dannichols

I know this has come up before, but has anyone come up with any inventive ideas for the front speaker covers. Either drilling them out to allow more sound (without them looking like a disaster) or replacing with something custom?

neur0sis

iTrader: (3)

I started to drill mine out one day, with a tiny drill bit...

I got about 1 hour into it, and only had about 1/2 of the first one done... said screw it! I'd be interested to know a better way, as well!

OgreDave

Just curious, can someone post / link a pic to the grill area? (I don't own the car yet) .. Just wanted to see it so I can further plan the system.

PumpedVA

iTrader: (25)

bump

dannichols

I'll post one tonight when I get home. Anway, the grill is a very cheap piece of plastic with what looks like a million tiny holes forming a circle. Problem is, only about half of the holes are actually holes. I have considered replacing the grill with something else handmade..or customizing the grill by cutting it out and covering it with cloth or something else..but the major issue is the shape of the grill, it is a concave wavy shape that would be hard to duplicate or wrap a material around. I wish someone just made a better grill; I would buy it..this one is so cheap two of the plastic clasps on both of mine have broken off just from removing/replacing.

I also tried drilling mine out. The first one I just used a dremel with 1/16" bit and very carefully tried to get exactly inside each hole without thrashing the outer edge of each hole. I did about half the holes and it looked ok but at certain angles you can see the discoloration from the drilling. I tried to get tricky with the other cover by buying a special bit for the dremel that is used for wood carving, it has a completely smooth bit all except for the very end which has a tiny 1/32" rough part on it. I worked from the top by putting this in each hole until it made a pilot hole on the back side. Then I worked from the back with a 1/16" bit sticking it in half-way. The end result was a little better, but it took forever. I only finished half the holes again and gave up. There has to be a better way to do this without it looking jacked up from certain angles.

I can say though that with the drilling I did, I do notice a small improvement with the sound, maybe 5% clearer/louder.

OP Z

iTrader: (1)

Has anyone checked out the sound without the stock grills? Since more than half the speaker is below the grill and behind the door panel, it doesn't seem like the extra holes would be that noticeable..

Z-INCOGNITO

iTrader: (9)

Mine was done perfectly by Audiomobile!!! (Bo)

Looks perfect from the front... i heard it is very tedious tho...

i'll try and post some pictures if i get a chance...

dannichols

It is noticable to me without the grill on. I used the stock speaker as a spacer and I purposefully modified this spacer's mount holes to push the speaker higher up and to the right of where it would normally sit. Only a small portion of my speaker is behind the panel.
I also don't like the sound of seperate tweeters blasting in my ears so I do not use components or even the stock tweeters and instead use two-ways in the stock location, therefore I want to direct as much of the high-range from these as I can.

dannichols

I do understand what you mean though OpZ. If you have component mid-ranges there and seperate tweeters it probably won't make much difference.

OgreDave

Well the main reason I asked was to see if you could just remove that part only .. and it sounds like you can? I don't think I'd mind running aftermarket grills.

dannichols

I haven't seen any aftermarket. I guess the two options are drill it out or leave it alone.

Srivero297

iTrader: (2)

Working on a custom design for my door grills right now. I just installed Crystal Mobile Sound Components in the door panels and they didnt fit in the stock place because they are much bigger than the stock drivers so I had to make a custom mold. I will post pics.

I made the mold out of the grill they gave me w/ some Bondo-Glass and Bondo filler and a lot of elbow grease and razorblade cuts. painting it tomorrow I think, will post more pics after painting.

Srivero297

iTrader: (2)

I had a zoomed in picture of the actual mold too but I accidentally deleted it. Sorry for the crappy quality. Taken on a camera phone

LS350Z

I drilled all the holes out (looked fine) using a drill press. I then later went back and cut, sanded the whole backside of the grills down to allow even more air through. I then ditched the shitty stock grills and just ran my 6.5" grills on my speakers which doesn't look great but works awesome!

Sorry no pics because I'm changing that for next season. Need to get better for competition.

dannichols

LS350Z, what speakers do you have up there?

OgreDave

hmm so it looks like the grills dont pop out? more custom work.

Srivero297

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, you can pop them out from behind once you take the door panel off.

Zrated

Grills pop out after U remove the door panel. I used a tool that looks like a small Ice pick to open all the holes.

I tried the dremel first, but you could see discoloration in the holes. I ended up buying a new grill.

I first poked a tiny guide hole from the front to the back for each, and then expanded the hole from the back with the pick.

It looks perfect from the front, and makes a good bit of difference in sound.

Srivero297

iTrader: (2)

The tweeters up by mirrors do not pop off though.

OgreDave

Cool, thanks for the help/info guys