Lifeisabeach

You are talking about the little one already attached? I don't know why that specifically is there. I'm looking at Infinity's website now and they show the frequency response for the speaker is 85Hz - 21kHz. I misread the low on that previously as 32Hz (how I managed that, I have no idea!). My guess is that the small built-in one is a very low level bass blocker itself, filtering out below 85Hz to keep this small speaker from trying to produce levels it can't possibly reproduce satisfactorily. Edit: as a side note, I likely am NOT going to use the Polk Audio set for the doors I mentioned previously. One review on Crutchfield's site claimed the bass was distorted from these speakers, and Crutchfield responded saying they need a bit more power than some of the alternatives due to their high RMS rating of 100 (peak of 300 watts). That's a really good point so I'm looking for something with an RMS of 50 watts or so (peak of 100 watts or so). The Memphis Audio 15-PRX6C looks promising. Anyone know what the factory amp output is?

I used a 9/32" socket. It was a little loose even though it did the job without slipping, but I'm sure a metric socket (7mm I believe) would fit better. I absolutely would use a bass blocker. The Infinity speaker "can" reproduce ranges as low as 32 Hz (edit: 85Hz, my bad), but a 3 1/2 driver just isn't going to deliver the lows as well as the 6.5" drivers in the doors. If you keep the lows from getting to it, it will do a better job of reproducing the mids that a driver this size is better suited for. If this was the ONLY speaker in the car (or all were this size), then you may have to settle for not using a blocker and get what you can get, but we don't need to settle here. The problem is that the blocker I'm using just blocks way too much (really, it's a bass and midrange blocker). The Infinity speakers came with a capacitor that looks like this one: The one Infinity provided is rated for 133 uF (edit: it's rated at 270 uF), which equates to a "bass blocker" of 300 150 Hz and lower on a 4 ohm speaker. I was caught by surprise when I started my install because it didn't know what to do with this. I had assumed it'd be pre-packaged with a speaker wire and connectors like the bass blocker I wound up using. This you'd have to solder in place and soldering isn't something I'm good at. So I had to scramble a bit to find a better solution and luckily Best Buy had what I wanted. This has been a learning experience for me, and I muddled along a bit too much while installing. I'm better familiarizing myself with bass blockers after-the-fact and thinking it through more. I think sticking with a 150 Hz bass blocker will be fine for this speaker since it's what Infinity provides themselves, but going with a 300-600 Hz one should be a reasonably good alternative if it fits better into your overall strategy for the sound in your car. Bear in mind that a bass blocker rated at "300 Hz" applies to a 4 ohm speaker. The Infinity is a 3-ohm speaker, so a 300 Hz bass blocker will block 400 Hz and downwards. Maybe a little less if the speaker wire resistance adds to that calculation. A 600 Hz bass blocker would be closer to 800 Hz on this speaker. Crutchfield's product page recommends using a 600 Hz bass blocker for low powered systems, 800 Hz for high powered systems. I wouldn't call the factory system "high powered", and since the 600 Hz bass blocker will really be closer to 800 Hz on this Infinity speaker, I'm thinking stick with the 300 Hz one if you are just doing speaker replacements and not amp upgrades.

After doing some more reading, my initial instinct to use the 2800 Hz bass blocker may be the better choice. I'm getting the upper midrange and above in this speaker now, and replacing the rest of the speakers later will round out the sound more fully. I'll post a link to an article that does a great job of explaining the audio spectrum in detail. I should be getting more of the vocal range than I was last thinking. The capacitor that came with the speakers blocks from approximately 300 Hz (edit: actually it's about 200 Hz), which I think would be reasonable if this was the primary speaker in the car. Opinions and further thoughts/discussion would be welcome. http://www.teachmeaudio.com/mixing/techniques/audio-spectrum Edit: It occurred to me that the bass blocker is actually blocking at a higher level than rated for this speaker. It's a a 3-ohm speaker, which Infinity says combines with the speaker wire for a "true" 4 ohm load. But being in the dash, the wiring run should be rather short compared to the doors, so the load is likely 3.something. I found a calculator that will give you the capacitance for a given impedance, and assuming I'm really at 3.5 ohms, the bass blocker I'm using (rated at 13 uF) would be cutting off at about 3500 Hz and up. Way too high for sure!

