# MkIV Aftermarket Tweeter Install... Pics inside...



## PedroGringo (Sep 3, 2001)

Oy folks. 
I thought I'd share my Infinity tweeter install since that is something I've been asked about a few times lately. Most aftermarket tweets don't fit in the stock housing for MKIV GTI's and Jettas. 
Here's a quick description of how I did mine:








Tweeter installed with thin double stick tape. This stuff will hold like crazy. The stuff they use for RC cars works better than anything I've found elsewhere. It also is quite thin. 








You have to dremmel out the inside of the trim panel that covers the tweeter. 5 minutes with the dremmel and it looked like this. I used a cutting wheel and the sanding tool toget it like this. 








Final product. 
I'll post up more pics of my install later. Just thought that would help some folks. 
PEace
PEter


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## AllCityDubs (Jan 5, 2004)

Sweet install Pedro!! Looks awesome!







Definatly book marking this for when I get some components!


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## PedroGringo (Sep 3, 2001)

*Re: (vDubbedUp)*


_Quote, originally posted by *vDubbedUp* »_Sweet install Pedro!! Looks awesome!







Definatly book marking this for when I get some components! 

Thanks. I'm going to add some spacers behind the 6.5" drivers to get them out from the door a little, then the speaker portion of the audio install will be done. 
PEter


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## AllCityDubs (Jan 5, 2004)

Peter, I recently did this to all of my mids... I had 3/4" spacers at first and then added an additional 3/4" for a total of 1.5" and WHAT a differance... Definatly go with 1.5" spacers...


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## mike0r (Jul 10, 2003)

I just bought a set of Infinity Reference 6000 components.. will i have to do this mod? 
Also, what spacers are you guys speaking of? I am gonna do the install on saturday, so I wanna be ready for everything.. btw, it's for a '03 GTI


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## PedroGringo (Sep 3, 2001)

*Re: (mike0r)*

The spacers go behind the main driver. It places the speakers closer to the grill. It also keeps your window from hitting the back of the speaker when you roll it down. 
I'll take pics of my spacers tonight. I just cut two rings of 3/4" MDF to make a 1.5" spacer. 
You'll almost definitely have to mod the tweeter cover since the OEM tweeters fit into the back of it. The Infinitys are too big to fit in that slot and it isn't an easy thing to get to fit without doing a little trimming. 5 minutes with a dremmel was all it took. 
Eventually I'm going to do some custom work on that and have the tweets show more. I like the silver mesh on them. It looks good with the rest of the 20th AE interior. 
Good luck.
PEter


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## VReihenmotor6 (Dec 12, 2001)

*Re: (PedroGringo)*

you should have taken the grills of the tweeters so the silver wouldn't be visable....


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## PedroGringo (Sep 3, 2001)

*Re: (VReihenmotor6)*


_Quote, originally posted by *VReihenmotor6* »_you should have taken the grills of the tweeters so the silver wouldn't be visable....

I thought about that, but since they are eventually going to poke through and be totally visible, I wanted to leave them intact. The silver grills on the tweets looks like they are pretty well integrated into them and would be a beeeeeaaach to take off.


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## mike0r (Jul 10, 2003)

what set is that?
I'm installing the Infinity Reference 6000 components tomorrow..


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## PedroGringo (Sep 3, 2001)

*Re: (mike0r)*


_Quote, originally posted by *mike0r* »_what set is that?
I'm installing the Infinity Reference 6000 components tomorrow..

