X System Update I

*** I apologize in advance for those of you who don’t share my enthusiasm about car audio. I’ll make my posts on the topic very easy to ignore - they will be titled X System Update. There will likely be several of these posts. You’ve been warned. ***

Yesterday evening I took a run at installing my JL Audio Stealthbox. It involved drilling a 1/2″ hole in my wheel well. I followed the directions to the tee, measured twice and drilled once. But once I tried mounting the box, the hole was clearly in the wrong place. My driver’s side rear seat wouldn’t lock into place. I ran out of daylight and had to end the day with very little progress made.

This afternoon, before taking another run at the Stealthbox, I thought it would be wise to run the new speaker cable for the left rear 6×9. This is important because once the Stealthbox is mounted, the left rear panel in the hatch couldn’t be removed.

After spending 10-15 minutes gingerly removing the left panel, I discovered that the factory 6×9 was held in with 8mm bolts. That’s great and all, but I didn’t have an 8mm socket. Knowing Chance would have one (or twelve in an assortment of colors) I gave him a call. Shortly thereafter, me and Zach packed up the partially disassembled X as best we could and drove over to his place.

We got the 6×9 out and discovered that it had a really crummy plastic wiring harness on it for the factory speaker cables. To use this and the 3 other factory speakers would involve splicing the factory connector with butt connectors to the new speaker wire. This is tainty.

So we moved on to the Stealthbox. After some measurement and some trial/error with the enclosure placement, a new (second) 1/2″ hole was being drilled. Perfecto. It looked great, but I couldn’t leave it mounted due to the pesky 6×9. A quick spritz of primer on the holes to prevent rust and I was on my way.

After seeing what’s involved in replacing the speaker wire on the factory speakers, I decided that it would be wise to replace the speakers while we’re in there. Not to mention the speakers sound awful. There’s no guarantee that giving them new clean power will result in better sound.

A few minutes ago I ordered new Clif Designs speakers to replace the fronts (6.5) and rears (6×9). I’m going to hold off on replacing the separate tweeters in the front. I’ve always wanted to run Clif Designs and I was able to find their top of the line QX series at an amazing price. Because the 6×9’s are really just providing rear fill, I opted to go with their entry-level PX series.

This changes the phased approach that I outlined in my previous post. I may end up doing everything in one shot. Woohoo!