MGB MGB Roadster Door Panel Speakers

[Rglosem]

I am thinking about installing speakers in the door panel of my 1972 MGB Roadster. What is the best way to run the speaker wires from the doors to the console? What about the part of the wires that leaves the door and goes into the car? I was thinking maybe running the wire through a short section of flexible conduit that can slide in and out when the doors are opened/closed. Any suggestions from anyone who has done this would be great.

 

[mezy]

I think you will find there might be a good reason MGB's have the speeker in the consol, i dont thing there is enough room in the door to fit them,
I am sure someone with an MGB will be along and tell me and you otherwise,

 

[BobHaskell]

Our 1980 MGB LE has speakers in the doors. The speaker grill opening is about 4" diameter. Don't know what size the speakers are. The speaker wire exits the door through a hole with a grommet below the upper door hinge, goes across the door hinge, into the interior and runs along the square bar that runs across the car, behind the dash.

A photo of an original MGB LE interior in the current Moss MGB/MGC catalog shows the same speaker grills. Clausager's Original MGB book states (page 41) "The door-mounted loudspeakers seen here were fitted to American cars from June 1976, but on RHD cars only from the start of the 1979 model year."

 

[Threonine]

Hello
I have just joined up after surfing the site and seeing your speaker query, although I realise I’m a bit late to the party, but here's my two pennyworth…

While refitting the interior of my 1972 MGB during C*v*d I decided on a stereo installation.
I first fitted bog-standard Sony 4” 35W 3-ways – great while parked up, useless on the road with no roof. Couldn’t hear a thing.

So after some research I installed a 100W amplifier/subwoofer where the parcel shelf goes (in the passenger footwell neatly on the sill ledge): Yamaha makes one, among others, but I chose a GroundZero GZUB 800XACTII. The amp uses a stylish brass rotary gain dial (volume for the woofer) which fits perfectly in the console beside the cigar lighter.

The doors only allow 43mm clearance from the window mechanism: I found that a pair of RetroSound® R-652N 6.5" speakers rated at 100W went in a treat, with a little dexterous hacking of the door card. The speaker cables I have attached with black zip-ties across the top of the hinges – looks neat enough for me.
I guess I sound a bit ‘Boy-racer’ driving down the high street with grinding bass, but when it’s Steely Dan, who’s going to complain?

What’s your head-unit?, you might say. Or not.
I was deliberating about an all-singing, all-dancing DMP (digital media player) with BT, DAB+, and all the other bells and whistles, but I have that in my family vehicle. So I thought, let’s go ‘period’, and I dug out my 60-odd cassettes. There are very few players of that time about, but plenty of flashy 2000-era XPlod’s on the auction sites, but then up popped – a Sony minidisc player! I LOVED that stuff, and had a box of them kicking around somewhere that I had cherished at the time. Crystal clear playback, reliable recording levels – an excellent format! I snapped it up, and found it had a 10-CD changer with it, which I installed against the bulkhead on the ledge in the boot (or is it the trunk?). I have since chased down a Sony source selector with a 6 MD-changer, also in the boot – all very 1990’s but pleasantly retro, and then I can leave my phone at home so no one can find me…

And the sound, and the variety of sources, are just – sublime.

 

[YakkoWarner]

Do you have the minidisc recorder at home to put music onto that format? I was very disappointed to see that format fade away, I thought it was a brilliant compromise between cassette and the (at the time painfully expensive) CD recorders.

I have a Sony XPlod in my 2003 Ranger truck - I like it mainly because it has a USB port that I can stick a 128GB flash drive into, which has pretty much all the music I'd want to carry with me on a road trip. I have had in the back of my mind a plan for my 1970 B if I ever get it running that involves using an old 5 inch Android phone with no SIM card installed as a source (it has a hardware FM tuner and microSD card slot that can take a 128GB card) - it would work perfectly as a removable stand-alone player and then I'd just need some serious amplfication somewhere. I do not want to cut into my brand new door/side/rear panels, and since I'm going to a single battery I have been eyeing the empty battery bin and pondering making some sort of custom lid with an angled top that could contain speakers and close up/secure the battery beneath.

 

[Threonine]

Wow, that's a lot to unpack. I know what you mean about the battery bin - I have just gone single (as it were ...): my last 12V was in the trunk, but I've found one small enough for that recess. That second bin is a potential treasure trove given the limited storage space in a 'B.

Yes, I have had a minidisc deck on my Denon stack system since 2001: but it got a tad neglected for a while - until now! I have been busy buying hauls of used MD's off eBay (with various eclectic music collections, lots of good classic rock, and too much (c)Rap), but the sound is always reliable, the mechanisms deliciously satisfying, and there is a serious Discord/Wiki/Reddit sub-culture alive and kicking.

I've gone a bit obsessive, with MD decks in my lounge, my basement office, even my garage - but the car player gets the most play...
However, I've just acquired the world's only car minidisc head-unit recorder - I don't quite know why Sony thought it would be appropriate to drive along 'taping' a radio show or a CD from the multi-changer, and then editing tracks using the combine or divide functions (remember them?), but hey, what can you do? I'll keep that wizardry for the garage, I think.

The 6 1/2" speakers in the doors of the 'B work a treat with an amp. Lots of luvverly sound. I even invested in a rubber sound-reflecting accessory from a company called 'Second Skin', stuck on the door skin behind the speaker: but of course I always drive with the windows down - DUH! Could be good in less clement weather with the roof up.

Using a phone as a source - that is seriously retro, and not a little eccentric! But you're right, if it works, and it works well, why not? These microcosms of specialist interest are not for the conventional nor the compliant...

Cheers...

 

[JPSmit]

Mmmm Steely Dan

 

[Threonine]

Further to speaker location, my door cards had a perforated circle of 4" / 10cm diameter pre-cut at the correct position below the window winder handle: so my first attempt was easy. Cutting the vinyl was okay provided I left triangular flaps to poke through and glue behind. When I upgraded to 6.5" / 16cm, which is well worth doing, the cutting was more demanding but just needed patience to size it right. But, as I say, not many speakers meet the 43mm clearance requirement.
I can't imagine sound from the battery bin would be at all clear, it could be very boomy.
The dimensions of the ampli-sub I used are 345 x 240 x 68 mm / 13.58" x 9.45" x 2.68"
which goes perfectly, as I said, on the ledge where the map pocket goes in the passenger footwell.
That was my solution, and I'm dead pleased!

 

[YakkoWarner]

And techncally not a Steely Dan song, but musically close enough...

 

[Threonine]

Oh yes, what is commonly known as a 'flawless album'...