Hey guys. I'm trying to fabricate a stainless steel bracket that will be used to mount a high end 5" subwoofer in the OEM speaker box and hold down the OEM grill at the same time. I need to borrow one OEM speaker grill. I only need to take some measurements, then test fit it onto the bracket. It will not be modified in any way. I can slip you some thank you buckies as well. I'll need it for less than a week. Can anyone help? Thanks Mike
Hi Mike, if you need item 15 above I still have mine. And Im still very happy with your JL Audio subwoofer! Thanks! Dan
Yes, it's item 15. Although I make it a point to explain to everyone who is interested in the little subwoofers that the JL Audio 8" sub sounds ten times better and costs less money, there are a few purists out there who insist on keeping an absolute 100% stock look. I can certainly appreciate this, and this is why I am fabricating custom brackets for this express purpose.
I understand about the purists that wants to retain the stock look. Just take note that you will get improvement from a better designed and better made aftermarket 5" subwoofers but no way it can match the bigger 8" subs. Smaller speakers / subwoofers simply cannot reproduce super low notes nor move enough air to really hear and feel the lower frequencies. I have Scuderia Audio's 8" JL Audio Subwoofer and it simply sounds amazing. Just my opinion. Dan
It was tricky, but my brother and I came up with an idea on how to mount the OEM grill with an aftermarket speaker. The OEM speaker basket has a raised edge (5/16") all the way around the circumference. The OEM grill has four, one inch "hooks" that grab the raised edge at 45, 135, 225 and 315 degrees. Well, you really don't need the entire thing raised, you only need those four points where the hooks are going to grab. So I drew up an Auto CAD drawing of a modified adapter plate with four "tabs" (also 5/16") that will be bent straight up to accommodate the grill hooks. Since the four mounting points for the adapter plate start at zero degrees, and the tabs and hooks start at 45 degrees, I had to clock the orientation of the speaker to 12 degrees. No worries as no one will ever see the speaker, just the grill. The friend I am doing this for is thrilled! Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi Mike, thanks for sharing. The plastic grills are friction held to the speaker. No screws. With the upgraded subwoofer drivers punching hard how will it prevent the grills from rattling and/or coming off? Dan
Exactly. No screws. There are four "hooks" that clamp onto the speaker basket. The eight holes in the adapter plate - four holes to mount the speaker to the plate and four holes to mount the plate to the box. From the grill hooks point of view, the thing that the hooks hook onto are the exact same dimensions, location, thickness, etc. as the OEM speaker. Therefore, the grills have no more chance of popping off than they do with an OEM speaker. The hooks are made of hard plastic. You really have to use a good deal of force to pop them into place. The grills won't even be touching the speaker at any point. The speaker can do whatever it wants. Additionally, the OEM grill has more room underneath it than the Focal grill, so forget any excursion problems.
This little project turned out to be a little more difficult than expected, but I was able to get through it. As you can see, the speaker basket for the OEM speaker has a very high ridge all the way around. However, the OEM grill snaps onto it in only four places. If you make an adapter plate that has ridges in those same four places, the OEM grill snaps on in exactly the same way. The new 5" subwoofer is pretty beefy, so we had to cut down a little slice of material on all four sides in order to fit inside of the adapter plate. You can't saw, grind or file the material off because the metal dust would find its way into the magnet and ruin the driver. So, we used a hydraulic shear. We did it by hand for the test speaker but I designed a stainless template so if I ever had to do it again, the speaker would end up looking like it was designed just for this application. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
