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I think I realized I had it wrong so I deleted it. I just fixed one & I believe I have it figured out now. Thanks.

 

YAY! Happens to the best of us.

 

Lol yep, hopefully it sounds better but I doubt it’ll make a difference. I guess I had them “inside out”. Do you have a small gap between speaker and housing like I do? If not then I give up lol:

 

That was the old pic with them inside out so once I fixed it the gap wasn’t as much, but there still was a slight gap

 

Without the sound deadening material there will be a gap. Should be very small.

 

I need to see pics of them done, because the pic you posted is still inside out. The wider flange should be against the door.

 

I installed the speakers into the housing before I had them mounted into the door, then I installed them. I now realize that I had them sitting in backwards.

Before & after:

 

Those tabs are not what you screw the speakers to. You need to bend them out. They are there for smaller speakers. The second pic is correct mounting to the door, but those inner tabs need to be bent out (snapped) using pliers so the speaker fits flush!

 

Bend tabs out until they break. All of them like the ones circled. Then screw speakers to adapter using the pilot holes....

 

I’ve now got the mounts correct (see pic attached) so I don’t need the longer screws & can use the factory screws. My problem was I installed the speakers to the housing on my kitchen table before even taking the door apart (I’m an idiot). So I had no idea of what was correct or incorrect, that was my main problem. It now sits flush & those other tabs stick out, fuck it, it is what it is...it sounds good.

 

Yea I didn’t even use those holes, I screwed the speaker into the smaller ones (idk if I circled the right ones) that lined up.

If you’re reading this and haven’t done it yet I hope this helps LOL

 

Yeah, but you have to break the tabs out to get the speaker to sit flush and correct to the adapter.....

 

I will try this in the morning. Hate having my car torn half apart. thank you for the pointers

 

Ha ha I wondered why mine weren’t sitting flush! Oh well I made them for anyways without breaking the tabs ha ha

 

I installed the Kicker door speakers last night.....very pleased with how it sounds.

First.....thank you to the OP @bshammer0 for creating this thread. I created the “EASY tweeter upgrade” thread last year and have been enjoying the Subaru tweeters since. Honestly, I didn’t see much need to upgrade the door speakers because the tweeters improved the sound of the stock stereo so much. But.....you know the temptations that car forums present to us. I saw this thread and had to give the door speakers a try.

Here are my impressions after installing the kicker cs speakers in the doors.....

- bass is now a bit deeper, stronger, and MUCH cleaner.
- mids are no longer “muddy” sounding.
- I was initially concerned that the three-ways in front and two-ways in the rear in addition to the Subaru tweeters would produce too much high frequency and make the sound harsh. Not so! The sound heard at ear level is just cleaner. I may reduce the treble setting by one notch....but I haven’t seen a need to do so yet.
- with all of the speakers now switched out, this entune system sounds better than some of the “premium” systems that my past cars have come with from the factory.

Some notes on installation.....

- I found the screws that came with the Kickers were ridiculously long and couldn’t be used.....they protruded through the speaker mounts and would interfere with the door sheet metal around the speaker openings. I had a box of #8 x 3/4” sheet metal screws in the garage that worked great as a substitute.
- the door panes come off and go on quite easily on these trucks. That said, I had 4-5 snaps pop out and remain in each rear door. Just be aware of that and be ready to remove them from the door and put them back in place on the door interior panel before reinstalling. On the front doors, all of the snaps stayed in place and it wasn’t a concern.
- on the front speakers, only three of the four mounting holes would line up with the holes in the speaker mounts. For the fourth screw, I just predrilled a new hole in the speaker mount at the appropriate place and then screwed it down.

Bottom line: if you are on the fence about doing this.....just do it! IMO this is a no-brainer mod for the cost involved. Sound improvement is quite drastic.

Some pics (sidenote.....the stock speakers are shockingly cheap and lightweight and it’s surprising to me that they sounded as good as they did!)....

 

Ok. So operation sub box continues. Since it was nice enough to be 50 degrees here today I made a little bit of progress. After taking down the Christmas lights at the wife’s request I made a Home Depot run and got the wood. And assembled and trial fitted the box.



Was able to convince the nice man at Home Depot to make the main cuts for me as I have no table saw.



Cut the plastic storage bin to fit the box.


Trial fit was a success. Sub box is 18.5x9x6. The Jl Audio 8” w3 that I am using need .3 cubic feet to work. I will keep you guys up to date as I proceed. Will probably be a couple more weeks till I get at it again.

 

Installing now!

 

Can't get the speakers front 6x9 to mount to the adapters... any one help.... please?

 

Just screw through plastic with supplied screws. I just did mine today after I call crutchfield about this exact thing.

Rear door screws will have to been shortened. I use my cutoff wheel after installing speakers to adapters.

 

So what the hell are the little tabs for?