Cutting Speaker Holes 6X9

[Frenchee]

I see a lot of posts on radios and speakers getting installed but the holes are already there. I want to make holes in the rear shelf to fit my alpine type r 6x9.

How do I go about doing this. I know someone around here can help me out. What would be the tool?

[jrhone]

Dremel with a cutting wheel?

[visionaut]

Pattern with an Exacto Knife worked for me.

[Frenchee]

You cut through metal with an exacto knife...? crazy.

So I pretty much only need the hole to be big enough for the bottom of the speaker to fit through it.

[beammmer]

a pattern to for tracing. Cut the metal with. Dremel or a jig saw. The metal is very flexible a a challenge to cut I did it from the trunk. I used 5x7 speakers because 6x9 speakers almost take up the full depth of the shelf.

My 02 cents worth.

Don

[Otis]

Don't cut - elevate.

[thaddeussmith]

cut all you want ..just don't try and resell the car to a purist.

[Frenchee]

Don't cut - elevate.

haha elevate 6x9's?

That seems crazy. It wouldnt look right.

Would be cool to make it work though

[Napes]

I cut mine with a Dremel and cutting wheels. Takes awhile and I went through about six cutoff wheels, but it works. Use one of the Dremel cone-shaped grinding wheels to smooth up the edges.

Bob Napier

[Mike Self]

reason: you'll get gas fumes in the passenger compartment. There are some very good smaller speakers that can be surface mounted to keep the seal between trunk and pax compartment. And surface mount speakers are keeping with the car's era.

But, if you're bound to do it, be sure and seal the undersides of the speaker openings tightly, both to protect the speakers from what you carry in the trunk, and to keep the gas fumes out. And there will be fumes, no matter how tight the filler neck clamps are, and how new the sender unit o-ring seal is...

cheers

mike

[shelby4130]

My car came with speakers already installed back there but whoever did it was more than likely drunk. I recently cleaned up the holes and installed new speakers. The cut itself doesn't need to be perfect as I mounted my speakers from the bottom versus resting them in the hole from the top. This way, the hole can be smaller (maybe at the loss of sound quality).

Also, I get zero fumes in my cabin. I think you can avoid most of that with a decent set of rubber seals around the rim of the speaker (most will already have this anyway).

As others have said, I would just make a pattern out of cardboard and cut with whatever you've got. The metal is fairly thin there.

[Otis]

Don't cut - elevate.

haha elevate 6x9's?

That seems crazy. It wouldnt look right.

Would be cool to make it work though

Sorry if I wasn't clear - I didn't mean to imply that you could elevate 6x9's, necessarily, for an 02 application (although I'm fairly sure I could get it to work). Just in general, I would prefer elevating speakers to cutting holes, for many reasons, including those that Mike mentions.

The speakers in my rear deck are not 6x9s (they are 3-way separates).

I do have a pair of elevated speaker pods for 6x9s, sitting in the spare parts bin. The fiberglass type; I used them on the back deck of my '71 Pontiac Ventura, to house Jensen Triaxles. I'll check to see if they would fit the deck of an 02, although I doubt it. If they do, and you'd like to put them to use, let me know.

In general, you can find pre-fab fiberglass "elevator" pods at this link. http://www.roddoors.com/pages/tunes-dir.html

If you must cut, then cut - but I prefer not to cut. That's all I be sayin' ... Your original question was, "what tool," the answer to which I belive is, "air saw." http://www.amazon.com/Ingersoll-Rand-Heavy-Duty-Reciprocating/dp/B00004XOT3/ref=pd_cp_hi_0

[Napes]

I've mounted rear speakers in the parcel shelf of both my wife's ' 76 and my ' 75 and, contrary to Mike's observation above, we get no gas fumes in the cockpit at all. Not sure why we don't, because neither set of speakers has anything special to seal them from the trunk space. I never had any gas smell in the trunk either.

Bob Napier

[Frenchee]

Thanks for all the great input. Appreciate the time spent in each response.

I will most likely go on cutting. I definitely want to do a clean job so I'm going to be planning ahead .

I will take pictures.

Thanks

[Ian]

I too have used speakers in the rear parcel shelf without any problems from gas fumes. This may be due to differences in speaker materials? I suspect the older speakers with paper cones would allow gas to diffuse through the cone itself, while newer composite/plastic cones may block the gas fumes.

Ian