B-Pillar & C-Pillar Trim Removal

[profdlp]

I bought two pair (front & rear) of these component speaker sets:

JVC CS-VS608 DRVN Series 6-1/2"

The door speakers are a direct drop-in but the tweeters are a little problematic. The front pair are probably going to go where the current dash speakers are. The rear ones? After spending an afternoon with the door panel off one of the rear doors I still cannot decide. I was thinking if I flush mounted them in the inside plastic trim on the B-Pillar that would be good. I can't find a spot I like to flush mount them on the rear doors and if I surface mount them I am afraid they will get scraped off in no time.

How hard is it to get the trim off the B-Pillar? Before I go to the trouble, is there about 1' depth clearance anywhere behind it, particularly above the seat belt mounting point? Failing that, what about in the C-Pillar between the back seats and the cargo area? That looks like you have to take half the rear interior trim off to get at anything.

This is what I'm dealing with measurement-wise:

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I'm open to suggestions if there are any other locations. I'd like to have them high enough so the sound isn't so muffled they might as well not be there at all. One option I've considered is to get one pair of tweeters in the dash as planned and mount the other pair on the A-Pillar. That would keep all the treble up front but might make adjusting the fader control a nightmare. (i.e., You'd have the rear woofers in the rear and the rear tweeters up front.)

Ideas will be much appreciated!

 

[twowings]

I used the appropriately-sized hole saw at a very slow speed and mounted mine in the door panels in the upper-left corner (hinge side as you face the inner door) out of the way of elbows and knees...the ideal location would be in the headliner but you would still need to route your wiring up to them thru the A or B pillars....YMMV

 

[uss2defiant]

what about the headliner?

 

[profdlp]

I...mounted mine in the door panels in the upper-left corner (hinge side as you face the inner door)...

I'm not clear on that. Which door, right side or left. Are you talking about up near the lock button?

what about the headliner?

I'm a little leery of cutting into the headliner. On the other hand, I probably should be a little leery of cutting into the doors, too. :icon_lol:

I was thinking that if I could get them into either of the spots marked with the red dot I would be OK.

Not my Jeep:

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[uss2defiant]

just glue it to the inside part of the door panel right above the other speaker and drill some holes.


Do you have passengers who cares about the sound stage?

 

[CactusJacked]

Not to throw you off course, but this is a serious question. How about going with a sound bar? I had one on my old Wrangler. They do make em for Cherokees, maybe those can be made to work.

 

[profdlp]

Not to throw you off course, but this is a serious question. How about going with a sound bar? I had one on my old Wrangler. They do make em for Cherokees, maybe those can be made to work.

Where does that go? I'm pretty much committed at this point to what I have. It came as a package deal and if I return the speakers I basically send $200 worth of speakers back and get a $100 refund, plus pay to ship both pair. It sounds interesting, though.

I am going out to remove stuff. Anyone with a last minute suggestion for removing the trim? I'd rather not have to remove stuff that:

A) I don't actually need to remove
or
B) Is difficult to remove and replace and have it look right without breaking anything
or
C) Has no real room underneath to mount the speakers anyway.

I'm going to leave the rear set of tweeters for last and at the rate I'm going it will be a while before I get to that point. The Metra dash bezel won't be here until Monday, but I am hoping to hear the speakers on the old HU to get an idea of how much of an upgrade they actually were. I'll say this, the magnet on the woofers must be ten times the weight of the stock one.

 

[CactusJacked]

Where does that go?

It goes up! Here is a sound bar, not to be cornfused with a juice bar, candy bar, strip bar, etc.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[twowings]

I guess I could have beren a little more clear...or sober...LOL left on the passenger door and right on the driver door

I took the door panels off and drilled the hole....

 

[ftaa]

wouldnt be too difficult to put them on the centre console.

 

[profdlp]

Progress of sorts. I got the front tweeters in the dash and they went in there perfectly. I fed the wire down through the dash on each side toward the area of the door boot. The problem is that the door boot/grommet has a big molex-type plug in it. I had assumed that it was just a hollow pass through... After Googling around it seems that some people have had success fishing a coathanger through but two hours of trying left me with nothing but mounting frustration...

Anyone ever take the rubber boot off the doors and successfully get them back on again? If I could see what I was doing I'm pretty sure I could find a gap for my 18GA wire from the tweeters. I did pry one corner of the boot off the Jeep end and it was awful trying to get it back on. The molex plug itself looks to be removable as I can see two push-to-release catches on the front end. (i.e., The side of the boot you can see from the drivers seat.) How in the world I could ever get to what I assume are a corresponding pair on the back end (toward the front of the Jeep) I have no clue.

If I can just get the wires from the tweeters into the door the front pair will be done. Back pair is starting to look like the tweeters will be a door mount unless someone can assure me that getting through the boot on them is much easier. This is not a high power or externally amped system and the plan all along was just to tap into the factory speaker wire. I'd chuck that idea and run all new wire but I would still be faced with the problem of getting them into the door... :emotions34:

 

[twowings]

I spent a good hour or so trying to figure how to run the wire but it was so much faster just to leave the factory "tweeters" (on my system they just are another pair of speakers) in place and put the tweeters in the doors...I'm sure there is some trick set-up like you are contemplating but I have to admit it never revealed itself to me...good luck!

