How should I replace the speakers in my car?

How hard is it to replace a car's speakers?

• I have an 05 Ford Escape, and being the audiophile I am, I'd like to replace the factory speakers with nicer, better sounding ones. I'd like to avoid the cost of having them installed, however, so how hard is it to manually install car speakers? I have experience dealing with the inner workings of various electronics, but no experience with cars. Is this something that I could do with just some printed off instructions, or should I just cave and pay for an installer?

• Answer:

  If you're using stock amplification there shouldn't be much to it. I don't know much about ford's newer vehicles, but almost everything ford has used 6x8's since at least the late '80's. If you really want to upgrade you should consider going to a round speaker. Typically, a thin piece of plywood can be cut to cover the 6x8 opening and allow for a 6.5 to be used in its place. If not - most aftermarket 6x8's should drop right in. you may have to drill new screw holes, and come up with a way to get from the stock speaker connectors to standard speaker terminals, but those are minor details.