberized" I am worried about the long term damage, stretching or slight sagging in the speaker holes from the sun beating in the back window. Time will tell I guess.

Got all of the speakers in and the wires ran properly down to where the radio will go. Just a little splicing to do later.

Here is how it sits. I ended up using some machine screws to hold them on. The hatch slide nuts wouldnt work on the sheet metal. Aw yeah, Premium speakers out of an '86 with matching tweeters.

[82GTforME]

Good Luck!

Flash back...Car was originally a no radio car. Dealer installed AM radio and single center speaker. Teenager=

It DID work, just not a lot of selection

Attachment 74979



The speakers above were salvaged and installed with a purpose. A couple of months before that even, I had picked up a factory AM/FM cassette deck out of an '82 GLX in the JY I didn't even know if it worked but asked a question in another thread about hook ups, testing etc. http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...er#post1640338

Of course forum members coming through with good advice helped me get to this the other day:

Lights on!



And we have sound! Jackson was inside and didn't know what I was doing that day. I asked him to come out and I turned it on. Talk about a smile! Not the best sound ever of course but all four speakers, the fade and tone worked! (Yes, I was too chicken to try the cassette yet)

[FM79Turbo]

Thanks for your detailed reply.
Mine has already holes cut into the package shelf so it should be a much easier task than yours. I should get the speakers next tuesday and will try to install them. Would be great if I can just install them from the trunk and not have to remove the rear seats but I guess i will just have to try.
Thanks again.

[82GTforME]

It's not that hard to remove the seat and the package shelf is only held onto the car with a few bolts too. As I showed, I used maching screws to hold the speakers on because the slide nuts/bolts would not work. I'm not sure how you could attach them without having access from the top unless possibly riveting them from the bottom.

I did not have a factory install to look at to compare how they were installed from there. I assume you are using aftermarket speakers so there may be a slight difference in mounting method required anyways.

[FM79Turbo]

Today I was finally able to finish the install. The last week was pretty bad weather here in Germany so I could not work on the car. However today I was able to install the speakers. You were right the seat removal was quite easy and after that it was an easy job to install the speakers and get the wiring done correctly. I also used maching screws. Worked great. Thanks again for your help.