customizing dash speaker grills for larger speakers

I have been using some infinity 203s speakers in the dash and they were fine until I did an amplifier swap and a retune on the system. I received an offer I couldn't refuse and I made a switch for the front mids. I can not discuss the mids in the pictures as they are prototypes and I am doing in car testing. Anywho they are a carbon fiber dome 3 inch and they do not sit flush like other speakers for these vehicles so I had to do something. I refuse to cut up the dash but I do want awesome sound. So I started playing and wound up with this iteration. I messed up the factory grills playing around with different options and settled on this so I had to buy a new left and right grill but they are only about $100 so not catastrophic so I hope this will help anyone who wants to follow not to have to buy a second set.

I was trying to figure out how to cover the grill with speaker cloth so I could cut a hole to get enough height for the speaker but also not cover the defrost vents. I came up with the idea to cut the grill in half.



I chose the cut according to the natural bend of the grill and the placement of the grill clips.

this is how they look in the truck



I used a jig saw to cut them in half after putting a piece of painters tape and drawing and straight ling



Then cut.

Lastly I put some speaker grill cloth in one of the slits to make it tight so the grill will stay in place over the defrost vent.



However, this is where I had to stop and I will complete this when I decide how to keep the grill cloth on the front part over the speaker

 

Passenger side is done.

 

Not bad at all!

 

Thanks. I think I need to use contact cement on the next one. I used ca glue on this and I don’t have any more finger prints. Lol

 

Done. Apparently no one cares but this is a way to put basically any size speaker in your dash and have a clean factory style look.

ca thick glue, may be better with medium ca glue and activator.



Here are the part numbers for the grill in case you mess up like I did trying to figure out the best way to do this.

Hope this helps someone.