# Removing door panels



## SkullCruzeRS (Nov 3, 2011)

Hey All,

So I plan on upgrading the stock speakers in all the doors in a couple months or so and was wondering how difficult it is removing the panels? I know about the two screws that need to be removed, but am wondering on how many clips there are around the panel. Ordering from Crutchfield and they don't have a master sheet for installation so I'm on my own.

I'll be putting in Polk Audio MM521's in the front and Polk Audio MM651's in the rear. Both of these have crossover boxes, is there enough room in the door's to place the boxes easily?

Thanks


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## phantom (May 20, 2011)

There are 10clips on each front door and 5 on each rear door.




















HTH


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## aarone (Mar 28, 2012)

*Same Speakers*

I have the same speakers. The crossovers fit snug with some double sided tape way in the bottom of the doors under the speaker magnet. I didn't drill any holes. Beware- if you have the Pioneer system like I do, changing out the rear speakers will be a waste of your money. There was no bass before and they were extremely quiet. The Polks are extremely quiet and still have no bass. Polks for rear door went back to Crutchfield but take off the panels anyway to put some Dynamat in there.


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## SkullCruzeRS (Nov 3, 2011)

aarone said:


> I have the same speakers. The crossovers fit snug with some double sided tape way in the bottom of the doors under the speaker magnet. I didn't drill any holes. Beware- if you have the Pioneer system like I do, changing out the rear speakers will be a waste of your money. There was no bass before and they were extremely quiet. The Polks are extremely quiet and still have no bass. Polks for rear door went back to Crutchfield but take off the panels anyway to put some Dynamat in there.


I have the standard 6-speaker system so I'm sure the Polks are going to be better then the stock ones. How hard was it removing the door panels, the diagram above is not the clearest?


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## phantom (May 20, 2011)

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the parts labelled as number 4 are the trim clips. 

Anyways, I got the images from autocats.net <== CLICK for Link. 

Just search for "Rear Side Door Trim Replacement" and "Front Side Door Trim Replacement" in the Table of Contents. 
Its listed under "Repair Instructions" for "Interior Trim and Panelling".


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

aarone said:


> I have the same speakers. The crossovers fit snug with some double sided tape way in the bottom of the doors under the speaker magnet. I didn't drill any holes. Beware- if you have the Pioneer system like I do, changing out the rear speakers will be a waste of your money. There was no bass before and they were extremely quiet. The Polks are extremely quiet and still have no bass. Polks for rear door went back to Crutchfield but take off the panels anyway to put some Dynamat in there.


The Pioneer system is all sorts of screwed up. My guess is they cut the bass from the front speakers and sent it all to the rear 6x9 subwoofers. 

Don't install crossovers in doors. Run new wiring through the door accordion tube and install the crossovers somewhere inside your dash. Keep in mind that water from your window falls down into the door when it rains and drains at the bottom of the door. 

I've used Polk component sets before and they're pretty good for sound quality but limited in bass output and almost always require an additional subwoofer. 

Dynamat is overpriced and over-hyped. There are several places that sell much better materials for the money, such as the following:

RAAMaudio - Automotive sound deadening products
Sound Deadener Showdown - Your Source for Sound Deadening Products and Information

Sound Deadener Showdown (SDS) is he best stuff I've ever used. I'd never spend money on dynamat when you can get SDS stuff that works infinitely better. When you go, tell them I sent you.


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## SkullCruzeRS (Nov 3, 2011)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Don't install crossovers in doors. Run new wiring through the door accordion tube and install the crossovers somewhere inside your dash. Keep in mind that water from your window falls down into the door when it rains and drains at the bottom of the door.
> 
> I've used Polk component sets before and they're pretty good for sound quality but limited in bass output and almost always require an additional subwoofer.


I'm not sure if I have room for 4 crossover boxes up front in the dash. These aren't component speakers just two-way speakers but the way they are designed is they have the crossover to separate the voice coil from the woofer. I will probably just figure something out once I have the door panels off. I don't plan on going with a sub as I don't really require deep bass in my vehicles. As long as the bass is better then the stock speakers I will be happy.

Also not going with sound-deadening material at this time. I did get boom mat baffles to go behind each speaker but that's about it for right now anyway. I'll see how it sounds and go from there.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

SkullCruzeRS said:


> I'm not sure if I have room for 4 crossover boxes up front in the dash. These aren't component speakers just two-way speakers but the way they are designed is they have the crossover to separate the voice coil from the woofer. I will probably just figure something out once I have the door panels off. I don't plan on going with a sub as I don't really require deep bass in my vehicles. As long as the bass is better then the stock speakers I will be happy.
> 
> Also not going with sound-deadening material at this time. I did get boom mat baffles to go behind each speaker but that's about it for right now anyway. I'll see how it sounds and go from there.


I thought you had a component system with a separate tweeter and separate woofer with a crossover box. Why on Earth would you want to remove the factory tweeter and woofer and just put a coaxial speaker in your door? It will sound even worse than before. 

