Fabricated 6.5" Speaker mounts from the stock 8" front mount, Easy and free Options

[DEATH]

The the GF and I made up some speaker mounts for my Boston Acoustic SX60 6.5" component speakers. They came out really clean and the speakers sound incredible there. I figured I'd post a few pics so people who, like me don't care to wait/pay for adapters, can see how we did it. All pics are from driver's side door panel but the passenger is the same:
1. Start by removing the door panel [Not going to go into specifics on this as it's super easy and covered in your Chilton's or Hayne's manual]. Pics of the speaker housing with the door off:

2. Disconnect the white wire connector located at the top of the speaker housing [Driver's side will have 1 pink and 1 purple-ish wire as shown above]. Remove the four 12mm screws [2 top, 2btm] holding the speaker housing in place. You will be left with this:

and this:

3. Next we continued by ripping out the original speaker cones [no pics of that - it's pretty self explanatory].
4. We cut the magnets and posts mounting them to the original speaker rings out with a dremil tool. This part was easy and only took about 30mins each to get them off and the edges nice and smooth with a sanding wheel on the dremil. Make sure your new speaker cone will drop in without rubbing or ripping on the cut edges [a smooth finish is not necessary if you are careful when mounting the new speaker - I, however, like to do things right and take my time - to a fault probably]
*Pic missing - I will get it up soon*
5. Next we drilled 3 holes using the speaker as a guide. This will vary with the speakers - some have 3 mounting holes, some have 4 mounting holes. Just be careful and only use your speaker to mark it with - Don't drill with the speaker attached so you don't risk drilling a hole through the cone .
*Pic missing - I will get it up soon*
6. Attach your new speaker to your custom made speaker adapter using screws and nuts on the back and add the bezil if you wish [not necessary but again I decided why not?]:

Be sure the magnet does not extend farther out than the stock enclosure will allow [the window will be obstructed if your magnet extends any farther]:

with the bezil [Mine somehow magically snapped into place inside the stock ring but I used the included mounting hardware as well - follow manufacturers instructions on this step]:

7. Next i drilled a hole in the housing to run the speaker thru and since they are not sealed enclosures I did not bother to seal them up [mainly cause I couldn't find my silicone ]. You can see the wires run thru two pics above.
8. This step will be different for several different setups. I chose component speakers so I ran the stock wires to the input of the included crossovers [you will just splice them into your new speaker's wires if you choose to use full range speakers - pretty self explanatory]. I then ran the "woofer" output from the crossover to the new 6.5"s and ran a length of wire from the "tweeter" output to be used later and mounted the crossover to the enclosure [this is a perfect example of where not to mount the crossover on the driver's side. This is exactly where the window controls sit - I figured this out as I was installing the last peice of my door panel - the controls . This is a great example of where to mount them for the passenger side (in other words you need a mirror image of this setup for the driver's side door]:


9. Decide where to mount your tweets if component - skip to step 10 if full range. I have not yet decided where to mount my tweets as I still wish to retain the stock tweets as well - the stock bracket is not setup to accept aftermarket tweets and I want to end up with 6 tweets total when I'm done so this is how I did mine.
10. Remount the door panel [route the tweet wire if necessary]. Everything looks stock now as shown:

even in close up:

Notice in the first pic you can see where I left the tweet wire poking through bottom corner of the door for future use [Nevermind the boost gauge line and the gauge wires running to the right - it's a swapped car and I'm not done with my gauge setup so leave me alone damn it ]. In the end I'm leaning towards installing them just to the rear of the speaker in that traingular dead space between the speaker and the door pocket. Most manufacturers of component speakers will give you an acceptable radius of where to mount the tweets relative to the 6.5"s to achieve the best sound - listen to them, they are the experts on sound imaging. You may also choose to cut out the stock grill so that you can see the aftermarket speaker grill - this would be very easy to do with the same dremil you used in step 4 [I live in Houston Tx and that's a good way to get your speakers stolen and a window busted so I opted for the "sleeper" look ].
11. Crank it up and enjoy

Mods feel free to add to the stickys or how-to's - I would be honored .
Stay tuned for more how-to's as my system is installed [BTW - I installed my Rockford-Fosgate 6.5" components in the rear for now - I may make a how-to on that as well]. Please don't reply with a copy of all this info - many how-to's get muddied this way. If you have a specific question on a step or pic feel free to reply with that tho. Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by DEATH: Apr 1, 2008 - 4:08 PM

[D-Man]

damn bro, sorry i missed sat... You never painted em? i think they'd have looked fing sweet with those rims painted.

Speaking of witch, arn't those my old speaker rims? we need to make me some now seeing as you have my old ones

[DEATH]

I have 6 of them total so that won't be a problem [and actually these are from the parts car]. And don't be sorry - working with the GF has it's advantages looooong breaks tho ]

[D-Man]

Hahahah!!

Yeah, but i really wanted to paint that F-ing fender already... Also, you know its nearly impossible to steal our cars? the ignition shaft is allows no access to the wiring to start the damn car... i tryed to come over with out my keys, (MODS: GF had my keys and was at her sisters house; i'm not endorsing car theft. I cant steal my own car.) but i never got access to the damn wires...

Speaking of witch do you know how to get the damn thing open so i can remove the locking pin at least?

also, the 3rd picture to the last is my old bracket, i riped that little white peice trying to get all the glue and schett off.... plus, the fact that it'd deterioration.

