I think I have finally worked out how I want to do my stereo upgrade. The last thing I am concerned about is cutting holes in the upper part of the door panel to make room for the seperate tweeters.

Can anyone give tips about how to make this cut? I am worried about ripping the soft outer door material.

Also, Does anyone know how much depth there is just in front of the inner door handle/lock? If I mount the tweeters there I want to make sure they will clear the window.

 

That's brave.

I mounted mine in their pods on the dash with mounting tape.


Others have mounted them in the A pillars with great success (and little damage).

 

I installed my tweeters in front of the door handles with no problems. Tweeters are very thin and there is plenty of clearance. Make sure you use a sharp hole drill and you should be okay. I think that is the best location because you don't run into phase problems with the speakers being so far apart.

 

OK, I used a hole saw to drill a hole for each speaker in the door panels. I think the imaging doing this is surperior to any other placement. Even though it requires drilling, it's the best IMO way to go.

Here's the secret. When you finally work up the courage to actually drill the holes, REVERSE the drill so that the saw is spinning in the opposite direction to SCORE the vinyl on the door panel. This will prevent the material from ripping...you will end up with something that looks like this...



Then, put the door panels back on and you will have (eventually) something that looks like this...



The key is to make sure to score the material by using the hole saw to go in reverse then drill through it in forward motion. Also, make sure to get a hole saw that is the exact fit for the template that your speakers provide for. Too big will be very very bad...too small isn't AS bad, but doing the hole manually is a complete bitch. Get the right hole saw and drill...it'll be no problem.

Superior imaging...even though my stereo is turned off most of the time!

Good luck!

 

I also installed mine in front of the door handles. I used a hole saw to get through the cardboard and then stopped and used an exacto knife to cut through the vinyl. Came out very clean.

 

I installed my tweeters in the plastic windshield pillar cover. Very clean, good imaging, and best of all, the plastic can be replaced for about $75 if you want to return the car to stock...

 

I have a feeling the "Superior imaging" the door drillers speak of is actually superior imagining

 

Nice speakers Greg

 

One other thought, don't know if others have tried it:
I'm not a big fan of big holes in my door panel, and in poking around found this:

A bit of off-colored plastic just the size of a standard 1" tweeter. So a few minutes with a drill later, we have this:

Probably not as good acoustically as the other options, but it's better than a 2-way. There is some room to modify the tweeter's angle, but you're still limited on the driver's side by the "knee fader". One thing it does well is keep the factory look - you can't tell the tweeter is there unless you're looking at it straight-on, as in the picture. To me that was of utmost importance.

Happy motoring!

Jason

 

The problem with keeping the tweeters near the mid-range is that the sound is blocked by the legs of both the driver and passenger. Putting the tweeters in front of the door handle solves this problem. It is a well known fact that separating the tweeters and mid-range speakers too far will cause bad acoustic problems (creates an almost echo sound). In my opinion, the pillar approach puts the left tweeter much too close to one's head.