Replacing stock speakers?

[Click_It]

Hi guys, my first post here just got approved so I apologize if such a thread is elsewhere and I missed it... Anyway....

Little summary:
Almost 2 years ago now I inherited my mothers 93 Festiva WA. Long story short I've grown attached to the little thing and decided to sell my other (modified) car and keep just the Festy, so a few dollars will need to be invested soon

I want to replace the speakers and install a decent MP3/USB headunit for starters, with the intention of probably installing an AMP and maybe SUB later on. My problem is, and I feel like a noob saying this, I'm unsure how to remove the rear speakers! At first I thought to just unscrew the 3 or 4 screws holding them into place but since the rear screw is hard to reach I then thought the whole casing in which the speaker lives might come out instead, but had no luck there either, the back of the chair kinda pins it all into place still. I probably should get a workshop manual for these things but haven't as yet. Any tips would be apreciated thanks

Also, I believe the rear speakers are 5.5" is that correct? These seem hard to replace but I'm guessing 6" speakers won't fit into that space? What do others do whilst keeping it appearing relatively stock in appearance? I do have a monster pair of 5way 6x9's that were bound for my other car and never made it, but again I'm hoping to keep everything appearing stock if I can.

[25Horseplay]

The speakers in all our cars here in America are 4". I assume you are from Austrailia by the car description.

[Click_It]

Yeah sorry, was just updating my profile. I'm from Australia.

4" at the rears? Wow okay, I think we got larger speakers here. I think they might actually be 5.25" rather than 5.5". Any ideas how to get them out, should I focus just on the speakers or the whole casing they are in?

[25Horseplay]

You can replace just the speakers.

[Click_It]

Cheers. I found some JVC 5.25" 190w speakers for $39AUD free shipping today only, I think I'll get those for the rears. Will upgrade the rest of the system soon. Once I sell my other car I'll have the money for some bigger upgrades, I'm looking into B6T pricing for the new engine and the car has a lot of hail damage which my insurance company are happy to fix up whenever I want so I'm going to price what it'd cost to fix up the damaged door panels whilst I'm at it. A respray would be great too but money probably won't stretch that far So for now, starting small

[Click_It]

Okay the rear 5 1/4" speakers are out, wasn't as hard as I thought, just had to do 1 screw blind with a short phillips head.

Problem... Being an Australian model I have the seat belt box back there and there is little clearance with the stock speakers, I'm betting the aftermarket speakers will be deeper and need to be lifted up above the speaker grill

I see the overseas (from my perspective) models don't have that seat belt case back there making life a lot easier for you...

[Click_It]

My bad, that are infact 4" speakers in the rear too! Could have sworn they looked larger behind the grill. Okay I guess there is no point replacing with more 4" speakers so I'll look at other options. Might just make a panel for my 6x9's.

PS: Haven't worked out how to EDIT posts here yet :/

[MONSOON]

You can make the 5.25s work. Takes a little work but it can be done and you cant tell from above what you did. I used Pioneers which have break off tabs and then drilled holes for the 4 inch pattern.

[Click_It]

Good to hear monsoon, I hear the Pioneers are a little shallower than some other brands so I might follow suit and get those too. That'll be great getting them under the grill. Even with the seat belt thingo back there?

[Click_It]

Ahh I understand editing posts now, 30mins after message is posted is the time limit.

Okay, so I didn't bother with the 6x9's because I'd thrown out the grills that weren't needed for the intended car install so I'd have to source new grills... too much bother. Got the Pioneer TS-G1342R which is a shallow 5 1/4" speaker. Can't wait to get it all installed. I'm just wondering, do you guys recommend rewiring the speakers with better cabling or will the factory cable do the job? May look at going AMP+SUB later but for now its just headunit + 4 new speakers.

[MONSOON]

Yep those are the ones. Just break the tabs off and drill hole pattern for the 4 inch speaker.

[Click_It]

Well everything arrived and has been installed. They were supposed to give me 160W JVC 4" fronts to go with the 120W 5 1/4" rear panasonics but ran out of JVC's and instead I got some 80W Pioneer 4" fronts. Doesn't matter a whole lot unless I amp it up later, in which case I'd probably fit new door fronts and leave the dash fronts out of the amp. Had some trouble installing the rears, drilling the speakers was tricky so I've done a dodgy 2 screws per speaker instead of 4. Seems to be pretty tight though and I'll keep an eye on it.

Anyway nice clean sound, I haven't replaced the head unit yet so its still the stocker doing the job but there is already a difference heard. Getting a nice JVC headunit with USB support (4x50w mosfet) which should conclude the sound, don't think I'll bother amping.

EDIT oh yeah, the rear panasonics leave 1MM clearance from the seat belt casing. I originally removed the plastic cover which bought more space but then it exposes the metal. Metal so close to the speakers magnet seemed like a bad idea to me so I put it back. Dunno if it mattered or not but its all in and working

[MONSOON]

Yep had the exact same problems. Glad it worked out. Im a big fan of JVC headunits Ive got an old ElKameleon in my 93.