Radio Aerial

[Peetee]

I need to fit an aerial to my Mog but I'm reluctant to find a space and drill a hole if there is another option. Can anyone give an opinion on the efficiency of screen mounted internal aerials or suggest any other possibilities?

Cheers

[Willie]

I too did not want to put a hole in my car for an aerial. Most
of the modern radios are quite sensitive and I have got away
with laying the aerial down along the dash panel(behind the
instruments). I must stress that is one of these rubber covered
aerials so it will not short out anything behind there. It is good
enough to pick up reliable stereo FM, and ofcourse is completely
out of sight. The radio is in the drivers side glove box.
Willie

[Cam]

Just to add to that.....Make sure that you have a good earth to the part of the aerial that is supposed to be attached to the body, as the aerial uses the car's body as a ground plane in order to create a dipole.

If you don't then the aerial may still work but it won't be as effective as it should be.

[an_avenger]

I have an adhesive aerial stuck on the windscreen, underneath the passeger's sun visor. It's quite descreet and reliable because it contains a 'booster' style imput as well as the aerial lead itself. i bought this from Halfords (about £12) and it was simple to fit - the earth strap was a problem however, to find a suitable location where it wouldn't be an eye sore was difficult but a small hole, a bit of solder and filed down ensured it was hidden away when mounted on the metal bar above the rubber! To add perfection i painted the strap to the colour of the metal bar to blend it in! This is the only thing of my audio equiptment which at this stage is fitted! I'm still having difficulty trying to find a good place to mount the radio itself (I'm not nicking the thread) but any ideas?

Well I eventually get a digital camera I'll show you my progress!

[Cam]

The passenger side glovebox is a good place to mount the radio, as you can close the door and keep it hidden away!!

[olonas]

The glovebox is where most fit the radio but personally I need the storage for other "out of sight" items.
Purpose made housings can be purchased quite cheaply, this is what i used, and secured under dash on the passenger side of my Traveller. The housing can be secured with either self tappers or small BA nuts/bolts and the radio unit just slots in (standard DIN aperture). It's a bit of a stretch but the housing might fit on the driver's side. The front of my radio/cd unit is removable so less attractive for a thief?

[Willie]

Ok fellas, advise me regarding the speakers. I have tried them every
where ( I do not want to cut the door panels) but cannot get a good
(bass) sound despite now having 6"X9" speakers!! They are at present
on the parcel shelf and sound strangled. It is a convertible.
Willie

[olonas]

I've heard of speakers being fitted into the scuttle side panels. I considered this but decided there wasn't enough room behind in spite of the concave pressing in the steel panel. Also the hole had to be spot on and I didn't want to cut the panels anyway. I don't know if the close vicinity to steel will have any effect on the magnets. There's more room behind the door panels but there is the added problem of routing the cable.
Like you Willie I fitted them to the parcel shelf but made plywood enclosures for them, painted matt black. However the speakers are smaller than your's but sound quite good.
Not much help to you really but fortunately for me mine are ok in their present location.
Could they be mounted at the rear somewhere?

[Cam]

Ha Ha, great minds think alike!! (or are we just stuck for places)

I too have 6x9s mounted in custom shaped thin MDF boxes painted black and mounted in the under dash parcel shelf, and I too did not want to start hacking great big holes in the door panels.

The bass sound is not too bad as I have sealed the enclosures and made them the largest shape possible to fit in the space.

The thing is, I think that a far superior sound will be achieved using the doors, and routing the cables should not be a problem if a flexible rubber tube is used (from a modern car from the scrap yard).

The door panels are not that expensive and are easily obtainable, so getting the original look back won't be a problem.

I keep looking at the door panels and wondering should I ?...........

[rayofleamington]

Back to the original query - efficiency of screen mounted internal aerials.

A friend of mine had a factory fitted roof arial on her Eurobox, which packed up after 6 years. Rather than mess about trying to secure a new arial to the same hole without access from the back, we took a risk and fitted an interior screen arial by the rear view mirror.
It was a 'boosted' type and the reception was fantastic! The car stereo took on a new lease of life as the arial was 10 times better than the original. The wires were very easy to hide behind the roof lining, and as it's on the inside it was easily rooted to the stereo.

It made me rather sad to remember that I'd messed about fitting a conventional body mount arial to my minor a few years earlier!

[Willie]

Thanks...I fitted speakers in the footwell side panels on my previous
Minor and they were acceptable... but there is not a lot of room.
My present Minor has the early.....not so deep, parcel shelf and I
found that,believe it or not, the bass response through the 6X9 speaker
is better if I face the speaker to the bulkhead!! Yes, I am looking
at the back of it! BUT this is only a good sound when I rest my head
on the seat base, once I sit up it sounds strangled. It may be something
to do with having a hood instead of a solid roof??
Willie

[olonas]

Willie you're probably correct about the difference in sound in the convertible. There is a difference between my saloon and the Traveller probably due to internal volume of vehicle.
On a different tack, with domestic hifi, the room acoustics are definitely a factor in sound quality - size of room, curtains, carpets, furniture, speaker positioning etc. no doubt the same in a car to some degree.