jharrison5

I purchased an '87 Iroc a while back and am now starting to work on the interior. The car is equipped with the Bose option but I'm not too sure what all should be there equipment wise.

There were speakers in the kick panels, but the amp on the passenger side is missing, and the rear lid speakers and amps were there. No head unit though and there are no speakers in the dash or behind the sail panels. Were there speakers in the sail panels and dash with that option? From the research I have done I don't think there was.

The four speakers that were in the car work great, but I have read that the amps fail all the time. I am thinking of just adding speakers to the sail panels and dash, reinstalling the factory bose speakers (less the amps), and going with a modern head unit.

Thoughts or input?

jwfirebird

iTrader: (2)

not sure what came with the car but bose speakers are sort of all or nothing deal. most gm bose are low ohm ratings so you cant just hook them to an aftermarket hu that is expecting 4ohm speakers, you will damage it. so the all or nothing is use all aftermarket or fix the bose stuff and use all bose. personally i think the aftermarket stuff is 100% better

Bob88GTA

iTrader: (2)

Crutchfield.com All kinds of options

jharrison5

I talked with crutchfield earlier today and the gal wasnt helpful at all. She basically told me that the wire adapters and head units they have wont make my system work. I already knew that lol.

So I did a bunch more research and looked through some wiring schematics and found an answer to my question. There were only four speakers included in that system and I have all four of them. The head unit didn't put out any power to the speakers, just a sound signal, that was sent through each amp.

Now that I know there was only four speakers I'm going to add in the missing dash and sail panels and have an eight speaker system. Just trying to find out what the ohm rating is on the Bose ones so I don't blow them up when I add in the rest of the system.

jwfirebird

iTrader: (2)

you cant add speakers in parallel to the bose either, that will make the low ratings even lower.

jwfirebird

iTrader: (2)

if you look at the back of the speakers it will normally say what they are

abray1

I took the bose speakers out and installed infinity kappas and a kenwood deck. I wouldnt go back for anything. I did the same thing to my vette many years ago and it turned out perfect. All I need is a base enclosure but I don't want to disturb any of the interior. I sealed the speakers in there enclosures like bose did except I used silicone so the bass part of the enclosures would work and they do its just that it needs more bass. I may go with a powered enclosure like a bazooka or something and put it behind the rear drivers side wheel well.

jharrison5

Ok so I got a PM from a member who has never seen the factory Bose system in a 3rd gen so I took a few pics of what I'm working with here. Keep in ind that I have already disassembled everything and removed the carpet from all the panels.

jharrison5

rear cargo cover

jharrison5

Head unit (I don't have one, but this is the correct one) and the factory ID tags for the kick panel/rear cargo lid

jharrison5

Please explain.

My plan is to run the added speakers (dash and sail panels) off of the head unit's power and then run the kick panel/rear cargo bose speakers off of an additional amp.

Is this a flawed plan?

jwfirebird

iTrader: (2)

if you use an amp its fine, i thought you meant you were going to hook the bose speakers and the aftermarket speakers directly to the hu output

rarebmx

iTrader: (6)

I have a couple Bose systems here (not installed) and from my research, if you bypass the amps you should be good with a different head unit (other than factory Bose). I think you are going to spend more time & $ trying to make everything work together. I think the Bose option is cool & that's why I've been buying them when they come up but running 8 speakers with 2 different Ohms might not make financial sense.

bigdavesiroc

i had the factory bose system in my car when i got it. i replaced the head unit with a double din pioneer some time ago and it worked pretty good. you're right about only having the 2 kick panel speakers and the 2 rear panel speakers and no sail panel speakers. if you do decide to do sail panel, you'll need the factory bracket. the opening will be too large for standard 6x9's. i picked mine up at a junkyard for 15 dollars. i removed the rear ones because the lid enclosure is crazy heavy...best of luck.

jwfirebird

iTrader: (2)

the amps are what make the bose speakers with weird ohm ratings sound decent, you cant just bypass them. if they have lower ones the hu will be putting out too much power and can hurt itself. and i have heard of 8ohm ones. those would be like half the power as the other ones in the system. they were designed for that system and doesnt mean that ones from different designs will sound good. and good is relative anyway a simple set of properly matched aftermarket 6x9's and 4x6's and a decent HU will blow away anything gm ever had even currently