While waiting on my Quick Jacks to arrive so I can safely continue work on the suspension I decided to tackle the stereo installation. Admittedly I wanted to save this for one of the last things to do as a reward of sorts...but I didn't want let the awesome weather we're having here in extreme SW AZ go to waste, especially since triple-digits will be here before we know it!
In a separate thread I mentioned that I ordered some JBL 6x8s for what Crutchfield calls the "mid panel", specifically the JBL 8621F. I just double checked for argument's sake, and Crutchfield says these speakers fit as long as there's already speakers in there. To me, and having been a customer of Crutchfield for 35+ years, that sounds like plug and play to me...WRONG!
On the left is the speaker out of the box, on the right is what it needs to look like to SMASH it into mid panel where it doesn't really line up with any of the stock speaker mounting hardware:
View attachment 90511
I immediately knew they didn't fit and weren't going to once I mocked them up. I had to make a decision to modify or send them back, and had a pretty good idea that they were gonna fit one modified, but it'd likely look like homemade soap afterwards; sure it works, it just ain't pretty...
Having said that I would NOT do it again. When cutting/modifying the speaker there's infinite opportunities for the Dremel or cutting/etc. tool of choice to slip and go right into the speaker surround and destroy the speaker. Not only that but you're obviously generating some heat when cutting through the metal which can likewise damage the speakers. I consider myself lucky that didn't happen, but that doesn't mean I'd do it again!
I'll get them mounted today and believe me when I tell you, mounting hardware isn't even necessary...! I had to push the upper part of molding to fit the lip of the speaker underneath it which holds it in place.
Since I did end up buying a powered sub I SHOULD have just gone with some 5x7s that would have fit without the drama and have the sub handle the bass. The Infinity Reference speakers in the dash sound insane, and the mid panel could have just handled the mids (see what I did there!) and adjust the low pass crossover lower than I would if I had 6/6.5/6x9s...
So now I'll have Bluetooth phone/audio with an Alpine H/U that will completely rock, especially once all the soundproofing is done!