My budget front speaker upgrade (pics)

[robkay]

I don’t know whether anyone has any interest in improving the stock audio in their Yaris anymore. A couple years ago I couldn’t live with the stock audio in my ‘07 hatchback anymore, so I decided to at least replace the front speakers. I’ve been meaning to share the way I went about it for some time, so here it is. I saw some amazing things that people did, but this is not a major kind of upgrade that is going to blow your mind. This is more along the lines of a budget upgrade, just the front speakers, but the results were worth the effort.

So, I started to look into speakers and when I saw that the fronts are 6.5" it dawned on me that I just might have a nice pair of Yamaha coaxials that I had bought for a previous car (and removed when sold). Sure enough, they had been packed away, setting on a shelf for years. I knew they were pretty good speakers in their day, so I decided to try those. I bought the Metra mounting rings and harness connectors suggested for the Yaris.

I had read about sound deadening materials for the door cavity and ran into a video on Youtube where a guy used Frost King foil backed self adhesive foam sheet, so I decided to go with that (I told you this was a budget job). Not fully trusting the self adhesive for the long term, I applied some metal HVAC tape around the perimeter. One guy in a Youtube video opines that 99% of the effectiveness of sound deadening material is achieved by treating just 25-30% of the door, particularly behind the speaker. I’m sure this is something that is arguable, but I’m not going to. I decided to go with that.



I was concerned about water dripping in and damaging the speakers, so I made a pair of deflectors out of Folgers plastic coffee cans. (The OEM speaker assembly has such a shroud built in.) I glued them in place above the speakers with 3M Emblem Adhesive.



A little additional trimming done and glued in place over speaker opening (the yellow to the right).



As far as covering the large access cutout in the door I saw a lot of ideas, from plywood to other materials. I decided to go with a simple piece of sheet metal–not the thin gauge stuff like you get at Lowes for residential ductwork. I went to a sheet metal shop and bought some heavier gauge sheet metal that I could still cut with tin snips. I first made templates out of cardboard, then traced on to the sheet metal. Next, cut them out and used my Dremel to smooth the burrs. I bought a can of Rustoleum Cold Galvanizing spray and sprayed the cut edges to help retard rust.

Before installing the cover I applied some thin, black foam tape around the perimeter to act as a sealing gasket and to prevent the metal from buzzing. I had to be very cognizant of the screw lengths due to the moving mechanism and window glass. Also applied a dot of thread lock on the screws.





After screwing the metal cover in place, I then covered it with the Frost King sheet. I also covered most other openings and holes with scraps of the Frost King sheet. (The foil peels off, so you will note that in a few spots.)

I should add that a gasket was also needed between the front face of the speaker (around the perimeter) and the interior door panel (something I had overlooked and not planned for, but caught). For this I used Frost King R534H minimum compression, 3/4" wide, 5/16" thick foam weatherstripping. (This is another thing that the stock speaker assembly has built into it.) You can see it applied in the pic below.



As regards the end result, after almost 2-1/2 years nothing is rattling and there are no scratches on the glass, so I guess I did OK. I had in the back of my mind that I might eventually do the rear speakers, too. But, as it turned out, the stock rears seem to project bass better than the stock fronts did, so I set the fade control to emphasize the bass from the rear speakers. The front speakers now sound SO MUCH BETTER that I am very happy with the overall result. I actually love listening to music in the car now. Sure, I’d like some lower end bass, but I don’t plan to change out the receiver, so it probably isn’t feasible to wire in a subwoofer big enough to really make much difference.

So, good, bad, or otherwise (I know there are probably better ways to do some of the things I did), this was how I went about my budget front speaker upgrade.