This caught me completely off-guard the other day...

I was busy looking for a good place to install a rocker switch for my electric fan, so I took off the dash...

to my surprise.... I found a wonderful present! Alpha audio has once again screwed me!

My driver's side speaker almost looks destroyed! This explains why my dashboard was cracked in the middle, those *******s!

The were supposed to trim away some of the plastic if required, hell I even payed about $60 for them to install these speakers!

should I go back and get my speakers replaced? the left one is starting to sound like crap! plus since they shifted it about 2 inches to the left, the tweeter is almost completely covered up, and I never realized how good they sound until I took the dash off... man I'm pissed!

This would almost certainly crack an old dash like this, wouldn't it?

http://www.m2stream.com/scrapmaker/36225389317.jpg
http://www.m2stream.com/scrapmaker/36225862661.jpg
http://www.m2stream.com/scrapmaker/36225902853.jpg

http://www.m2stream.com/scrapmaker/36226450181.jpg
http://www.m2stream.com/scrapmaker/36226180101.jpg
http://www.m2stream.com/scrapmaker/36225432453.jpg

OMG .....Look at the flex u got there! Yea take it back and tell them u want new ones and for them to do it right! I installed my own. I took a heatgun and moved some of the duct and "Made" Room. Now mine fit great and o man....that flex!

no kidding! and not to mention the fact that the tweeter is almost completely blocked by the dash...

it looks like the speaker itself is twisted, since its been almost a year of being bent like that... this sucks... I guess I will go in there and starting bashing heads in...

if I go in there nicely, like every other time, they will just offer me some "insane" discount on something of theirs, that I don't want/need... like the tint! whew! what a discount, I paid like $200, which was supposedly free labor... that amazes me beyond... amazement...

other places will install tint in less than an hour for like 100 bucks... price with parts and labor... I hate these people, please don't shop there for both our sakes!

nice hack job they did.

I'd definately go back and bitch. I'd do it very loudly and rude.
But then again, that's just my style.

Come to think of it, I'd never be in that situation, because I don't ever trust other monkeys to do that sort of stuff for me in the first place.

It is simply amazing what some "professionals" will do. The speakers fit fine with spacers in my car.

this is why i do my car audio installs myself.

DITTo! thats a big 10-4 little buddy...

loud and rude can be my style if necessary...

here is what they have done wrong as far as I can tell...

1. Installing these same speakers in a 1987 chevy celebrity 2.8... they only used 2 screws on each speaker, one one side... so they actually... FLOPPED! needless to say, the terminals were not in a good condition, but that was something I could overlook since I trusted them and I kinda knew the salesguy...
2. Cracked my dashboard in my bird during the install of these same speakers. They claimed that they did not do it at all, then I said, whoa man, this was not like this before you can't pull this **** on me... then they brought out some "guy" to intimidate me, and tells me that no insurance company would cover this because the dashboard is so old... that's when I told them that they should have told me and had me sign something... but the installer told me it was a piece of cake.
3. Broke both of my speaker grilles because they were trying to take out the old speakers from the top of the dash (idiots, they claimed to have done many of these installs!)
4. Then, I find later that they didn't even try to install these speakers, bending the crap out of them and hackin into the dash with some extra long screw, that way they wouldn't have to trim some plastic for the main magnet...
5. Later I found out that in a friend's car they didn't even do a good wiring job on some components he had installed, they kept getting caught on his window lever inside the door. and also they never actually replaced his wiring, they just used some factory wiring, and spliced it into some new stuff after the deck, and cutting the wires from the included harnes... neat!

it worries me that there are such "professionals" out there. the super quick and easy installs like these are the ones that should be the cleanest!!! I can't believe my eyes sometimes.

don't be discouraged guys...for those intimidated by car audio installation, you can keep your eye out for a truly good shop. they do exist!!!

btw, to play devils advocate...I've seen PLENTY of "i do my own installs" kind of jobs. far more frightening than this. just a few:

http://members.shaw.ca/installz/install/shame/shame.htm

have fun!!

bmoney

just so you guys know... I went into alpha audio the other day and told the (new) manager my situation... he used to be a salesmen there and I've been in there many times...

it turns out that the installer guy was fired some time ago... guess why?

anyways after about 10 minutes of staring at my install, he wanted to know what I wanted to do about it.... I said, if we could just swap them for some new ones, that would be great... so that's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna install the new ones myself, unless they are gonna do it for free, which they should since I already paid for a custom install once ($60)

just goes to show that you don't have to murder everyone in a car stereo installation place to get what you deserve.

Screw the speakers, I'd be more pissed about the dash, you know how much a good one on ebay goes for?

.