 

[profdlp]

Here's the gotcha, in my case. I bought a really nice JVC DVD head unit because it had a great deal attached: Buy one pair of JVC speakers and get the second pair free. I haven't bought mobile audio stuff in almost twenty-five years, (my old Tracker inherited the AM/FM/Cassette and speakers I bought new for my Metro in 1991), but I've been a fan of JVC home audio/video and figured what the heck. JVC only had two sets of speakers available to fit the Liberty doors. I figured with one pair being free I might as well go ahead and get the better set. Had I stuck with the cheaper ones I'd have been done with this whole deal sometime Thursday afternoon as they were the coaxial variety.

Whining aside...Now that I have the tweeters in the dash there is no way I'm yanking them back out. Had I known all this yesterday I wouldn't have put them there, but at this point there is no turning back. I've found enough references to other people's installations that I feel certain there is a way to tuck another small wire through the rubber door boot. Basically, I have found a lot of comments like "It took me three hours but I got the @#$%*& in there." Unfortunately, I can't find any clear instructions on how they did it. What makes me want to learn a little more is that some people ended up taking the doors off. I am not going to be doing that, especially since I have no help available.

I'm going to go back at it tomorrow. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get an 18GA speaker wire from the body, through the boot, and into the door, I would greatly appreciate it. Maybe this will be one of those jobs where a day spent in frustration leads to a brilliant idea on the second go around. I've got it all figured out except for that one 6" section on each door. :shrug:

 

[renegade 04]

Here is the link to how I ran my wiring for my speakers.
How the hell did people run new speaker wires into the doors??? - Page 2 - Jeep Garage - Jeep Forum

 

[profdlp]

Great! :waytogo:

I actually found that thread while Googling around but didn't notice there was a second page! :happy175:

Quick question: Does the rubber boot attach only to the plug? Or does it attach to the body of the frame as well?

Also: Any problem with the plug staying in there with one of the clips missing?

C'mon Mr. Sunshine - I want to get back out there and finish this.

 

[renegade 04]

What I did was trim some of the plastic on the edge of the plug as a opposed to trimming a clip and that worked. The clip should stay in place once you have trimmed the clip because you have a total of 4 clips and the fit is tight enough that the wire kinda takes place of a clip.

 

[profdlp]

Joy! Joy! Joy!

:emoticondancer:

Front end is done. I used renegade 04's trick of sliding the speaker wire in around one clip. What made it doable was finally taking a deep breath, saying a prayer, then pulling the whole Jeep end of the boot loose. I had serious doubts about my chances of getting it back on there, but it didn't turn out to be too hard. Hint to anyone who has popped the door wiring boots: When it comes time to reattach it, get the bottom side farthest away from you on first. It's the tough one and if you leave it until last you will be sorry. If you get the bottom part in place and then the top, both sides almost pull themselves into place.

It just started to rain, so the back pair might have to wait until tomorrow. I am still uncertain where to put the rear tweeters but am encouraged by the fact that the boots on the rear doors look a whole lot easier to get at. Of course, if I drill out a hole in the door and put them next to the woofer I won't even have to mess with them at all.I'd really like them on the C-Pillar but as I mentioned earlier, getting the trim off looks like a job and a half (you'd have to start at the rear hatch entry). I'm still hesitant of going to the trouble of taking all that out, only to find there is not enough clearance anywhere underneath to mount them anyway. Tapping on the C-Pillar area indicates that it's solid steel all the way up and down.

renegade 04, thank you for your help. I fought one little boot for several hours yesterday. Thanks to your advice, today I went out and got the wire through in about twenty minutes. The right front door took even less time since by then I was certain of exactly what I needed to do. :favorites13:

 

[profdlp]

And...DONE!

I compromised and put the rear tweeters in the rear doors, about midway between the door handle and the woofer. I'd have liked them in the C-Pillar but from all investigating I've done there is nothing but solid metal under there I didn't feel like spending hours removing trim only to confirm my suspicions.

Drove around like a boss and played some music. Here for the last ten years I thought I was getting even deafer, then lo and behold - I actually heard some treble this afternoon! Can't wait to get the bezel and install the new HU. It's supposed to be here tomorrow. I think I could go ahead and install it now since the new Metra double-DIN bezel isn't the sole means of support for the radio. I'm a little tired of doing all this and my hands look like I've been knitting barbed wire, so a day or two off (or maybe waiting until next weekend) will be OK. I start my new job tomorrow morning and need to invest some time in building up a nice case of nerves, so...

The sound is noticeably better, even with my old RBQ radio. I'm expecting big things once the whole works is in there. :icon_lol:

 

[CactusJacked]

Cool deal, but....pics and audio samples, or it didn't happen! :happy175: