My DIY #1: Door Speaker Upgrade

So, why I wanted to do this as a DIY?

Answer: Most shop people and technicians are very reluctant to replace or remove factory fitted speaker from the front doors...

I don't know what's the big deal with that is but they would rather keep them as it is and tend to put new ones in the rear. One guy told me that the most of sound is coming from the rear speakers once installed. He also said the bass sound will slightly be reduced if I were to remove factory speakers and put aftermarket ones. But that's not what I wanted. I wanted to put new ones in the front and maybe put older ones back if I feel like it or put new ones in the back too. Since I thought to do myself, I will first settle with 2 and later going to add rear speakers.

Another shop technician was fine with removing factory speakers and his method was to cut around and rip off the speaker and it's content from the unit (speaker and mount come as a one unit) while keeping the base intact. Then installing the new speaker onto that factory mount with screws. I was ok with that first but after watching a YouTube video of a clean and neat installation, I was like wow! how pretty is that? I wanted to do like that. I will put the link below. But we can't always meet our own expectations 🥺 You will see why.

So based on that video I started gathering required tools and accessories. I found speaker terminals (lugs) without the rubber cover, speaker wires and a wire stripper (it was indeed came in handy). Sadly, some accessories required for a clean install as in the video were not available to find. 

I already had prying tools and a soldering iron. I also tried to find some foam tape which was used to sound deadening/better quality output but not available. So instead I got a double tape , borrowed a drill from a friend and bought a 5/32" drill bit to drill out the rivets as indicated in a video.

The night before the intended operation date, I prepared the speaker wires using the tools I got. Since there was no rubber cover on lugs, I attached the wire and crimped using the  crimping section of the wire stripper and a pair of pliers. It would have been a nice job if I had a proper crimping tool. I put a solder dot just to be safe and covered using insulation tapes.

And I was ready to start the job next morning

To be continued...