18 replies to this topic

[TERRA Operative]

Ahh, the XE Falcon. What nostalgia. I have owned 2 of these and an XF ute in my time.
The location of the mids in the factory positions is indeed pointed to waist level, and straight back parallel with the door. On top of that it sits about an inch behind a plastic trim that acts to stop even dispersion of the sound. Not exactly the best location.
If you do decide to locate the mids in the dash, there is an insert that acts as a speaker holder that sits in there, it's a plastic box shape with a tube sticking about an inch long from the back. You may have them already, your car being a Ghia, it's a little hard to tell from the picture...

The size of the car and depth of the dash means the location you have chosen for the tweeters should work well. I myself found this location to be quite adequate for nice staging. The only problem with mounting the tweeters in that location would be the cowling thingo over the gauge cluster.
For the drivers seat, it should be ok but you may run into problems with it blocking the sound to the passenger. I'm not too sure, you'll just have to check.

I would install the woofers at the bottom front of the doors (Unfortunately there is no room in the kick panels, even with the large size of the car) with the mids nearer the top, try to make all 3 drivers per side as close to equal distance from the listening position as possible. This will help avoid delay problems.

Also, if you are only using a single subwoofer, get some seats from an XF Falcon with the fold down section in the back seat. Remove the crossbrace in your XE behind the seat and install the XF seat. This will allow you to mount the sub behind the hatch firing into the cabin. Just open the hatch during listening for nice unimpeded bass.

The steel used on the door skin is thicker than newer cars (The X series Falcons were built like tanks) but even so, sound deadening in the doors would be a good idea. I cant remember how deep you have for flush mounting the speakers, but I never ran into trouble with speakers being too deep, ever.

Oh, also upgrade the positive cable from the battery to the starter motor. The X series Falcons are notorious for not starting on hot days due to excessive resistance in the wire. A full grounding kit wouldn't hurt either. (Battery negative to engine and to chassis), and the wire from the alternator to the battery positive is a little on the thin side too.
If you want a cheap alternator upgrade, go to the wrecker and get an alternator from an EFI XE/XF Falcon. They were rated at 80 amps, as opposed to 50 odd amps for the carby models.

If you have any other questions regarding the XE/XF's, just ask. I'll try to remember the mistakes and stuffups I made so you don't have to do the same.....


[EDIT]
Almost forgot. If your car is auto, there is a nice hole in the fire wall where the clutch cable would normally go. It has a bit of tube in it so a grommet is unnessesary. From memory, it is big enough for up to 2gauge wire I think.

Edited by TERRA Operative, 13 October 2006 - 11:33 PM.

[SQ_Ghia]

hey, thx so much for the help

well first of all my xe ghia is an 84' model wich means they came with E.F.I engines , also these old cars have really thick metal as u mentioned not like the new "plastic cars"

i have made speaker pods in the bottom corner of the door like u mentioned to house 6.5 " the 1's i showed b4, facing the centre console (Not angled) so i will have to cut them of at a lower frequency, wat would u recomend aprox?

the stock location of the 4" faces the waiste as u sed and isnt an ideal spot, although modified it can be great, i still have the cover, that covers the 4" speaker is that wat ure tlkn about or is it sumthing different?

my car is also an auto and yes i have found the hole in the firewall were i have passed 2 gauge wire threw

and 1 more question, would u happen to know what the cabin gain frequency of the x falcon was ?

thx again for the help

[TERRA Operative]

There is the cover with the slots in it that covers the speaker and makes the dash look nice (removed in your picture), but also another piece in where the speaker actually screws to. Could you take a closer picture of this area so I can see if you have it installed? I remember having to install it into my S-Pack Falcon.

As for crossover frequency, try the frequencies posted earlier. That would be a good guide to start from. I'm not sure of the cabin gain as I never went right deep into the audio side of things until I got my Cortina, which is substantially smaller than the Falcon.

With the pods, I would angle them to point roughly to the interior light, somewhere towards the centre of the car.
Your car is EFI? If so, about the only upgrade for the alternator is an aftermarket Bosch unit. It's a relatively simple install, as all the engine electrics is Bosch anyway. But by the sounds of it, the 80 amp unit will suffice.

[zion187reigneth]

SQ_Ghia, on Oct 12 2006, 11:02 PM, said:

so wat do u guys rkn that the speakers are all close 2gether?? and the stuff i showed etc etc

u guys rkn it can be a competitive sq system?

Go for the glory dude, and if u stuff it up thats all good.Post up your results and failures though as maybe some of us can learn from it...............zion