Trying to decide if I should have custom kick panels installed, or if anyone has done some slight fabricating of the stock door holes in 3rd Gen. Any ideas or photos would be much appreciated! I'm looking at getting the best possible imaging, stage and I can't imagine the door holes come even close to doing that.

 

I was just out thinking about the same thing. I tried to install good drivers in the factory location, but the sound just isn't there. I think I'm going to try and make something for the stock location. My goals are:

1. Best imaging and staging possible for the least amount of money and time spent.
2. Maintain looks as close to stock as possible.
3. Try to do minimal damage to car.

Here is what I'm going to try first. I have a 6-1/2 component set. I already mounted the tweeters on an angle up on the sail panels. Next I'm going to mount the mids on a maximum angle that will fit within the interior door skin. I will need to do some minor cutting on the factory 5x7 shaped shroud that is on the backside of the interior door skin. I don't want to cut, but its cutting that no one will ever see, know or care about 4-5 years from now. The only real problem is that I'll have to fab some way to seal the mids in the door. It will have to be some angled piece that covers the leftover 5x7 oval and transitions up to the 6" round shape. I have some ideas, but need to go home and try some things out.

If it works then all I have sacrificed is my time, two sail panels, and a few innocent snips of plastic here and there.

If it doesn't work then I have to suck it up and fork out the $$ for kick panel enclosures.

I'll post results and pics as they are available.

 

Awesome, I knew I wasn't the only one out there with this dilema! :-)

What components did you get? Also, were there any tricks to putting the tweets in the pillars? Any pics?

 

This one is from Mike at Mazdaprotege5@yahoogroups

 

I can't tell from the pic, but it looks like the speaker is firing straight out. If you know someone who's good with fiberglass, it shouldn't be hard to get some good kicks made. But if you drive a five speed like me, then getting a speaker in the kick and facing up like it needs to will be easier said than done. The passenger side won't be so bad, but there is not an abundance of space down there. Somewhere in one of these forums, someone put some 6x9's in the kicks....a little gaudy for me, but I bet it was loud. Anyhow, If you can get them inside the door and angled up then it will sound better, and won't take up your legroom. Just dynamat your doors to seal them and to deaden them. I'm gonna be doing a lot of fiberglassing in my car after the first of the year, and one project is the front speakers. I'll keep you all posted when I get them done.

 

MacDaddy....it's from who? I guess I don't know how to find MazdaProtege5@yahoogroups.

 

go to www.groups.yahoo.com and search for Mazda Protege 5. It will take you to the group. To see the pics you have to register and become a member of the group. Once you become a member you will be able to look at the photos (the link appears on the right side). Inside look at Mikes Red Pro 5.

Regarding the straight angles, there is not much difference if they are angled or not. The difference is in the distance between the left speaker to the ears and the right speaker to the ear. The tweeter, must of the time is angled, but again, new designs eliminated the need for so; since now they have good off-axis response. This ones are to close to the door for my taste. Because is about the same as if they where in the door itself. But is a good job no matter what. Kudos to Mike!

 

Alright I guess I'm jacked up or something. I joined the club, but the only sections in the Photos section are:
Blue
marks p5 with mods and chick
Modified - For Racers Only
Red
Silver
Steve's MP5 - mods
Yellow


The Marks -5 one doesn't load the pics, it just says Image hosted by Anglefire.

 

Sorry, when you do the search put mazda_protege5 exactly like that.

 

SMOOTHY,
I don't know how old this thread is but How did your project go with the kickpanels? Any pics and what brand and size speakers did you use? I was looking maybe at Qforms but they do not exist, at least not yet.