Door Speaker Grille Repair

Coming from a Volvo S40, the C30 doors seem ridiculously huge.  All the controls and interior bits reside in the same location, but the door itself is longer to provide easier access to the back seats.  This means you cannot open it as wide when parked next to a wall or another car.

Now, I would never consider myself to be clumsy person, but this C30 has proven me wrong...  Rotating to get out of this car requires Cirque du Soleil flexibility.  In the first few months of ownership, I completely cracked the speaker grilles by kicking them with my toe.

It was easy enough to ignore the cracks from a cosmetic point of view, but the rattling from heavy bass notes became unbearable.

Unfortunately, you cannot simply replace the speaker grilles.  They are plastic welded to the door card and sold as an entire unit.  That's a $200 piece of plastic!

Removing the cracked speaker grilles was not difficult, despite the plastic spot welds, my left foot had done a sufficient job in breaking those points loose.

Preferring not to leave the speaker grilles completely unprotected, it was time for a DIY project with parts from the local hardware store!

Supplies

Using wire cutters, I was able to cut out pieces of the mesh to match the shape of my speaker grilles.

Cut mesh

A few push clips for mounting and some foam trim to clean up the edges, it's a sufficient fix for the time being.  

Custom mesh speaker grille

Thankfully, I have since mastered the art of exiting my vehicle.  I know the final speaker grille was not the most beautiful part in my car, but I hope to create something a little more decorative in the near future.

Happy Birthday Belle

One year ago today, I purchased my C30.  While the previous owner had already installed many modifications, I have done quite a lot to it over the last 365 days. 

I will admit that there have been some ups and downs.  The car has not been completely problem free, but it has been a reliable daily driver for the 43 thousand miles since the time of purchase.  October 16th of last year, I was driving her home from New York to Georgia.  She was our honeymoon transportation on a road trip across the south eastern states.  We have driven on the Tail of the Dragon a dozen times and entered a few auto cross events along the way.  I even drove her back up north to attend a car show with our Volvo friends.

October 16, 2014

October 16, 2015

The car gets a lot of attention in its current state.  Every time I fill up with gas, somebody approaches me with questions; the most common being, "That's a Volvo?!?"  ...and I'm not done with it yet!  There are a few more performance and cosmetic modifications to come, but I am slowly reach a point of complete satisfaction.  It's nearly perfect in my eyes and I look forward to the journey ahead, wherever that road may lead.  

I know my blog has been inactive for the past few months, but all of my projects have been documented.  Over the coming weeks, I intend to post updates for all the things that have changed to the Swedish cars in my stable.