Well I finally did it, I finally changed out the rear speakers. I didn't have much of a choice due the fact that the driver rear was badly blown so I will give my mod and some problems that I ran into in this thread since I always see a lot of people asking about it.
First off Speaker Size. This was a big issue for me since I like to have a bigger driver behind me. Everywhere I looked seemed to say that 4 inchers would fit into the back without any major modification and basically be a plug and play. They were to small for me. I always liked the sound out of a 6.5 way better and it does make a big difference. So out shopping I went. I decided to buy online considering since its always cheaper, but before I bought I went out and looked at the speakers in the store first and checked them out. I had a budget of around $100 and I just wanted a 2-way 6.5 since in my opinion with the seperates up front thats all that you need behind you.
I mostly used Best-buy.com, Circuit-City, Crutchfield and the manufacturers websites to narrow it down to either Kicker 07DS600 or Polk Audio db 650 after a lot of looking. That was just my choice. They both make very good speakers and when I listened to them it was really hard to tell the difference, but since I had a set of Polk seperates in my Rodeo which I loved and since they were on sale 59.99 on crutchfield I went with them. I paid $68 with shipping and had them in two days since I live NY. Just a note these speakers retailed in Circuit City for over a hundred and after looking around online, the best deal that I found was the Crutch one.
Now I knew that crutchfield always sent out directions for installation but what I got really did blow me away. They had detailed, with PICS of the VX, instructions for not only removing the dash panel, door panels but also for removing the rear panels where the speakers were going. I have to see if I can scan them for anyone interested in seeing them.
Now for the disaster. Let me first say this. BUDGET OUT THE WHOLE DAMN DAY FOR THIS! It is a pain in the ***. Also make sure that you have tools on hand. You will need, 2 different size flat head screwdrivers, a panel popper, a philips head, a T-50 torx head driver, Assorted Metric Sockets, Soldering Gun ( I bought a 16 dollar battery operated one at Home Depot that worked great), A set of Tin Snips or some type of Spiral saw, And lastly a power drill.
Some advice from experience. I recommend removing the seat when doing this. It makes life a lot easier, I did the drivers side without it and it was a pain, so on the other I decided to remove the seat and it went way better. The seat is only 4 bolts, 15 mm socket if I remember right, and if your VX is old like mine it'll give you a chance to vacuum out years old crap from under the seat, so just do it it will give you way more room.
You need the t-50 torx head for removing the seat bolt anchor. IT IS A PAIN IN THE ***. I bought one that was a socket attachment for like 4 bucks at autozone. Be very careful because if you don't hold it Dead straight it will slip, and to initially break the threadlock requires a lot of force. Also remove the lower seatbelt bolt at the floor, another 15 mm I think it was. DO NOT LOOSE ANY OF THE WASHERS ON EXTRA PIECES. Next remove the Oh Sh*t bar, two phillips screws under the plastic covers, lots little pieces here so be careful.
Next remove the door jam trim, I think its like 4 or 5 phillips screws. Next remove the pin thats just above your head and the seat belt anchor, Be gentle and don't break it. Theres also one more pin at the top rear of the panel.
Now start pulling the panel loose, don't be afraid, the little white plastic clips will not be staying on the panel when you pop it by the way, which makes for more of a pain in the *** later, but continue popping working your way from the front top to the rear back. Lastly when you come to the rear of the panel, Midway down on the back edge directly under the little rear window there is a peice that hooks into another spot. When you pull the panel off you will hear the piece pop off. DON"T LOOSE IT. I ddin't even know it was there till I heard it drop off. It is a Brass looking clip. The piece is important because without it your panel will not stay tight to the body when you put it back on.
Once the panel is off simply position it forward of you so that you can work. The speakers are inside of a housing. ETlsport has the pics of those. There will be two Phillips heads in the front, and two in the rear buried under the next rear panel. I didn't want to remove the rear panel totally so I just popped the front portion of it so that I could get to the screws, just have a nubby screwdriver on hand. There are also 2, 10 mm I think bolts on the speaker housing. Remove all of these and the housing will lift right out. If your just putting back the same size then you shouldn't have to go through all that hassle of removing them, just instead unplug the speaker and remove the four screws holding to the housing. The holes on the new speaker should match up, just be careful of the screw size. (keep reading for + - connections......)
Now that you have the housing off, remove the speakers and draw a circular outline of the new size opening, I think mine had a circumfrence of like 5.25 inches, and begin to trim. I just used tin snips, took a little longer, but that was all that I had on hand, I know some have used roto-zip etc. Just be careful because the metal does get sharp. Also don't be afraid to cut out the old mounting holes, your gonna make new ones. The housings have just enough material left after trimming out for a 6.5 in speaker, anything bigger than that will require some custom Fab work.
The Polks like most speakers came with a foam stick on O-ring that I stuck around the hole and then dropped in the speaker. With the Drill I made new holes, mounted it up and went back to the car.
Before you screw back in the housings, you have to make the connections, + and -, Luckily on the back of the stock speakers you will notice a + on one side. Just remember which wire went to the plus side. If you forgot, you can take the old speaker back over, plug it in and look, the + will be directly under the wire. Mark it, cut and strip. Make your connections, I always solder mine.
Test out the speaker, if all is working, Put the housings back. Remember to screw back all the screws and bolts! MAKE SURE ALL IS WORKING AND HOUSING IS BACK RIGHT BEFORE GOING FURTHER. you don't want to be pulling the panel all over again for something stupid.
One other thing that you can do is to clean in the inside steel. Mine was a filfthy after almost 10 years so I wiped it down real quick before I went on.
Now for putting the panel back. Most of the white plastic clips didn't stay on the panel but remained in the steel of the car. A regular panel popper only worked on two of them, the odd shape of the steel made it impossible to pop the rest. They had to removed by first using a flat head to pry up one side a little, and then lifting and grabbing the center pin from underneath with a small pair of pliers and pulling, This usually did the trick for me without break them, but even if you do I think that they can be bought at pep-boys in such. After you get them all out, reposition them on the door panel, they simply slide into place. Now put the panel back and start from the top and work your way down. I found that it was easier to put back the Oh-Sh*t bars first to hold the panel in place. It takes a few tries to get the holes to line up right but you'll know when you got it, then simply pound the panel into place you'll hear the clips popping into the holes.
Lastly attach the seat-belt bolts, and the little brass clip that I mentioned earlier. This clip slides onto the plastic piece of the panel, I will try to get a pic of it, but it should be self explanatory when you see. Push that clip back into place.
Thats pretty much it. I was gonna take pics of the process but I was so damn frustrated In how long it took I didn't. But Etl's pics are pretty good.
The speakers by the way sound great! But I still need to add a sub. For those of you who want a nice upgrade that isn't that expensive this is the way to go. If you want a little more bang add a sub later which is my next project. More on that later.
I think that just about covers it, I know this email is rather long, but I tried to get it all in there as a how to, since the one thing that always frustrated me here on some stuff was good how-tos and experiences. So here it is.
Anyone with questions feel free to ask. I don't check this everyday, but I do check my myspace and real email everyday. Thejerseyfish@aol.com and www.myspace.com/jerseyfish.
Hope this helps.
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