Getting At Rear Speakers

[eag182]

Well yeah I broke the plastic piece around the seatbelt in the rear of my coupe trying to get at the rear speakers. These things are such a hassle to access. Now I apparently need Torx drivers to remove to seatbelt to follow the directions as I should have originally.

Are the front door speakers this hard to get at?

My other question is about painting the interior trim. I am supposed to remove the trim, (spray) paint many light layers, then add a clearcoat. Where am I to get this last material? Will it make the surface smooth? Should I sand it a little before I initially paint it?

I have the bright red alero, do you think a paint color that matched this will look good?

[eag182]

Awe come on, someone has to have an opinion on at least if the color match would look good.
:rolleyes:

[bluephoAm]

Wait.. I thought that you had to go through the trunk to unscrew some bolts?

[Sportalero]

The rear speaker grills are NOT removable. And just going through the trunk is not the solution.

The rear panel, and i mean the entire carpet-ed piece holding the speaker grills and all, has to come off, til there's nothing but the car's metal frame. You'll have to fold your back seat down to get to it. You'll see four or five buttons attaching the panel to the frame. These are not screws. Just slide your hand up under the carpet and pull in areas right around each button. After some annoying clicking noise, they fall right out. I know you've seen the horizontal lines that go across our rear windows, but there also two vertical lines that evenly divide the car. Find a spot between them, slide under the carpet, and lift straight up til the panel pops out. And don't worry about bending the panel out of form. It's very flexible and goes right back into shape. The stock 6x9s sit in a speaker plate. Once you look in the trunk and up at speaker magnet, you'll see that around the speaker are clips. Should be four of them holding the plate in place. After removing the entire rear panel, removing the speaker plate is not necessary, but it might make it easier to get the speaker out. (Disconnect the speakers, of course). Installation is just the reverse, but when replacing the rear panel, grab it on both ends of it to make an "A" shape, lay back over the metal and once you find the slots, just gently tap it in the middle with your fist. And put those buttons back in.

Probably overly-thorough with this, but after all of that, you should have absolutely no problems. If you do, then speakers are the least of your worries. Might wanna start back over with table-feeding. :thumbsup:

Good Luck

[Sportalero]

Oh yeah, the trim. Yes, the trim CAN be painted from inside the car, but would make you an idiot and just leaves the door wide open to make a big mess. Now i'm not callin you an idiot, i just know a few :rolleyes: .

Remove-able pieces:

Bezel around stereo/AC
Bezel around gear shifter
Bezel around odometer
Bezel around door switches (power windows)
A/C Vents

There might be more, but i haven't ventured that far. Removing the A/C vents is tricky. You have to be EXTREMELY careful because they'll snap like a twig. Automotive paint is all i use. Wal-Mart carries just about every GM color in production. And to save you a trip, Wally World also sells clearcoat on the very same isle. More than three layers is overkill which will eventually just flake or break off. Doesnt make it look any better either. A paint job is only as good as the skill of the person applying it, so take your time. Just clean the piece thoroughly, lay an even base coat, let dry, lay an even second, let dry. Now this is a judgement call. If it's not RED enough for your standards, then add a third. But i find if you stop at second or go ahead with a third, but both look exactly the same once the clearcoat shine hits your eye. And clearcoat doesn't clump and sag like paint, so go wild. But seriously, no matter how much you want that the shine to be blinding, it's not gonna happen, so adding coat after coat after coat............you know what i'm saying. Two / three coats is as bling-ed as it is gonna get.

Good Luck

[AlbinoMonkeyRat]

great how-to! I'll definitely be using this in the spring/summer. B)

As for the "Wal-Mart carries just about every GM color in production" comment...the one near me doesn't carry colors from before '72 or after '97. If the color existed between those times, even if the car didn't, you might be in luck. But the navy Blue metallic (Midnight Blue) I have is from 98-2002 and they don't have it.

[Pimpalero03]

hmmm..
i did mine the hard way. took out that whole back deck and took out the back speaker grills, painted and put them back in. time consuming

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/679000-679999/679915_4_full.jpg


http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/679000-679999/679915_5_full.jpg

[Sportalero]

^^I did something similar to mines, but instead of painting the stock grills, I took them completely off and replaced them with the ones that came with my aftermarkets. Not as easy as it sounds. Plexiglass, screws, Dremel saw, whole lotta cutting. And i still have to RE-carpet it.

And a short cut to my first post. After taking out the buttons on the rear panel, removing the panel completely isn't even necessary. Once you lift if up in the middle, you can just use a CD case to leave it propped up and you'll still have enough clearance to navigate the speaker out, then back in again.

[eag182]

I still can't get at the speakers. Do I need to remove the seatbelt to get at these things as it says in the Crutchfield Magazine?

[Sportalero]

Originally posted by eag182@Dec 10 2004, 04:52 PM
Do I need to remove the seatbelt?
Remove the seatbelt???? What the hell??

Maybe you should go step by step on what you HAVE done so far. Of course the first step is folding down the seat. Have you done this much yet?

[Vtolds]

I pulled the whole back panel out of my car speaker covers included without having to remove the seatbelts, but I have a Sedan is it different in the Coupes?

[Vtolds]

Just fold your seat and pop out the 4 clips and the whole back piece should come out if I remember correctly.

[eag182]

This carpeted cover is somewhat under the side plasticy pieces that are attached by a seatbelt on either side of the vehicle:

http://home.comcast.net/~eag182/other/rearspeakers2.jpg