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Topic: Door panel grill mod (Read 1633 times) previous topic - next topic

Door panel grill mod

Going to be swapping my Kappa speakers out for a couple eD 7Kv.3 7" woofers and would like to do something about the door panels sitting up against the speaker. Of course, I'll need to enlarge the speaker hole from the 5.5" cutout to 6", but thats fine. I was thinking about turning the entire map pocket into a hollow grill that can give me 5-6" of total mounting depth for any future speaker choice (there's enough clearance around the speaker area for a 8" cutout).

Either way, give me some ideas. I don't think I'll need this so much with the 7Kv.3's, but just figure why not. I don't use the pockets (they just collect dust) and these door panels would be perfect for testing on as they're not the prettiest anymore.



...and yes, zipties worked great for mounting these things to the sheet metal.
1988 Thunderbird Sport

Door panel grill mod

Reply #1
i have an idea, it might take a lot of wok tho. shave the door completly, and fabrecate a concave(6mm ply wood or fiberglass if you can get it would be perfect)  type door panel with everything mounted flush then cover it with a color coated  material of your choice to give that smooth clean cut look, now i'm no custom fab. guy but i thought it looked good in my head.  then again it won't give you many options for changing speakers enless your going bigger, and i would suggest putting a grill over the speak to avoid damage.

Door panel grill mod

Reply #2
Thats a bit too much work for my tastes, I'd rather keep it somewhat stock. The map pocket area itself would make a great start for a speaker grill though, with some small shaving and fiberglassing, it'd be pretty easy to make "something", but I'm not sure how I want to go about this.
1988 Thunderbird Sport

Door panel grill mod

Reply #3
haha yea, i got a bit carried away there :).
another idea, if you could make like a a shape that match's the curve of your door out of some sort of clear material and have it go from the map holder maybe to mid door level  and have the speaker in the middle that would would look sick too, and if you wanna go a lil coustom maybe some tub lighting in that area to help accent the speaker, give it a nice lil glow  that works out in my head as well haha

Door panel grill mod

Reply #4
How about this!
First get some masonite/ Fine thin pressed wood/ Back of a clip board.
Then cut the masonite to the shape the the door panel where you took off the facotry door speakr grill/carpet. Then get you some 2" thick Styrofoam Wall board/Blue stuff they put on the outsides of houses. Then glue it to the masonte piece. Next cut out the center area so the speaker can let the sound waves out. Then use some 80p grit sandpaper to shape the top edge of the wood stryofoam piece to the shape you like the blends into you car. Then use some fiberglass resin with the hairs in it to cover the piece you sanded to shape. Next sand the fiberglass smooth and get some of than speaker grill cloth at the stereo shop, radio shack can order it. And cover it to make it look good. This can be done very easy take you tome and don't forget to figure out how to mount the grill and such. They should also be able to get you speaker grill retainers to hold the grill on and pop it off when you want to. Hope this helps
84 Turbo coupe 2.3T Modded with 88 upper and lower intake, 88 injectors, E6 manifold, T3-4 AR.60 turbo, 31X12X3 FMIC, Homemade MBC , Greddy knock off BPV.
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