rear deck speakers for good midbass kick

[curtis73]

My wife's tercel has door speakers in front and deck speakers in the back. Right now they are 5.25" all around, but the doors will take 6.5 and it actually looks like the cutouts in the rear deck are 8". The problem in the tercel is that the panels are so incredibly weak, nearly ALL bass from the speakers is absorbed or cancelled. I put the same head unit and speakers in my wifes car as I did my BMW and the difference is indescribable. She likes well-rounded sound, but never boomy. She hates rap and listens to jazz and classical, but the poor thing only gets weak mids and plenty of highs.

The front doors will get 6.5" separates, but what can I put in the deck to make some mid/bass. Can I run some 8" mid/subs free air? Cut for 6x9s? Make some small fiberglass boxes under the deck for some 8"s?

[SupraGuy]

If you can fit 8" speakers in the rear, then that ought to be all that's needed.

True the panels are wimpy, the Tercel was made to be lightweight, fuel efficient and reliable, not exactly your wish list for an audio system.

You could reinforce the panel with fibreglass, or even build boxes and bolt the mounting panel to the rear deck. The problem is that the trunk springs tend to interfere. If you replace them with a pneumatic strut you have a lot more room to play with.

You could build a rear deck cover from MDF and/or fibreglass, to replace the factory part. Alternately if you have access to a welder, you could reinforce the panel with some steel. You'll also want dynamat or similar.

Free air is much easier to install (Provided that you've room to install it at all) but I believe in enclosures for best sound quality.

[curtis73]

sweet. Great ideas! thanks