2018 Focus SE Timeline

[OldFartAudio]

So my Metra brackets came today and I went ahead and put the Oz Vector 6.5” into them. I am trying to do everything as right as possible because I am not a fan of Jerry rigging things. I used some foam weather strip tape to gasket them and I am going to see if I can gasket the brackets to the door as well but it is 97 degrees out and I am not going much further today. One thing of interest for Focus owners is that I am planning to flush mount the tweeters into the A pillars. I have pulled the passenger pillar out already to check and see what was behind it. There is a side curtain air bag mounted on it but there is clearance toward the bottom that looks like it will be enough room. For y’all who don’t know the Focus has factory tweeters in the sail panels but the factory brackets and grills are integrated so much that it is a huge pain to replace them. I have been around the web looking for ideas and the consensus is either hack them up and glue the new tweeters in, replace them with coaxials and keep the factory tweeters or not depending on your preference. Most shade tree guys don’t wanna mess with the A pillar because of the air bag but I was a mechanic up until about 4 years ago and the air bag doesn’t scare me. Disconnect the battery and put the ground the positive lead to the negative lead for maybe 30 seconds to a minute and all residual power should leave the system. My method is that I am not going to touch the air bag. Anyway, I thought it might be good to document the install since it is of interest, especially to ST owners.

Click to read more...

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

I built my own speaker brackets with 1/2" pine and used fast rings. I put my tweeters in the factory location. I had to do alot of cutting and used hot glue to mount them though. Was planning on a 3 way front stage but the airbag and $600 for factory looking pillar pods made me decide not to.

 

[OldFartAudio]

2020, the hits just keep comingI was going to put it together today and I flushed the tweeters into my A pillars and went out to the car to run the wires and guess what. There is no hole in the door to run the wires through. I pulled the rubber boot out of the door and it looked like it would be difficult to run the wires through but on the other end where it goes into the car it is a plug. There is a grommet on the car side but no other hole in the door. I don’t know if a good way to continue my original plan so now I have good looking A pillars that don’t work. I can surface mount the tweeters onto the grill of the factory tweeters and keep all wiring on the door side but I have holes in my pillars now. I know I am the brainiac. I shave a work around but I don’t have the money for it right now. I was trying to figure things out and I realize that if the amplification was coming from the hatch I could rout the wires but then how do I get signal to my mods in the door? Well coincidentally I will be using a line out converter, an LC2i most likely. So here is the craziest idea I have had for wiring. I tap the front channels off the head unit and run 9 conductor speed wire to the back using only four of the conductors. The signal goes into the LC2 and then becomes two sets of low level outputs. It travels about 18” to the amplifier. Then the amplifier sends its front channels to the passive crossovers also in the hatch. The teeters wire goes to the A pillar with new wire. The mid bass goes from the crossover, back through the speed wire using 4 of the other conductors, in the dash those conductors are splice back into the factory speaker wires to go to the doors. I don’t have money for the LC2 right now and I am not ready to put an amp in. So in the meantime I’ll probably have holes in my pillars or flush mounted tweeters that don’t play

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

Yeah I used the factory wiring for tweeters and mids because of the stupid Molex plugs. Just plugged my DSR1 into the factory amp plug with the Ford T harness. In my 2010 I just drilled new holes for the 3 runs of 12 gauge per door. It also had the same Molex plugs.

 

[OldFartAudio]

I can’t get the boot back on at the body side. I Don’t have the money to run my own wire the right way, grommets, and a drill bit long enough to go through that kick panel.

 

[OldFartAudio]

So after sleeping on it I decided to go ahead and surface mount the tweeters onto the grills of the factory tweeters.

 

[OldFartAudio]

I have only done the passenger side so far and I have some interesting things I found. There are a few holes drilled into the inner door panel behind the moisture barrier. I had three that are a little smaller than #8. Probably only smaller cause of paint. There is one that is up higher on the door and I used it and a self tapping screw to mount the crossover. I used a #8 by 1” self tapping drywall screw and screwed it in by hand. It works perfectly although I only have one screw holding the crossover. My double sided tape won’t stick to the vapor barrier and this will hold better anyway.

