Styling 1.6 6x9 install

[The Brownman]

Right, I'm new to all this so bear with me haha. I was just wondering what the best way would be to install a set of 6x9 Vibe Slick's into the parcel shelf of my stilo. In other cars I've had, I used to take out the rear speakers and hook the wiring from the old speakers, through a crossover and then bridge it to my 6x9's. It worked great. Now, in my stilo, I've read that in order to do the same, you'd have to remove the rear seats just to remove the side panels to get to the speakers. Is there an easier way to do this? Thanks guys!

 

[The Brownman]

Any ideas anyone?

 

[groo]

So the crossover is to low-pass the bass and run the parcel shelf as a mono sum? Or did I read that wrong?
I thought the rear speakers were door mounted so you can't really run the wiring from there, without feeding it back through the hinge (but hey, I do stage audio not cars!). Maybe you might have read articles about using the preexisting wiring for the factory boot subwoofer. I heard the wiring is often there whether the factory sub is or not, so you could run an amp off it and drive the shelf from that.

 

[alexGS]

To get to the rear speakers in a three-door Stilo, you do have to take out the rear seats. Quite a mission involving a Torx T45 and a 15mm socket for the seats, plus a 17mm socket for the seatbelts. But get on with it and all the bulky bits will be out and your half-hour workout for the day will be done, too

If you're going to all that trouble, you might just as well fit new speakers in the side panel locations. It's a good place for speakers - acoustically better than the rear shelf, and you don't have the messy wiring to bother with when you remove the shelf to make more luggage space.

I've just fitted some 5x7"/6x8" oval speakers behind my Stilo's rear side panels. These $250 JBL speakers were bought for my Spider, but didn't fit as they weren't actually 5x7" as the shop claimed. I had cut the mounting tabs, so couldn't return them - what a nightmare.

Luckily, I had my Stilo to use them in. A small amount of sheet metal nibbling was sufficient, plus a piece of jigsawed white MDF to fill the odd-shaped hole. I was going to leave off the tweeters and run only the woofers, but in a sound test, I got so much midrange that it sounded wrong without the tweeters - I mounted these a little further back in the panels using a hole saw.

The standard speakers are a 6.5" round style, so if you buy that size, things will be even easier. A coaxial design would be fine; I was burdened with expensive components/crossovers to mount.

You'll be amazed at the quality of the standard speakers - extremely lightweight, with a tiny, weak magnet, and a paper dual cone. They sound incredible when you see that they could have been used in a cheap clock radio or old TV, which proves that the good standard of installation makes all the difference.

It's important that the speaker is sealed against the grille (which happens to be oval) by using foam tape around the speaker. The existing foam ring on the back of the grille has to be removed.

The effect in my Stilo is now a lot of sound, a great deal of floor-shaking bass, and a sound stage left somewhere between the back and the front of the car - it's quite OK.

-Alex

 

[alexGS]

I can only attach one photo per message (I write my posts on an iPhone), so here are two more pics. First, I used a Monodex sheet metal nibbler (very old) to enlarge the hole for the speaker. It cuts out a long curled-up strip which can then be removed. I did consider using a drill-powered nibbler, but that sprays little bits of steel everywhere, which would be hard to collect.

 

[alexGS]

Final photo showing mounting of 6x8" speaker (I don't think it's a 5x7" like it was supposed to be) - three of the screws go into clip nuts/drilled holes and the fourth screw goes into that piece of white MDF which, in turn, is held on by two more screws. There is foam tape under the speaker. On top of the speaker, there is a black plastic surround glued on, and I am about to add the light grey foam tape as shown earlier.

The side panel gives a much more solid mounting than the rear shelf could. If the speaker is sealed onto the grille, the trim provides adequate baffling to prevent sound behind the speaker getting out. I added some deadening material to the outer bodywork, and also some felt material (sold as "mover's blanket" for moving furniture) to the back of the trim panel, which improves the acoustics even more. I feel that the sound you get is worth the effort put in.

-Alex

 

[alexGS]

Any ideas anyone?

Hopefully the posts above will give you some ideas

-Alex

 

[The Brownman]

Lovely, great explanation and nice pics to go with it mate! What speakers would recommend for the car then?

 

[The Brownman]

You*