E30 Audio Overhaul - My Project Details

[longtallsally]

Very cool!  I always like reading your posts based on your attention to detail and obvious engineer's eye.

That said, what did you decide on in terms of attaching your bunjee net?

As usual, you keep me on my toes for forthcoming projects.

[bmwman91]

So far I haven't made up my mind about how I want to divide the trunk to protect the audio gear. I want to avoid welding and drilling holes in anything that can possibly touch water. I might see about mounting a piece of steel grating (commonly used for closet shelving) in there somewhere & fixing it to the heavy carpet with some custom machined aluminum blocks & Velcro.

[longtallsally]

So far I haven't made up my mind about how I want to divide the trunk to protect the audio gear. I want to avoid welding and drilling holes in anything that can possibly touch water. I might see about mounting a piece of steel grating (commonly used for closet shelving) in there somewhere & fixing it to the heavy carpet with some custom machined aluminum blocks & Velcro.

You know, I saw recently I think in an E38 a net on the floor.  I really liked it as it spanned the width and close to the length of the trunk.  I think that might be the way to go if you drill into the carpet on the floor.  That and one probably on the back "wall" are what I'd like to do.

The climbing gear might be a bit too heavy, but when searching for cargo nets, I found a couple that had "compartments" or dividers, but probably nothing to be able to handle your gear.  I gotta say, I don't think the shelving grating would look too good either, but that's just me.

And for my tools, I'm planning on taking an E34 "tray" and cutting the tool part out of it.  I've created a tool list of my own that I'll put in there and just cut out some foam to place the tools in and hold in place.

[DesktopDave]

@BMWman: Nice bit of work there...it does show a lot of attention to detail.

That got me to thinking, so I'll share (If you've thought this out just ignore).  I'd be tempted to hide a lot of that under the front or rear seats.  I'll bet there's enough room down there under the front seat and wiring runs would be shorter.  In a coupe I'd be temped to put stuff in the rear quarters behind the door cards.

@LTS: My e34 tray fits perfectly!  Needs a trunk liner.  Keep in mind that you might have to tweak the trunk springs since it's heavier.  I'm totally serious, it makes a fair difference especially in high winds.

[bmwman91]

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. The rear quarters would be a nice spot for the electronics. I may think about that, thanks!

I wouldn't put this stuff under E30 seats though, too many wandering shoes, cd cases, wet stuff, etc.

[Donkeyshins]

The CD43, installed. I have messed with it a little (took it apart, cleaned the optics & checked the springs/dampers) & that helped reduce the skipping. Radio reception is still awful though. If only there was another factory BMW CD player option...

Did you install an E36 antenna amplifier and trap circuit when you installed the CD43?  If not, check eBay or the CCA website or your local pick & pull as that should (hopefully) fix the reception issue.

-D

[jrobie79]

I had a couple questions on your tweeter sail dimensions.

I noticed on r3v thread, someone posted the below picture (marked up)



based on your dimensioned photo below is the 38mm the green (retained inner lip) or pink (removed inner lip) width in the image above? Did you leave the inner lip intact so you could retain the stock grill?



Also what is the max depth the tweeter can be, I saw your tweeter dimensioned photo, but wasn't sure how much clearance you had behind that before you hit the door metal. I'm trying to figure out what the max size tweeters I can utilize, with or without stock grill if necessary. I also have a buddy who started 3D printing these sails, and wanted to see if he made the openings say 50mm wide if that would protrude and hit my dash or not.

[bmwman91]

38mm is the ID of the lip / the max opening size for an unmodified housing. I can't recall how much of it I chopped off, but I was able to retain the stock grille.

Depth-wise, I would definitely not go much deeper than the tweeter I used. It does not hit the door frame, but it is darn close.

[jrobie79]

Perfect, thank you

[jrobie79]

how much to trim my tweeters down haha? I'll pay a decent amount and return shipping lol. The tweeters I picked out for my system have a huge flange that needs to machined down. Figured I'd ask.

Today's update:

I finished modifying the tweeters to fit in the pods. It was pretty easy...making the fixture was more work than modding the tweeters lol.

Since putting ferrofluid-filled tweeters into a lathe & spinning them really fast seemed like a bad idea, I decided to make a fixture that would hold them on a rotary table. There the cuts could be made with a mill.


The tweeter is held onto the fixture with an M4x0.7 x 16 machine screw. There is a boss on the back that fits tightly into a bore in the rotary table, thus making it easy to center it on there. I made the jig from a D2.5" 6061 aluminum bar scrap.




The milling operation was simple. I chopped off the flange and knocked a little material off of the front to a diameter of 38mm so it would fit nicely into the existing tweeter pod hole. Obviously, I didn't want to cut too much off or else the nice diffuser would fall off, and probably end up destroying the dome in the process. I held a shop-vac hose next to the cutter during the process to keep chips out of the thing.


Here they are, all chopped up.


Fitted into the pod...


There is about 2mm of clearance between the diffuser & the grill...perfect! I stuck them in the car and there is like 10mm of extra room behind them. That is good, because I would have been pissed if they weren't going to fit!

[bmwman91]

how much to trim my tweeters down haha? I'll pay a decent amount and return shipping lol. The tweeters I picked out for my system have a huge flange that needs to machined down. Figured I'd ask.

Holy ancient history, Batman!

Do you have a datasheet for the drivers with dimensions?