dcole

ive decided to ditch these ratty 4" speakers up front, they are going to drive me crazy and I'll never get the output that I can out of a set of properly deadened/sealed 6.5" components


anyways, a while back while at the junkyard I noticed the first gen taco door panels are quite similar to those in my 93 pickup (although not quite the same, they are longer and of course the speaker grill/map pocket). I was thinking about just removing the plastic speaker grill/map pocket from the taco panels and attaching them to my pickup's panels. I feel like this would give me a much cleaner "factory" look than some of the other options i've seen out there.


I suppose my main question is has anyone seen this done before? Im assuming it would be very straightforward but if anyone had seen anything easier/better using factory parts then im all ears.


heres a picture of the taco door panel for reference



thanks for the advice in advance,
Derek.

Hilux4Life

That's a very interesting idea. Why just not cut and install 6.5's into your doors? It's really not that hard to do. sorry for the crappy cell pic. This pic is rather old.

dcole

underneath those inserts thats exactly what will be done, I just prefer to make it look factory(ish) if possible... plus it will great to have the door pockets

BigSwole

If i understand correctly, unless you have the wing window, you cant do the soeakrr install because the window will hit. Is this correct or can both window styles do it?

dcole

if you want to mount them directly to the door then yes, you must have the wing windows...

buuuut, if you wanted to take the time to fab it up you could probably mount the speaker to the back of the plastic speaker grill/pocket from the tacoma. It would probably elevate it enough so the back of the speaker cleared your window.


I'll measure for sure when I try this, should be this weekend as long as I can find some decent panels.

dcole

as it turns out this isnt very hard at all with the help of a drill and a dremel...



it was a quick hack job, about 45 minutes from start to finish and im sure it could be done much cleaner if I was taking my time... but it will do for now, this way even the people without the sail windows can run 6.5" speakers and you get a map pocket as well.

I know the colors dont match, but if I ever decide to really make the inside look decent ill paint it to match


here are the pics, they show what all needed to be trimmed to work:

holes drilled, grommets in, wire ran:





the factory speaker mount for a first gen taco, first pic is how it looks before trimming, second and third pictures are after trimming







here is how the door panel will need to be trimmed



speaker in



pod/map pocket attached to door panel



installed





and thats that, im not going to go into a bunch of detail other than that because its pretty much just like the other tutorials about putting speakers in the door... just look at the back of the pod and put screws through the back of the door as you see fit

bone collector

I like it !! well done!! guess im going shopping for some taco panels,,,

dcole

its relatively easy, I would definitely be sure to get the OEM plastic speaker brackets that screw onto the door as well... that brings the speaker off the door a couple of inches to clear the full windows if you dont have sails

ill take a few more pictures when I do the passenger side on sunday, but its really one of those things you've just gotta modify/trim as your going... I just eyeballed all of it


p.s. the sound, even out of really cheap Phoenix Gold rsd coaxials, is 100x's better than any of the 4" speakers on the market