I replaced the center speaker located in the dash of my wife's 2017 Ford Edge today. This was a pretty straightforward job and is an easy way to improve the sound in these cars, which as discussed elsewhere here, is pretty muddy. To prepare for the job, I tried to see if there were any existing tutorials/videos of removing that speaker from the 2015-2017 Edges, but couldn't find anything. I used this video tutorial for replacing the same speaker in a 2016 F150, which has a very similar speaker grill and storage compartment in front of the speaker as the Edge does. That replacement was done with the cover to that storage compartment removed and while I didn't remove my cover (I didn't know how to remove it, and how to do so wasn't covered in that video), I would suggest doing so in retrospect if it's easily done even though I managed popping the speaker grill just fine. Below are a couple "before" photos demonstrating the speaker grill in place, viewed from above and from inside the storage compartment. I used a nylon pry tool from inside the storage compartment to pop the speaker grill up a little at the corners. I couldn't pop it fully out because the cover to the storage compartment got in the way. But it was up enough to get a start on and finish from above. Below is a photo showing the front of the grill up a little. I next used a small screwdriver with the end covered in electrical tape to help prevent the tip of it scratching the dash. I worked the front end up some more then again from the sides and back until I was able to get my fingers on it and pop it out completely. Below is a photo of the exposed speaker and one of the underside of the speaker grill. These next two photos demonstrate the terminals on the factory speaker and the adapter connected to those terminals that connects to the factory harness. There isn't an aftermarket adapter available to my knowledge (Crutchfield doesn't list one, but it's possible there may be one for another vehicle that is compatible), so I clipped the wires off the speaker terminals and removed the white plastic clip that secures the adapter to the factory speaker. Note that the red wire is positive and the green one (with red stripe, I believe) is negative. The diagrams posted in this other discussion indicate that the wires should have been green and gray/yellow but that clearly is not the case here. This may be something that changed between 2015 to 2017. The replacement speaker is an Infinity Reference REF-3022cfx that I ordered from Crutchfield. This is the only speaker that they list as compatible with the 2017 Edge's dash and while I expect there are others that would have worked fine, I went with this because it's an excellent choice regardless. Crutchfield included for free some mounting hardware, but I have no idea why they thought it was necessary. The original screws worked fine. These speakers also came with a capacitor to be optionally installed in-line on the positive speaker lead. I wasn't comfortable using that one since it would have required soldering it directly to the terminal on the speaker and otherwise just seemed awkward to manipulate and fit in the space for the speaker. I wound up picking up a bass blocker kit from Best Buy, which basically is a capacitor that is already in-line with a speaker wire and fully insulated. The kit came with 2 pairs, one with a cutoff of 300 Hz, the other with a cutoff of 2800 Hz. I used the 2800 Hz one but in retrospect I should have used the 300 Hz one since the frequency range for vocals starts well under 2800 Hz. Crutchfield has some similar bass blockers that range from 300 Hz to 800 Hz, so I likely will redo this with perhaps a 600 Hz one. I want this speaker to handle just highs and vocals. Below is a photo of the new speaker with the factory adapter and bass blocker ready to be attached, as well as a photo of the new speaker in place. So the bottom line, did this make a difference? It's hard to say how much is me imagining a difference, and I otherwise wouldn't expect a significant difference since it's just the single dash speaker so far. There's also the matter of me using too-high a bass blocker. That said, my wife and I agree there is an improvement with the overall sound seeming a little 'brighter" than before. It's basically functioning just as a tweeter right now, but it's an excellent one. Correcting the oversight on the bass blocker should result in an even better impression once done. I still plan to replace the door speakers and I've just about settled on the Polk Audio DB6502 component set for front and rear. Crutchfield lists the tweeter as fitting in the upper doors and the woofer as fitting in the lower doors. They are priced in the ballpark for what I wanted to spend and I'm very satisfied with the Polk Audios I have in my own car (2010 Edge), so it's pretty much a no-brainer.

Ah hah... I didn't look over the diagram for the rears. I guess I assumed they'd be wired the same as the fronts. It looks like maybe there is a crossover that the full signal runs to for the rears (rectangular shape "behind" the lower woofers) and the signal is distributed from there to the upper and lower drivers. I assume this is in the doors, but it may well not be. I'm looking over the parts diagrams on Ford's site and I haven't found anything yet that suggests what it could be or where it is. They do use the same woofers for front and rear though.

