How to squeeeze a 6" speaker in the door?

[rockit-man]

Any tips for this? I put some 6" sony explodes in my last bonnie, and was never happy with the resulting rattle. Now I have a much nicer bonneville, and much nicer speakers, so I guess I need to do a much nicer install eh? (sorry, Canadian eh.) I just picked up a new set of Exile components, the XIT line with irridium coils or magnets or whatever. Just cant get over how light they are, they feel cheap, but I heard these babies today, and they dont sound cheap, trust me!

[99ssei]

You could cut a bigger hole, then drill out the mounting screw holes...but it's your ride man.
Measure twice...cut once.

[phoenix_flame220]

Shouldnt be too hard with the right tools. You can cut the metal away so the speaker sits flush, or if you have woodworking tools you can make adaptor plates that step the speaker out just enough so you can screw it in. Either way youll need to drill holes to screw the speakers in. Drill a small pilot hole, or use self tapping screws

[Bugsi]

It has been done before, I can't recall if anyone has done a how-to since we moved.
The mounting points for your door speakers are molded into the door liner shell, so you'll be looking at cutting them away to remove enough material to fit your 6" speakers, and figuring out some way to mount them. The post that I recall used aftermarket grilles that came with the speakers, so the speakers were most likely just screwed into the shell, with the resulting carnage hidden by the grille.

I wasn't a big fan of the look of the aftermarket grille sticking out on the inside of the door, so consider if that's acceptable for you. (You can always do custom fiberglass, though!)

[radomirthegreat]

I just installed 6.5" speakers into my Bonneville door panels with no mods except for vacuum tubes.

Some 6.5" speakers come with strange mounting holes made to work with 3-hole setups. Look at this:
http://www.woofersetc.com/images/products/3418.jpg
That speaker was designed to be mounted with either a hole at the top and two at the bottom, vice versa, or some other way of putting that speaker over 3 screw holes. Those holes actually match up somehow with the 5.25" hole pattern. I used vacuum tubes to lift the speakers off the door panel so they don't hit. If your 6.5" speakers have these 3-hole mounting holes, you can actually fit them on with thick weather stripping for some baffling and some short-cut vacuum tubes to lift the speakers so the cones don't hit the door panels.

[Bugsi]

Radomir, the photo shows the mounting holes in the rim of the speaker. If they match up with the factory mounting holes, wouldn't that kind of make it a 5.25" speaker? I'm not seeing how a 6.5" speaker's mounting holes could possibly line up with the factory holes. Can you shed any light on that? Photos or something?

Vacuum tubing spacers, that's very clever. Some speakers come with an extra mounting spacer ring for the same purpose.

If you use any point spacers like that to allow for greater cone excursion, I'd recommend using weatherstripping to seal the gaps between the spacers. Even the stock mounting "bumps" with a 5.25" speaker leaves a gap. I ran tests on mine and the sound was far better after filling that gap. Custom88 did the same thing with his Cadillac CTS with photos in this thread: http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... =13&t=1220

I also experimented with making a baffle out of a RubberMaid container, but found the result to be worse.

[radomirthegreat]

As I've seen, a whole lot of not-so-expensive 6.5" speakers come with 3-point and 4-point mounting holes. You may see enough holes on the speaker in that link to think it'll bolt right up to a 5.25" hole, but actually those don't have the right offset. You have to use the far-bottom one, the top-left one, and two other holes somewhere else. I'll take a photo soon. I have to take off my door panels and swap in some good speakers. Rear door panel speakers coming soon.

[Bugsi]

I'm still trying to picture it, and just not seeing it. Does it wind up mounting the speaker so that it's off-center kind of catty-wampus?

[radomirthegreat]

Absolutely! The speaker in no way sits "normally." It's totally off-center. I'd say it's about a 41º tilt. Pictures will have to come tomorrow or when the construction clears up. I can't even see the ground outside from the sawdust.

[radomirthegreat]

In case this is found much later on in a search, I don't want to leave a cliffhanger. I finally took pictures. The 6.5" speakers sound great with insulation. I tried them with vacuum lines and no insulation, and they sound horrible. The sound is really full now. No vacuum tube standoffs are required with a thick enough insulation foam and not a lot of tightening of the screws. If your 6.5" speakers look like my Sony brand ones, you can do this to your 92-99 Bonneville and any other car that takes 5.25" speaker holes.
http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 799#p46799