Enlarging Rear Deck Speaker Holes

**10kken** · 01-30-2003, 12:51 PM

I'm in the process of updating the stereo in my E36. I've replaced the facotry rear speakers with a pair of A/D/S 5 1/4" IMs mounted from the bottom. What I'd really like to do is to drop them in from inside the car to lessen their presence in the trunk and also achieve a nice flush mount using a birch plywood base. The exisitng hole in the deck is just a little too small for the speakers to fit in.

Has anyone had any experience with enlarging the rea deck speaker holes to do this or something similar? I'd be interested in hearing from someone who has.

Ken

**ASCH MAN** · 01-30-2003, 01:10 PM

I did it in my last car. Put 6X9's in the middle so the sides could be used as ports for the sub box. Break out the tin snips and remember to wear eye protection. First use something to mark out the hole. There is probably a better tool for the job but it wourld require heat/sparks and you probably have to srip a lot of the trim around. With the tin snips, you can do the work from below (again eye protection a must). If you take your time, you are left with a nice cut, but not perfect. Try using a file or a dremel tool to file down the really sharp edges. If you use a dremel, you may have to deal with sparks again.

The whole job can really be a bitch, and you will not have the factory stock deck in the rear when you are done, so you will have to leave your speakers in the car.

Since you bottom mounted your speakers, this really won't raise the speakers more than 1/4 of an inch and in my opinion, that is not worth the work. If you raise them using plywood, you probably may not have to cut the deck as the speaker gets smaller towards the bottom. But would the stock speaker grills fit?

**10kken** · 01-30-2003, 01:17 PM

Audio Man,

Thanks for the input. I've measured the spacing in the car and the speaker depth. Using ~ a one inch base gives plenty of clearance for the factory speaker grills, but not enough to get past the wider portions of the speaker housing. There may be some better ways to mount the speakers up from the bottom, but I'm not really happy with the results I achived so far. Its ok for a temporary setup, but that's about it. I've never used the tin snips before, they'll really cut through that BMW steel?

**ASCH MAN** · 01-30-2003, 01:25 PM

Don't know how much thicker BMW steel is from Toyota steel. I can't imagine it being that much more. You probably don't have to cut much to get the speaker to fit. Maybe there is a nice dremel bit that can cut through it. Just watch out for sparks. Ask a local stereo shop how they cut through the metal. Tin snips are pretty cheap and you could always return them if they don't do the job.

**kevin7909** · 01-30-2003, 01:25 PM

my cousin in-law's 325 coupe is setup EXACTLY like u wanna do..a/d/s/ mids mounted from the top with the rear deck cut out a little....AudioMan is correct that if u go through with this u wont have the stock holes anymore but that is probably not an issue for u...the stock grills do still work in my cousin's car tho and the mids do take up less trunk space..actually i had to go in the trunk to see them when i was looking at what kinda speakers he had in the car(he is gonna use my old stealthboxes but the rear deck being cut has made that quite difficult)..what i would do if your open to spending a little bit of money is getting a set of Illusion Audio mids...why? the magnet is in FRONT of the cone and take's up zero space..the depth of the speaker would be the depth of the basket, and with the way u want to mount the drivers there would be zero useable tunk space used...
Kevin

**10kken** · 01-30-2003, 01:33 PM

Thanks guys. Regarding choosing speakers, I alread have the a/d/s ones, so I'd really like to use them. I like them and I got a good deal too! I considered going with the Stealthboxes, but JL Audio says they don't fit in my car, only the coupes for 1998. I've recently heard otherwise. But at the time I made my buying decision, JL didn't return my emails inquiring about the fit and so I went another route. however, I have been considering selling the a/d/s speakers and going with the Stealthboxes, thus elimininating the need for a su in the trunk.

What I'm hearing is that tin snips should be able to enlarge the hole and I should probably get a pretty good result, at the expense of having to leave the speakers in the car. If anyone else has done this, I'd be interested in hearing from you as well.

Thanks,

Ken

**kevin7909** · 01-30-2003, 02:00 PM

i was the one who mentioned u could put stealthboxes in the sedan because i've done it in my sedan...if u need any assistance lemme know...nothing to it and its not a permanent mod in any way and will give much better results than what your doing now in my opinion...
Kevin

**10kken** · 01-30-2003, 02:50 PM

Yeah Kevin, I would like to know what I would need to do to install the Stealths successfully in my car. I guess I could sell the a/d/s speakers and reinvest in the Stralths. Let me know.

Thanks,

Ken

**kevin7909** · 01-30-2003, 03:01 PM

first take out the carpet lining on the left of the trunk....tehn unbolt the stock amp..your gonna have to either relocate it or take it out altogether and use an aftermarket amp(this is obviously the superior option from a SQ point of view) but then u get into changing out the front speakers and it can get messy..but i will help with that too if u wish....put the liner back in...get a friend to go into the car and take the speaker grills off...TWO of teh screws on the stealthbox will line up on each side of the car, but not three...u will understand when u buy them what i mean...there is no reason to cut ANYTHING or drill ANY holes to get them to fit...BUT..lying down on your back in the trunk, u will need to force teh stealthbox as far to your right as u can until the holes line up..this will entail pressing the carpet liner and deforming it a little since u are now pushing the carpet into the space that the stock amp resided before....bolt it up....thats it....when u take the stealthbox out the carpet will go back to its original shape and i have pics on this board of the stealthboxes in my 4 door if u wanna see how they look....they look just like the coupe.....
Kevin

**10kken** · 01-30-2003, 03:44 PM

Thanks Kevin. I think I understand what you did on the install. Yeah, I'd like to see pics of your car. I've already made a decision on an aftermarket amp, I bought an a/d/s 650.2 and I've alread put some a/d/s components up front. My plan was to add a 10" sub box in the trunk, but now I don't know. I like the idea of not having to give up that trunk space. There isn't that much to start with!

**kevin7909** · 01-30-2003, 04:16 PM

sounds like u have nice equipment...since the stealthboxes are 8ohms u can wire them in parallel and power them off the amp like u were gonna do with the 1 10"....
Kevin