I was just wondering if anyone has any advice for me about cutting out the metal behind the rear seat handrest. I'm putting in a small sub in the trunk but the trunk holds in all the sound and was just wanting to create a port for the sound to come through. Is this something I can just take a metal saw to cut out?

 

roblox84, no need to cut any metal back there. If you look in the center, there are already 2 large holes cut there. Secondly, with the nature of the bass notes, as long as you are keeping a good separation between the front and back of the speaker (ie, a sealed box or sufficient room for a ported box), the sound is going to make its way through the seat with no problems. Worst case, bolt the box to the trunk floor and you will find that this will transmit the bass through the body of the car and it will make it into the passenger compartment with no problems.

 

Thanks, I will try what you say. What's weird is that years ago I used to have a 1000watt JL sub in there and the seats being up drowned it out so much. It basically sounded like listening to music with your hands over your ears. Now, when I put my seats down the bass would get so loud that the rearview would vibrate.

 

roblox84, did you have the speakers facing into the seats with the speakers up tight against the seats? if so, that was your problem. You need to have the speakers away from anything soft in an area that is within a radius of the speaker. If you put something in this area, you deaden the pressure wave and yes, it will kill the pressure wave making the music. Hence why when you laid the seat down, you removed the item blocking the speaker, allowing the sound to be properly created.

 

I actually had the subs tight up against the seats but facing away from the seats towards the trunk opening. I'll take your advice and try again, just waiting for the sub to come in. Although I don't really care anymore about the loudness since the sub is only about 300 watts, just something to add a little bass to the crappy stock speakers. I'm just hoping it won't sound so muffled again as the other sub did with the seats up.

 

i too have been thinking about it since i have a sound system. is it behind the fabric? Cause I don't see any holes. I've seen somewhere an x-type that already had a hole in it to put ski's & what not through it.

 

funkdoktor, the X-TYpe has factory subs in some cases (premium sound system). These get mounted to the rear shelf from the trunk side and the speakers sit in 2 holes in the center of this shelf. The rear shelf fabric has spots in it to let the sound come through in the sound deadening material. But, you would leave the colored fabric in place as this will let the sound come through.

 

Yep, like this;

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Have a look under the parcel shelf and the cutouts for the woofers are actually offset to the left like that.

Can't see it when the parcel shelf is in though...

 

For me those holes aren't cut out. Should I use a dremel or something to cut them completely out or should I just cut out the sound deadening material and leave the colored fabric intact like you said. I really like the mesh covering the speaker holes, is it hard to take that shelf out?

 

That's really weird. What year is your car....?

I think it's not worth cutting holes like that unless you actually want to put some speakers in them.

Sorry I don't understand...

There are different parcel shelf's depending on if the car had Premium Sound from the factory or not. I bought that one from a wrecker in the UK. It's quite a job to get the parcel shelf out, you can see the steps in the instructions for fitting the rear parking sensors HERE

 

Yeah, I've seen those. It had a circle sticker covering the holes. I removed them to let in the bass into the car a little better but its not all that great because I don't have the screen mesh to let through the sound. All I have is the little slit vents. & I think roblox84 was talking about the wall behind the armrest when folding it down? That's what I was thinking of when he described it.

 

Cambo....My jag is a 2002. I'm thinking my original idea of cutting the wall behind the handrest is best because where those holes are in my car there is a thick foam sound proofing material covering them which would be a pain to cut out. The other reason is when I had an amp installed previously the installer accidently drilled the mounting screws right through that wall behind the arm rest and it looks like **** because now I just cover the holes with a big piece of felt. I just wouldnt know where to start because I want to make sure I only cut the metal behind the arm rest and not the seat. Maybe I should drill 4 holes from the interior into the arm rest wall to use as a guide and just cut out a square in between those holes? I mean would the sparks or debris from the saw ruin the interior?

 

I'm really interested in doing this myself as well. The only worry I have is the fabric where the cut has been made being all loose afterwards..

 

I also thought the fabric might get loose. What my idea is, putting a sort of rubber framing around the cut part. The best way I can explain this is picture one of those wire looms that have the slit in it to tuck wires into only I would like to find something like that but rubber that way it will also hold the cut edge of the fabric. Im pretty sure ive seen something like that sold but for some other purpose.

Edit....I have just found a pic of what may be good to use around the edge of arm rest wall once it's cut out.

 

not a bad idea if its strong enough to hold. another thing too if it opens up wide enough to go over the metal & front/back fabrics. also, if i remember correctly, when feeling the metal backing i think i felt some lumps on the metal. not sure though. i'll check tomorrow. its almost midnight here in honolulu so i'm gonna hit the sheets. peace.