Pics of 6.5" speaker adaptors for S13

[slipnfall]

Hi Folks, Santa was nice to me this year and brought me a set of 6.5" Infinity components. I figured I'd show some pics of my progress, your comments are welcome. I'll keep updating this as I go.

The material is 1/4" Lexan, from Lowes. I started by taking the stock speaker boxes out, and making templates based on those. I roughed it out with a piece of cardboard. Next I rough cut the lexan: this stuff is *not* easy to cut w/out power tools. A dremel did just the trick... I'm sure a scroll-saw would be great too, but I didn't have access to one. The attachment in the picture only cost about $15, and included a multi-purpose bit.

[slipnfall]

Take the rough-cut piece of lexan and mark your four mouting holes for the door. Drill, and test fit. Next use a thin sharpie to fine-tune the outer edge lines: I could see where the original speaker box *was* just from the discoloration on the door metal. Clean up the edges once more with tool of choice.

Re-mount [lexan], and temporarily re-install the door panel without the speaker grill. Make sure the two locking posts of the door panel in the corner clear the lexan(they get close down there). If all is good, trace the hole in the door panel onto the lexan, so you know where your speaker sound will exit the door panel.

Remove the door panel, and this time with the sharpie, mark the inner edges of the door metal cutout(directly behind the lexan). This will be your speaker edge mounting clearance.

This is where I took a little leap of faith... take your speaker template(or an adaptor ring will work-what I used), and find out where on the lexan you want the speaker to sit. Keep in mind you will be mounting the speaker on the outside of the lexan, so you can get closer to the inner metal edges that you marked. Just make sure to leave room for screw backs or nuts. I tried to keep the speaker centered vertically[relative to the door panel hole], and to the rear as much as possible. You could your template to test fit this.

Sit back and admire your hard work so far!

[slipnfall]

Now, install the speaker and plate, and check that your speaker mounting hardware clears OK. Carefully reinstall the door panel, again leaving the grill off. In mine install, the top grill mounting 'tab' interfered with the foam surrounding the speaker... so I just trimmed it off, with no ill cosmetic side-effects.

[slipnfall]

Problem no more!

But seriously, before I trimmed that tab down, I looked to see what I could do to keep it there. If I had moved the speaker down any more, I would have run into the door metal. Although there is a mounting tab there for the door panel also, it sticks out from the speaker area much more than the top.

[slipnfall]

Before proceeding, make sure the rear of the speaker does not interfere with both the window itself, the window assembly, and the hinge 'bar' where the door pivots(it goes into the door when closed).

One last pic, and them I'm done for the night. I hope this is of some benefit to someone else.

BTW- I'm going to have *lots* of lexan left: I could be tempted to make some extras up(without speaker holes) when I'm done with my own. Email me if interested.

Cheers,Jamie

[Rex]

Added to the stickies, very nice work.

[slipnfall]

Oh cool, thanks. I didn't think of it as sticky material, just sharing really.

Stayed tuned.

[slipnfall]

BTW folks, here is a template you can use to make your own speaker plates: the hole is for the above mentioned speaker... if I were you I would not replicate the hole: fit it to how you want it yourself. The general outline/mounting holes are guarenteed to fit though. You'll need Adobe Acrobat: make sure to turn off page scalling when you print it(it will fit on 8.5x11). Verify scaling with the ruler in the image.

Cheers,Jamie

http://jamie.hackthebox.org/fi...e.pdf

[Hellion240sx]

i say sticky! great write up! good job on that i must say.

[slipnfall]

thx again!

I was getting anxious towards the end, so I didn't take as many pictures. I used some left-over dynomat on the adaptor plates, and surrounding metal. BTW I saw you can get two 10"x10" sheets of the dynomatt extreme on ebay for $5+$4 S&H. I'm glad to see the prices have dropped on that stuff, it was overpriced the last time I looked.

Anyways, here are some tips for mounting the tweeter:

First, pick a spot! I chose to start with the driver's door, only because that's the one that's going to matter the most to you. Sit in the car, with the door closed, and mark a spot on the door panel(sharpie works).

Pull the door panel off, and take a closer look at where you want it to go. I moved my location slightly in an attempt to find the flattest spot possible: you wouldn't want to mount the tweeter on a significantly-rounded surface.

Take your tweeter, and use it to draw a circle onto the vinyl door panel with a fine-point sharpie(or whatever). Carefully cut as deep as you can into the vinyl with an exacto or razor blade. Peel the vinyl circle off and the padding behind it *before* trying to cut through the carboard/wood composite behind it. This will keep the vinyl from potentially tearing.

For the next hole I used the router-style attachment on the dremel. Although it was pretty dulled up from the lexan, it cut through this stuff like butter. Check the hole size, and slowly open it up untill the tweeter fit through just-so.

Test fit the tweet', and check that it will screw tight enough to make itself flush. If not, simply remove some of the foam backing from underneith the edges of the vinyl. See the below pic; the are with the foam remove(and the one directly across from it, out of view), will allow the mounting 'flange' to sit lower, filling in a gap that was 90* away from it in either direction... hope that makes sense. This isn't always neccessary, so tighten your tweeter mount locking ring as much as needed to make it flush.

[slipnfall]

Now that you have one hole, you need to mirror it to the other door. I don't suggest eye-balling this, because it may look right sitting on a bench/table, but once in the car it's not something you can feasibly move! Here's what I did: once your first hole is cut, take a piece of paper and wedge it under the weather-stripping near the window edge. Losely wrap it over the door, and tape it into place. It won't easily 'form' to the door shape, so just make it snug. Next take an exacto and cut out a hole in the paper using the hole as a template.

Remove paper, flip it over, and re-install on the other door panel. Trace the hole, remove, and wha-la, mirror image!

If you're anal-rententive like I am, use a ruler to double-check the hole edge spacing from fixed points on both door panels.

[slipnfall]

Lastly[for the night], here's just a shot of the cross-over mounted. Ideally this should be mounted away from the outer door surface, where water/moisture runs down... however I was in one of those 'just want to get it down now' moods, so I used double-sided tape. If you're going to use double-sided tape, be sure to use the foam version!!This is especially important with a non-flat surface, like our curved door panels. The regular double-sided tape simply won't hold for long. Also be sure to clean the surface with something fast-evaporating(ie won't leave a residue), like Acetone, rubbing alcohol, etc.

You'll notice I used the original speaker harness(it's wrapped in electrical tape to keep it from rattling BTW). I considered running new 16awg speaker wire through the door gromets, but that looked to be a very daunting task! Make sure whatever you do, route the wires so the don't(and won't) interfere with the power window. It would really suck to have the power window come down and rip the speaker terminals off the back of your new tweeter/woofer. I eventually used some zip-tie holders with the sticky backs to pull the wires asside.

I ran the tweeter wires along the door harness, and secured w/more zip-ties. I did this so I could remove my door panel in the future without messing with the inside wiring(which is best not to be let flopping around in there).

Well, untill later... thx for listening to me ramble. 'slip

[BaconLuver]

any pics of the finished install?

[slipnfall]

Heh I guess I never did get any final shots. I'll try to snap some later today.

[SirSilvia]

nice work but Iwent with 6"x9"s in the doors and secured them with longer bolts, washers on the backside and loctite on the nuts

[BaconLuver]

sorry to bug again but got a chance for those final shots?

[WCCBaLLeR]

You should never mount your crossovers inside the doors...will cause major problems down the road. Also, you should cut all your plexi on a router and it would look way better and your circles would be round instead of a stop sign shape.