Running speaker wire to doors.

[Michelangelo]

I cut out and mounted my 6x9's in the front door but I wonder if anyone has run the wires or already has wires run to them? If so can you describe or recommend, maybe even post a pic of how you did it? Ican see a way into the door but how to get from the dash into the door, making it look clean. Now that's the hard part.
Michael

[Zrock]

I just drilled a hole underneeth the light plunger that is used to turn on the interior light when door is open... and put a gromet on the cab and door side...

[illiand]

If you have power windows or locks i imagine you could use the same hole that those wires go through, but i dont know how much extra space they left, so the speaker wires might not fit. Just drill new holes, taking care not to drill through anything behind the metal, and put in a couple grommets like Zrock said and your good to go.

Do you have an aftermarket Head Unit as well? When i installed new speakers in my '88 4runner i bought some nice 12 guage speaker wire and connected it right to the wiring harness for the radio, thus bypassing the teensy wires that the factory uses. You will get alot better sound quality if you pay a little more (i wouldnt go more than .50 a foot) for bigger speaker wire, the bigger the wire the less resistance you get, so more power from the amp in your radio makes it to the speaker, so it will play louder with bigger wire than small wire.

I soldered the connections on mine, but crimp connectors work just fine for most applications.

DO NOT USE WIRE NUTS! i did that once when i didnt know any better; when i went in to install something else several of the nuts had come off, creating a short circuit threat. Theres no need to risk frying your radio when all you have to do is use better connectors.

When you are done making the connnections at the radio you can either run the wires up in the dash (you will have the take the bottom portion of the dash off, not that hard) or pull up the carpet and run them under there. either way works fine, just do whatever is easier for you.

[Michelangelo]

Ok it's done. I drilled the hole jsut below the door light switch and then widened out the hole already in the door just across from there. Couldn't find a gromet to fit the double sheet metal area where I drilled under light swtich so I wrapped my wire with the cable covering stuff. mine is an aluminized with plastic cover, not the cheep all plastic spring type wrap. I also did already get some good 16 gauge or was it 18 gauge wire adn soldered all my connections to the deck. No crimping or connectors for me! Took more time but I'm more secure with it. Yes even soldered wires to speaker. It took allot of time but well worth it. 3 hours worth.


I'd like to get some bass outside of the 6x9's and the 5.25 mids/tweeters I mounted behind the front seats.

Is there a place or way to fit more bass such as a tube or a woofer somewhere?

[Zrock]

the gromets i used were a hard plastic not the rubber ones people usually use... they are about a 1/4 inch long and avalable in various sizes... i got mine from my local sterio shop that does installes... work great and a snap to pop in...

[illiand]

ive heard of people putting shallow mounting depth subs in the back where the little side cargo areas are, to do so you would have to fab up some kind of enclosure to mount the driver to and seal it up etc. If you go this route use MDF (medium density fiberboard), that works the best for speaker enclosures. The side panels in the rear also provide a good spot to hide your amp, so long as you put a little fan in there to help with the heat.

[Montana Toy]

i do stereo installs all day and going big on wire is not that important the decks dont push enough juice to really effect anything and as for bass theres all sorts of ways to get it depending on what you want to do you can build a box that goes at the headliner behind the seat or the best one ive seen yet was to build a box under the cab cut the holes under the seats seal it really well and bed liner the boxes and surrounding area it doesnt go any lower than the tcase and holds up through all sorts of conditions. and if your going to tuck your amp in a tight place buy a new amp and dont worry about another fan the new rockfords already adressed that.