I have no idea how much they go for... I was hoping there was some way to fix it myself....

at the time I looked up how much a dash was... and I mistakenly saw that they were $100... which was really a cover (which everyone seems to mis-advertise this)... and the guy at the install place agreed that $100 sounded right (he prolly knew the real price)... so I got a $150 discount on tint install labor...

I paid $200 out of my pocket... so somehow a normal tint install there for a 1990 Firebird (platinum series tint).. costs $350.... amazing....

I wonder if I should even have them install the speakers... because they would get it right this time... now that the manager is someone I actually know (he also does installs)

Glad to hear things went good at the store.

Ini regards to the dash, keep an eye open at your local wrecking yard. Dashpads go fast, but if you time things right you can get one for a really good price.

I got a near new one for 20$ at my local pick a part, but that is in Canadian money..

Shipping is so much cheaper when you can pick it up yourself.

Regarding horrid installs. There are good installers out there, but you will be hard pressed to find them :P

The guy who originally installed my GF's tape deck (before I met her) did the usual hack job on the wires, cut off the factory harness and used crimps and those home electric twist clamps to connect it all.

Left and right speakers were reversed as well.

It was a nice discovery I found when installing her CD player.

The only question I have is, didn't you notice the speakers sounding kinda.. distorted when they were playing.. or maybe a little bit of a muddy sound from being muffled by the dashpad?

I am quite picky about sound quality so I would usually notice stuff like that. However I guess they probably sounded better than the stock 4x6's anyhow. So I guess it would not have been noticable.

Lets get some pics of the replacement speakers that you install eh?

yeah, that's exactly why I didn't notice the problem, because they were still 100% better than NON-working stock speakers! lol..

I will post pics of the new speakers in about a week, when they come in... apparently they have already ordered them for me...

are there any good hints at installing these? how do you use a heat gun on this? because I have asked these guys how they would install it, and the manager didn't even know, he wanted to know how the hell you get a heatgun in there... and I said, you got me man...

do you need some sort of special attachment or what? how do you do this without a dremel tool... I would like to do this without puncturing a hole in the venting..

I've had infinity reference speakers in my car going on 5 years now.. which have the same plate, and there still fine. I installed them myself and just bolted them in.. I think one of the screws wouldnt line up so I just used 3 a side.. nothing special. Personally i wouldn't let those people touch my car again, and switching the speakers out is rediculously easy. And alot of places around here offer $150 tinting with a lifetime warrantee so .. they screwed you on that too... I would stay far away from that place...

Horrors!! Go back with your receipt and demand new speakers!! If they will not, then contatc the BBB and file a complaint against them.

guess what? I did that very thing! I went in and showed the manager my problem, and it turns out the installer guy was fired some time ago... I can go pick up my new speakers whenever I take out the old ones...

does anyone know how the heck to get a heatgun to fit in the opening, since the windshield is in the way? (to make the driver's side speaker fit)

since ur using plates, the midranges magnet is offset (not in the centre of the plate). align the plate that has difficulty the way in which it fits best. you may have to reach down and "push" some stuff outta the way with ur hand....

I'm wondering if the newer 3rd gens are different...but my 82 Zee has nice little plates the speakers mount to (which come out, so you can install them separately). and NOTHING is in the way.

bmoney

The difference is between Camaros and Firebirds, I believe. All the Camaros I've seen have that mounting plate that you're talking about.

I have those very same speakers and when I installed them in my GTA it required quite a bit of modification to the heater routing, and I had to cut a bit of the dash cluster box away for the speaker to mount flush. The driver side speaker is a bit crooked, but it fits well, and mounted solid.

I also had to modify the dash pad a bit so the tweeter cleared everything and wasn't covered.

But it can be done in a firebird. They can be made to fit, and work well, and look factory.

did you cut some more "slits" in the dashpad speaker grilles? to allow the tweeter sound to come out?

No, I tried to but the dremel even on a low speed caused the plastic to heat up and warp. So I just cut the slits out of a set of junkyard covers and covered them with a very thin black cloth. Looks like the factory did it.

so to those of you who used a heat gun to install these speakers.... how did you get the gun to fit in there and install these speakers right?

will the dremel tool cause air to leak out of the ducting?

Only if you cut through the wall of the plastic duct. If you do some JB weld, or plastic epoxy can easily work. In fact you could even cut a massive amount off of it and use the plastic welding compount and some thin lexan to create the needed clearance if you wanted. That one vent wouldn't work so great, but you could put your speakers in!

do you guys mount the tweeters inward, or facing away from the center of the dash? (assuming plates)

On the drivers side I was only able to mount the speaker flush if the tweeter was towards the driver side door. The passenger side had room to be mounted either way. So I just went opposite and mounted it with the tweeter towards the passenger door.