By the way, try searching on what a voice coil is. Every speaker has one; you don't separate them.

If you want better than stock bass from the doors, you'll need an aftermarket amplifier and need to not be using the Pioneer system.


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## SkullCruzeRS (Nov 3, 2011)

XtremeRevolution said:


> I thought you had a component system with a separate tweeter and separate woofer with a crossover box. Why on Earth would you want to remove the factory tweeter and woofer and just put a coaxial speaker in your door? It will sound even worse than before.
> 
> By the way, try searching on what a voice coil is. Every speaker has one; you don't separate them.
> 
> If you want better than stock bass from the doors, you'll need an aftermarket amplifier and need to not be using the Pioneer system.


Guess I wasn't clear on the speakers I got and what I'm doing. I am not replacing the tweeters in the pillar those are staying stock. And to clear up had said voice coil in post but meant tweeter.

The Polks I got are a two-way speaker, single tweeter and woofer. The way Polk designed these with a crossover box where it separates the woofer channel and the tweeter channel. Think of it like a component system but the woofer and tweeter is a single unit. The crossover over box is pre-wired. It has a positive/negative input wire and then two sets of output wires one to the tweeter one to the woofer.


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## Lineside (Feb 26, 2012)

Oh no. Here it comes......


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

SkullCruzeRS said:


> Guess I wasn't clear on the speakers I got and what I'm doing. I am not replacing the tweeters in the pillar those are staying stock. And to clear up had said voice coil in post but meant tweeter.
> 
> The Polks I got are a two-way speaker, single tweeter and woofer. The way Polk designed these with a crossover box where it separates the woofer channel and the tweeter channel. Think of it like a component system but the woofer and tweeter is a single unit. The crossover over box is pre-wired. It has a positive/negative input wire and then two sets of output wires one to the tweeter one to the woofer.


I haven't actually taken my doors off to check how it's all wired up, but if it sounds good, that's all that really matters. I know what you're referring to by the way. The tweeter has a capacitor as a protection circuit and the woofer is either run full range or has a small, high gauge solid core inductor for a low pass. As long as you're keeping the factory tweeter, you should be alright. Had you removed the factory tweeter, you'd have moved your entire sound stage down at your feet, which makes it sound a bit unnatural. As it is, the factory tweeter uses too little power to have a significant impact on impedance. 

When taking the doors apart, did any of the clips break, or do they come off and go back in without any damage?


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## SkullCruzeRS (Nov 3, 2011)

XtremeRevolution said:


> I haven't actually taken my doors off to check how it's all wired up, but if it sounds good, that's all that really matters. I know what you're referring to by the way. The tweeter has a capacitor as a protection circuit and the woofer is either run full range or has a small, high gauge solid core inductor for a low pass. As long as you're keeping the factory tweeter, you should be alright. Had you removed the factory tweeter, you'd have moved your entire sound stage down at your feet, which makes it sound a bit unnatural. As it is, the factory tweeter uses too little power to have a significant impact on impedance.
> 
> When taking the doors apart, did any of the clips break, or do they come off and go back in without any damage?


No clue as I have yet to install the speakers. I just got the MM521's in yesterday and the MM651's are on back order expected to ship on April 9th. I am hoping they pop out and back in without any damage. I ordered a 6 piece trim removal set so hopefully that will make life a little easier. I plan on installing this on a warm day where pieces will not be as brittle and maybe a bit more flexible, but I plan on taking my time with removing the door panels.

As for removing the tweeter I would like to replace the factory tweeter with a nicer one but seeing that airbag writing I am not messing with that A-pillar. Others have done and have no issues but not something I am gonna try. If I ever replace them I will take it in for professional install. 

Thanks for your help and if you get your speakers installed before I do let me know how the door removal goes.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

SkullCruzeRS said:


> No clue as I have yet to install the speakers. I just got the MM521's in yesterday and the MM651's are on back order expected to ship on April 9th. I am hoping they pop out and back in without any damage. I ordered a 6 piece trim removal set so hopefully that will make life a little easier. I plan on installing this on a warm day where pieces will not be as brittle and maybe a bit more flexible, but I plan on taking my time with removing the door panels.
> 
> As for removing the tweeter I would like to replace the factory tweeter with a nicer one but seeing that airbag writing I am not messing with that A-pillar. Others have done and have no issues but not something I am gonna try. If I ever replace them I will take it in for professional install.
> 
> Thanks for your help and if you get your speakers installed before I do let me know how the door removal goes.


Airbags aren't set to go off randomly. Trust me, that pillar plastic was meant to be able to be removed without damaging something. If you're truly worried, disconnect the battery and discharge any electricity in the system by turning your headlights on for a second. Airbags don't deploy randomly. I'll take some pictures when I do this if it would make you more comfortable.


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## SkullCruzeRS (Nov 3, 2011)

Planned on disconnecting the negative cable anyway that is just common sense when working with electricity lol. But am going to see how these speakers sound first before I mess with the tweeters. If it sounds good to me tweeters will more then likely stay stock.


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