Mounting Tweets in Sails (Side or Front)

[orangetang 10+ year member]

At last, a couple of days off work to do an install on my new F-150. After holding the tweeter in many different positions in the vehicle, it seems obvious that the two best places are on the dash, next to A-pillars pointing up, or in the sail panels facing backwards. The problem I've encountered is that the mount bezel is too wide for a rear facing mount in the sails, however they'll fit perfectly on the sides of the sails, at the cost of some sound stage. I can always turn up the tweeters a bit and mount them on the sides, but I'd like to ask first how I would be able to mount them in the desired location. Without the mounts, the tweeters will fit. It looks like I would need a 1 1/8" holesaw and some form of adhesive. I'm afraid that the adhesive will either not stick, or make a terrible mess. There is very little 'overhang' between the tweeter and it's grill. Maybe 1/8" at most. That doesn't leave a lot of surface area for great adhesion to the sail panel. What would you do? I've never seen tweets mounted where I want them, maybe there is a reason for that...? I'll post some pictures in a moment.

Desired Location

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Gluable surface area...

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Door Panel

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Tweeter Grille - Only this rim is gluable to the sail

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Inside Door

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Tweets are of an Alpine SPR-17S component set.

Click to read more...

 

[KyleBechtold 5,000+ posts]

can you fiberglass at all? its really easy and then you can mount the tweeters facing backwards like you want.. just paint afterwards check out sem paint to get the stock look

 

[orangetang 10+ year member]

Can't fibre/bondo/paint. The sails and door panel are one peice and have a heavy texturing to them. I think it would stand out badly to have a smooth painted sail on a textured door panel.

 

[BassnTruck 10+ year member]

Then you are stuck. There are very few installs where I liked the tweeter up high or that far from the mid. It usually throws the imaging way off. But it seems most people prefer the louder tweet then a more imaged sound stage. So it looks like they are going on the dash.

 

[orangetang 10+ year member]

They can go in the sides of the sails without an issue. If anywhere, that's where they'll fit best. In the door panel itself, I could mount them closer to the woofer, it isn't a problem. I could even mount them behind the factory driver grille. That must be where they go in the Sony audiophile system anyway. I'm just worried about my arm, or leg blocking the tweet if it's way down there. I suppose one more choice would be under the sail in front of the door handle? Lots of room to mount them there. And it would probably look good on that shiney piece, which is replaceable should geyser

FYI The actual surface mount will work fine anywhere except in the front of the sail. I meant to post a picture of it initially, but it wont upload for some reason...

Here are door panel pics, in the daytime...

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[BassnTruck 10+ year member]

When dealing with an automobile it is all about trade offs. In reality even the most off the wall SQ people will never achieve a perfect sound stage under every circumstance. But luckily most people are either ignorant or just not as picky and you can make a lot of stuff work and sound pretty good with all things considered. If you really want to get serious make a pod to mount your mid in and have a friend help you play with your imaging but holding the pod and tweeter in different areas and angles while you sit in the seat. Problem with this will be you have no fab skills to implement what you just found.

I am going to assume you are replacing the stock speaker with a component set. You have a lot of room to play in the door by the speaker. Can you make it sound OK to you by holding the tweeter next to the speaker? As for mounting your tweeter most come with mounting cups for a number of options. Only the cheaper ones do not come with a flush mount, surface mount, and angle mount set up. I can not really tell what you are working in your photos. After we know what you have for mounting options we can tell you how to do it.

 

[orangetang 10+ year member]

After ample consideration of tweeter placement, I decided to take the safe route and use my 2" hole saw to cut into the door panel plastic next to the woofer. Tweets are mounted in the flush mounts they came with. I aimed the tweeters up a little, and set the crossover to -0db to increase their presence. All door panels are back in, and even though I have not yet installed the LOC and amp, I can tell there will be an immense improvement in SQ. This was my first use of Dynamat, which only covered a 10" or so square centered over the woofer. I used excess to cover bare areas, but in reality the doors on this truck are very well insulated, having a complete rubber covering and fabric dampening along the lower parts. That said I can also already anticipate the irritations that not having a customizable EQ and crossovers in the deck will pose. On the bright side, I didn't cut the sails, and the install was as simple as it could have been. Everything looks stock still, and the imaging isn't terrible. I kind of hate this set of components, but they've been sitting on the shelf for quite a while, and they're certainly better sounding than the ~12w paper 6x8s I took out. I greatly appreciate the help you guys have contributed.

 

[orangetang 10+ year member]

Here are some pics of what I ended up doing, again sounding not bad. The improvement will be drastic when I eventually get my PDX 4.100 hooked up and tuned in, along with the sub box I just built.

 

[BassnTruck 10+ year member]

Cool