I wonder... if you just cut the crap out of the venting... does it only affect the defroster? Or are these passages for the AC or anything that's actually important?

I bet that no matter what you do, the heat will still get on the windshield when defrost is on, because you'd have to really destroy the passages...

Think of putting a hole in the ducting like making a vacume leak in your intake tract. Bad thing. Your driver side defrost will not work well if you create a hole in it.

If you are in a pinch duct tape will work great to cover up any small holes. It will also be damn permanant as long as it isn't exposted to alot of moisture and sunlight. Sunlight is hard to come by when the dash pad is on . But moisture could easily be found on a rainy day.

does anyone know how much plastic must be removed for these speakers to fit flush with the stock mounting holes? maybe an idea of how much plastic there is to work with?

because if I can, I will try and use a heat gun somehow and melt the plastic, that always works well if you have an expert behind the wheel...

In order to fit my speakers in there all I had to do was trim away at the extra casting bits, and it fit in there just fine without cutting into the duct.

what tool did you use? some sort of knife or the grinding bit on a dremel, or a cutting wheel?

I tried teh dremel at first, but even at low speeds it was causing the plastic to heat up and warp, so it didn't cut very well. I ended up just using a pair of wire snips and hacked away till it fit.

After I got a rough fit I used a file to smooth it out.

and this allowed the speaker to fit in the stock mounting holes?

It fit, but at an angle. However, the fit is tight enough that two screws are sufficient to hold it motionless. I am tearing my dash apart sometime next summer and I will probably re-route the heat a bit so I can mount the speaker better.

hrm so why doesn't everyone use the heat gun to just bend the heating vents back a bit? is this hard to do?

Not everyone has access to a heat gun.

And when I installed my speakers I didn't even think of using one. I just started to do the best I could.

cool well I appreciate the help, I'm gonna go and get the replacement speakers tomorrow...

well I got the speakers and now they look a tad better!

it turns out that they cut an enormously-large hole in my A/C vent, I even checked to make sure and when I turn on the a/c it blows hard out the hole they made... neat... also a small hole in the heater vent that I guess defogs the side window there.... I just trimmed away some more of the plastic ( I don't know why he didn't finish cutting it away, since he was almost done )... using an exacto-style knife... it was easy, 20 minutes max...

now I just need to find some thermal tape or something to increase my a/c flow again...

Just use duct tape. It works fine, and is made for JUST that purpose. Its used to seal the sheet metal ducts in houses.

You could get fancier and use some epoxy and thin lexi glass. But the duct tape will do the job just the same and be easier to apply.

great idea, thanks.

also I wonder, do you guys normally install the speakers in this orientation, or can you get the tweeter facing inward? I think the sound might get through the speaker grilles better that way, but the overall sound should be better with the tweeters as far apart as possible, so I don't know...

I have an Eclipse head unit, Kappa's up front, and Alpine 6x9 Type R's in back. Its not a bad setup, the imaging could be better. I don't think making the tweeters face inward will make muc difference at all.

I need a small sub, a single 8" or 10" would make me very happy.

I know that if I cut those slits out of the grilles in the dash I would get much more treble out of the kappas.... because with the dash off, I had to change my eq quite a bit....

LMAO that hack install site is funny as hell. My first camaro was like this. I had to hack install The Harness was cut off, so it was just tons of wires stickin outta the dash. I did solder a factory adapter to it and heatshrink it, so it was pretty good, and added a plug, but still not that great

yea! i started with the heat gun...got tired and then decided to hack away also!! AHAHHA it was great...i used this sheet metal tape used for duct work i had around to repair my mess. Although they fit good and im happy .

man I'm gonna have to open up my dash again and put that duct tape on there... I can't believe that they did that to my dash... and what's funny is I just completely ignored this before, but everytime I use my A/C at night, my windshield would fog up, on the OUTSIDE, and man that was annoying... well now it's even worse than before, so that duct tape will come in handy...

I ended up buying a study exacto-type knife... and cutting away as much as possible, then the only holes I could line up were the diagonal holes, but that's good enough a flush-mount install with diagonal holes secured won't be going anywhere...

also, when they installed my speakers the first time, they broke off BOTH of my grille inserts... then super glued them in place, but now they still rattle, so I wonder what I should do? *rattling to the bass output of the 4x6's --- with the bass cut off as much as possible... the highest my deck can do is 200hz cutoff, at a 12db curve--which seemed to help some, but not much... my kenwood could do 220hz, and rattled much less... I'd rather fix the rattle and allow the speakers to play with as much bass as possible though.