That piece sits vertically at the back of the top's well, and is the more offensively rattle-prone piece. I had to remove it and the main well the top folds into. Once you have one out the other is pretty easy.
--Jason

 

Thanks for you help! The picture shows up on my screen now, and I have identified the piece.

 

What is the purpose of this piece?

 

I have eliminated all rattles from the top's well and that piece. However, I think by removing/venting the well all together I can get some more bass through.

jzr: Would you mind sharing how you took these two pieces off? Any kind of insructions/tips would be appreciated. Also, once you take em off, is it possible to put these pieces back or it's a one way operation?

Thanks!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jzr
[B]That piece sits vertically at the back of the top's well, and is the more offensively rattle-prone piece.

 

I also removed that piece as well as the whole plastic tub. The bass sounded 10 times better. ( not near as muddy, no rattles, and way faster response) I was amazed at the difference. Yes the top still worked fine and the plastic rear window actually didnt even touch anything when the top was down. before it would rest on the bottom of the plastic tub and scratch the window......only one problem though, the damm road noise(from the rear tires) was so bad that the better sounding bass was not worth it. It drove me nuts so I put it all back in except I put some pieces of sponge in between that thin back panel and the sheet metal.

 

I know what you're talking about. I haven't taken the tub out yet (will do it in a couple hours), but I took off all that sound deadning stuffing and that increased the road noise. I don't think it will get any worst after removing the tub. ?. I'd still get rid of the tub and then put a piece of dynomat on top of car's body under the spare and on top of the fuel tank part. That should help a bit.

 

Ok, I did it. Removed the top's well and the other piece. What a difference!!!! Sub sounds at least 200% better with no rattles whatsoever. The road noise is increased just a little bit but the extra bass makes up for it. I'm going to try the dynomat next.

Thank you "jzr" for the tips. It took me about 30 mins to get these pieces off and I believe they can be put back in 10 minutes.

I would highly recommend this to anyone with a sub in the trunk.


[QUOTE]Originally posted by mas
[B]I know what you're talking about. I haven't taken the tub out yet (will do it in a couple hours), but I took off all that sound deadning stuffing and that increased the road noise. I don't think it will get any worst after removing the tub. ?.

 

Any problems if you have the glass rear window? The last thing I want to do is break it.

 

I have the glass rear window and I've been driving without the rear deck for over a year now. No problems, there are edges along the rear deck (even after you remove it) that keep the top from going any further down than it's supposed to. It does not touch the the spare tire or anything else underneath. You don't really have to remove it permanently, you can modify the deck and put it back. My car's a lease so I didn't bother. Here's what I suggested to another owner a while ago:

"
......
......

* Drill holes (1/4 inch or more dia) in the tray itself (instead of cutting out whole pieces which might compromise the rigidity of the tray) and you can make them into the shape of 2 circles like you have two 9 inch speakers installed behind them. If you do this neatly you don't need to put any grill or anything on top of it, otherwise just get some speaker cloth (whatever it's called) cut it into a circle and stick it there with some glue. I would not put speaker grills there.

* Remove all the foamy stuff for sound damping.

* Put some dynomat under the spare and to the left on the fuel tank. The idea is to reduce the noise since you don't have that factory sound damping material any more.

* Put the tray and that other piece back with some sort of thin rubber insulating on the sides. I'm not sure what to use for it, go look at a hardware store for this. I know they have some sheets of rubber that are used for some thing...
......
......"

 

I just removed these today and i noticed that now my top is hitting a metal bar in the back of my trunk
you guys need to look and make sure that yours isn't. I'm sure it could scratch up the fabric of your top pretty quickly. If i were you i'd go look right away!