Tutorial - Fitting front speakers (with photos)

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

Hi Folks, just picked myself up a nice low KM NP GLX DID. A few mods need to be done and I figured I would document the process for others who might contemplate the same. So, starting with the woeful factory speakers - the following too about 1 hour all round. WOuld be a bit faster except that the door handle trim is a little pesky to get out. Anyway - so begins the tutorial....

The door speakers are of the 6.5" variety. It was difficult to find some that had the appropriate bolt holes however these three way JBL's were a screw in fit:

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

I also wanted to add some "super tweeters" to the standard empty factory door pockets. These can be found in Jaycar et-al, sometimes as cheap as $10 a pair. I had these lying around the workshop. The door tweeter pods simply pull off with a bit of a wiggle.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

I filed a bit of a flat in the front face of the tweeters and then hot melt glued them in place. Do not use too much glue on the face of the tweeters as it will come through the front of the tweeter grille. Hot melt glue held the last lot on happily through several off-road trips in the old NM including across the Simpson so it appears strong enough. Bonus is it is not too hard to remove if you want to take them out again.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

Next we need to remove the door trims.

Undo the two screws hidden under caps on the outer edge of the door.

Pull up the armrest gently with a levering action. It will reveal a third larger screw to remove in the bottom of the inside handle.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

Carefully pry up the power window switch from either end by inserting a flat screwdriver underneath and levering up gently. Work both ends a little at a time.

NM's have the connector fixed to the door frame so the switches will come right out. Our NP needed the connector to be unplugged as it isnt screwed to the frame.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

Now the hard bit - if anyone knows a trick with this please chime in.

The door release handle surround needs to come out and it is fairly well held on. Along the top edge in the middle you need to insert a screwdriver and pry it back a little. You should find a metal tang that when pushed down firmly will release the rest of the clip behind the trim. I had to fish around with a second smaller screwdriver up behind in order to pull the clips down. Once released there should be a tang either side of the first one you held down.

Either side of this along the top edge the trim has small plastic clips that hold it onto the door release handle. Pry these up with a small screwdriver one by one. Gentle here as they are easy to break. Once released the trip will lever down and out from the top.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

If I haven't forgotten anything the door trim should be ready to come off. Grasp it on the bottom front corner and pull it out towards you. You will hear it pop as the trim clips release. Work your way around the door trim until all the clips are released to the top on either side.

Then grasp the door trim on either side and push it up gently from side to side to release it from the window channel. Unplug the courtesy light at the bottom and it should be free.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

Unplug and remove the factory speaker. It may be slightly stuck as the back surface is sealed with some glue or foam.

Note that the factory speaker wire enters from the front of the speaker mount where most new ones will need the wires routed to the back. I simply split and soldered into the factory loom a short section of cable with the appropriate connectors, leaving the factory connector in place. Heatshrink is your friend here.

If you chase the loom back into the door you will find an opening to poke the cable through into the cavity. I suggest wrapping or sheathing the cable to prevent chafing. The white with colour stripe wire on both sides of the vehicle is the positive.

Connect your speaker, screw it in and maybe do a quick test.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

Now for the top tweeter. Locate the factory tweeter connector. It will be taped down alongside the loom to the power mirror - probably hidden behind the plastic on the top corner of the door. Watch the black sticky stuff - comes off with turps.

I simply cut this unused connector off and soldered in my own wires to the tweeter pod. Again the white is positive. You could use a pair of small utilux connectors to make it easier to remove the pods if required.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

Well, that's about it. Refitting the trims is the reverse of the above, except that it all goes together fairly quickly and easily.

I haven't attacked the rear doors yet but I suggest that (except for the lack of tweeter pods) it would be very similar.

Improvements on above? You could look into a better pair of speakers than the JBL's - preferably a pair of splits with a proper crossover. Or you could be cheap and leave the factory speaker in place and simply add a tweeter in the pod. There would also be an improvement in building the new speaker out a little so that it is flush with the inside of the door trim. That will make sense once you see how the trim is moulded to surround the speaker.

Well - hope the above is helpful to someone.

Cheers - Pat

[Pickle Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Pickle]

Excellent work Pat!
Dave

[The Last Streetfighter Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Last Streetfighter]

Yeah nice work. I read that the Exceed has a 6 speaker stereo and the rest get 4 speaker. So I gather that the 2 extras in the exceed are the tweeters.

I have my eye on a set of jaycar kevlar 6.5" splits with dedicated crossovers for this job. Hmmmm.

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

If I didn't have the JBL's on hand I would go the Jaycar Response splits - they have a good name amongst the car audio crowd.

Pat

[linou Member Find all posts View Profile Close linou]

Hi Pat,

Althought I won't be replacing the speakers at this stage (I will keep dreaming for now), can you recal the amount of sound dedening on the rear of the door trims? I have been thinking of ways to reduce the amount of round noise entering the cabin, particularly on course chip bitumen roads.

Christian

[psproule Valued Member Find all posts View Profile Close psproule]

The actual plastic trims had about a 15mm layer of wadding glued to them. The door skin itself is bare (painted). The NM had no wadding at all.

You could improve it by spraying sound deadening tar on the door skin I guess?

Pat