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[mulletboy2]

This is the fourth of a 5-part series on installing large midbasses up front in a car. All of the threads are linked to below.

Part 1 - Introduction and Materials
Part 2 - Installing the Speakers
Part 3 - Fabricating the Door Cards
Part 4 - Trimming
Part 5 - The Pocket Backs

[mulletboy2]

Ok, so now for the really fun bit - finishing it off and making it look like it left the factory this way! Trimming could have it's own thread.. heck, it's already got numerous threads on this and every other Ice forum on the web. I can't possibly explain in words every thought that goes on as you're trimming.. I can give a glimpse at what I did, and in what order - it might be the best way, but I strongly suspect that it is far from it. Still, if you're reading this, you could probably do with some pointers, so I'll do my best.

First, some trimming warez - scissors, trimming knife, brush and 450ml of contact adhesive thinned with a 10% mix of glue thinner.



Vinyl cut roughly to shape:



Parts all covered in contact adhesive (including the vinyl, not pictured):





I left the glue for an hour, then added a second layer, which I left to go off for half an hour.

I started by deciding where to apply the vinyl first, which was across the middle of the build. This is the flattest area. Dips we can live with because the vinyl with stretch (e.g the arm rest area), but bumps are a PITA. If you use an area with a bump as your base line, then anywhere that isn't raised as high will involve trying to make the vinyl narrower, which isn't easy. So I went across the middle of the build, just to the top of the ring over the speaker.



Then I started smoothing it out over the front of the build:



Up the rear of the door. Note that I'm concentrating on the areas that are most commonly and easily visible first. I've also depressed the vinyl in to the ridge - this ridge marks the point where our new vinyl is going to meet the OEM padded vinyl, so it's here that we need to cut.



Trimming knives are perfect for this job.. the plastic ball allows you to run the knife along the vinyl without damaging it. The blade is in the C shaped section:

[mulletboy2]

Remove some excess vinyl and start working the under the arm rest area around:





Trim excess material with a scalpel:



Work the vinyl in to the ridge. I wasn't too impressed with the cotton sticking to the exposed contact adhesive, so I ended up swapping to use keys after a while:



Now for the OEM light cover:







Speaker ring:

[mulletboy2]

Now start working the area above the ring:





And the arm rest:





Whoops.. I've cut a little too far. I ended up pulling the vinyl up and angling it down a bit - this worked out very well:





Now let's start on the dash end:



The bottom front end of the door - this was always going to be the hardest part. The key here is to work slowly, and don't be afraid to pull the vinyl up and start a part again.

[mulletboy2]

Mmmm, look at the lovely wrinkles :lol:



Remember, work down the side very slowly.. down 1 or 2 mm at a time, working around the edge in stages where necessary





Now let's get the rest of the edge sorted:





Now for the other bottom edge:

[mulletboy2]

Finish the edges off:







Apply contact adhesive to the rear, where there's vinyl to stick down:



Stick down the rear of the speaker trim ring and arm rest:





Now sort out the edges:

[mulletboy2]

So, that's the vinyl done. Now stick down the OEM padded vinyl:









Hot glue the grille in place:



Araldite the original plastic rivets back to help hold the various bits in place. This was done in addition to a number of random screws through some of the various rivet holes:



And the finished article:





When it arrives, I'll be removing the grilles and placing some grille cloth over the grilles, so the drivers and dynamat are hidden.


On to Part 5 - The Pocket Backs