I picked up a set of Polk component speakers at Crutchfield’s day-after-Christmas sale. The measurements online suggested these could be made to fit. The old Blaupunkt speakers featured a built in crossover attached inside the enclosure. The new speakers come with an external crossover box I will need to hide behind an interior panel. These new speakers are rated as dustproof and waterproof and recommended for convertibles/Jeeps so should be perfect for the Targa.
The trick will be to get the new speakers to fit in the old enclosure.
I disassembled the old speakers and cleaned up the enclosures.
I test fit the woofer and it looked like only minimal trimming of the mounting tabs would be required to make these fit.
The old tweeters were epoxied in. The new tweeters come with ingenious "X" brackets that help clamp them to the original mounting plate. I also used a bit of epoxy to eliminate vibrations like the old tweeters.
I used a Dremel tool to grind away some material from the woofer mounting tabs and the speaker dropped right in. Perfect fit. New woofer and tweeter in the old enclosure.
Next I took the time to carefully install everything into the car. Speakers wired up, and hidden behind the old Blaupunkt grills. I also purchased a matching 4x8 dash speaker but that may be a project for the future since my car has a plastic dash cover hiding the original dash and speaker grill.
How do they sound? The speakers are driven directly off the RetroSound head unit offering up 24watts per channel. I would say the clarity and loudness is at least double the old speakers if not more. There is a noticeable boost in bass response but maybe not as much as one would imagine. That said they are a massive improvement over the old speakers and they sound terrific considering they sit directly on the rear deck.
I can not imagine anyone but audiophiles used to the high-end audio in modern cars being disappointed with these speakers. I have a feeling if these speakers were mounted in some sort of an enclosure they would probably sound twice as nice.
For me the goal was to maintain the look of the old Blaupunkt speakers while improving the sound and from that standpoint these are a major upgrade. My wife and I should be able to enjoy music at all speeds top-on or off and we could not say that before. Should make all future road trips and long drives more enjoyable.
Next, I will have to deal with that old dash speaker!