Garth S

Quick question please, as my search was going in circles. On the door mounted mid range speaker (oem) of an '88, how does the grill come off? Does it snap on/off, or screw off ( thought I'd read that somewhere ..)?
Found my driver's door rattle - 3 of 4 sreaker mounting tabs are snapped off, and the speaker is humming away on the last bolt. I don't want to be ham fisted and break the final link in getting the grill off.
TIA

MikeN

They are snap on, but may actually come off easier if you twist the grill a little are you are trying to unsnap it from the speaker frame. Sorry to say, but 9 times out of 10 you will end up putting a hairline crack in the black grill surround as you are getting it off........they are on pretty tight and age doesn't help when you try and get them off.

Garth S

Thanx Mike,
Just back from the garage with speaker grill in hand!
I 'practiced' on the tweeter - the l' buggers screw on. With enough brute force & ignorance ( and very dry fingertips), I forced the mid range into the door and screwed the grill off, leaving the one good mounting ear intact. - now, for the repair ...
I suspect , from your note, that Porsche may have used more than one OEM supplier. Cheers

Nicole

On my '88 I could turn them to unscrew them like a nut. That does not work on my '91. I've been told they areclipped and you have to find the right place to go in with a screwdriver.

While in Garth's case the unscrew method should work, can anybody provide more detail on how to do it on the later model cars?

Jim bailey - 928 International

they stopped screwing on end of the 88 model which is good because they always broke . The early ones 83-88 are NLA out of production . The larger late speaker grills have a single small notch to use a screwdriver to lever them off smaller grills have three small notches .

Nicole

...and how can I find these notches? Can't see them from the outside.

Bill Ball

Nicole:

Look all the way around the circumference. It's probably hiding on the bottom or backside. These things are on pretty good, so even when you find the screwdriver slot you have to try to press the cover hard towsrds the screwdriver slot so that the tabs on that side that are holding it to the base car come free.

SharkSkin

Oooo brave girl... trying to crack a speaker grill the night before the big spit shine contest...

Nicole

No, not tonight. I' might have Bill give me some instructions at SITP - providing he gets a minute to catch his breath. But I do want to see, if I can paint them in the interior color. That would look really neato!

SharkSkin

Hmmm... I guess I'd be worried about the paint flaking off... are you talking about painting just the ring, or the grill too?

borland

I found a regular paint can opener, which has a flat screwdriver and hooked shape, works great for removing the later model grills.

The grills can be removed from the frames (one time only due to work-hardening of the aluminum), by bending the tabs straight. I resprayed mine after removing the dents.

mpesik

Hello Mr. Garth . Leftie Loosy ,Righty Tighty. Mike.

WallyP

If your speaker grilles are broken:

Get some GOOD electrical tape, such as 3M. Apply two very smooth wraps around the outside of the grille, with the tape hanging just over the front edge. Start the first inch or two with no stretching, and push the tape firmly onto the grille edge. Then start stretching the tape enough that the edge of the tape will curl down and attach to the curved front edge of the grille. Make two rounds, then apply the last six inches or so without stretching the tape. Use a very sharp razor knife to trim the edges flush.

You may have to do this a couple of times to get the proper stretch, but once properly done, it will last a couple of years, and is virtually unnoticeable.

A permanent black Magic Marker will touch up the black grilles pretty well.

Jadz928

I had one broken ring and fixed it w/JB weld. First I crosscut some grooves on the break edge. Applied a light coat of JB (about 1mm), and set it for a day. Then scraped off the access weld and used black perm marker on the weld. It is holding but I don't know for how long. We will see.

I repainted the all the grills with a black satin paint.

I think they changed the design due an inherent flaw w/the early design. The mold was more complex because of the threads. So they were probably limited on where the located the gate (entrance of the plastic into the mold). The place where the plastic filled last, some plastic filling in one direction, some from the other... meeting at the opposite end of the gate, created a 'weld line'. Plastic doesn't bond to itself well at this location. And will be most likey be the weak point. So they changed the design and probably added more gates.

Billet would have been the way to go...

kuwona

I was reading this thread and trying to figure out how to remove my speaker grill to get at a rattling speaker. I figured the surround was shot. It sounds like I should be able to rotate the whole grill. I couldn't, but I did notice the grills in both doors were "pushed in" (concave versus convex?). I used a paperclip to make a hook and pulled out the grill. The rattle is gone now. Yipee!