quote Originally posted by Boostdreamer: How did you connect these speakers to the car's harness? Did you get plug-n-play connectors or did you cut the connectors off and splice the wires together?

Don't remember.
Probably cut the connectors off to connect to the X-over. (takes bare wires I think)
The speakers in turn connect to that.

Typical cross-over. 2 wires in, 4 wires out (2 to woofer, 2 to tweeter)

[This message has been edited by fierosound (edited 04-16-2014).]

[This message has been edited by Boostdreamer (edited 05-05-2014).]

I got my front speakers installed and wanted to post my review of the set-up and the process.

For anyone who is thinking about doing this, you should know two things; it sounds great and it is a difficult task to perform.

I couldn't be happier with the sound of the component speakers. I got really good quality components and that was what I wanted. I got an older set that is discontinued so they were discounted on Amazon. I think I got a great deal. Now I just want to drive my car around and listen to the stereo. I have been driving a minimum of 40 miles a day for the past 16 months while in school. Now that I have a desirable sound system, I'm finishing school and my driving will be more like 10 miles a day if I get the job I'm after. That's a Fiero owner's luck, isn't it?

As for the installation process, it is not easy. I have a lot of time in making my three mounting plates. I made the dash speaker plates out of 3/16" hardboard. I attempted to make the subwoofer mounting ring three times out of 3/4 MDF and they all three split when I tried to fasten them to the factory sub housing with screws. I ended up making the subwoofer ring out of 1" red oak. I got the 12x42x3/4" MDF and the 6x24x1"oak boards from Home Depot. They were both just over $6 with tax.

There is a lot of fine-tuning with these plates. It is not easy to get them to sit in the recess just right and then have the screw holes line up just right. It takes many times of putting the plates into the car and seeing how they fit and then adjusting. You also want to be sure you don't interfere with the grill covers. They are skinny on the ends but have large mounting bases on the underside of the grill. You can easily think that they will fit since the shafts will easily have clearance but then the base can be blocked if the plates aren't opened up enough.

THEN you have to be aware that you are constantly reducing the material available to surround the 5.25 speakers. If it gets too thin, guess what? The metal rings around my speakers were hanging over the edges of my wooden plates a little bit. Make no mistake, this is a tight fit and you might do better by finding a component set that has a 5" driver.

Another thing that I didn't realize is that you have to cut out two sections of your dash's speaker mounting holes on both the driver's and passenger's sides. At least I had to. My speaker's baskets were not cone shaped. They came down straight then turned in toward the magnet. So, with the factory opening only being 4" at its widest part, it had to be honed out to fit a 5.25" driver and basket. If your basket is different, maybe you won't have to cut your dash. I don't know. If I had thought about it, I could have seen if my subwoofer would have fit in the dash plates without cutting. To be honest, it seems to me that everyone using 5.25" speakers will have to cut their dash.

[This message has been edited by Boostdreamer (edited 07-19-2014).]

[This message has been edited by jscott1 (edited 05-31-2014).]