Sail panel mod?

Hey guys,
Does anyone know if a 4Runner or a diff year model has the speaker holes in them already?
I talked to a guy up north and they wanted $400 a side to do them and that’s with me supplying the sail panels, what rip!!
And there is a guy on eBay doing them by printing them but then you have to finish them to remove the print lines.
I don’t know why a place wouldn’t make these “finished and sell them there is a strong market for it!
Well any help would be awesome…

 

There's honestly not enough of a market for someone to make these at scale. I think I've seen maybe a dozen people do tweeters in the sail panels in all my time on the forum. 3D printing and some sanding is probably the best option if you want to avoid fiberglass work

 

personally, i prefer the dash/windshield reflections of the stock tweeter location. i believe i get a stronger sound stage presence, and also has the benefit of the a-pillar directing the sound, so less of it escapes from the vehicle, so i can safely rock out louder while disturbing less people.

 

I agree with @soundman98 and @destin_meeks, however moving the tweeters to the sails would give you a wider stage, but the height of your stage might be a little lower. Ideally, you want the tweeters at, or close to, eye level.

In car audio, EVERYTHING is a compromise. I would recommend that YOU try different locations, and go with what YOU like and sounds the best to YOUR ears

Also, the sail panel pods are EXTREMELY easy to do. You will be surprised, a few buck on materials and some elbow grease, and you will have something YOU fabricated

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2393461

You will be surprised how simple this process is. Car Audio shops charge you for the man-hours involved in ANY kind of custom car audio fabrication. In most cases, is NOT brain surgery, but it requires HOURS of labor. That’s why the shop is quoting you $400.00 +.

Give it a try. It will be rewarding.

I didn’t want to pay $1,600.00 for the pods that I wanted… so, I did bit the bullet and fabricated the pillars myself. I used 3D printed pods that I got from a friend of a friend and did the rest of the work myself.





There are TONS of forums and FB groups out there for car audio hobbyists. So much knowledge and resources for you to jump in head first, if you want to

P.S. I’m actually considering redoing my A-pillar pods for the midrange only and moving the tweeters to the sail ON-AXIS, since I want a wider stage and better top end detail.




AGAIN, in custom car audio SQ builds, everything is a compromise

 

A tweeter is “aimed” to get the best from its frequency, and a sub, that’s why you can place anywhere, is a mono frequency. Using the glass to bounce it actually “scatters” the sound and you do lose some frequency/sound in the process. That’s why you will actually see people take a lase pen and align where the person will be sitting, especially their height, it can be that detailed. Personally I’d rather use a midrange 3.5” speaker in the dash.

 

That looks awesome. Oh don’t get me wrong, when I was younger I always did stuff on my own, built sub boxes to fit my Mustang and even changed out the 4lug bolt pattern to 5lug just so I could get a set of rims no one with a Stang could have unless they did what I did, and I wasn’t gonna tell…haha!!! I’m just retired and with a very bad back so that’s the only reason why I’m not trying this myself. I TOTALLY AGREE, when you do something yourself, you learn, you don’t have to rely on someone else, and it’s “right” or at least how you wanted it. What’s the ol saying, “If you want something done right, do it yourself!” I guess I’ve got to get me some printed…. And he we goooooo…

 

Hey, have anyone of you guys seen the little 2” subwoofers they have come out with? That would be cool if you could put a couple of those somewhere in the A-pillar, B-pillar or even the C-pillar….

 

In your pics your panel has a speaker location in front of the door latch, is this stock for the 2006 taco, which I’m assuming is the year of your ride, or is this something you added?

 

really depends on the speaker, vehicle, and listener.

a decent tweeter can make up for it. i haven't had a desire to change my peerless ring radiators since i put them into the location. but it does absolutely highlight the lesser qualities of lesser speakers. the dayton ps95-8, amt mini-8, hivi q2r, and morel mdt 39 all failed in that location. currently most happy with the peerless/tympany ring radiator format. one vehicle runs Amazon/temu knock-offs, and one runs the genuine xt25sc90-04.

 

i got a couple to play with. i really just wanted some for the aesthetic of them. no one over-builds 2" speakers like that.

but they're really terrible speakers from an audio standpoint. their efficiency is terrible, and they've got very peaky output with a strong low-midrange output, with almost non-existent high output. they need a tweeter, but then stroke out before getting the cone travel needed for the lower frequencies they do better at. my test bench only had a 50x2 rms amp available at the time, and i ended up burning up the amp running it at full output to try to get the most out of them. and even then, i just barely got what i consider 'low' volume out of them in a makeshift enclosure.

the fun part is that they almost directly bolt up to this fivebelow enclosure.
https://www.fivebelow.com/products/...imum-bass-98in-x-54in-9160477?variant=9160478

but the 5-watt included amp is useless on them-- output is nearly a whisper. it also doesn't help that they're 2-ohm, and most smaller amps(including the 50x2 i was trying to use, which was how i burned it out) need at least a 4-ohm load to work right.

to get any real tone out of them, they need a specifically-sized ported enclosure. free-air, as would be done in most pillars, they're almost useless outside of the novelty of the build.

 

That is the stock location for the tweeters. There is nothing behind that grill anymore.

 

Hey, if any of you guys want a sent of sails with a hole drilled in them I'll send them to you, you pay shipping. I'm selling my truck so I just bought a new set to replace them. I was going to put tweeters in them but never got to it. These are for a '16-'23 gen. 3

 

I want them dude…… where do I send the
Money…..???? LOL!!!!

 

Great work shipmate!

About how deep of speakers would fit in the A-pillar?

I don't know anything about diving. I did Avionics. soooo, what happens when you fart in a wetsuit?