The wiring diagram posted earlier suggests they are wired separately. If not for that, I would have thought they were wired together just because they are in the same door. The 6x9 speakers in the gen 1 Edges are effectively a component 5 1/4 woofer and a tweeter packaged together. We'll see. I'm way on the fence on what to get. For tweeters, Crutchfield says you have to glue them in place, something I'd rather not do. I need to hunt around for a detailed description/photo of just how these tweeters are actually mounted. Someone posted that the tweeters from a Focal component set popped right into place, which would be ideal, but at $350 for that set, it's a bit more than I care to spend. I'm looking to spend about $200 per set. The other big problem with a component set is the tweeter... going by the dimensions of the Focal set that are supposed to be a perfect fit @ 1.79" cutout diameter, then most of the sets I've looked at have tweeters that are too big to fit in the space. Those that have the same or smaller diameter have a deeper surface mount depth. Custom mounting something that's oversized is out of the question... my wife will flip her shit if this is anything more than a simple swap-out. Going by Crutchfield's buying guide, here's what I'm considering: Center dash: Infinity Reference REF-3022cfx. This is the only set Crutchfield has listed as fitting, but that's a-ok. I expect it'd have been a top choice anyway. Tweeters, front and rear doors: Infinity Reference REF-275tx. These have a flexible mounting system and may work well here. I trust they'll better complement the dash speaker than my alternates, which are: Alpine SPS-110TW and Kicker KST20. Rear doors, lower: Polk Audio DXi6501. The tweeters likely aren't going to fit but the woofer should be a good match for what the factory amp puts out. Front doors, lower: Rockford Fosgate PPS4-6. This is a midrange speaker, not a woofer, but I'm thinking I'll let the rears and sub in the back handle the bass and have dedicated midranges up front. It might not be necessary if the dash speaker works out well though, in which case I'll do the same Polk Audios as the rear.

Agreed on all counts. I hadn't thought of simply disconnecting the lower speaker to test and verify the wiring to the upper one... thanks for the tip!

It's an Edge Titanium (2017). There are no speakers in the pillar.

Hey guys, I have a couple questions. I want to upgrade just the speakers in my wife's 2017 Edge. I already have one ordered for the dash, but I'm not sure how to proceed with the doors. Right now, if I'm not mistaken, the factory door speakers consist of a 6.5" woofer-only in the lower part of each door and a tweeter up high. The question at hand is whether or not the factory audio system is pre-filtering out the highs for the lower speakers, and the lows for the upper tweeters. If it does do this, then the install is as simple as putting in better drivers. I could buy a component set and just not utilize the external crossover that these come with. If the system does NOT filter the highs/lows appropriately for each driver (which perhaps could partly explain why the factory sound quality is so poor?), then the question is how would I utilize the crossover that comes with the component speaker sets with the factory speaker wiring. If I'm interpreting the wiring diagrams provided earlier correctly, then each driver in each door is fed its signal separately from the DSP. Using the crossover that comes with these component speaker sets would require a bit of re-wiring of the speakers, something that I don't want to get that deep into. Alternatively, I could put a regular 6.5" 2-way speaker in the lower door and a separate tweeter up high. This would be the most practical solution if the system is not filtering out the highs for the lower speaker, though I'd need to do something to filter out the lows to the tweeter up top. Any thoughts here?

Ditto. My wife just got a 2017 Edge and the sound is hideous. I wasn't sure I wasn't just a bit biased since I've gotten used to the Polk Audio speakers I put in my own 2010 Edge, so I'm glad to see it's not just me. I'm definitely going to upgrade these in her car once I get a handle on what may work best here.

Yes, Sync voice commands absolutely work exactly as before with content on the USB drive in the armrest, but only that port. They don't work for the SD card slot or the Pioneer's own USB ports. Sync voice dialing also works as do the steering wheel controls to activate that, but I'm experiencing problems with answering calls when Sync is handling voice calls. I've been in contact with the iDatalink folks so hopefully they have an update to fix it in the works. It took me some time to figure it out, but you can apply Sync updates through the Pioneer head unit and you can pair new phones to Sync's Bluetooth module (the 6 digit pin is passed to the Pioneer head unit so you can read it). The Sync Bluetooth support is separate from the Pioneer's own Bluetooth module and you "can" pair to both, though the iDatalink rep I've been speaking with advised against doing so. If you do so, you just pick from the settings menu which one is used for hands-free calls.

