QuattroDave

Hi all,

The OEM speakers in the truck are toast. Sound like there are marbles in them.

I looked at the usual suspects (websites for ordering autosound speakers) and it appears the Toy truck uses a "4T" size, and the choices amongs them are slim to none. Basially, some Rockford Fosgate and Polk models with very poor SPL and no bass.

There are better selections in "standard" 4 inch. Has anybody installed a "standard" (4-hole) 4 inch speaker? How hard is it?

Are they any "easy" ugrades? Would a 5" or 6" with an adapter plate fit in there, or is it just too darned tight.

I'd love to put some decent speakers in here, but working 7 days a week, I flat-out don't have an afternoon to spend on the task. It has to be basically an hour or less.

Thanks!

Dave

Churnd

4" will fit. But no 4" you find is going to offer you any kind of bass that you will be happy with. That's why most people who install aftermarket 4" speakers in the front use bass blockers to filter out the lows. If you have an extended cab, you could mount 6.5" speakers in the back. If not, you could get a small sub and amp and stick it behind your seat for your bass needs.

I just finished installing a 6.5" component system up front by using spacers for the woofers that are mounted in the doors. It looks killer to me and sounds SO much better than those 4-inchers I used to have. Yeah, it'll take more than an hour to install them, but it's worth every minute if you ask me. You could get regular coaxial 2-way speakers and install them in the door, and I promise you that you'll love yourself for doing it. If you have any more questions concerning installing 6.5's up front, let me know and I'll be glad to help.

joez

i tried aftermarket 4 inchers in mine, and didnt like it at all. i bought a set of MTX road thunder boxes, which have 8in subs and tweeter/midrange. they sound great, and only cost me $50 each from circut city.

Bumpin' Yota

I concur 100%

Additionally, if you are good at fiberglassing, I can instruct you on making kickpanels for a component set.

Steve

QuattroDave

I would be interested in hearing about how the 6.5" systems fit in the door panel. Is it no more work than pulling the panel, cutting the hardboard, installing the drivers, then re-installing the panel? In other words, there are no metal door frame parts to cut out?

I'm also curious about the kick panel idea - BUT - I saw kick panels offered by Crutchfield. They look like they'd massively intrude into the driver's footspace, obscuring the left footrest. My feet barely fit there now, so a thicker kick panel wouldn't work. I have zero experience at fiberglass work - have done plenty of body work, but if I had massive filling to do, I used metal. And that was many years ago and I no longer have the equipment to do it anyway.

I know that subs in the back (it is an extended cab) would sound best, but that back is usually full of people or gear, so I can not take up any room back there. I thought of one clever trick - mount the woofs inside the storage bins. I'd have to blow holes in the front edge of the storage bins, which would be a lot of work. But that's similar to something I did with an RX-7 a while ago.

The "one hour" is, unfortunately, fairly realistic. I work 7 days a week.

Looking forward to hearing more about the door panel idea, and maybe the kick panels, if it doesn't cause loss of space in the footwells.

Dave

Bumpin' Yota

Unless you want to cut into your current kick panels they will take up foot room. Even if you do cut the stock panels, they will intrude quite a bit. However, the kickpanel location is the IDEAL location for a component set for imaging, staging, up front bass response, and overall sound quality. I'm 6' and even with my seats all the way back I don't have enough leg room - but to me the sound is worth the minor inconvenience. Maybe that's why I'm in dbs - total fanatacism about sound....lol

Churnd

You have to trim a little sheetmetal to clear the woofer, and that's with using a 1" spacer. Without the spacer, you won't be able to roll your window down all the way. Once I figured where I wanted to mount the speakers, all I had to do was trim out about a credit card size worth of metal. But it has to be done. It doesn't hurt anything, so don't worry. It's just a little time consuming trying to figure out the best place to put the speaker. When I get my install completed, I'll post pictures so you can get an idea how I did it. No offense to Steve but I couldn't stand having kick panels as I'm 6'2 and I'd always be kicking the speaker. Plus if you have a standard, I think the only way to do it is to bend the clutch pedal towards the brake pedal.

