Quick, Cheap, Speaker and Sound Deadening Upgrade

Hi All,

Just thought I'd pass along a quick upgrade I did to my 10 II.

I was very unhappy with the sound system in my II ... it was just horrible. I found these 3 way speakers on blowout sale at Crutchfield. Pioneer 6 3/4 inch 3 ways for $49 shipped with the adaptor brackets and wiring harnesses free.

Pioneer TS-A1673R 6-1/2" 3-way car speakers — also fit 6-3/4" openings at Crutchfield.com

Piece of cake to install, total time was about 45 minutes, and that included putting 2 square feet of sound deadening in each door on the inside of the exterior panels. My front doors sounded like cheap tin cans when I closed them. It was pathetic. My wife even commented on how 'tinny' they sounded when you closed them. If SHE comments on something like that ... it's bad.

Door panels came off in about a minute, then you had to drill out the rivets holding the stock speakers in (use an eighth inch drill, and go very gently so they don't spin, then punch the remaining rivets out with a punch. I had to use a pliers to crush them on the outside so I could punch them through into the door. Then just pick them out with your hand. The adaptors for the 6 3/4's require you to drill 2 new holes since only two of the holes on the adaptors line up where the old speakers came out. The factory speakers are total, absolute junk. The cardboard box that the Pioneers came in weighs more than the 6X9 factory speakers. While I had the speakers out, I used roughly 2 square feet of a Dynamat equivalent (Peel and Seal) to sound deaden the doors. Above and below the beam that goes through the middle of the door. Peel and Seal is known to be virtually an exact copy of 'Dynamat', a sound deadener sold by audio stores for sound deadening. Dynamat is about $6 a square foot, and Peel and Seal is about 50 cents a square foot. Google the comparisons if you're interested.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_154017-8132...antity_sold|1&storeId=10151&searchQueryType=1

The result is nothing short of spectacular. My doors now close with a resounding 'THUNK', and they sound more like a Mercedes or BMW than a tinny Toyota, and the sound is far better, much more well defined mids and highs and far tighter bass, although the stock head unit is junk as well, and I'm afraid it will need to be replaced very soon. I had wanted to keep the factory head unit for aesthetic reasons, but I don't think I'll be able to stand it.

It was roughly an hour well spent, and that included a trip to the hardware store to buy the 8 bolts, washers, and nylock nuts for mounting the adaptors.

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Absolutely not, the factory 6X9's have this huge flange around the FRONT of the speaker, believe it or not, that sticks out about 1.5 inches. With the adaptors that Crutchfield sent, which go from the 6X9's to the 6 3/4's, I'd think there's probably at least an inch between the front face of the new 6 3/4's and the inside of the inner door panel. It was really a no-big-deal install. But I have all the tools needed to do almost anything. You just wouldn't believe the factory speakers. I have NEVER felt a speaker as light as them in my entire life. It's like when you go to pick something up, and when you do, you realize that it weights about 20 percent of what you expected. The entire speaker can't weight more than about 10 ounces, and it's a 6X9. If I get a chance I'll take some pics of it tommorrow.

I'm not saying that the Pioneers are great, but for $49 they beat the hell out of the factory Panasonics, and at that price, really are worth it. I'll probably upgrade the head unit as well eventually.

I was really amazed at how easy the door panels came off .... they were the easiest door panels to take off that I've ever seen. The first one took me about a minute, but I could take one off now in about 30 seconds. 2 screws, and a few firm tugs, and that was it. It was so easy I'm thinking about doing the back doors now just because the whole process was so quick and cheap. Those speakers at $49 are a steal, especially with free shipping, free adaptors, free wiring harnesses, and no tax.

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None that I smell ... If you google 'Dynamat alternatives', you'll get a whole lot of links to review where people compared the two and gave their opinions ... it's what turned me on to the Peel and Seal. You can also search for Peel and Seal or soundproofing on Youtube, and get guys discussing it and demonstrating it there.

I'm convinced it works. You really have to use a small wallpaper seam roller for pressing it down against the surface though. It's not REAL sticky unless it's really warm out. It sticks just fine though if you roll it on with the seam roller.

I wasn't very careful putting it on the inside of the doors, I just cut a piece roughly to size, and stuck in on the inside of the outer door skin where I could. I then rolled it as best as I could by putting my arm and hand in through the hole where the factory speaker came out of (before I mounted the brackets for the new speakers). There's lots of room and there's virtually NO SOUND DEADENING on the inside of the outer skin on the majority of the door. Just having it against the outer sheet metal calmed down that TWANG that I was hearing when I closed the door. Some people put it on the INSIDE of the door where all the wires and stuff are, but that was way too much work for a Prius for me. I just wanted to deaden that TWANG, not really interested in audio soundproofing per se.

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I had trouble finding it as well, rrolff. Not every Lowes carries it. I finally called the Peel and Seal company and they gave me the names of dealers in my area who bought from them. I then called the dealers and found an ACE hardware store that had it in stock. I ran right up and got some. It was around $20 for the 6 inch X 33 foot roll. It's really used for roofing, but if you read the reviews from the Lowes link that I listed above, the 2 reviews for the product BOTH used it for soundproofing their cars. LOL.

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There's a screw under the little rubber piece (that just lifts out) of the area that you use to pull the door shut when you close it from inside the car.

