Td5 D2 electrics - Rear Door Speaker (2)

Since fitting the new rear door speakers, I've been enjoying ten-speaker sound for over 6 months. After a while though I got fed up of seeing the 'messy' original grill mountings that surround the new speakers and I decided to modify the original speaker grill to get it to fit back onto the door card.

I took the opportunity when the door card was removed during the respray work to also think about installing the red marker lamp and it occurred to me that a good position would be on the speaker grill.

This is the original factory fitted grill mounted on the lower rear door card

The speakers I fitted are too wide and project too  much to refit the factory grill around them.

The original grill modified to fit back on the door card. The wire mesh cover was removed and the central hole enlarged. 

I then thought it would be a good idea to fit the red marker lamp onto the speaker grill.

Two photos showing a mock-up of the marker lamp in position on the nearside door card.

I had wanted to install some marker lamps for a long time and had considered placing them on the door edge or higher up on the door card.

Placing them on the modified speaker grill seemed to justify the extra work and satisfy all the requirements.

But, first of all I had to enlarge the hole in the original grills....

First thing done was to make a paper template.  The outer circle represents the new speaker diameter whereas the dotted circle is the original diameter of the hole in the grill.

The new diameter is marked out in pencil.

I used a centre punch scribe to mark indents around the new diameter. 

I then carefully drilled the indents out...

And removed the unwanted plastic by snapping it out and cutting with a craft knife.

Then began a period of trimming the edges to fit around the new speaker while still locating the panel into the mounting lugs on the door-card.

I mainly used the Dremmel tool with a 'hula hoop' sander to quickly smooth out or reshape the aperture. There where some 'alignment' issues with the mounted speaker and the enlarged hole but the Dremmel hula hoop made easy work of any adjustments.

I bought a length a black rubber finishing trim. Basically a u-shaped edging strip that 'finished' the edge of the enlarged hole nicely and gave it a nice close fit....

Once the position for the red lamp was decided, I used a hole-saw to make a suitable opening in the panel and the lamp unit simply push fits into it, it's molded rubber surround acting as a grommet.

Here is the finished panel, mounted with the finishing strip and red lamp.

Almost as tasty as this...

Fruit salad in a speaker grill served on a bed of  fresh insurance documents..

After that tasty snack I did the same to the nearside door card and attention then turned to wiring up those lamp units...