Diamond Audio midranges installed (finally)

After purchasing the Diamond Audio D9 (now Hex Pro) component set back in 2005, I let them sit in the store room for years. I finally got tired of the stock system and decided to install them. The stock system with a nice aftermaket deck and subwoofers actually sounds pretty decent but nothing like a system with a good set of aftermarket mids & highs. I would not have purchased such items today as I feel it is a little hypocritcal considering my stance on over consumption but I've had them laying around for far too long and I love a great sounding stereo.

So the install went really easy at first. The D9 component set consists of a 7" midrange with a very large basket size and depth. I was not sure I would be able to get it to fit but I was saved by the fact that Toyota uses a thick plastic spacer between the factory speaker and the mounting location on the door panel.

1. I simply removed the factory speaker and spacer, used a 1"? wooden spacer ring to mount the speaker in the stock location and was done. I did not get any pics in this part of the install as I did not have my camera at work. I did use Dynamat Extreme inside the door panel and between the speaker mount and door skin.

2. The very large crossovers for the component set were mounted in the spare tire location under the plastic storage box in the rear of the car. The rest of the storage bin was filled with 2 large amplifiers (Diamond Audio D9800.2 and D6 1500.1) 1900watts total RMS.

3. We (well my coworker) quickly fabricated a custom tweeter pod that sits in the "alcove" on the dashboard in front of the small windows. I had another layer of 5% tint installed over the 35% I had to help hide the pod from outside viewing. This part was the most labor intensive but came out quite nice although for a customers car it would have been cleaner. I got it done for free so I'm not going to complain. It is a very nice piece and really helps keep the soundstage nice and high. The tweeters were MUCH too large to fit in the factory location plus I wanted people to see a little of our work. In hindsight I would have done it a bit differently. I would have filled the entire alcove and covered the "recessed" tweeter with matching grille cloth for a seemless look. Interestingly you could fit a nice 4" midrange in that location if you wanted to. LOL

Here are some pics of the tweeters before and after installation:

Pic #1: Fiberglass work using the heater vent panel as a template for the base.

Pic #2 A side view of the entire pod on the vent cover.

Pic #3 Tweeter pod face

Pic #4 Mounted on the passenger side. It is not fully seated yet so there is a bit of a gap on the front leading edge. He did not have the car to work with once he started glassing so he did his best and guessed on the sizing pretty well IMO. The pic does not do it justice at all.

Pic #5 Driver's side