I've done some additional work on the speakers. I was never able to quite get the sub sounding right, and in retrospect the problem was the choice in the sub. Kicker recommends 300 watts for the CompRT, and I very much doubt the factory amp puts out that much. There's more to it than that. With dual voice coil (DVC) subs, you have to be very careful you are matching the sub to the amp and wiring it correctly so the sub gets enough power to it without reducing the ohm level below what the amp can run reliably. That said, my best advice after all I've experienced and read up on is to replace both the sub and the sub amp if anyone ever plans to replace one or the other. My choice here was to go with the Rockford Fosgate PBR300X1 for the amp and a Kicker 8" CompS SVC (single voice coil) sub running at 2 ohms. The RF amp is rated for 150 watts constant @ 2 ohms, tested @ 180 watts, which is in the ballpark for the CompS' requirements (200/400). I could have chosen a sub that would pull 1 ohm for 300 watts/900 peak or stuck with a different CompRT sub (the 2 ohm DVC model wired in parallel would give me a 1 ohm power draw), but that would run the amp hotter and since it's in the location of the factory sub amp (behind the sub enclosure), I felt this was safer. I had also tried using Acousta-Stuf fiber fill in the sub box. All I can say is no... not recommended at all by my ears. It dulled the bass pretty severely. All in all, the bass now is a bit... cleaner I guess I can say. It doesn't thud heavily like the old sub did. If one likes the heavier thudding, you might want to do something different or just stick with the factory sub system. There was a lot of hiss coming from the door speakers since install. After talking with the installer, I spliced RCA jacks onto the Maestro's speaker-in leads and connected them to the line-level RCA outputs on the Pioneer. That effectively eliminated the hiss. The problem at hand was that using the high level speaker leads from the Pioneer unit was leading to a double-amplified signal once it passed the factory amp for the door speakers, which is a big no-no. This modification worked out very well with no volume loss.

This wasn't "quite" correct. The Pioneer does recognize the USB port in the armrest, but it's listed under "Car Sources". Sync is probably what's reading the drive and relaying the track info back to the Pioneer, but it's seamless. As a bonus, the Pioneer won't sort tracks by track number if reading the SD card... it only sorts by track title if browsing by tags, or by filename if browsing by file name. The tracks will sort by track number when read off the Sync USB drive when browsing by tags.

Thanks. All is well in my corner! I finished replacing the door speakers Sunday afternoon and it's just a 1,000x better than before. No question of it. I just now finished replacing the subwoofer driver. I added in some Acousta-Stuff fiber fill hoping it would help. Quite frankly though the subwoofer change sounds awful. The bass was much stronger before with the factory subwoofer. I'm not sure if the fiber fill is to blame; the choice of sub; or a bit of both, but it's just very poor. I did have some subwoofer issues after the initial install of the head unit, but that resolved after I had to replace my car battery (bad cells, it finally wouldn't turn over). Basically it was very flat, about as poor as this is now, interestingly. Maybe there was more to it than just the battery. I'll hold out hope that it just resolves itself in a week or two, as unlikely as I think that is. EDIT: I think I have this sounding more to my satisfaction. The sub seemed better at higher volumes but the audio was too loud otherwise, so I used the EQ settings on the Pioneer to dial down the volume on the door speakers to -5 or so (varied by location), but left the sub up at +6. All in all I think this worked well. The bass is a bit "tighter" I guess I can say. I think this Kicker would stand out a little better with a new amp, and certainly a 10" driver would be still better, but I think I'm going to be a lot happier than my initial impression was.

