DIY: Door Panel Removal & Door Speaker Size
 

I've been working on tinting my windows, so I have some write-ups for everybody. I've included pics with instructions on how to remove your door panels, along with some tid bit info on the door speakers. The Bose stereo has 6x9 speakers on the doors. I called Crutchfield and they stated non of their 6x9's will fit for varies reasons. So it probably requires a little customizing or simply some other brand that might fit.

Forgive me for my spelling...my paint tool doesn't have spell check. :)

Continuation.....

You are awesome for posting this! Helps me a million!

Great write up man, NO 6x9 will fit because they are very shallow speakers, and there is not much clearance behind them, What I am doing is making mdf spacer rings and putting 5 1/4 inch speakers in there place. Also the 6x9's are only in the bose model I believe I will be sure to take measurements when I do this for future installs. Also for an alternative to your putty spreader you can sue a butter knife wrapped in electrical tape or this.
Pro.Fit Trim Panel Tool Remove your vehicle's trim panels without damage at Crutchfield.com

Pro.Fit Hook Tool Set Installation tools — pair at Crutchfield.com

Glad you posted those tools because now I remember I have some dental tools for cleaning my teeth that I can use. I've been looking at some Pioneers and they have real shallow metal baskets, so these might work. I too will get measurements when I finish the other door in a few days.

Good deal lol

love the guide

5 1/4 focal vs 6.5 focal speakers
 

Any noticalbe sound difference between a 5 1/4 vs 6.5 focal speakers in a 370Z?

I've got some Pioneer 6.75" for the doors but I haven't finished hooking everything up as I've been working out of town for two weeks. Hope to finish it up this coming weekend when i get back. I've got a write-up over in the Audio section for speaker spacers for the Touring.

Excellent DIY post.

very helpful have just removed mine with your help as im attempting to put led,s in the door panel reflector, any idea of a wire inside the door to connect the led,s to. i cannot work out which wires control the auto window up down as i think that would be an ideal connection other than the hassels of routing the wire thru the door main harness connector. Any help would be appreciated .

This is a door panel removal, not a "which wire in the wiring harness". Haha, sorry man. :) Try looking in the service manuals. The wiring schematic for the door harness will be in there; just a matter of which manual.
http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-o...ce-manual.html

yeah i know new man to the forums and hav,nt worked out how it all works yet but hey, i will get there, sorry for incompetence. Thanks anyway.

Very useful post.

I would love to change the speakers. I have another car that I put really nice Infinity's in...but I broke some of those stupid plastic clips taking off the door panel. So I don't want to mess up the door panel on my new Z...

Maybe when it gets higher mileage...

I want to install 6X9's in my base. Anyone do that yet? I want more bass than the 5.25 or 6.25's will give.

Are there really no 6x9s that will fit. Anyone have a definitive mounting depth?

It would be very difficult. If you look at my pics above and in this write-up here, you can get a visual sense of what your working with.

http://www.the370z.com/audio-video/1...ing-model.html

It might be possible to make a spacer for one similar to what I did, but it would be a very tight fit to get the 6x9 on your spacer and also have the spacer use the factory bolt points (by having you spacer bolt directly to the door and eliminating the factory plastic spacer thingy). I think it depends on what your're willing to do and go thru in order to make it work. In my point of view, probably isn't worth the time and invest.

I dont have a definitive mounting depth, but the clearance is actually pretty good. Even with the generic Nissan mounting ring that comes free with crutchfield orders there is a decent amount of space. I was able to fit some Eclipse 5.25" in there fine. The center of the hole backs right to the guide for the window so you dont really have to worry about window clearance (i.e. you'll know if theres an issue immediately). If you use one of those Nissan speaker spacers they have on ebay I think you could mount practically any 6.5 or 5.25 in there fine.

Here are some pics of the non-bose speaker and mounting depth. Its hard to see in the pics but the available depth using just a schosche ring is a fraction over 2". With a spacer you've got another 1/2" to 3/4" (notice the depth of the stock speaker).

Also, I don't like using MDF mounting rings/spacers. I've used them in the past and in the three cars I've put them in moisture caused them to expand considerably. I wish I had pics of the ones I pulled out of my Altima, they went from 1/2" to 1" bulges in between the screws.

I don't get it - doesn't it look like that oval opening is made for 6x9?

It will be difficult. To do it, you're gonna probably need to make a custom bracket / spacer for it. Not really worth the time and money in my opinion.

I don't know...6x9 would be pretty damn awesome...

