OK so here is my story. Had one of the subs in the sails rattling for a couple years now and I can't take it anymore. So I take out the sail panel and one of the previous owners of the car (there were two) cut into the frame to try and put what looks like a 6X8 or 6X9 or something I don't even know. So now I have a chunk of frame not missing, but using some sheet metal tried to screw the part back in place. WTF!? Anyway the speaker is all messed up don't even know if it works. Has anyone put a shallow 8" in place of the 6.5s? I was just wondering if it could be done? If not I will have it fixed and get some bazookas. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

**** it bro lol go for 10' inch subs in the sails
PP lol you will be thumping! lol

 

I'd love that, but I don't want to be like whoever did the last attempt. 10" I'm sure there is someone that has done it.

 

I've seen 10's in a turd gen sail panel, but I would NEVER do that...To make it sound GOOD, it really needs to be in a box. I've seen 8's in the sail panels and they'll work fine, but I'd say a good set of CDT 6.5s in the sail panel would be a better way to go. As far as mounting it, if you get a deep 6.5, you'll need to make a spacer anyway, so just make it bigger to accommodate for the missing sheetmetal.

Also, keep in mind, a 10 is gonna be a sub, and not a midbass. You want a midbase in the sail. Theres a big difference. You can find 8" midbass speakers, but there not as common as a 6.5 midbass.

 

Very true..... but if its allready cut he might as weell go for a bigger size no?

 

years ago, in a 95 camaro, i filled the quarter panel area behind the sail panel woth greaat stuff expanding foam, carved out an enclosure, laid fiberglass in there, and put 8" subs in there. it was running off of an aftermarket amp but sounded pretty good. i dont think there would be enough room to do a 10" the right way. have to be very careful with the great stuff, if you put too much at one time it will bow out the quarter panel.

 

I have 8" subs in my sail panels. I did it a long time ago to see if it would work. It does work and it does get some decent bass from there but if I had it to do over again I wouldn't have as there are some very nice 6.5" subs available.
You have a few options. You can use a piece of 1/4" mdf and make a new plate with a 6.5" cutout to put in there. You would screw it directly to the metal and I would recommend some liquid nails or other type of sealing adhesive sandwiched between which helps get a nice seal to the metal and also gets rid of any rattles that may happen without it.
Another option would be to go with what your suggesting since it is already cut but you will need to still put some kind of mdf plate around it to fill in where the 6x9" hole is cut since it would be bigger in 2 places then the 8" sub would be being an oval hole. This would allow a little extra mounting depth as well. I used the CDT EF-80 subs but in a carbon fiber version. With the additional 1/4" mdf plate Imade it worked fine although excursion of the sub is VERY close to touching.
Another idea is to go ahead and put in a 6x9" subwoofer. CDT has one that is pretty nice. Even though it is an oval it would still hit pretty well and solve most of your problem all in one shot since it is already cut for that. One drawback is that it is a single voice coil 4ohm so you would lose about 2db of total output if using the stock amp.
And yet another option would be to forego sail panels all together and invest in a 10" stealth enclosure and aftermarket amp to push it. This would produce the most bass of all the above mentioned options.
Food for thought! Hope this helps some.

 

I did what Ian (KeeAudio) said above. I decided to remove the sail-subs, and instead, install full range/midbass speakers. I then used one of his 10" boxes with an Alpine Type-R sub. Finally, I mounted the amp (from Ian) onto a custom rack (also from Ian).

The sound quality is killer. You get better imaging (in my opinion) than using the rear-most speakers. By placing full range speakers in the sail panel, you're able to utilize the area behind the speaker to increase mid-bass response.

 

Awesome guys. Thanks for your help. The rattling was driving me nuts and that's why I got in there in the first place. Didn't even know what had been done to it. Thank you Ian for the detail in which you described my options. I will let you know what I end up doing. I will try to get some pix too with whatever I decide. Thanks again guys.

 

You could try kicker 04SSMB8 it's only 2-5/16" in depth and about $100 a pair. The Rainbow W 200 X-Plain will also fit but there around $260 a pair

 

Nice 6.5" subs available? Not a single one. The only thing I'd put there is a Peerless SLS 6.5" but even that can only help so much.

Kicker? Bazooka? Junk for SQ.

 

Bazooka, junk....

You could try some JL Audio 6W0's. I'm actually selling these 4. They sound pretty awesome in a ported enclosure with about 400W on them.

 

I'm sure they sound fine but they're not capable of moving much air. Not that the SLS can move a whole ton, either. It's just not big enough for bass.

 

I'm pretty sure CDT makes some pretty nice ones...

 

Yes they do. I was refering to the HD-M6+ and the ES-06+ which are very nice. They hit very well and have extremely good excursion for a small 6.5" sub.

 

That's like saying a Geo Metro has good acceleration for a 1.0L engine

 

Wow thanks guys. You have been really helpful. I did find some cheap 8" junk subs on ebay for 10$ a piece. The mound depth was 3.1" deap so hopefully they will fit. I plan on getting something better once I can hopefully mount them and be satisfied. Thanks very much 99Bluz28 you helped a lot with some choices.

 

lets see what u ordered

 

Ok so I finally got done with my speaker set-up. First of all thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Ok first I removed the cut chunk of an attempt at another speaker. I assume it was a 6x9 attempt gone wrong. After I took that apart I made a template out of spare cardboard. After I fitted the template where I thought it should go I marked with a marker where my sheet metal plate would go. I then using the template drew and cut where the speaker would sit. After that was done I cut my sheet metal using the template I made.

After I cut and trimmed and fitted the new plate I welded it in place to mount the speakers. I ended up using some cheap ones just as a start and probably going to upgrade sooner or later. There were a few gaps I didn't feel like I could fill so I sealed it with some sort of calk that would bond to metal. Wired in my amp and put everything back together.

Here are the pix of the build in order I hope. It does sound quite a bit better probably mostly due to the speakers being amped. They are 8" subs and I don't even remember what they are now. Cheap as hell for sure.

http://www.fquick.com/garages/viewga...=2&carid=31510

Over all it was a whole lot of damn work and probably should have just done a 10" or 12" stealth, but by the time that crossed my mind I was to far in to stop.

 

If you put a layer of Secondskin Damplifier with a layer of Overkill-Pro glued to it inside the sail panels you speaker will sound better. You can also use some poly-fil to.