Replaced the left door speakers with the Polk db6501 set (only had time to
do one side so far and the oem left mid-woofer was broken).
Nubwagon is right, the Polk adapter that comes with the 6 1/2 speaker (plus
one layer of dynamat xtreme) bolts in easily with enough clearance behind it.
The Scion/MINI adapter that Crutchfield supplies would require drilling 2 new holes in the
door, and starting 4 new holes in the adapter, so I didn't use it either.
It took me a little while to figure out how to mount the tweeter cup, but it's
in there nicely now. I put the crossover just aft of the woofer and removed
two of the ribs in the door panel to give it some room. It's in there nice and
tight with just one screw as it's over some dynamat that holds it in place as
well since the rear frame of the crossover sinks into the dynamat a little.
As I got 4 square feet of dynamat extreme, some went around the 6 1/2
speaker hole, some on the inside of the outer door shell, some over the inside
of the door cover (that big flat oval area in the middle), and a few bits on
what looked like the most resonant other places on the door frame.

One surprise ... when everything was hooked up as per the instructions, the
new speakers were out of phase with the rears and with the oem right door
ones. I then reversed the leads to the crossover and they're now all working synergistically
instead of antagonistically with the other speakers.
I'll have to remember to do the same thing to the right door speakers when I get to them.

Shifting the balance left and right, I definitely like the Polks better than
the oem speakers. They're a little louder and have smoother response and
sound crisper and less muddy than the oem side (have to put your head in
the middle of the car to compare fairly). And plenty loud enough for me
without an external amp. I'm looking forward to finding the time to do the
right doors. Don't think I'll change the rears, as replacing them would add
upper midrange and treble in the back and would probably mess up the
soundstage and imaging and overall coherance.

 

cristo, when you do the other door, can you take some pics? The more I think about it, the more I will most likely add the crossover into the mix. I just wanna see where and how you mounted it. Also show pics of the tweeter install if you can. Thanks!

 

Sorry, just did the other side yesterday, and the wife is away for the weekend
with the camera at a quilting retreat.
I put the crossover just to the side of the speaker (i.e. about a half an inch to the
right of the speaker on the right door).
For the tweeter, I bent one of the 4 prongs of the metal clip flat and let it
sit behind the stock tweeter cage at about 7 o'clock, and bend the other
clips just a little so it sat in the cage fairly well centered. It didn't seem to
be in terribly solidly, but when I screwed the Polk tweeter cup to it, the
metal clips push out and hold tight. Then I popped the tweeter into the cup.
I didn't like the idea of two tweeter grills, it seemed to diminish the treble a little,
so I dremeled out the grill on the oem speaker/door handle ring and used a
black felt tip marker to blacken out the inside bits of said part which look a
little noticeable from certain angles if you don't. Sounded a little better
and brighter with only the grill on the Polk tweeter. Looks a tiny bit funny, though.
I don't think a pic of the tweeter installed would be all that informative,
and I'm not gonna take it out to photograph the clip position. I'm afraid I
wouldn't get it back in the same way without a bit of futzing.

Anyway, it sounds great so far with Porcupine Tree - Deadwing and
Daniel Denis - Les Eaux Troubles at moderately loud volume.

 

That's a shame you couldn't snap some pics of it. I think I'll try putting in the crossovers when I get back home. I'm in Florida right now with the folks livin' it up for my birthday! Going to Hooters tonight for dinner! Yummy!!

 

How did you wire up the crossover? Do the stock tweeter and woofer wire join up into one wire before they get to the head unit? Or could I simply route, say the tweeter wire to the crossover, then use the excess stock woofer or tweeter wire to route to the new speakers?

 

The Polk components came with a connector that fits the stock connector
to the woofer. I ran that to the crossover, and ran the woofer output to the
new woofer, and the tweeter output to the new tweeter. I left the old tweeter
wire unconnected and tucked away.
The wires to the crossover and to the woofer ran in a little gap I cut out of
the dynamat between the door metal and the adapter plate. The dynamat
sealed around that little gap pretty easily. The tweeter wire ran down
to the crossover parallel to the old tweeter wire.

 

So then it seems that it does not matter which speaker wire set I send into the crossover. Thanks. I looked under the dash and the wires from the door go into the spinal cord and disapear under the dash. Now all I need to complete the install is 1" spacers.