I just installed the rear speakers. I'm not going to have time to get the rest today due to the looming hurricane and work responsibilities, but right off the bat, the sound is so much better balanced than before, much more so than I had expected. I went with Crutchfield's "best fit" recommendations so the rears are Polk Audio DXi571 and the fronts will be Polk Audio db571. The sub will be a Kicker CompRT 40CWRT81, recommended elsewhere in these forums. The rear speakers do have a slight gap in at least one spot between the rim of the speakers and the cutout in the door. In retrospect, I probably would prefer a gasket of some sort but I'm not put off enough to tear the door panel off just for that. Especially not for how much better they sound already. The people in the link below make custom speaker adapters for specific auto models that likely would have done the trick, assuming they wouldn't have added too much thickness for my speaker choices to still fit properly with the door panel back on. http://www.car-speaker-adapters.com/products.php?id=adapter_search_consumer

I had the nav unit in my 2010 Edge replaced last week with a Pioneer AVH-4200NEX. This unit doesn't have navigation built-in, but it does have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support. If you've ever shopped on Crutchfield, you'll know that they claim units with slide-out faceplates like this one don't fit. While I have no doubt that is true if the unit is large enough due to the way the units sit back in the dash a bit, these 7" Pioneer units fit just fine with plenty of clearance from the dash when opening up to insert a CD or SD card. I did have the iDatalink Maestro installed with the FO1 harness to maintain full Sync options. That was a great choice! The head unit is able to give me readouts for a variety of performance information, including something as simple as the tire pressure. I also have full control via the steering wheel controls as before, and you can customize those controls when you flash the Maestro. I still have Sync voice dialing and Sync controls for media playback. Sync will still recognize USB drives in the port inside the armrest. The Pioneer head unit itself won't read that, but does have a slot for SD cards that you can put media on (Sync does not recognize the SD card and Pioneer has no voice controls for that). I had a bizarre problem with the subwoofer output... it was anemic and no adjustment of the EQ or other audio settings made a difference. Then my car failed to start yesterday and it turned out my battery had some bad cells in it. Got a new car battery, and suddenly the subwoofer is performing up to expectations. Best guess is the new head unit is drawing more power than the old, and it pushed what already had to be a failing battery too far and it couldn't deliver enough power to the amp for it to perform properly. I lost factory Sirius integration due to pulling out the OEM head unit. I had some bad info from the iDatalink website early on. The Pioneer head unit is supposed to retain factory Sirius integration when used with the Maestro, but as it turns out, starting with the 2009 models (if I recall correctly, it may be mid-2009 before the change), the Sirius tuner is built into the OEM nav head unit. Non-nav units still have an external Sirius tuner. I can also confirm that you can re-use the factory Sirius antenna with an aftermarket Sirius tuner... you just have to remove the yellow plastic clip that surrounds the antenna connector. I also had a backup camera installed. I grabbed this off Amazon, made by Moonet. This camera is attached to a replacement for the right-side license plate light. No drilling required! The angle is a little steep, and the image quality is quite terrible to be honest, but it gets the job done. It has LED lights for nighttime, but they don't help much. I may replace this with a better camera some time in the future. Photos attached... if there are any questions or more pics/demos desired, feel free to ask. All in all, I am very satisfied with the change. The big reason behind it was because the maps in the OEM nav unit were 7 years out of date (the prior owner never updated it) and the current update kept failing when I tried to install it. So now I can use Apple Maps directly from the Pioneer courtesy of CarPlay. Apple Maps has its own issues, but they are still much better off than what the Ford unit was providing. GPS was often far off and once when I was meeting family for lunch, the community we were meeting in didn't exist seven years ago. In other instances, highways had been reconstructed, exits changed... it was horrible relying on it. Coming next week... replacement speakers for the doors and a replacement subwoofer.

I found some discussions elsewhere that confirm it is indeed possible to use the factory antenna with an aftermarket Sirius tuner. Rather than re-hash that, I'll post a link to a forum post elsewhere where a member posted photos. Basically, you have to remove the yellow plastic piece that's around the antenna connector. It's the same connector as the one that comes with the Sirius SXV300 tuner kit. I just completed installation of that tuner and it works perfectly! http://www.f150online.com/forums/satellite-radio/410962-using-stock-xm-antenna-aftermarket-h-u.html

Howdy all. I just had my Sync head unit replaced with a Pioneer system in my 2010 Edge. When I first ordered the parts, the iDatalink Maestro was supposed to retain factory Sirius tuner integration with this Pioneer unit (AVH 4200NEX). As it turns out, that only holds true for the models that don't have the factory navigation installed because they have a separate tuner. The ones with the in-dash factory nav have the tuner built into the unit. Soooooo.... now I have to go back and add a Sirius tuner. The question at hand is.... will the factory antenna plug into the Sirius tuner available from Crutchfield, Best Buy, etc? The kit comes with an antenna, but I don't want to run that antenna unnecessarily. Alternatively, I'm thinking I could get the OEM tuner that is available on the Edge models that didn't have factory nav units. Thoughts?