I installed the Infinity Kappa 60.5 CSi component speakers both in front and in back. 
Here's what the doors look like with the door cards off:








This is without spacers installed behind the main drivers. The black material is Cascade Audio V-Block. I've also got some dynamat extreme on the inside door panel. This stuff makes a big difference. Even though I haven't turned my head unit on yet, the road noise is wayyyyyy less with the sound deadening in there. 
There are more pics of my install here if it helps. 
http://vwroadtrip.peterbeers.n...o.htm 
There are a few other things that will help with the install that I'll post up about in a few minutes. I need food. My brain is about to shut down (not that its ever doing much more than occupying the void between my ears). 
PEace!
PEter


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## PedroGringo (Sep 3, 2001)

*Re: (PedroGringo)*

Edit: These are in no particular order and they're somewhat disjointed. I added pics where I could. Hopefully they'll be helpful for folks. This was my first audio install, so I had to learn some stuff the hard way...
Okay... A few things that you'll need as you do your install....
1) If you don't have any dynamat, get some. At least get a few of the speaker packs that have 2 10x10" sheets of dynamat extreme in them. They go for about $20 per pack and they are well worth it. I used a mixture of Cascade Audio V-block and dynamat extreme. The V-Block is much easier to use on flat surfaces and works very well. The dynamat Extreme is more difficult to work with, but form fits to curved surfaces better than the V-Block. The V-Block comes with a foam sheet that is great for helping get rid of rattles. You can stick this stuff between the door release cable and the door panel and it really makes it so you don't get any door rattles at all. 
For installing this stuff, you'll need a heat gun, a roll of paper towels, some denatured alcohol and some rags you don't mind tossing when you're done. 
Most of the interior panels on the lower half of the car are coated on the inside with wax to help seal them from the elements and protect them during assembly. This wax is a good thing, but having it up on the inside of the door panels makes it so the dynamat and v-block won't stick. Start with the heat gun (on low) for short blasts to soften it up and then wipe it away with the paper towels. Make sure you use short blasts.... just enough to soften up the wax. It isn't too tough to burn your paint with a good heat gun. Be patient, take your time and maybe wear some cheap gardners' gloves to protect your hand from getting cut up by the sheet metal edges inside the door. Don't remove all the wax. Leave some of it down at the bottom where the metal panels meet. I figure it has some sealing properties and was put there for a reason. Rubbing things down with denatured alcohol on a rag will finish the prep work for stuff that you're going to dynamat. 
2) Make a spacer for each door mounted driver. As was evident in another thread, for many kinds of speakers you have to make a spacer so that the window doesn't hit the back of the speaker when it rolls down. For the Infinities, this may be as little as 1/4". My window barely touches the back of the speaker with no spacers. If you can, its good to put a thicker spacer in to get the speaker closer to the grill on the door card. I'll take photos of this in the near future so you can see what I'm talking about. I've read that people move them out as much as 2" depending on model. From what I've read, 1.5" should be possible with most car models most speakers. The OEM speakers had the 1" rubber cone that pressed up against the inside of the grill. They could even move closer to the grill without that cone. 
More in the next post, this one is getting a little long....


_Modified by PedroGringo at 2:24 PM 1-15-2004_


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## PedroGringo (Sep 3, 2001)

*Re: (PedroGringo)*

3) Make holes for the speaker wires to come out. The OEM speakers have the harness plug in on the outside of the speaker. I drilled two holes for the wires to come out. I protected the wires with extra shrink wrap and then sealed the holes with dynamat extreme after the wires were run through. Here are the holes:








4) Make slots for the threaded inserts for attaching the speakers. The door speakers are probably riveted in. Mine were. You'll have to drill the rivets out carefully. That leaves a big hole that you won't be able to use when mounting your new speakers. My Infinitis came with bent sheet metal thread inserts that go over a larger hole. These worked well as-is in the back of my GTI, but wouldn't go over the 3/4" lip in the door panel. I cut a slot in the door panel so the threaded insert would fit in. I then dynamatted around the lip so the threaded insert would poke through and be held in place by the goo on the inside of the dynamat. The slots look like this:








You can also see the wax on the inside of the door panels in the background of this picture. 
I'm going to screw the MDF spacers into these holes, then screw the speakers into the MDF. That should provide a strong mounting for the speakers. 
5) Pay close attention to where you mount your crossovers. There are very few places where you can actually mount them easily. This pic shows you a good place to mount them in the doors:








