This may be esoteric info,as few of us have jdm rear interior conversions in our EG hatches, but since I could find nothing on the subject and I've been banging my head against the wall trying to puzzle out why my JDM Gathers speakers wouldn't fit right in my JDM interior, I thought I'd share some insights I've gained over the past 8 months.

Most of us know that there are 2 versions of Gathers twin-pod speakers that were used in JDM Civic hatches:

1. The flat-paneled version that only works in the ETi, VTi, and SiR hatchbacks.



These bolt to the frame of the car using five 8mm nuts (no L-bracket like USDM speakers use) and require the JDM side panels to fit the car.



Note that the speaker shroud in that picture isn't supposed to be bolted on yet....but this illustrates how these mount.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that bought a set thinking they were plug-n-play and realized that the speaker grills won't work with their USDM/CDM interiors.

2. The other version is the curved-speaker grill Gathers set that were used in the MX, ML, and EL models.




These bolt right into USDM/CDM Civic hatches, and because of this, they are highly sought-after. These use the L-shaped bracket just like the USDM speakers. The curved grills just pop into the USDM/CDM panels.

What I didn't realize for sure until a few days ago is that there are a few variations of the ETi/VTi/SiR flat panel Gathers speakers. What brought this to my attention was when doing my JDM interior install several months ago, I wasn't able to get my speaker grills to pop into the side panels. Even though they were designed for the JDM interior. It is interesting to note, I purchased the speakers separately from the JDM interior I was installing them in.

I realized that there were these long strips of steel that came with the speakers, which purpose was now becoming clear to me. They were meant to be bolted across the top of the plastic speaker shrouds so that the upper hooks on the panels would have something to clip to. I always thought this was kind of strange as I've never seen mention of this anywhere online.




But the problem is, although this kinda worked for me, the speaker grills were never completely flush and they tended to pop out when I hit hard bumps in the road. This was not satisfactory.

So after several attempts at repositioning the steel strips and getting them to stay in place, I finally threw in the towel and purchased another set of speakers. These did not come with the steel strips, and I suspected they wouldn't need them. My suspicions were confirmed upon close examination of the catches on the back of the panels:

These were the catches on the back of my old speaker panels:



These are the catches on the back of my new speaker panels:



See the difference? That little projection along the edge of the panel made it impossible for me to keep the speaker panels in place. Explanation?

Well, I took a look at the back of the speaker panels for a part number and confirmed that the part numbers are exactly the same: 08A10-020-5600-51

But upon closer examination, I noticed that Honda manufacture stamped dates (in a rather odd way) on the backs of each panel:

Old panels:



New panels:



As you can see, the old panels were manufactured in July 1991 and the new panels were manufactured in July 1993. They apparently made slight alterations to the design of the speaker grills. I'm assuming that they made changes to the side panels as well, which would explain why the steel strip mounting thing wasn't wasn't working for me. My JDM interior came from a 94 or 95 (not sure which) JDM hatch, so I'm guessing that '92-93 models (91-92 for JDM models) used the steel strips for mounting and '94-95 (93-94 for JDM models) used updated clips for mounting.

One other change I noticed is that the 92-93 speakers are paper-cone speakers whereas the 94-95 were upgraded with mylar (or kevlar?) cones. The tweeters were still paper on both versions though.

Just something to think about if you're going to source a JDM interior without speakers...make sure you get the right version of speakers for your interior.

fm

 

Hey there. I have the curved panel version of these in my 93 hatch. I've noticed that the sound quality is quite good, but leaves a bit to be desired imo. Do you have any thoughts on a replacement speaker that will bolt in place of the OE ones? I'm going to save the OE speakers due to their rarity, but I want something that will sound better. Any ideas? thx.

 

I had a pair of Blaupunkts in my original USDM setup, but the holes were off the JDM brackets just by a bit. I imaging you could make it work by hogging out the holes in the speaker frames a bit, but I didn't want to deal with that. Just look at various manufacturer's 5-1/4" speakers and take your brackets with you...if they line up, you're good to go.

fm

 

is there any guide on installing the curved grill?

or is it plug and play?

 

Plug-n-play...really, no guide is necessary. If you can put in USDM speakers, you can put curved-panel Gathers in.

fm

 

Thanks! Thing is, my hatch doesnt even have the USDM speaker panels lol it came without speakers, but I willt try to install them tomorrow! It cant be that hard!

 

Sweet info. Thanks fm. Hows the sound quality on your setup?

 

Ive got a set of the curved panel speaker pods if any of you are interested shoot me a pm. My hatch is a track car now so they were removed and have been collecting dust.

 

Please post this as a thread in the Market Place forum because selling or buying in this subforum is forbidden.

 

it really easy the speaker wiring is taped to the body inside the cavity after you remove the cover.

 

As long as your hatch has the L-brackets, they're an easy bolt-in. The grills snap into place. If you don't have the L-brackets (and your speakers didn't come with them), you'll need to get a set of those. But you probably have them.

HBK, they sound great now that I've got the factory EQ paired up with the factory head unit. They're not as good as, say, a $1000 system, but it suffices. Much better than USDM stock.

fm

 

Pm'd . dibs. paypal'd mine