| First and most annoying
is to remove the window crank. It has a cover which snaps
off and rotates around the swivel knob. Use a small
screwdriver to unsnap the cover. Now, unscrew the Torx
headed screw and remove the crank | |
| For the XLT, remove the
two screws under the door handle, then pull off the handle
assembly. The whole black area forward of the armrest will
come off as one unit. Also remove the screw in the lower
back corner of the door panel. | |
| Remove the screw from
under the door handle area, then lift the whole door panel
up and out. You can see that the panel is secured using
plastic hooks that fit into the slots cut in the door
metal. There are no snaps and only 4 screws. | |
| Remove the stock speaker
and pull back the insulation to expose the wires. | |
| I chose to cut the
factory connectors out, and solder in new connectors. I
won't use factory speakers, so I no longer need their
connectors. You can get adapters, but I wanted a cleaner
signal path. | |
| A speaker comparison.
The factory unit uses a built in grill that cannot be
removed. Lots of signal and high end is trapped by this
plastic grill. The factory unit is also a single "whizzer"
cone. | |
| From the back, you can
see the Pioneer matches the stock speaker profile exactly.
They are engineered for the Ford 6x8 speaker slots. | |
| The last shot shows the
Pioneers from the door. They have a nice blue and silver
color which shows through the door grill. The sound
difference is amazing for $60. Well worth the time and
cost. | |
|