In the back, there is really no room to mount it. There is a big styrofoam piece that VW puts around the rear speaker for sound deadening. I carved out the back of that so that the crossover could fit behind it. Take your time, it will work. I also dynamatted and double sided taped the styrofoam around the speaker so there was no way it could move around down the road. Keeping things tight in there will help in the long run. 
6) Power Cable Routing: I don't know what you're doing for amps, but if you've got to run some thick wire back to the amps, you can do so under the carpet just inside the door jam. Take up the plastic piece that runs along the door sill on the drivers side, pull the carpeting away from the edge a little. You'll see there is a big honking wiring bundle that runs along between the door sill and the front seat. I had no trouble fitting 2GA wire and speaker wire in that channel. 
7) Beware of the metal clips. When you're taking the rear panels off (assuming you've got a GTI), there are two metal clips that attach the back of this panel to the trim piece in the trunk that your rear deck lid attaches into. These clips are not in bentley. You just need to fiddle with it and you'll figure out how to unclip it. I didn't do that well on the first one and bent the clip beyond recognition. I just got a new one from the Stealer today. I'll install it when I remove all the rear trim to dynamat the trunk area. 
8) Think about sending your interconnects somewhere other than up the center hump. I wanted my interconnects to be as short as possible. I got them down to a little under 10 feet by sending them up along the hump in the middle of the car. The problem is that the carpet between the back of the center console (the thing around the hand brake) and the back seats is REALLY tight. Mine wouldn't give enough for me to run 3 interconnects and the remote wire back to the amps. I was trying to use a coat hanger to pull them through and couldn't. I ordered a tool that paintless dent removal guys use to get under carpet and inside panels and that might make it easier. As it is now, there is 6" of wire that can be seen between the middle of the back seat and the back of the center console. Hopefully this tool will make it possible. It resembles a very flexible slim-jim that has no metalic memory. You can bend it like crazy and it springs back to almost its original shape. It cost $75, so I hope it works. 
I guess that is it. I'll be posting some of this stuff up on my web site over the next week or so. Hopefully it will be helpful for people. 
Drop me an e-mail at [email protected] if you've got questions. 
PEter


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## PedroGringo (Sep 3, 2001)

*Re: (PedroGringo)*

Oh yeah.... 
9) Go easy on your head unit. According to Crutchfield and Sound Domain and many of the posts on this site, it is relatively easy to just insert the tools you get or make and the head unit pops right out. That's not always the case with the big huge double din head units. My was a total PITA to get out. I tried the tools that Crutchfield sent. I tried the ones I bought from Enfig.com. I tried cut up sheet metal (brass to be more specific). I even cut up a CD and used the wafers from that to try and release it (I didn't really need that New Kids on the Block CD anyways. I hardly ever listen to it anymore). Nothing worked. 
I took my car to the dealer this morning. They've got something more substantial than all of the above and it came right out. They didn't even charge me. I gave the tech all the money I had in my wallet anyways ($40)since he was majorly cool to hepp a brudda out. 
Here's the kicker... I was REALLY careful while using all the above tools. If you're not, you can easily schmoizel up the pins that are inside there and then the only way to get the head unit out is to either rip it out (thus destroying the trim around the outside) or take the dash apart (including the glove compartment and maybe the panels above and below) in order to get access to the pins. 
Just be careful. Don't force anything. If it doesn't come right out, take it to the dealer and let them work with it. As long as the pins aren't screwed up, it is less than a 5 min. job and most dealers won't even charge you for that. 
I guess that is it. Time to pretend I'm working agian. 
Drop me an E if you have questions. I'll keep watching this post for a while. 
Thanks to all the folks here who answered my newbulous questions. I hope to be done with the first phase of the install this weekend and have some tunes. Then phase 2 will kick in to make all of this stuff look better and cover up the wiring. Phase 3 will involve building the sub enclosure and wiring that up. 
PEace!
PEter
Edit: I've added all of this info to my web site. You can find it at: http://vwroadtrip.peterbeers.n...o.htm 



_Modified by PedroGringo at 2:59 PM 1-15-2004_


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