Speaker Install..Rear Trim Removal
 

Hey guys, I'm trying to upgrade my speakers. I got the ones in the front and rear doors installed. If anyone has any advice on getting to the very rear I would appreciate it. I hoping there is a way I can access the speakers without having to completely remove all of the rear panels. Thanks in advance.

Nope sorry. Start at the rear and work your way forward. Be very careful and if it's cold use a hair dryer or some of the plastic clips will probably crack. If you try and remove the front without taking the rear plastics off you will almost certainly distort the panel or crack it. Distorting it will discolor it and it may not fit right. You can remove the trim around the second row doors and pop the fasteners loose and pry the panel forward enough to access the speakers but I'm pretty sure you will break things doing it this way. I might do it to a vehicle I was trading in and wanted my speakers out of, but I wouldn't do it to one I was keeping.

X2. Remove rear and barn door step sills.
The 2nd row seatbelt removes with a torx 55 so you can remove that trim piece.

Then remove the upper barn door trim and there is the same torx 55 just under the carpet against each side panel, then start pulling small panels that overlap the big side panel. The panel has a bunch of clips which put up a good fight, but the panel is good as long as you grab it right and pull out small sections one at a time.

I had to replace one 3rd row retracting seatbelt and went through this disassembly process, and observed the a/c and speaker setup.

Yes I had to do it to replace the seat belt and had to do it again when I installed rear speakers and I had to do the rear most part again when I installed a backup camera and I would prefer to not do it again. Lol.

As others have stated, you have to remove everything, working from the back hatch forward. The seatbelt bolts on the floor are T55 and can require some serious torque to remove if you live in a rust prone area. I snapped two bits before I decided to drill them out. You probably don't have to remove those ones if you are just doing speakers since the panel should rotate enough out of the way with just the top bolts removed for the rear belts. There are also a couple of plastic clips underneath the edges of the carpet that hold the big panels in place. Make sure to lift up the carpet to get them or you will snap them and possibly crack the panel. Make sure the side rear doors are open and you pull up the sill pieces or you can crack the front leg of the panel.

Crawl underneath and hit those lower seat belt bolts with pb blaster or whatever your own penetrant of choice is. They will come out much smoother.

Thanks for the replies. Just in case anyone else is changing speakers the speaker wire adapters are Metra #72-5600. The pins were just slightly too close on mine, had to just barely pry them up a bit. Also, you're gonna need a 5.5mm socket for the front speakers. I went with Pioneer TS-A6885R speakers. The speaker fit was perfect and they sound great. Not a huge amount of bass, but very clear and distortion free. I'll probably end up adding subs at some point so these were intended more for mids and treble anyhow.

Just wanted to add a quick update. I finally got around to installing the last set of speakers to the very rear of the truck. I'm not sure if it varies by year or was just bad information but my seatbelts were mounted with 15mm and Torx T50. Just wanted to add that in case anyone else is attempting to remove the rear panels.

This kind of information is always nice to have around. Thanks for taking the time to come back and add it! Reps sent :-drink