cutting a hole for speakers.

[wiegs]

Hi Last summer I build a two plywood speakers boxes so I could get more sound. The speakers under the dash just did not cut it. The box is wedged in the side storage area behind the bucket seats. I'm considering a cleaner install by cutting a hole in the in the padded area in the same spot. Then I can elminate the boxes. I have attached a pic. I was planning to cut the padding away, cut the hole in the fiberglass and fold and glue the vinyl around the back of the hole. That should be pretty clean. Is it worth it or should I just get tower speakers?

 

[Fireman431]

Re: cutting a hole for speakers.

Depending on the speakers you get, you shouldn't even need to fold the vinyl in thru the hole. Use the template provided with the speaker, cut the hole cleanly thru the vinyl with a razor knife and then make the hole through the wood backer. When mounting the speaker, the screws that hold the speaker in place will also go thru the vinyl, securing it down. If you want to be on the save side, use stainless steel staples to hold the fabric at the edge of the speaker hole prior to mounting the speaker.

But tower speakers look and sound cool too...

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: cutting a hole for speakers.

The process you laid out is the same that I did with my old boat and it looked great, the only difference is I didn't fold the fabric back, I cut it off instead and then like fireman said used the speaker mounting holes to hold everything in place. Before I put the speaker in I bolted the speaker box in place by sliding my hand in between the padding and fiberglass, placed my bolts through the fiberglass with fender washers, added silicone to seal the joint between the speaker enclosure and the back side of the fiberglass gunwhale, then screwed the speaker in place....done!

When it was done you couldn't see even a slight hint of the bolts behind the fabric but if you knew what to look for you could push the fabric in and find them but who cares?

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Re: cutting a hole for speakers.

If you just mount them as you described - make sure the speakers you are using are rated for Infinite Baffle use. Most speakers rely on an enclosed, sealed air space behind them to work properly. Infinite Baffle speakers have stiffer components, so that they don't need the enclosure. If they aren't IB, you can build in an enclosure as Lipp did. Otherwise, they will sound pretty weak in the low end. There's ton's more that goes into speaker design, I'd suggest turning to google if you are so inclined to learn more.