Just got done swapping in new speakers and wanted to fit 6.5" speakers in the doors to get rid of those anemic 5.25" speakers ( Yes, 6.5" speakers do fit....at least the Kappas will ). I used Infinity Kappas for the simple reason it is hard to find a better speaker in this range. There are better speakers, but, you go from $250-ish dollars for all four up to about $900-ish for all four.
I also went coax instead of components as I am looking for better quality sound, but, I am not looking for competition sound. In short, my time was limited and I was not feeling overly energetic to go through the extra steps of running a proper component set.
Now, different manufacturers use different baskets and throw depths for their speakers. The Kappas are fairly shallow. If you want to put 6.5's in the doors the simplest way, you can remove the OEM speaker mounts and with a little work, you can mount them direct to the door, but, you loose the angle up to your ears.....the sound just blows across your legs. I paid for the whole speaker and I want to hear the whole speaker.
I have included instructions for both front and rears.
Differences between the OEM and Infinity Kappas. Slight upgrade in quality:
For the rears, take the lower seat bottom out.
Then you have 4 nuts to remove from the seat backrest ( Two on each side ). You will need a 10mm and 18mm socket for this.
Remove both inner side panels. These just pop in and out. You do not need to remove the door sill molding. They will slide in and out with no problems:
Next, remove the clothes hanger brackets from the C-Pillar moldings. They just pop out with a flat blade screwdriver:
Next, pop the rear of the C-Pillar molding loose and wrap around and down to where it touches the back of the seat rest support. It will stay in place and give you plenty of room. You do not need to remove the molding:
There are 2 black plastic lock tabs that need to be removed form the rear deck cover. Once those are removed, lift up on the cover and pull it forward. If it doesn't come forward, you aren't lifting up on it enough. There are bolts on the bottom of the cover that catches the speakers. You have to clear those:
Once this is done, you just remove the speakers. I took out the 4" speakers as they are completely useless......plus, in theory, I may grab a little extra bass from the trunk this way.......and the weight saving of leaving those 4" speakers out means I will probably pick up a couple tenths in the 1/4 mile:
Here it is with the new 6x9's in place. I aimed the horns to the outer edges as in theory, it will help the highs wrap through the car rather than just be focused into the center of the car.
For the fronts, Remove the door panels. It also would be smart if you have some new nylon panel tabs to replace the ones you are going to break or strip when you pull the doors off. You will want to remove the speaker and speaker mount.
If you drop the bigger aftermarket speaker in the mount, as you guessed, the results are expected.
Front of speaker mount before modification:
This is everything I had to remove to make the speaker fit flush:
This fits with perfection. The edge of the speaker just touches the support shelf on the door. The only way to move the speaker higher would be to remove metal from the door.
The bottom two mounting holes on the speaker extend beyond the mounting surface of the speaker mount. This is an easy fix.....bend the tabs over the edge and run your mounting screws in. If you position it just right, it will be a flush fit. If not, just angle the screw away from the speaker slightly and it will pull flush and be extremely rigid:[
Replace the door panels and you are done. Enjoy your much upgraded sound.
Originally Posted by The Sunfire Guy