I can't see how you're going to mount a sub in that storage bin if you're talking about the ones in the back under the fold down seats. One is bigger than the other and even the biggest one still isn't that big. But I suppose you could mount a free air sub in the big one if you wanted to. I personally think it would cause a lot of vibration with the paneling and other stuff.

If time is an issue, you could work on it a little bit at a time. I drove my truck around for 2 weeks without the door panels on it and worked on it whenever I had some free time. Let me know if you want to know more about the door panel idea so I'll post pics and you can get a better idea of what I did.

QuattroDave

I'm into good sound, too, but my good system is at home. A truck cab isn't the idea place for great sound. My commute is 10 minutes, so most of the time, it's too short to really get into it. The sound system becomes useful only on longer trips. If I wanted to make the system sound really good, it would take more than speakers - a new head end, amps, etc - and then I run into not only a time issue but a money issue. Believe me I do appreciate good sound - I run the sound board at several jazz festivals and probably listen to more music live than canned.

My idea on the storage bins isn't for a massive sub - something like a 6.5" or 8", I think, is all that there's acoustic volume back there to support. I hadn't thought about the rattles. Probably would have to do a lot of acoustic damping, and then it becomes a huge project. To me, the advantage of using the storage bins is that it would not intrude on the interior space - much.

So, the 6.5" in the door panels sounds like an upgrade that balances budget, time and sound, and I'd love to see photos of it. Because I live in not the best neighborhood, the best "look" in my case is "invisible".

My hope for a one hour job sounds like it's evaporating. Too bad. I get about a free hour once every two months - ugh. If I decide to pull the door panels off, there's no doubt that I'll be driving it around without the panels for several months, as I eke out a half hour here and there when it's not raining (no garage available to me) to work on it.

Thanks all!

Dave

Churnd

Ok, I'll take some pics this afternoon and post them later on tonite.

QuattroDave

Thanks Chris,

Your name will be in lights - or at least your idea will adorn my truck.

Churnd

Here's a few with the speakers installed:







Maybe this will give you some idea about how it works. If you have any questions just let me know.

By the way, I know it's messy... I'm still in the process of upgrading my sound system. I'll post better pics of the whole shebang when it's all done.

Krash

Do you have a picture of how you went through from the dash area to the door? Just curious, I got to looking at mine the other day and realized a hole would need to be drilled or somethin. Nice job on the install.

Churnd

I got some 3/4" inside diameter rubber grommets from Lowes in the electrical section next to all the connectors. So I had to drill 1/2" holes for the grommets to fit... 2 per side. I just ran the wire through the grommets and left it as it is. I thought I'd have to figure out some way to cover the wire up to prevent it from getting damaged, but I was happy to find out that the wire goes in and out of the grommets as I open and shut my door. I might still fab up something later for protection, but for now it's staying like that. I don't have any pics yet but I'll post them as soon as I can snap a few.

Krash

Thanks, Might want to try some of that braided mesh that they sell at autozone. It wont keep the water out but it might help keep the wires from rubbing the insulation off..

QuattroDave

Chris, the speakers look great. What did you make the spacers out of? I am thinking it's particle board, painted black? I would probably use my router and a circle-cutting fixture to build the spacers, is that how you did it?

Regarding wires through the door, my other vehicle has alarm, power windows, heated rearview mirrors, and other things that require wiring in the door. The manufacturer has rubberized accordian-shaped gizmos involve. One end mounts to the door, the other end mounts to the front fender. Then the wires are routed through the fender into the under-hood area. The wires are bonded to the rubber accordian gizmo so that they don't rub anything as the door opens and closes, they just flex.

I would think that you could get some of that wire loom protective wrap and cover the wires with it. Maybe use tie wraps to secure it, possibly one position inside the door, and the other end of it wherever convenient. Probably can run the stuff right through that rubber grommet you installed.