Great Front Door Speaker Instructions
 

Thanks for the photos / install instructions for front door speakers. I just installed a set of Polk Audio 6 /2 inch DB651s and some DB1001 tweeters. I had the base stereo and these fit well with the adapter brackets provided by Crutchfield. Sounds great! Small investment for such a big improvement.

Very useful post....ill be needing this.

I refer my customers to this thread all the time. Thanx for posting this.

I am currently trying to remove my door panel. Everything is the same than you except on my door I have a SRS Airbag logo and it seems to be stuck there. Everything else came out without issue. I am wondering if there is a screw in that place but I am not able to see it at all.

Ok I got it, there are 2 more screws on the door equipped with airbag.

Thanks for the post! Is it possible to remove the black door handle pieces (but not the handle itself) without removing the door panel?

Thanks in advance...

Not quite following you; are you referring to the actual door handle or the black switch panel in the right-up?

The actual door handle, specifically the three black pieces behind it. One piece is behind and surrounding most of the handle, the middle piece is the one removed in the write-up, and the front piece merges with the air vent. I want to remove all three pieces without removing the door panel, is this possible? If not, could someone post a pic of the back of the door panel in the area of the handle, so I can see what is needed to remove these plastic pasts? Finally, if I do remove these parts temporarily (but not the handle itself) and reinstall the door panel, will the handle still work? Thanks...

Bump for question above...

To the best of my knowledge you have to remove the door panel to remove the door handle as the design of the clips the handle has to be pulled away from the door from the rear after you remove 4 screws. I was able to avoid unplugging the window controls by using a small flat head screwdriver to unclip the four snaps on each side of the window controls and remove it from the visible shroud. This makes it small enough to slip through the door card with out unplugging the control. I also removed the door handle from the card but removing the 4 philips head screws that hold the handle to the card and then reinstalled the one 10mm screw the reconnects the handle to the door frame itself. I not have a fully functional door (handle, lock and window switches even though there is no interior door card.

Was just setting up my car to bring for tints in the morning. I removed the door cards to give them more room to work with and found a trick to help with the install. On the lower door jam is a rubber compression sensor that tells the car if the door is open or closed. If you back out the philips head screw about a half a turn it must break the ground and disable the switch because the window juts up as if the door is closed. This will allow the tint installer to get deeper below the glass seal on the door to make sure it doesn't peel up. DO NOT forget to tighten the screw so the window drops BEFORE you close the door or the glass will smash into the window arch.

Hope this helps.

Its time to open the tread back up haha. I've been reading around and I can seem to figure out if a standard 6.5" speaker will fit directly into the base model door?

Thanks for posting this! Excellent write up!

So I dropped a part of my door handle into the door shell...

Question: If I remove the door panel, will I have decent space to fish out the piece?

Yeah you will be able to get the piece out. It's easier with a magnet though.

I tried using a magnet via the door handle hole but the damn thing seems like it is lodged into the crevice. I took off the door panel but don't know how to go about getting to the access in the door shell.

Nope I can answer this to the exact of it's design - just finished FOCAL 6.5" ISC 165 install this last weekend. These speakers along with about 3 other companies state their components are 6.5" however they are actually 6.75" which makes a slight difference. Also on that same note speaker sits in a 'Holder' per se, and that speaker is a 5 1/4" by OEM Default in the Base models. IF you unscrew this 'Holder' Which i will post pics if people wish to see what i'm talking about, you will be left with the holder Adapter which has 4 screws into the door panel. I custom built a MDF spacer for my 6.75's to mount to the default holes. Pretty simple. 6.5" may fit just correct in the SPACER OEM , NOT HOLDER, (that is a 5 1/4"), and 6.75 will fit with a Adapter. Any Questions, let me know. PS if you are changing these out, use a VOLTMETER to find Pos and Neg in the wires. There are two different answers to the OEM colors, and I just decided to use a meter to find it out.

Thanks

OSI

On a related note, the factory speakers use Neodymium, which is far more powerful per ounce than Alnico/Ferrite (which is what most aftermarkets are made of for cost reasons) so the factory speakers can be far smaller in the magnet and fit in the door easily. The aftermarkets are after every dime that they can grab, you won't see them with Neodymium anything, haha. They are available, just not that many, so if you're looking to fit in place of Bose factory, they are your best bet...Good luck finding anything but crap Alnico/Ferrite 6 x 9's!

I wondered how the tweeters could have bigger magnets than the 6.5" door speakers. Glad I replaced the stock non-bose speakers they were very muddy sounding had decent enough base though. I gutted up the stock speakers and used those instead of the schoci adapters as the sochis created a noticeable air gap between the speaker and the door panel.