This post has been edited by D-Man: Mar 31, 2008 - 11:33 AM

[NgoFcukinWay]

I'm running those exact components and I love'em! I mounted my crossovers elsewhere on the doors though and I'm sure I mounted the speakers a little differently too. The tweeters are a tad bit small to fit in the stock location and the mounting tabs provided with them doesn't allow them to angle out properly, so I did it the ghetto way. I took some e-tape and wrapped the tweets till they were big enough to snuggly fit in the stock location minus the little grill cover.

[DEATH]

Cool Alex - thanks for the head's up. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna mount them in that space I described earlier. When I'm done the only things running off the headdeck directly will be the stock tweets. All four of the other component speakers will be run from the amps along with the 15". That should give me good control of the stock tweets so they don't overpower the other speakers.

This post has been edited by DEATH: Mar 31, 2008 - 3:52 PM

[D-Man]

what are you going to do in the back speaker-wise?? Are you doing the 1: 15 you was showin me, or 2 with a new box?

you got the hatch, i say you go all out, you have the compression potential. You already know i'll help you build some schett!! I'll do ya some glass work if you can find us a place to do the toxic work.

This post has been edited by D-Man: Mar 31, 2008 - 12:36 PM

[njccmd2002]

once i get what i ordered, i will give you a part number if you like, then youll setup will be complete...

[DEATH]

what are you going to do in the back speaker-wise?? Are you doing the 1: 15 you was showin me, or 2 with a new box?
you got the hatch, i say you go all out, you have the compression potential. You already know i'll help you build some schett!! I'll do ya some glass work if you can find us a place to do the toxic work.

The one 15". Been there done that with the (2) 15"s and absolutely no cargo space - not necessary. With the right 15" and the right tuning you can make any airspace sound perfect. Besides I'm not trying to weigh the car down - I'm trying to go fast with some decent tunes. This car will never be an audio queen.
As for FG work - you'll be doing something cool in this trunk - just as soon as I figure out how to lay out the two amps, crossovers and capacitor.

once i get what i ordered, i will give you a part number if you like, then youll setup will be complete...

???

[D-Man]

As for FG work - you'll be doing something cool in this trunk

okay

[addictions]

you shouldn't run your powere wire in your doorn like that its not safe and each time you open and close your door you risk shorting out your wire just a heads up

[D-Man]

you shouldn't run your powere wire in your doorn like that its not safe and each time you open and close your door you risk shorting out your wire just a heads up

That's not a power wire; the bright red one in the fold of the door. It runs pressure to one of his gauges. He's just finished up, he hasnt pushed everything thru the fire-wall yet. Give him 5 min, it'll be fixed soon enough.

Ya just need a few weekends to get EVERYTHING done. Cant do it all in an instant... Although it would be nice...

[DEATH]

you shouldn't run your powere wire in your doorn like that its not safe and each time you open and close your door you risk shorting out your wire just a heads up

Ran my amp power wire like that for about 10 years with never an issue [3 diff Celicas BTW] but just to clarify:

That's not a power wire; the bright red one in the fold of the door. It runs pressure to one of his gauges. He's just finished up, he hasnt pushed everything thru the fire-wall yet. Give him 5 min, it'll be fixed soon enough.

Ya just need a few weekends to get EVERYTHING done. Cant do it all in an instant... Although it would be nice...

Exactly correct.

Thanks tho - you'd be right if I didn't know what I was doing I could indeed shock myself that way. Also that's just a boost line like he said but I could cause my car to run extremely poorly if it broke - but it won't cause when I get my gauges finallized then they will be loomed up and ran through the firewall.
Thanks for the heads up tho.

This post has been edited by DEATH: Mar 31, 2008 - 3:46 PM

[presure2]

added to the stickys.
good job.

[DEATH]

added to the stickys.
good job.

Awesome thanks - I still have to add two pics in the original post so you can see the cuts and whatnot but they are at home ATM - I'll still be able to edit my post right?

[njccmd2002]

once i get what i ordered, i will give you a part number if you like, then youll setup will be complete...

???

here you go.....

[DEATH]

Wow that's really cool - but what's it for? All my speakers have grills over them - or is this just a better looking alternative to the stock grill but still from Toyota? I'm confused
Maybe one of your posts didn't show up when we had that problem a few weeks ago?

This post has been edited by DEATH: Apr 16, 2008 - 8:33 AM

[njccmd2002]

Wow that's really cool - but what's it for? All my speakers have grills over them - or is this just a better looking alternative to the stock grill but still from Toyota? I'm confused
Maybe one of your posts didn't show up when we had that problem a few weeks ago?

yes, i understand you are confused. we have plastic grills..... IMO ugly. The 8 system speaker grill is awesome....

the following picture is a representation that i borrowed. I am not commenting on the car.



but i cant afford to have this 8 speaker panel.. and everytime i find one is expensive. The grills i found are the OEM replacement, that fit directly on the plastic grill. Of course i will be cutting out the plastic, and installing the metal grilll

I wont have the 8 speaker set up, but it'll look like it at least... .....





This post has been edited by njccmd2002: Apr 16, 2008 - 11:58 AM

[DEATH]

Ah - very cool. I'm always looking for ways to mount more speakers
how much did you pay for those from Toyota?

[gt_driFFter]

you shouldn't run your powere wire in your doorn like that its not safe and each time you open and close your door you risk shorting out your wire just a heads up

Ran my amp power wire like that for about 10 years with never an issue [3 diff Celicas BTW]

Ghetto! Why wouldn't you run it through the firewall where it is not visible?