Gen3 Front speaker upgrade part 1 of 2

[Qshiplvr]

Now, listening to the radio, the OEM speakers have given their all, and some were totally non functional. I decided to fix that.

I took to Amazon, and ordered replacement door speakers that fit (5” x 8” door hole, 1” silk dome sail panel tweets):



Metra 72-5512 speaker harnesses (note the gender of the plug (female?) – this is important later :



Went to Rock Auto to order the Doorman Christmas Tree door fasteners (10 to a box):



You may want to visit your local Harbor Freight and pick up these tools…it makes a WORLD of difference in helping to pry the door panels off without killing the Christmas Tree fasteners.



After unscrewing the 3 screws along the side of the door panel (2 on the B pillar side, 1 in the jamb on the A pillar)



And unscrew the one screw in the door handle cup



Be careful to take out the small panel behind the door opener lever (pry from top towards you then lift to clear bottom tabs)



Use one of the Harbor Freight door puller tools to pry the door panel away at the points where the fasteners are (there are 11 per door panel)



Driver door fastener locations Passenger door fastener locations



Passenger door OEM speaker backside



Passenger door OEM plug and harness, disconnected OEM speaker



Pioneer TS-D6802R 6” x 8” speaker and Metra harness to plug into OEM Molex



Pioneer TS-D6802R 6” x 8” speaker and Metra harness closeup Molex



Pioneer TS-D6802R 6” x 8” speaker and Metra harness taped up for install



Pioneer TS-D6802R 6” x 8” speaker and Metra harness installation



Pioneer TS-D6802R 6” x 8” driver door installed w/ reinforced moisture barrier closeup



Pioneer TS-D6802R 6” x 8” driver door installed w/ reinforced moisture barrier full door

 

[Qshiplvr]

Gen3 front speaker upgrade Part 2 of 2
Tweeter Sail Panel enclosure modification and driver upgrade



Tweeter Sail Panel cover removed



OEM Tweeter mounted under sail panel cover. Note the high-pass X-over grey packet beneath



Remove Sail Panel enclosure, this is what you’ll get



OEM front sail panel tweeter front w/ high-pass X-Over



OEM front sail panel tweeter rear w/ high-pass X-Over



OEM toasted tweeter - Note ****** mount screwholes & high-pass X-Over

Because the tweeters I bought were SURFACE mount (not ****** mount, as per the picture above), there is a problem in that there is no surface to mount them TO in the sail panel enclosure. So, using an old carpenter’s trick (thanks to my husband, the carpenter), I took an old paint stick, cut down to size and hot glued the brace in the hole into which the tweeter will be “surface” mounted.



Sail panel enclosure w/ paint stick brace trial fitted (no hot glue yet). Above showing the mounting plate positioned on the passenger side brace to show how mounting screws will bite into brace.



Paint stick cut down brace hot glued into enclosure



Mounting screws, base plate (on right) tweeter driver that will bayonet mount onto base plate in middle



Base plate screwed onto paintstick backing, tweeter driver before bayonet mounting into place




Close up of bayonet mount tweeter (left) and mounted base plate screwed into sail panel



Backside of mounted tweeter, taped to reinforce hotglue mounting of brace



“Exploded” view of surface mount tweeter showing back plate, bayonet base, driver and dome cap. In background, finished mounted tweeter.



Sail panel tweeter “surface” mounted on brace, angled towards passenger




Don’t forget to harvest the OEM high-pass X-over and solder the X-over in line w/ new Tweeters



Back of OEM high-pass X-over. Be sure to keep polarity of IN and OUT wires correct



New tweeter mounted in sail panel w/ high-pass X-over re-wired to Molex plug



Hi-pass X-over wired to sail panel zip tied and plugged into door harness




Driver side tweeter sail panel mounted and zip tied plugged into door harness



Passenger door drivers upgraded and installed, plugged in w/reinforced moisture barrier full door

 

[Qshiplvr]

I forgot to write...now reinstall the door panels reversing the procedure when you removed them. I didn't take any pics of the start/finish figuring you guys know what your doors look like.

 

[Qshiplvr]

I don't understand what is so wrong about the word "f l a n g e" that was ****** out in my write up above.

 

[luigisho]

Yeah the word police software is stupid. I almost miss installing stereo equip.

Glad you took pics of the step by step.

 

[Devin]

Nice writeup. Is that the stock moisture barrier?

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

Did you see a good upgrade in sound quality ?

 

[Qshiplvr]

The moisture barrier is the stock one that came w/ the car. I just taped up the edges w/ heavy duty black duct tape (Gorilla, from HD, I think). The sound quality improvement was HUGE! Now that there are working tweeters in the sail panels, and that extra 1" in the base drivers up front and stiffer cones make it almost sound deep enough to not need a subwoofer (almost). I thought it was kinda odd to order a 6" x 8" speaker but Amazon said it fit the 5" x 8" hole, so I trusted in Amazon, and it was really worth it!

 

[Qshiplvr]

I want to add, that the improvement in bass response is probably due to the fact that I sealed the airspace in the door cavity by taping up the moisture barrier effectively turns the door into an infinite baffle speaker enclosure. If I didn't do this, I'm sure my sound quality improvement wouldn't be so dramatic.

 

[gamefanatic]

Great write up! Love the detail you put into this!

 

[Qshiplvr]

I want to add, that the improvement in bass response is probably due to the fact that I sealed the airspace in the door cavity by taping up the moisture barrier effectively turns the door into an infinite baffle speaker enclosure. If I didn't do this, I'm sure my sound quality improvement wouldn't be so dramatic.

Come to think about it...if you look at the picture of the full door, and realize the moisture barrier really functions not as a rigid surface but one more akin to a kettle drum skin, the entire covering is probably acting like a passive radiator to increase the bass response. I'm not an audio engineer, so can't really speak to specifics. I'll leave that to all the engineer types out there on the SHO Forum.