Got some crappy pics to show you, but I think you'll get the idea of what I'm dealing with.
I'd like to share at this point that for MOST audio enthusiasts, going with an 8" midbass will NOT be your cup of tea with the Flex, depending on the driver. More on this later.
This is where I started, which is with the wiring. I don't know what you're supposed to call this, so I'm going to call it a wire harness clippy thing. It goes between the wires of the door and other sneaky parts of each side of the car. Our car has really interesting sheetmetal shapes in the front corners by the wheel arches, btw. Anyway, with some tugging and lifting, this lifts out of its little hole and keep the wires protected. Sorry I look like Casper the Ghost, I've got no idea why my camera phone takes such bad pics.
I used my unibit and drilled right through this, to route my speaker wire through toward the door.
Now, I must tell you, per doing Stephan's Flex and his doors with similar wire I expected to not be able to get through the door accordion boot. When we did his, we spent forever trying to snake the big wire through but it just didn't happen, no matter what we tried. BUT... I decided to try anyway and it seemed like my Flex had a lot more slack in the wiring, because I was able to pull the accordion boot out and straighten it from it's upside down U shape to a short straight run, and the wire went right through with minimal bitching. Anyway, your mileage may vary let's just say that.
This is in the door itself
So here it is, test fitting!
Those little photos don't share with you that the speaker is actually hitting the plastic window guides that go with the window up and down, while the magnet is actually shoved up and pressing against the window rail. However, as far as test-fits go, it actually does fit in the door and clear the metal. To get this, I had to cut a 3/4" ring and I have my 3/4" baffle adapter, so we're talking 1 1/2" total spacing.
The door panel fits right over it!
So I knew I had a possible working solution here, and I set to make it work permanently without striking the actual plastic window guides and rails. I trimmed my baffle and routed the inside with a bevel bit, to get a little extra wiggle room for the woofer to clear the window rail. BTW you can see the window rail in these pics, it is the white plastic on the black rail.
Here is a shot of my spacers. Now in this you may notice an extra 1/4" spacer. Turns out, that's what it takes to make this work. So total spacing from the window parts is 1 3/4". This clears the plastic guides by 1/8", and the rail by about the same. It is so, so close but it does work.
Feeling quite excited that this big speaker may actually fit in the door, I went ahead and added all the deadener I felt I could to the outside. The inside of the door is already completely covered with GT Mat Quadro, and it is doing a good job so I just added a few sheets of RAAMmat to the outside here. I had to build a little cove or indent with deadener, so the door panel will fit properly.
I used a rubberized coating I purchased at Sam's Club, in a bulk of a few cans. It is made by Rubbermaid I think, and it comes out like paint and dries like rubber. This will make the parts I made truly weatherproof so I won't have rotten wood in my doors after a few car washes.
I installed the spacers and the woofer as one, because the mounting screws for this adapter baffle are covered by the spacer. That's why I countersunk the adapter's screws.
Once the speaker was wired up and installed, I went crazy with the deadener again.
Not shown but done is the other side, the plastic door panel. I added a whole sheet of deadener to the plastic panels, re-affixed the stock acoustic filling, and then covered parts that I could with Ensolite.
Its in there!
Not pictured is a ring of Ensolite I made around the speaker, to create a gasket as much as I can around the speaker to the door panel. I chose not to cut up the plastic door panel for now, which goes against my original idea of cutting out the plastic and making a grille of speaker cloth. I'm going to see how the acoustics are with the door completely stock. I've done calculations and because I'm using a pass frequency of about 400 hz to the pillars and these speakers aren't playing higher than that, I think that the limitations caused by the smaller ~5x7 oval opening in the plastic panel will be a lot less troublesome than running a speaker that is supposed to cross much higher. My calculations show that the frequencies that this speaker will be playing (let's say 65hz - 400hz) shouldn't really be affected too heavily by that plastic in front of the speaker. But if I get any weird acoustic behavior, I'll be the first to cut up this panel and go with my original plan, be assured. Thing is...the speaker fits and still looks stock, so I have to see how it does. Why destroy the door panel if you don't have to?
Oh, and not pictured but definitely an important part of the issue here is the fact that the plastic door panel's little vertical ridge I pointed out before is plainly contacting the mounting flange of the speaker. With the total mounting height of 1 3/4" of wood + the speaker flange itself, it puts some pressure against the speaker's mounting flange. This is of no negative consequence, but what happens is that when the door panel is installed, there's a tiny bit of force required to get the screws in and the door secure. This is not visible but is worth mentioning for people following along and plotting their design, possibly. Bottom line, not many 8" speaker will fit in this door, and this one barely fits. In fact, I was completely prepared to order a set of RS180-4's but the 1/4" spacer I made saved the day.
For my and my Dayton RS225 woofers, well the problem is that this supposed 8" driver is actually 8 3/4" in diameter on the mounting flange, is fairly deep, and mounts in a 7 1/4" hole. All of this means that she don't want to fit in the darn door, at all. I kept striking the stuff you don't want to hit with the magnet, with the spokes of the speaker's frame, the speaker itself contacting the plastic door panel's dimensions, etc. Finally, with the plastic door panel itself pressed up against the speaker, this is the maximum suitable depth, without a doubt. Other 8" speakers may fit better, if the mounting flange is smaller than 8 3/4". A speaker with an 8 1/2" flange could then be a little deeper, because the mounting flange would not strike the plastic door panel's vertical ridge. It would instead nestle inside the plastic door panel and would be a better fit. A truncated frame on a speaker might work better. I was about to break out my grinder on this frame if the door panel refused to screw closed!
The driver's side will have to come tomorrow. I did do a sample test with just the right side playing and holy moly does it sound amazing. The bass is incredible. This may be a completely crazy build but acoustically I think it will be a huge success.
edited to add... here's a class example of a better fitting midbass.
http://www.jlaudio.com/car-audio-evolution-zr-mid-bass-driverYou can buy it here for about $130. Be sure to hunt down a coupon (usually 6% off)..
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/p_20556_JL_Audio_ZR800-CW.aspxSee that's ~ 8.25" wide, so you could build a slightly deeper baffle (let's say 2") and just mount it more conventionally, with spacers and your baffle adapter (a copy of the factory plastic part, to match.) I was all set to order these but the Daytons are a bit cheaper, and I wanted to try and stick with the same brand all around to see how it all would sound as one. If I were doing it again, I'd immediately buy these, and the install would probably have gone just a little bit more smooth. I think these and the Daytons have the potential to both sound amazing, in a properly prepared door. The edge may go to the JL for its extra xmax and slightly higher Qts for door use. If the Daytons fail me in any way whatsover, this is exactly the speaker I'm replacing them with.
