86'928S MeteorGrey

Ok. Now some of you might call me a cheap bastard for even trying to fix these. But with four children, I am always looking for ways to make the car nicer without spending so much all the time. I have tried using epoxy on the door speaker rings in the past. You can get them to look good for a while, but they always break in a bit of time. I figured out a way to repair them very nicely. I always consider that someday you wont be able to get any original parts for the sharks so I'm always looking for ways to sensibly save parts from the trash.

Below, by the photos you can see what I did.

1) I used a micro drill in a Pin Vise and drilled some precision holes using calipers to determine matching points in the ends of the parts. I drilled about 7mm deep.

2) Used a 13mm piece of multi direction blade for a scroll saw as a reinforcement. The multi direction spikes and high carbon content of the blades make them small, strong, and perfect for purchase with the adhesive. Also, due to their multi directional cutting ability, if your hole alignments aren't completely perfect, a few movements of the two pieces together with the blade piece in the connecting holes will allow some more material to be cut for the perfect alignment.

3) Used some aircraft structural adhesive to coat the reinforcement pieces and applied to the part contact areas.

4) Since the structural adhesive takes 12 hours to cure, I used some cyanacrylate and some accelerator to make an instant brace to keep alignment while it cures. While I was at it I used another section of the scrol saw blade to clean up the internal threads. Alternatively, a cork board with straight pins would work well to "fixture" the pieces in alighment during cure.

5) After overnight cure, I used a sanding disk as a sanding block (320 grit) to smooth off most of the cyanacrylate.

6) Next, used some of the excellent German made sandpaper in 600 grit.

7) Applied sandable black primer, let dry. Lightly sand again with 600. Then apply final coat of primer. Next you can use any color you like to match the original plastic. I left mine with the black primer for the time being and it looks great. I will probably match some paint for my airbrush soon.

8) Install and enjoy. It seems to be pretty robust. It's been good to go for a few days now. I'll report long term strength later. The ring is for sure going to break again at some point. BUT I DON'T THINK IN THE SAME SPOTS AGAIN. I can't tell you how many times I have accidentally pushed on those speaker grills...

86'928S MeteorGrey

And here's the results

danglerb

Mike, clearly you belong here.

S4ordie

That's just some beautiful work there Mike. Very impressive and undoubtedly useful to many. Great post.

linderpat

Wow - nice work. Those are so hard to get anywhere, so this is a good fix.

911tracker85

looks like great alternative therapy to basket weaving.

actually very nice work. unfortunately, one of my speaker rims is missing a small section, so had to just glue in place and turn to minimize seeing.

dcrasta

Pretty sweet repair. I'm the same way, since my car was complete, but neglected (sat for years) seems like if I breath on a part wrong it breaks.

I have used some small amounts of 'bondo' body filler on plastic things like trim rings in the past. I truly agree with you on repairing what u can rather than just whipping out the 'credit card' .

Thanks for sharing that.

928mac

You have way to much time on your hands.

Nice fix.

cali4sun

Wow, that's looks great. If you what to drum up any business I got one that's cracked...

'89 S4 GP White/Black
'76 912e Silver/Black

VCat

Nice work!

Randy V

Very nice.

What do the Zap a Gap and Zip Kick products do? I've never seen those before.

depami

Gap filling super glue and accelerator.

Fogey1

Nice work.

But I think my ham hands will have trouble with the thread repair. Tips?

whiteNSXs

That's some nice job!
Steve

Imo000

very nice!