Hi all,
Well it's been a satisfying day of working on my project Uno, I hit upon an idea for sound deadening of the door skins on a shoestring budget. Normally you would do what FIAT did to the 'SL' models, and buy self-adhesive bitumen sheet (typically from car stereo shops) to stick to the inside of the door skins. Nice, but probably almost ten quid a sheet, which may not be a lot of money in England but trust me, it's too much here - almost a week's groceries
Incidentally (and off-topic) I have used this sheeting in my Alfa to seal off all 'holes' in the door metalwork prior to installing the door trim, which creates an 'infinite baffle' for the speaker and greatly improved the sound.
Right, so in the past I've plastered on underbody coating thickly as a cheap sound deadener - but what is even cheaper is to apply a thin coat of the underbody coating (1L tin costs equivalent of 5 pounds, sufficient for all four doors) and then cut some flooring vinyl into rectangles (offcuts free from a dumpster outside a carpet warehouse) to stick in place onto the black goo. See the first picture.
The second picture (taken several hours later) shows the unorthodox location I chose for the door speakers. The door cards (from another red Uno 45 5-dr) had no speaker holes, in fact they were truly pristine, with all clips in place and waterproofing sheet AS WELL as black vinyl on back of card, and no warping... hey any of you with Mk1 Unos will know how rare that is...
The convention is to cut a hole near the bottom, and attach the speaker to the door card itself. Then screw on the door pocket (screws from the back of the door card) and finally clip onto door. This is not the best because the speaker has only a flimsy mounting, particularly if the door cards are in 'average' condition (unlike mine!)
If you're keen, you can move the speaker closer to the edge of the door card to get some of the screws into the metal, but you still have the problem of the door pocket getting in the way when you try to put the speaker screws in after fitting door card to door.
Soooo... here are the benefits of my installation:
- 4" speaker fits neatly into rectangular slot in door structure (as shown by white ellipse in first pic) with no cutting into the sheetmetal
- All four screws go into the metal so no need for those 'spire nuts', just cut hole in panel with jigsaw, fit panel to door, drill four holes, and screw in
- Sound imaging is improved with speakers further forward and raised (IMHO at least, maybe Tipo drivers will agree)
Because the speakers are mounted extremely solidly, the improvement in sound quality amazed me. These speakers are Jensen-branded and cost equivalent of just 5 pounds (Jensen went bust and most of the products are really poor quality, see the third pic for a closeup of the CD Tuner, with non-motorised CD transport, bought new for 35 pounds-equivalent).
Anyway, I can feel the bass through the floor, which really surprised me, and of course the doors sound so much better when you close them - no tinny clang.
As for when the next owner wants to fit bigger speakers - tough Don'tcha hate previous-owners like me?
-Alex
Well it's been a satisfying day of working on my project Uno, I hit upon an idea for sound deadening of the door skins on a shoestring budget. Normally you would do what FIAT did to the 'SL' models, and buy self-adhesive bitumen sheet (typically from car stereo shops) to stick to the inside of the door skins. Nice, but probably almost ten quid a sheet, which may not be a lot of money in England but trust me, it's too much here - almost a week's groceries
Incidentally (and off-topic) I have used this sheeting in my Alfa to seal off all 'holes' in the door metalwork prior to installing the door trim, which creates an 'infinite baffle' for the speaker and greatly improved the sound.
Right, so in the past I've plastered on underbody coating thickly as a cheap sound deadener - but what is even cheaper is to apply a thin coat of the underbody coating (1L tin costs equivalent of 5 pounds, sufficient for all four doors) and then cut some flooring vinyl into rectangles (offcuts free from a dumpster outside a carpet warehouse) to stick in place onto the black goo. See the first picture.
The second picture (taken several hours later) shows the unorthodox location I chose for the door speakers. The door cards (from another red Uno 45 5-dr) had no speaker holes, in fact they were truly pristine, with all clips in place and waterproofing sheet AS WELL as black vinyl on back of card, and no warping... hey any of you with Mk1 Unos will know how rare that is...
The convention is to cut a hole near the bottom, and attach the speaker to the door card itself. Then screw on the door pocket (screws from the back of the door card) and finally clip onto door. This is not the best because the speaker has only a flimsy mounting, particularly if the door cards are in 'average' condition (unlike mine!)
If you're keen, you can move the speaker closer to the edge of the door card to get some of the screws into the metal, but you still have the problem of the door pocket getting in the way when you try to put the speaker screws in after fitting door card to door.
Soooo... here are the benefits of my installation:
- 4" speaker fits neatly into rectangular slot in door structure (as shown by white ellipse in first pic) with no cutting into the sheetmetal
- All four screws go into the metal so no need for those 'spire nuts', just cut hole in panel with jigsaw, fit panel to door, drill four holes, and screw in
- Sound imaging is improved with speakers further forward and raised (IMHO at least, maybe Tipo drivers will agree)
Because the speakers are mounted extremely solidly, the improvement in sound quality amazed me. These speakers are Jensen-branded and cost equivalent of just 5 pounds (Jensen went bust and most of the products are really poor quality, see the third pic for a closeup of the CD Tuner, with non-motorised CD transport, bought new for 35 pounds-equivalent).
Anyway, I can feel the bass through the floor, which really surprised me, and of course the doors sound so much better when you close them - no tinny clang.
As for when the next owner wants to fit bigger speakers - tough Don'tcha hate previous-owners like me?
-Alex
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