I spent a great wet Saturday investigating what is to be found deep in the passenger foot-well and talking to a specialist in in car audio.
So, what did I find?
1. Under the rather low quality floor carpet lurked all sorts of odd little things left over from building the Mog, including a couple of washers, a self tapping screw and a bolt sitting between the floorboard a the chassis side rail.
2. The carpet trim comes away from the side of the foot-well easily enough, it isn't exactly firmly glued. But a couple of carpet tacks have been used and because they have surface corrosion they are a pain to get out. As the chassis frame was revealed I found a couple of holes to the outside, so water can get in....some epoxy putty called for I think!
3. Behind the carpet the leather side trim continues about 20cm, up to the point where the ash frame ends.
4. Removing the leather trim is more difficult as it is stapled to the floor and frame, the staples are corroded and each one has to be eased out to avoid damaging the leather!
5. Behind the leather and between the scuttle tube and front of the ash frame, where it joins the firewall, is an aluminium panel that is cut to take a loudspeaker.
6. Stuffed behind this panel are a load of wires, including what look like the plugs to go into the back of a radio!!
7. The radio fitting position is ready to take a radio, but no wires in it.
This all looked promising so off to the Car Audio specialist in Amesbury.
I spent about an hour chatting with Jason, the owner. He gave me a lot of really useful advice.
1. The car is wired for a radio and speakers and the wires stuffed between the speaker panel and body work are the radio connectors and they reach into the radio fitting position!
This makes it all much easier!!
2. There is no wiring for an aerial. Not a problem, Jason will fit a hidden DAB antenna.
3. Don't spend too much, the position of the speakers and the maximum 10cm speaker size is very limiting.
4. Don't put tweeters at the ends of the dash, they are too far away from the main speakers and the sound wouldn't integrate so I'd hear them separately.
5. Spend money on lining out the foot-wells, transmission tunnel, scuttle floor and doors with Dynamat and on the sides and bulkhead also use Dynaliner to cut out heat. Together this will cost close to £300 if I do it but will make a massive difference to comfort, with or without the audio! Given the Mog has no sound or heat insulation I'm not at al surprised!
6. Fit Pioneer speakers, about £40.00
7. Fit an Alpine head unit, he recommended the same on that Henry at Williams recommended with DAB Radio, full i-pod connectivity, built in blue-tooth so the sat-nav and phone will work. About £200 with remote control unit.
8. Upgrade the speaker fittings to they are, structurally, like small Hi-fi units. This means the speaker is in a closed, filled box and sound from the rear of the speaker doesn't leak out.
The last point is the starting point and I'm building a wooden frame and front panel. As nothing is square or parallel it is an enjoyable challenge that I'm documenting and will report on with dimensions and photographs, so you can all copy me if you feel the urge, or just wonder why I would do all this!!
Total budget is about £500.
It will take a couple of months as there is A LOT of measure, make a template, cut the Dynamat, fit the mat and so on. The passenger side is easy as it is relatively accessible but the drivers side will be fun as there isn't much space down there!
