Back to the rear deck, here are the OEM speaker 'grills'.
Not much room there for the subs to breath, and the deck cover would flutter, which some judges heard as the subs themselves.
Turns out I made the grills a tad to big....
The problem is on the sides. the cover has humps that clear some metal underneath them.
well shit...
I had three options:
a) rebuild the grills
b) rebuild/resurface the rear deck cover
c) angle the grills.
I chose the "fuck it" route:
They are slightly misaligned, but that's because the grill mesh interferes with a couple bolts. A little nip here and there and they will line up.
Anyway, LOTS of room for the sub to breath now