Rear Speaker Box


	Rear Speaker Box

I've always had these little 3" dinky speakers sitting on my rear deck that didn't produce much sound. And when the top was down, they were blocked by the boot cover so it was almost impossible to hear them at all. I've seen a number of different ways that people have added rear speakers and decided that it was time to make up a speaker box to sit on the rear panel. My primary objective was to do this for little money........ :-) I had the wood sitting in the cellar from some previous house project. I picked up a vinyl remnant from Jo-Ann Fabrics for $8.00 and the speakers are from good old Wal-Mart at $25. No sense spending $100 on speakers when the radio only cost $30 over 10 years ago. I even had 2 cans of 3M spray adhesive to choose from.

One unexpected benefit is that the rear deck area looks neater when the top is down and the boot cover is installed. There's room behind the box for the rear window and the bottom of the boot cover.

The rear panel ended up getting a rectangular cut out instead of trying to fit it to the curve of the rear deck. I went with 8" tall by 33-1/2" wide.

Cut out and assembled.

Here's the rear cut out that no one will ever see.

I have about 2-1/2" of internal space but the speakers will dictate what you need.

And, of course, a top.

I picked up a big piece of Marine quality vinyl in Jo-Ann Fabrics that was a remnant and only cost me $8.00 instead of the $20 that a non-remnant would have cost. I used 3M Spray Adhesive on the face of the box and then finished it off with staples on the bottom.

I clamped the box on top of the vinyl to the work bench so I could pull it good and tight.

Here it is covered and before I cut out the speaker openings.

These are Wal-Mart's $25 5x7 speakers that actually sound very good to my tin ear.

Last touch was the speaker grills.

All that was left to do now was to hook them up and put them in the car.

I wish the rest of my vinyl looked as good as the box cover does.

And there's still some usable read deck space available.

The window fits behind the box

Some of the top will also fit behind the box

Here's the Boot Cover on and it fits nicely behind the box too

And a Boot Cover close up.