I'm also thinking that, once the wiring is inside the door anyway, it would be a very simple matter to install tweeters on the door panel surface higher up.

Thanks again,

Dave

aviator

hey buddy...I just checked out a set of BOSTON ACCOUSTIC 4.5 PRO's yesterday and was blown away by the sound! It was amazing the set consists of a 3/4"-1" tweeter and a 4" mid-range they can mount the tweets behind the stock grill to maintain the stock appearance (go covert and fool your friends )...the sound was incredible it sounded like an 8"!...clean,deep mellow...a little pricey at $549.99 Can. but you'd get them cheaper in the states i'm sure...test them out they're wild!...(not a 4T but that only refers to the 2-hole bracket vs. 4-hole braket...a simple fix for any competant audio shop or skilled DIYer...good luck

QuattroDave

Well, Boston Acoustics makes VERY good stuff. The factory grilles on this truck face downward toward the carpet; a tweeter mounted behind there won't be very audible. Even if you spend $400 (that's the US price) you can't get good sound from speakers aimed wrong (LOL)

I sill like the idea of mounting a 6.5" in the door like Chris showed. But looking at the mountains of projects on the house to do, which are way more important than these speakers, and looking at the budget for this project of about $100, I think I'm just going to get some sort of name-brand 4" replacements. I see some made by JBL, Polk and others. The specs on all of them are unbelievable, so I think all I can do is throw a dart and hope they're OK!

Thanks all

Dave

Churnd

The 4 inchers will give absolutely no bass whatsoever, and if you try to make them do so, you'll rattle the dash, which will make it sound like crap. You'll probably want to get a set of bass blockers (which is a high pass filter) and wire them up with the speakers.

4" speakers will bolt right in. My bro has some in his pickup... the holes were a little bit off, but it'll work if you start both screws at the same time. The other mounting holes didn't interfere with anything.

The spacers I used I bought from my local car audio shop. I think any competent shop would carry them. They're just plastic spacers and are made to work with 5.25-6.5" speakers, which is why if you look close enough at my pics, you can see the speaker overlaps the spacer a little.

If you have a $100 budget, you can find a decent pair of 2-way speakers for around $80 and get those spacers for about $15. Then you'll have $5 left for a 6-pack while you sit there and admire your work.

Duffdog

hey guys... want to know a neat installer trick!!

you can put 6.5 inch speakers in the front doors without any type of spacers even if you dont have wing windows... just put the speaker all the way to the lower corner of the door, so that the contour of the speaker matches the bottom corner of the door-- i noticed in the picture that the spacers you used are at least 2" away from the lower corner of the door, if you put the speakers there, then he is correct about the window roll down thing-- if you put them in the absolute furthest and lowest position on the door ( you will need an airsaw or an experienced installer to do this one ) Than you can have all the bass you would ever want--and the speakers will not intrude into the cab--like with a spacer. In my 1990 yoter, i actually had 4 fosgate fnx mids and didnt need a subwoofer because the door speakers hit just fine!

I just hate those stupid looking spacer things....

Tim

QuattroDave

Well, that's how my time goes. It's August. I haven't been able to THINK about the speakers since April!

Duffdog mentioned the notion of putting a 6.5" closer to the edge of the door, and also mentioned rattles....that brings up some other thoughts.

When I pull the door panel, do I need to buy some of those clip things to put it back in? In the past, removal of door panels have always meant I broke plastic snaps.

And, can I put the 6.5" in without hogging out any metal? That's the sort of work I'm just not into doing.

Yeah, a 4" in a dashboard can make the dash rattle, which doesn't sound too good.

But I've heard plenty of pressboard door panels rattling, and that isn't any good either!

Unless you can fit a kicker type box, trucks just don't offer any great places for bass.

A 4" CAN deliver good bass - I have some 4" transmission line speakers as part of my home system, and they measure flat down to 18Hz. However, they won't fit a vehicle, and they won't deliver the SPL required in a vehicle.

Thanks!