crombie1000

Hello all, I finally have all my parts for my stereo, mostly installed too on my 02 TLS. I have an Alpine CDA 9835 feeding signal to a JL 1000/1 -> JL 12W7, also a JL 300/2 which I wanted to drive my MB Quart QSD 216 Component speakers. Thought all would be well, everything is installed except the door speakers. I spent weeks building the whole system until I opened up the doors today and to my surprise these 6+1/2's aren't even close to fitting in the door mount that the stock bose speaker is in. It's missing by almost an inch on all sides. The only solution I can come up with is to get a whole saw and cut out the metal around the sides. It's pretty thick metal. I'm not sure it will cut cleanly. However reading around this site I see most of you have installed 6+1/2's in the doors. Even if I did cut out the metal and build a trim plate to raise it up so it doesn't hit my glass inside the door, how do I go about doing that? I'm open to suggestions. I'm at the point now where I'm thinking about buying 5+1/4's or something. I'd just hate to have no use for these 1,000 buck Quarts. I'm terrified of the saw skipping off and slashing some wires or the metal filings rusting inside the door, not to mention that the speaker might not mount up right to the stock grill. Any ideas?
I'm in a hard spot and i'm not sure if I should cut the doors or find smaller speakers.

Thanks,
-Chris

DerrickM

6.5" speakers fit, but it depends on the size of the magnet and top-mount depth. 3/4" spacers are needed in all cases.

If you're depth is okay, you could have a stereo shop cut the doors for you. Otherwise, I'd look for 6.5" speakers with smaller magnets.

I don't know the exact depth, but if you look on crutchfield.com and get the specs on the JBL P652, I can tell you that they barely fit with 3/4" spacers. (It's the window rolling all the way down that you have to be concerned with).

Scott P

I've used those in my car, and the only way to get them in is to cut the opening. Best way i found was to put the spacer on the door and use that as a stencil.

crombie1000

What type of tool did you use to cut the metal out? I can see the hole saw going right through and out the front side. I'm having a problem because when I hold the spacer on the door it doesn't sit flat since the surface around the hole is uneven with ridges, it wobbles back and forth. Do you bed it down with a layer of sealent first? Silicone or bondo or marine tex something like that? The only way I can think to do it is with a hole saw bit in a drill. I dont think I can get a jig saw in the area.

Scott P

this a is a detailed account of how i cut the doors. After making spacers I went ahead and mounted them. looking at the factory cut out, you ought to see a raised portion to the top left of the cutout. Being the it was curved on my car, i used it as a guide to mount the spacer. once i had screwed the spacer down, i could see exactly what metal needed to be cut. I used an airsaw with a fine tooth blade (i've seen guys at my shop use a jig saw, and even tin snips to do this, but personally i prefer airsaws) and cut approximately 1 cm off all the way around. most important things to kiip in mind when doing this though: first make sure you have the window rolled up, I don't even have to explain why. Next make sure you are clear of any wiring behind the metal, you really just don't want to deal with having to fix gut wires. Finally wear earplugs, I can't explain how painfully loud it was cutting the doors as I did.

In the end though it worked well and i finished both front doors in about 20 minutes.

ResidualFreedom

I did this yesterday with a couple of Alpine speakers....

Both the 6.5 and the 5.5" speakers will fit without cutting any metal!! the thing to cut is the plastic basket that the stock speaker is mounted in.. You can cut out the back of the plastic basket and then use the stock plastic basket as your spacer and you don't have to worrk abvout cutting any metal at all. One "semi-tricky" part of the install would be to mount the spacer to the door with the origional three stock speaker screws, then drill a small hole through the plastic spacer and and door and the speaker will mount perfectly..

I was thinking yesterday, "there's no way I'm going to butcher this door to get some speakers in..." thet's what I, and andrew_grodon came up with.

crombie1000

I'm glad your speakers fit in there, my pair however will not fit even with the plastic basket removed. they are MB Quart QSD-216's The magnet itself wont even go through the opening without the basket, so there's no way it's going to go in the door without cutting the metal away. I spent 3 hours sitting there looking at the hole trying to find a way to make it fit. Not going to happen. I'm going to flip a coin at this point to decide if I want to try the 02 accord kick panels and see if they will fit in my car or else i'm going to have to try and cut out a larger hole with a jig saw/hole saw. I'm just worried about it not matching up to the same point on the door as the original speaker. If I'm off a little in either direction the speaker will end up sitting behind solid plastic. which totally wont work. It's going to be nearly impossible to get the speaker to match the same point on the inside of the door panel as the original. Also it will ruin the resale value of my car if they find out I took a saw to the door sheet metal. I'm wishing I had picked on a smaller magnet speaker, but i fell in love with the sound of these Quarts. I have a wood spacer cut that I'm going to use as a template to mark out a hole on the door metal of where I think it will sit. I just dont have a good way of projecting that path to the door to see if it will face up to the right spot on the door panel once its all installed. I wish acura would have given us a better spot to add speakers. Even my old accord had a big enough hole in the door metal for just about any 6+1/2. I'm wondering why this 02 tl has such a small area open.
As mentioned in someone else's previous response he says he only cut away 1cm on all sides, but I've been trying to visualize it and I think I need more like a 1/2 inch on all sides for the huge magnet/base of the speaker. He installed the same set as I have so I guess I'll give it a shot. I dont have an airsaw only a jig saw or a hole saw..which will be much harder to handle on that metal. I need some air shears or something to keep it under control. I'm going to just draw out the orignal speaker basket outline and expand equally on all sidesthat should give me a good central point as a reference, but to answer your post there's no way it will go in with the plastic basket.
thanks for your reply,
chris.

ResidualFreedom

The frame of the speaker was not sitting flush with the metal, so we cut the bottom out of the plastic baskets and then just used the "ring" of the plastic basket so it worked like a spacer just like in the stock setup.. The speakers we had wouldn't fit in the basket so we had to cut out the back of it.. if your magnet will not fit in the metal opening in the door then I agree you would have to trim the door a little but not the full 6.5 inch diameter.


with regards to the tools, got to home depot and get a cheap metal blade for 5 bucks and use your jig saw it should be plenty of power and it will be easy to control.

Esrunyzarc

Just in case anyone is still wondering about this issue...... Recently I put Rce 216s in my door(CL 03') I used two of the spacers for the mb quarts. I went to a shop that sold quarts and they gave me two extra rings (spacers). I then taped them together and used both to attach the mount. If you center the ring just perfect the speakers go in fine...
With this done I had to dremmle away the bottom portion of the molding (plastic) from the door panel that forms to the stock speaker. Hook everything up and waaaLaaaaa. ohhh what a sweet sound. the deck used was the Pioneer premier 960 and a cheep 60 watt amp. Performance teknique is much better than I expected for the highs.. good luck guys