Dash speaker grill

[aqus]

Thought I would share how I made my dash speaker grill for the 2000 Boxster S

I have a lot of carbon fiber inside the car therefore wanted something that would match with the existing look.

I did not have any existing speakers in the dash, therefore could not modify the casing for my Alpine SPS-400.

So instead of making a bracket for the existing grill I made my own.

Hope it is OK to have a step by step write up here. Thought it might help others, and it is my way to contribute to the community for all the answers I got here...

First I traced the opening with some paper, and cut out from 1/4" MDF. Yes I know I should paint my garage floor...

I then made a smaller piece to fit snug inside the dash opening, cut out the areas that were obstructed by the inside and glued them together. And cut out the opening with a 4" holesaw.

To make the grill I bought some 6x9 cheap metal grills. Used the cutoff from the holes made from the holesaw to shape the grill.

To make sure I got I thight fit when installing I put a small metal bracket to hold the grill in place. With the 2 x 1/4"MDF it was the perfect height.

Then wraped the Carbon fiber 3M vinyl around the grill. Look is almost identical to existing real carbon figer in car, biggest difference is the original is very shinny.

Could have used lacquer but decided to keep it as is.

Installed foam that came with speaker, and screwed on the Alpines. After screwing them on the sides you must bend over 2 of the speaker ears or it will not fit in opening.

And this is what the grill looks like when installed. Love the sound of these little Alpines.

Voila!!!Now off to make a subwoofer box

Edited March 7, 2010 by aqus

[Gary H]

Really well thought out and cleverly made.

If I was to make one suggestion? It may be worth buying the cheapest 4" speakers you can find, simply for the grills?

Good job though!

[aqus]

Thanks for the suggestion Gary. Didn't think about it since the Alpines did not come with any I thought others wouldn't either.

But for others who might attempt this project and could find already made grills do get them. It will make a neater job.

[Guest]

Very well done but beyond my skill set....I ended up replacing my stock speakers with the same Alpine set that you used. As a matter of reference I followed a conversion I found on YOUTUBE. If you search London986 you will find his video of converting the existing speaker housing to hold a 4" aftermarket speaker. It was well documented and straight forward....the only difference I encountered was that I had tweeters in my speakers. I left them in but did not hook them up, figured I could always go back in and add them if I needed more high end. The Alpine set was both mid range and tweeter. I sourced a second set of speakers on EBay just incase I got it wrong....like I said I'm not too handy but this turned out an easy converstion and sounds great!

Boxzilla

2001 Boxster S

[juniinc]

I'm liking this a lot,,,

diggin that carbon fiber.