Front Speaker Install Question

[XEusioN]

Hey guys,

I bought some 6.5's for up front to replace the 6x9's and bought some adapter plates as well.

Has anybody else done this? I'm basically stuck on how I'm going to mount these things to the door. Anybody who has taken the door off will know the dilemma.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks

[PXLpainter]

I thought Circuit City had those?

[theprodigy79]

I went about it a different way... I completely removed the 6x9 surrounds and fabricated a MDF adapter to convert the 6x9s to fit 6.5s.



This is a rear, but it was the same concept...

[QuickSEV6]

I'd like to help, but the gen 1 has 6" speakers in the door and 6x9s in the back.
My installer removed the 6x9s and installed Diamond Audio S600s all the way around (door and back).

[XEusioN]

I'll be getting creative sometime in the next few days with a drill. After monkeying with the adapter plate for about 20 minutes, I found an angle that will let me drill in 3 out of 4 screws which won't be so bad. And if it ends up not working, I'll have to get a piece of MDF and bust out the dremel tool

I'll probably end up taking some pics of whatever I end up doing. By the way, I was surprised at the "look" of the factory 6x9 speaker up front...I was absolutely shocked to see that it wasn't a paper cone O_o

[XEusioN]

I was at Home Depot today, picked up a big sheet of 3/4" MDF board (a bit much, but will double as a spacer), and a laser guided Jigsaw that I have no idea how to use.

This will be interesting

[[SMAN]]

that should me a fun project. What I was taught at Mobil Audio school was to trace the original speaker onto the MDF, then cut just a little bigger than the trace. Then trace the new speaker onto it and cut a little smaller than it should be. And get yourself a nice sanding disk for a dremmel and go to town. With that being said. On ToyotaNation, a guy by the name of Mr. Marv sells precut MDF plates for us Toyotas to fit components. It might be easier for you to do that (or for others) who aren't that good with this stuff.

[SolaraSilver]

I just did this with 1/4" board. I kept the 6x9 plastic surround and mounted right into it. My components needed about 3" of mounting space. The first speaked took about an hour to get right. The second was fabricated and installed in under 20 minutes including reassembling the door panel.

[XEusioN]

Well I attacked it today and figured it out as I went...I would say it went pretty well. Both brackets fit perfectly the first time around

Here's a few pics:

Stock:


My engineering masterpiece:


Custom made (by me ) MDF brackets:


Final product:


Rear deck speakers and tweeters when I get time

[[SMAN]]

That door is just screaming for some sound deadening. I find that mine rattle way too much.

[XEusioN]

I have a dynamat door kit sitting in my truck waiting for a not-so-rainy day

On a different note, the doors don't rattle all that much. It's the rear deck that's killing me, and I'll be taking care of that when the rear speakers go in.

[theprodigy79]

Very nice, esp for a first go at it!

For the rear deck, along with dynamatting add some polly fill, foam or other dampening material under it. Just dynamatting it won't keep the rattle from occuring.

[XEusioN]

Yeah, I wasn't going to bother with dynamat in the rear, polyfill was what I had planned.

Thanks for the compliment on my woodwork, haha

[NightRider]

nice work there!

[XEusioN]

Well I've been driving around without rear speakers for about three weeks now and loved the sound actually. The empty speaker holes acted as bass ports for my subs so I was able to get some serious and clean bass in the cabin that I wasn't able to get before. Additionally, I had stuffed a bunch of polyfill in the deck to get rid of rattles too.

I finally ripped everything apart today to install my 6.5's and the brackets I had made. It goes a lot quicker the second time...

Anyways, I used 3/4" mdf for my brackets which had my speakers sitting too high off the deck. I had to cut into the plastic rear deck cover to get some additional clearance, but that wasn't too big of a deal. Anyway, my speakers are in.

I'm actually a bit disappointed though at the sound, sitting in the front seats, you can't notice a difference in the sound staging at all. In fact, I feel that I lost a little low end response from my subs as well.

Overall I'm a little disappointed, and even though I have speakers in the back again...when you sit back there, you're still getting kicked in the chest with bass from the subs, and the mids/highs aren't anything to write home about. I might just need to play with tuning for a while I suppose...