Car speaker installation hassles

February 8, 2004 1:56 PM

Say you have two holes in your front car doors where the speakers should go. And say that even though you can wire them up, you have no way to attach them, because the geniuses that can design a car to drive 300,000 miles can't make interior door panels that don't shred like cardboard after a quarter of that. What would you do? [mas adentro]

Details: 1991 Volvo 240, 180k miles, and to top it off I can't open the panels and attack the problem from the inside, with screws and washers and whatnot (don't have the right tools, and these tanks aren't designed for easy owner maintenance anyway). I'm thinking epoxy, even if it is permanent. But it has to be s-t-r-o-n-g, because it was the force/leverage of the doors closing over and over that tore the screws out of the (@#$% pressboard) panels in the first place.

posted by gottabefunky to technology (3 comments total)

(So, in essence, this may just be a what's-a-strong-epoxy questions, but go crazy...)
posted by gottabefunky at 1:59 PM on February 8, 2004

You must remove the inside door skins to do the job correctly. Maybe I shouldn't say must, but you'll be hard-pressed to avoid doing a half-assed job without.

Removing door panels isn't that difficult (I've done it on dozens of different vehicles, including Volvos, without special tools). You can probably get a step-by-step on the brickboard if you plead your case politely and deferentially, since car guys generally appreciate novice do-it-yourselfers.

Power windows, mirrors, and locks all can make the job a bit more difficult, but it's nothing an able-bodied person can't do in an afternoon.

further, if you buy the replacement speakers from Crutchfield, they'll have (usually) pretty decent directions for door panel removal.

Once you're in there, if it's really as bad as you say it is, you may have to fabricate some mounts out of scrap aluminum, but if you're patient, all you need is a hacksaw and some nuts and bolts to make it work.

Good luck!
posted by trharlan at 6:08 PM on February 8, 2004

Great site, thanks. It's getting the door handle off that's stumping me (one part just seems...fused to the panel). And then once I pry back the pressboard, there's this immovable metal layer that I can't get behind. But I'll try pleading my case over there.
posted by gottabefunky at 6:29 AM on February 9, 2004