Hello everyone,

Just found this forum and this is my first post. I saw alot of pictures of your guys Rx-7s and I didn't realize how many people still own a first gen.
So my mom has a 1983 RX-7 SE and it's been sitting around for a decade. I got my license a little over a year ago and I wanted to get my own car. This summer my grandpa, my dad, and I are going to try and get the car started up again. I think the carborator is gummed up, the ignition seems messed up too, also need to get a new battery.

Anyways, I'm currently driving an RX300 and I put a sound system in it. When I make the switch over to the '83 RX7, I can't really bring that system with me, So I'm going to invest in some cheap components and two 8" woofers. I was looking around this forum for more information on audio systems you guys might have installed but I didn't see much. I know enough about car audio to install this myself. I was wondering if anyone knew details about what kind of headunit that would fit in the stock location, also if anyone knew details and measurements for the stock speakers and their locations. I was thinking of putting the 8" woofers in the removable compartments right behind the seats.

If anyone has advice or pictures or can answer some of my questions above, it woudl be greatly appreciated.

 

Hmm..

I can answer the simple ones like
Front speakers are 4"
Rear speakers are 6 1/2"
Theres a fair amount of room in the dash so almost anything should fit in there

 

i put an 8 inch jl behind my seat
It works pretty well, but there are better places to put a sub in an RX7.
iirc $100T2 has a thread about recessing some subs near the tailight assembly.

Heres my setup.

 

search user John64

 

Oh snap, that's exactly what I was going to do, put two JL's just like that in there.. lol thanks for the picture and help

 

This is my Headunit:

 

Dude, before thinking about the sound system, read this:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...postid=2385473

You'll need to know all that before you touch your stereo. My car was sitting only 5 years and took 4g just to get back on the road. It wouldn't have been worth it if the body and interior weren't perfect.

Sitting cars are the worst because everything that's meant to move gets seized.

From what I've heard, putting subs or speakers behind the seats in the bin position muffles the sound compared to something in the hatch area bouncing off the glass and towards your ears. But it is a very convenient location.

For me, I will be putting a pair of 8" Infinity Reference subs in the area between the back of the hatch and the taillights. They wont' take up my cargo space that way, and they'll be positioned better compared to the ones behind the seats. For speakers I'm going Infinity Kappa 52.7i fronts and Infinity Kappa 63.7i rears. A pair of Infinity Reference amps (one sub and one 4-channel speaker) and a Nakamichi CD300 deck round out the system.

Should be pretty sweet.

Jon

Edit: if it's a GSL-SE, it doesn't have a carburetor. It has fuel injection. Have fun with that

 

Please clarify that, i need to replace my system soon, and would like to kill 2 birds with one stone (subs and system)

 

Not necessarily true. My 6 1/2" Rockfords required cutting a significant amount of metal to fit in. Depends on the speaker really.

I'd like to see more attempts at subs by the tail lights, I think it would be the ideal location.

Subs in the storage bin location take up cargo room which is at a premium in these small cars, and the sound is immediately muffled by the seat. If my memory of physics class serves me right bass has long wavelengths that need space to sound right, shooting it right into your seat and negating all the space in the hatch isn't the best idea. Plus theres plenty of unused space by the tail lights (especially if you're a weight **** like me and removed the jack), and it would be easy to conceal small subs back there.
Hope that helps.

 

Could someone clarify this?
I always thought the box the sub was mounted in produced the the bass.. hardly the sub itself..
Wouldnt the sub need a wood sealed or ported box to sound proper?
as far as I know, they cant just be mounted anywhere and sound good

 

Sorry, I was tired and didn't make sense. Has anyone done the taillight subs?

 

There used to be a company many many moons ago called rotay engineering out of ventura, CA. That made theses anodized replacement console parts so you could change the head unit and add guages and stuff.

Worked great for me back then but now i'm rebuilding an SE and they are out of business. If anybody knows of somobody selling the same type of part let me know.

I have a lathe and milling machine maybe i could make something similar. i have an old catalog from them i could post pictures of what I'm talking about if anybody is interested.

 

Welcome to the forum and the Darkside. As Jon, vipernicus42, stated, get the mechanicals up to spec and the car running before investing in an audio system. There is nothing more frustrating than having tunes and only being able to listen to them while sitting in the driveway.

In my sig line is a link to the online FSMs, carb manual and other rotary reading material. Since the car has sat for 10 years, you have a lot of work ahead of you to make it not only streetable, but also reliable.

Who knows, once you hear that sweet rotary exhaust note, you may choose to spend your money on upgrades for performance and handling instead of tunes. I removed all of the audio components from mine, it's shown in the last line of my sig.
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I would love to know how to make one of the tailight enclosures, because I really don't want to sacrifice the little cargo space I already have.

 

Did anyone suggest anything to the contrary?
I suppose my post was a bit confusing... sorry.
But of course you need to mount it in a box, if you want bass that is. If you want a decoration hang it from a string.

Search for a thread by $100T2. He put a lot of effort into designing a great box to fit back there, and planned on selling them. Hopefully he gets around to finishing them.

 

Suprisingly enough, he did not finish that project either.

 

There seems to be a lot of room back there, I am considering trying to fly blind in making them. I'll have to look at the thread again, maybe make a how-to for anyone else in my situation.

 

I hope you do, and good luck.

 

Not that this would really interest you, but this is the way I did mine, and a CD changer. Obviously this sub isn't going to blow you out of the car, but it is adequate for me (older generation). I was able to keep all the original Clarion components in and functional, including the equalizer and the joystick.

 

Welcome and as stated, get the cer running before you put a system in (did that just come out of my mouth?) After that checkout my cardomain page for details on storage bin subs and many other stereo projects. As for the taillight boxes, you will need alot a patience and most likely fiberglass to make it work properly.

P.S., do not listen to all those who say the subs do not work behind your seats, they just never did it and are all talking out of their ***. I hit 138db's with 2 12's in the bins at only .5 cuft a box!

I'm nor to sure $100T2 will ever finish his boxes as it took him 6 months to not even get a working prototype. I hope he proves me wrong and picks it back up. If someone in my area gets me a good car I could probably put a good working one together in a weekend.

 

Am I the only one to build a sub box for the spare wheel hole? Greatest problem I encountered with it was the rattling of the hatch... (thus I replaced the seal and tightened up the latches)

btw it was a 12" infinity out of late 2001, I don't remember model number, nor the amp I had, a friend put it all in for me... just adding a few pennies of thought to the barrel

 

I built one of my sub enclosures using the spare tire area for part of the enclosure (fiberglass). In my current setup the spare tire area houses all my relays and transformers along with all the distrabution.

 

Just curious, where did you guys mount the tweeters, and yes, hopefully the car will get started when I work on it this summer.
Thanks for the replies and pictures though!

 

I want to put 2 12s in my 1st gen but i couldnt find a good spot. anyone else with this problem should check out this box i found will fit insde a storage bin. Gives you that stock look.

 

I had tweeters mounted at the top of the A-pillar trim plastic, easy to take off and run wires behind.