Errr... no. Not doing covers. No way, no how. I considered getting the chrome replacement handles for the Lincoln MKX (direct fit for the Edge), and thought about getting aftermarket ones from Dorman, but decided I'd rather stick with the original look. The shop I'm taking it to is charging about $200 for the handles and mirror cover (one side was the wrong color when I bought it... didn't notice till a couple weeks after buying it). I have to get the hood scratch done and want to get the bumper done right (tried plugs for the front license plate holes and it looks better than with the plate, but I may as well get it done right since it's going to a paint shop). It's gonna run me about $950 for everything, which is pretty reasonable. This place specializes in minor body work and painting, and have a pretty solid rep from reading around, so I feel good about these guys.

Ok, update with photos. The base coat, when in the sun next to the car, was more metallic in look than matte. In fact, it's exactly as the paint description is... tuxedo black metallic. But it didn't have that gloss, which is what the clearcoat is for anyway. AutomotiveTouchup's site does say to expect a dull finish before applying the clearcoat, so it was as should be expected. Here's one of the handles with just the base coat. So far, looking good. So my neighbor applied the clearcoat next (3 coats of it). That definitely gave it the high gloss look as expected, and in the shade, it looked perfect. Then I put the handle up to the car, with good lighting on it. Gaaaaaaaaahhhhh! What the freaking freak? It's not supposed to look greenish bronze like that! I emailed AutomotiveTouchup asking what could have gone wrong here... no response. I'm totally disgusted. So I just got a quote from a reputable body shop here to get it done right, along with a hood scratch that needs to be done, and I'm going to have the bumper holes patched and repainted properly instead of settling on the plugs I'm using. There was a bit of scuffing to the bumper from the front plate holder that bugs me, so I just wanna git 'er done and be done with it.

No, it was definitely a matte black. It came in a spray can and I know he's using it right. He shook the can regularly and he's well accustomed to working with spray paint (runs a sign business, mostly deals in vinyl). Well this blows. I guess I'll get up with AutomotiveTouchup.

Hey all, quick question... my neighbor is painting the door handles and mirror cover for me. I got what is supposed to be matching paint from AutomotiveTouchup (Tuxedo Black Metallic) and confirmed the color code on the spray can (UH). He's got 3 layers down and it's matte black, not metallic at all. Is it the clearcoat that will add that metallic sheen to it? We'll find out one way or another in the morning when he's ready to put that on. Side note... I managed to loose the retaining screw for the front door handle (it apparently wasn't screwed in as deeply as the back door and caught me by surprise when it fell out). Any simple way to get it out? It fell down pretty far down. I popped the door panel off and worked a bit on the interior panel that holds the speakers but wasn't comfortable pulling that off completely.

I drilled off my front plate holder off yesterday. I went with the matching pre-painted ones from BumperPlugs.com, though after ordering them, I realized that was silly because I have touch-up paint coming for that hood scratch and could have got something much cheaper and painted those myself. Ah well. There's some scuffing from where the holder sat, but I think they'll buff out fine. If not, I guess I'll suck it up and have the holes filled in and the whole piece repainted some time. One of the holes was the exact size needed for the plug, but the other somehow wound up a tad larger than ideal. I managed to get the plug held in place with a rubber washer from behind, but I'll need to use something to make it hold more securely. Before and after pics attached. Here's another option I ran across, but I decided that they would look awkward sticking out as much as they would. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B5ZYY38/ref=s9_simh_gw_g263_i1_r?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=0E471HT3GVBKW8WJBYZT&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop

Thanks for the instructions. I just replaced my driver's side handle. I had one stubborn clip, but overall it went well. Took me about 30 minutes.

Roger that. I decided to hit a body shop for a quote just for laughs. There's a 3" scratch on the hood that needs to go; I want to get the plate holder off the front and the holes plugged to look nicer (the body shop said they can't do a simple "plug"); 2 door handles repainted; and the side-view mirror painted properly. $1125. Ouch. The handles and mirror cover alone I'm comfortable doing myself and my neighbor says he can help with the rest, so I'll definitely give this a whirl. Thanks for the advice. I'll plan on posting photos once everything's done.