There's a screw under the plastic trim piece where the door handle is that 'snaps' out with a little pressure. Pull the door handle out as if you're getting out of the car, and then pull the trim piece off. You can get your fingers under it and just pull it off. It's really easy, just yank it off.

Once those two screws are out, take both hands and start at a bottom corner. Just firmly pull the door panel away from the door. It will be tight at first, but once you get it moving, and get one area loose, just keep working your hands around the panel, yanking each 'clip out of the door. when the bottom and 2 sides are completely loose, just lift the entire panel off the door slightly. You'll need to disconnect the two or three electrical connectors (depending on the side) and the two cables that lock/unlock and open the door. It's not complicated at all once you see it. Note: If you don't want to disconnect the two cables, you can just slide the entire lock/handle mechanism out of the door panel itself, keeping all the cables intact, then when you reinstall the panel, just slide the lock/handle mechanism back through the hole and align it on the backside with the 'holders' that align it. One of the screws go through this mechanism and into the door to hold it securely. I actually did one side one way (removing the cables) and the other side the other way, because the mechanism just fell out of the door panel while I was trying to disconnect the cables. It really makes no difference ... both ways are a piece of cake.

I had one connector from each panel stay in the door when I removed it. I just removed it from the door and reinstalled it in the panel prior to replacing it.

To replace. hold the panel near the door, reconnect the electrical connections, put the two cables back where they belong, hang it on the top of the door, and gently push in all of the clips around the door. Once all the connectors are aligned and started, just use the heel of your hand to pound the panel back onto the door.

It takes about one tenth the time to actually do it, than it did to write this. It was the easiest panel removal I've ever done on any car.

The speakers now sound much better, although they do require a higher number setting on the stereo since they're less efficient than the OEM's. Wait till you get one of the OEM's in your hands ... you'll be laughing.

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It's funny that you mention the back doors. I was just outside getting something out of the back seat and when I closed the rear door, and heard what it sounded like ... I just cringed. Then I went forward and opened and closed the driver's door, and it sounded like a different car. I'm DEFINITELY going to do the rear doors as well, probably upgrade the speakers while I have it torn apart. Hello again Crutchfield !!

The back door sounds far worse than the front doors did, and it seemed like my driver door was worse than the passenger door. Both front doors now go THUNK nicely, with absolutely NO TWANGINESS !!

Didn't really notice any cabin noise difference. I think you have to do a far better job than I did in order to achieve that. The 'inside' side of the door (under the door panel, not inside the outer skin) is a disaster with wires and plastic, and all kinds of crap that there's no way I would mess with. I just literally rough-measured how long of a 6 inch wide piece would fit without any fancy cutting, stripped the backing off, slid it in, and slapped it on. Then I rolled it with the wallpaper seam roller (which is absolutely REQUIRED - don't even THINK of skipping this step). The whole key is just to reduce the ability of the outer sheet metal to vibrate and go 'twang' when the door is slammed. Kinda like dropping an empty soda can on a tile floor, and then putting a few layers of masking tape on the entire can and then dropping it again. That's all it really has done, but BOY DOES IT WORK !!! I'm telling you ... it's like a different car.

If it weren't for that roughly 1.5 inch 'pipe' running through the center of the door from front to rear, all that would be between you and another car in an accident would be that aluminum foil outer skin and the door panel. When you start taking these cars apart is when you REALLY see that they're real econoboxes. It's actually kinda scary. You're really not in anything much more substantial than a motorcycle from the side. I put about a 22 inch long piece above the pipe, and about a 20 inch piece below the pipe. When you take the car apart, you'll see exactly what I mean. I put the strips of Peel and Seal in through the factory speaker hole and rolled it after I removed the speaker, and BEFORE I installed the new bracket for the 6 3/4's. Make sure you don't cover the 3 drain holes in the bottom of the door .... I stayed well away from the bottom of the door and just under the pipe.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot ... make sure you wipe down the area where the Peel and Seal is going real good with alcohol or something like that, so the P&S will stick OK. I used brake cleaner on a rag only because I didn't have any alcohol.

I'm going to take the panels off in a few months or so, just to make sure everything is still stuck on real good, but I have no doubt that it will be.

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Looks like I better order my second pair pretty quick before they're gone. If you can't find the peel and seal ... just keep looking ... eventually you'll find it in stock somewhere. Definitely start at Lowes, then try ACE hardware if you have those two stores near you. If your Lowes doesn't have it, ask them to check other nearby stores for you. They can do that on their computers.

Good luck, let me know how it goes !

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That's EXACTLY what it means. You would not get the adaptors OR the wiring harness, which is kinda nice, because it lets you hook up the speakers without modifying the factory wiring harness. It's an exact fit to your factory harness, then you just plug the OTHER end onto the speakers. You absolutely need the adaptors as well.

The adaptors and harness are probably worth about $12-15 each if you had to buy them seperately. Plus Crutchfield gives you free 2 day shipping (at least where I am). Amazon might give you free shipping, but it's that 5-8 day thing.

You have to run the numbers and see how both options look to you.

FYI, I looked on Amazon, and found a place that sells them for $40, but there's $13 shipping. I think it's gonna be hard to beat Crutchfield when you add everything up.

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Not a problem Hoffy2 !

Good luck with your project !

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