 

[OldFartAudio]

Funny story, I always listen to Lenny Kravitz “Fly Away” first to test and I cued it up, forgetting that it starts on just the left channel. So I’m sitting there listening to the right door and the track starts and I about freaked, I’m going oh no, what did I do wrong and I pause the track while I double check my wires. Then I restarted the track and again nothing then as I am wondering what I did to fry the right channel it hit me and I let it play until the drums and bass kick in. You should have been able to see how I was panicking inside my head it was great. Anyway so far so good

 

[OldFartAudio]

One more thing, I had been toying with the idea of trading this in on an ST in a couple of years but after this I don’t know. I like the idea of 3 ways with the mid and tweets in the pillars and it will be such a pain to do that it might not be worth the hassle. I am hating the progress of the automotive industry. Let the stereo be a stand alone system so we can have our fun.

 

[OldFartAudio]

Forgot to take a picture with the crossover cover on. I did put the cover on before buttoning it back up. The connectors are gold plated spades from Parts Express which say they are 22 to 16 awg but I crimped the first one and it came off. After that I stripped about half an inch off the wires, twisted them up and folded it back onto itself before inserting them into the connectors. They all worked fine after that. The far right connection on the crossover is for boosting the tweeter +3 which I did not do. With the tweeters this far forward I don’t wanna boost them even more.

 

[OldFartAudio]

As far as the holes in my A pillars I think I will stretch some grill cloth, or a black dress sock, over the flush mount cups and pop them into the holes. much cheaper than replacements.

 

[OldFartAudio]

 

[OldFartAudio]

 

[OldFartAudio]

Driver’s side is done. I got about 30 minutes of listening in before my daughter called me to come feed her and my son it doesn’t seem louder than the factory at all times but it allows me to turn the volume up and it gets louder. Volume goes to 30 with factory I could go to 21 before breakup. I took these to 30 on “Everyday” by Buddy Holly and there was very slight breakup and I only had it there for a second. I was comfortable at 25 on most tracks. On “Inbetweener” by Cody Canada and the Departed I brought it back down to 23. I couldn’t tell if it was clipping or if it was in the song as it has some dirty guitar and the singers voice is a little raspy. It’s a really cool song if you haven’t heard it and the drums are great. I was most of the way through “Seven Bridges Road” by the Eagles when my daughter came out and I didn’t get to “The Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash She said she could hear it from outside of our third floor apartment even though I had the windows up so it will probably be gone tomorrow the tweeters are pretty smooth and the woofers are good with the low stuff. I didn’t do any sweeps to see what certain frequencies sound like but it does seem to get low and play loud compared to my old Quarts. This is important to me because when I get around to adding a sub I like to cross it over between 50 and 70 hz. My xtant 3300 was crossed at 50 and the first gen 12W6 was excellent. I don’t remember if we crossed the quarts over at 50 or 70 but they couldn’t keep up at the low end and I had a hole there. The only way I found out was a guy at a show listened and he played his own CD. We listened in my car and then in his and there was a bass line that we didn’t even hear in my car. He said that it was really common in IASCA SQ cars because we only tuned using the competition CD. Anyway, I want to avoid that hole this time.

 

[OldFartAudio]

Driver’s side is done. I got about 30 minutes of listening in before my daughter called me to come feed her and my son it doesn’t seem louder than the factory at all times but it allows me to turn the volume up and it gets louder. Volume goes to 30 with factory I could go to 21 before breakup. I took these to 30 on “Everyday” by Buddy Holly and there was very slight breakup and I only had it there for a second. I was comfortable at 25 on most tracks. On “Inbetweener” by Cody Canada and the Departed I brought it back down to 23. I couldn’t tell if it was clipping or if it was in the song as it has some dirty guitar and the singers voice is a little raspy. It’s a really cool song if you haven’t heard it and the drums are great. I was most of the way through “Seven Bridges Road” by the Eagles when my daughter came out and I didn’t get to “The Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash ☹ She said she could hear it from outside of our third floor apartment even though I had the windows up so it will probably be gone tomorrow the tweeters are pretty smooth and the woofers are good with the low stuff. I didn’t do any sweeps to see what certain frequencies sound like but it does seem to get low and play loud compared to my old Quarts. This is important to me because when I get around to adding a sub I like to cross it over between 50 and 70 hz. My xtant 3300 was crossed at 50 and the first gen 12W6 was excellent. I don’t remember if we crossed the quarts over at 50 or 70 but they couldn’t keep up at the low end and I had a hole there. The only way I found out was a guy at a show listened and he played his own CD. We listened in my car and then in his and there was a bass line that we didn’t even hear in my car. He said that it was really common in IASCA SQ cars because we only tuned using the competition CD. Anyway, I want to avoid that hole this time.

Forgot to mention that every setting is flat and centered. No boosts or cuts and stereo and fader are equal.