240z speaker setup. Help me plz :P

[z3r0]

Ok, a little background info. I have an 85 300zx at the moment. The only thing good about the car, other than the T-Tops is my system.(Its worth more than I payed for the car heh) I was just wondering what the speaker set up was for the 240z because Im going to sell my 300 and get a nice rebuilt 72'.

My 300 currently has 6.5's all the way around. And I just bought them all recently. But not recent enough to take them back So I was hoping I'd be able to get them in the 240z. Possible? I can't find anything on the speakers of a 240z. All the fit guides I have looked at either don't go back that far or don't have nissan/datsun. Any help is good. If they don't fit, advice on making them fit or something else to do would be great.

[Bambikiller240]

The 240Z came with ONE speaker in the left rear (behind the plastic panel) of the car. It wasn't very large, IIFC approx 6" diameter. Most original owners added another on the right rear when installing a stereo. Some butchered their door panels and added 4" dual cone speakers at the same time.

If you don't mind chopping up the interior, you can ghetto-up a Z with any sound system you can imagine.

[z3r0]

wow, one speaker? dang ok thank you.

[george71z]

I have 5 1/4 speakers mounted in the kick panels on each side in the front. The only drawback to this location, is the speakers can't be very deep. Huge magnets will not fit. There are some nice speaker boxes made that replace the taillight panel in the hatch area that are cut for 6x9's. A friend had one in his 72 and it sounded pretty nice.

[speedyblue]

check my gallery and Proxlamus' (sp) as well. I have 6x9's behind the seats and subs. He has a fair bit more, but I can't remember what.

[dnald]

Its best just to build your own box. I have a 71 240 and I bought a couple of Infinity Kappa 6x9's and build my own box to fit in the back and face forward. Later, i got a hand-me-down sub with a box and set the whole thing up with an amplifier (didnt even have to drill holes for wires!). The only problem is that there is no room whatsoever for storage in the back. Also, the subbox is right in front of me and the 6x9s. But that doesnt seem to make a diff in such a small car. It still sounds amazing. Ill post some pics of the setup soon.

[z3r0]

oh hey, yeah that'd be awesome. Im used to the whole no room in the back thing My sub box right now takes up all the room in my 300. Im going to have to make a new one im sure. custom for the 240

[ZSaint]

Wait until this fellow discovers that the Z only has an AM radio. (Well most of them!) Yowsa, yowsa, yowsa!

[72' 240]

There are many great ideas for this. I'm not sure how good this one is, but here goes:

1st of all remove your original stuff (kick panels, glove box inner box, etc. Get replacement parts from your nearest salvage yard, (fewer and fewer of them) at pennies on the dollar, or contact a really great source that I've found out in Roseburg Oregon; "Danny's Datsun". Danny has been a well of quality parts and information to me for many years, and maintains a huge used parts inventory, 541-430-1180.

Store the original, buy some stuff to cut-on.

Quality Speaker boxes can be used in the back without cutting a thing. If you wish, you can leave enough slack in the wires as to allow you to remove them, and place them on the roof as you work on other things.

***(Devise a way to temporarily anchor them. A flying speaker at impact can't be good)***

One thing that I did which works well for me is that I mounted a nice unit in the glove box. Close the box and the entire interior looks, and is "stock".

You can do it very easily, hide wires easily, get an accessory console arm rest/glove box, and you're set.

Hope this was helpful... Oh, remember, the 50 amp alternator was not neccessarily built for todays high-output stereos. A local alternator/motor rewinding company in town told me that, that is a major concern for those who install excessively large systems in even the modern cars.

Safe (fuse box safe) upgrades are out there. Sometimes too much power channeled through these often corroded fuse boxes can melt them down. Reasonable power, adequate wire size, and solid connections make it work.

Oh, and...

A few dollars, and you can get a thin set of front speakers that will perform, or do what I did, and contruct some spacer rings to make the speakers stand out as opposed to sink in. aaAs you know, the front kick panels only allow approx. 1" (at most) before you're dealing with steel.

[EScanlon]

Only the very earliest 240's had AM only. That would be 69 and early 70. By the second half of 70 and up they had AM and FM. Still only one speaker, but there was an indicator to let you know the station was a stereo one. The two right most selector push-buttons would change the band to FM and select the selected FM station.

Enrique

[z3r0]

yeah I was looking at some pictures, i want to keep her pretty stock looking. I guess its just going to be some experimenting on my part, and taking her in to have it custom done if it comes to it. thanks for the info guys, very helpful. Now i know what i can expect to deal with

[EScanlon]

Just a couple of thoughts regarding speaker installations:

If you are not opposed to loosing the tool box covers, then you can just replace the lids with speaker panels. You'll get two benefits, one a deeper resonance cavity, and the ability to return the car to stock when you replace the tool box lids.

If a small degree of modification is acceptable, you could mount on the front of the tool box area. This will involve cutting some sheet metal. One disadvantage is that the speakers will literally be aimed at your butt, not bad for listening to Thus Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey), but subtle jazz or light pop would suffer due to the muffling of the seat and the carpet below.

A mix of the two above would involve placing a pair of 6x9 in speakers on the front of the tool box area wired to the lower frequencies of the cross-over, and then a pair of 5¼" mid-range and another pair of 2" tweeters mounted on a speaker panel in lieu of the tool box lids. Insulate the interior of the tool box area with fluffy fibreglass after putting down some tar-mat to the metal and a Port Duct for the Air Reflex of 5 speakers and you would have a small component speaker system. If additional crispness is desired, a pair of 5¼" Mid/Tweet combination speakers could be mounted in the stock locations. The final item would be to locate a pair of 3" or 5" round dual speakers on the underside of the dash (you'd fashion a plate that would attach to the dash and firewall) right by where the fresh air vent controls are.

Personally, I feel that adding a ton of base to music requires the volume of air to enjoy it in. The amount of base these kids are pumping serves only to resonate the complete car and not to make it sound better inside. Yes, it may appear to be better, but to a true audiophile it is more muffled and less dynamic than a good home system. However, there will be some that will insist on adding subwoofers. Why not check the amount of space available under the seats? I wouldn't be surprised to find that you could put a 9" or biggger directly under the seat. You could shield the seat bottom and direct the sub-woofer downward to change the directness of the sound.

All of this requires a high wattage amplifier, which in turn requires a high wattage alternator and battery. Plan accordingly and effect upgrades as necessary to meet and give a safety margin. Then rock-on down the highway.

2¢

Enrique