Philostang

A few people have asked about the Polk/MOMO grills I have over my door subs, so I thought I would do a write-up on them. I’m posting this here instead of in the Audio section, because this is really no more than an aesthetic upgrade that is specific to our cars. To be clear, I did not use the Polk subs themselves, only the grills. No electronics or audio mods are involved at all. Here’s the basic look (you can find a close-up in my gallery):


[IMG]local://upfiles/28883/66C8D4E37C034310AB9275C9260B2438.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]local://upfiles/28883/ABB165C75308410AAB84D685E117D889.jpg[/IMG]

First, I can’t stand the factory sub grills, so addressing this was a high priority for me. I don’t like the sub-covers offered in the aftermarket either—like putting a dress on a pig, really what’s the point? Unfortunately, I found out that this Q has an answer: the factory sub does not fit flush with the door panel. The sub is mounted at an angle to the door, and this means the sub grill is angled around the edge to take up the extra space. So it’s much easier to just slap a chromed out cover over the factory sub grill, rather than make a custom grill specific to the `05/`06 Mustang. Aftermarket grills are all designed with a flat bottom edge. This means you cannot simply use one on our cars and get a perfect fit—some customizing needs to be done. BTW, I believe that this is also true if you went to a totally different sub: the problem is in the mounting surface, not the sub itself.

I found that the Polk/MOMO 8” sub grills match the screw pattern of the OEM units perfectly. The OEM screws, however, have a fat head that will not clear the Polk/MOMO recesses (besides, the OEMs are black, and that would look odd). So you need to find some sheetmetal screws that have a narrow enough head to work with the MOMOs.

Taking the OEM grills off is a relatively easy affair. The outer trim ring literally pops off (spring clips)—it takes a bit of coaxing, but once you find the clips (if memory serves me, you’ll find the first at the 1 o’clock position) you just pull them straight out. Once that’s off, take out the factory screws around the perimeter of the sub. The sub won’t come out as it is screwed in from behind as well. I thought (silly me) that this would free the sub grill, but no, Ford (or whoever they got them from) decided that they needed to glue the damn thing on as well. So get out your super slim screwdriver and start making your way around the edge of the grill (between the metal ridge of the sub basket and the grill). Once you get a bit of it up (it’s plastic, so you’ll start to see it whiten as it stresses) it’s easy to work your way around the sub and free it.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that there is a plastic locating pin that remains when you pull the OEM grill. It's plastic, and clips off easily with a pair of snips or wire cutters.

I'll continue in the next post to get the other images in.

Philostang

Next, put the MOMO unit in place, put in your new screws, and gaze at the work to come! Here’s where the fun starts. As you can see, the MOMO doesn’t take up the extra space the OEM unit does, so there’s a gap.

This is what you usually see:

[IMG]local://upfiles/28883/DF28A06343FF48CC88733DA945810C4C.jpg[/IMG]



You’ll never really see it at this angle, but it shows the gap:

[IMG]local://upfiles/28883/9DE0B7EB95E34CACBA04D575ECCF4CF6.jpg[/IMG]

You have to decide how much you can live with it. When you’re driving, you can see the gap, as when you get out of the car. From across the car (to pass. side or when the door is fully open, for example) it looks great. So you decide if that’s where this ends. For me, it’s just starting. I like my details tight, so the next step is to fill in the extra space to the door panel. That will take some plastic welding (the MOMO unit is plastic), refinishing, and repainting, but nothing terribly voodoo. This is one of my summer projects, so I’ll update later. The end result will be a vastly better looking (in my opinion) sub grill that fits like factory. I’m also toying with the idea of painting it dark charcoal to match the door…for now, I’m enjoying the visual “pop” of the silver, and it matches the IUP and my other mods nicely.

Thanks for your patience w/this long post.
Best,
-j

SOLDSHORT

Nice work.

Skrappy

That is a pretty classy piece of work.

Nice job, I just might be installing a set of those myself...

Thanks for the post.

Skrappy

Black06stang

Where did you buy the grilles, and how much did you pay? BTW, your car looks great.

Philostang

Thank you! I'm pretty happy with the way things are coming around.

The Polk/MOMO grills are easy to find online--Crutchfield and others have them available for $20 each (plus shipping). I got mine off of ebay for less, but they don't pop up there too often.

Best,
-j

vppreacher

Philostang,
it seems like we are on the same speaker grille wavelength. I saw these grilles on Crutchfield and ordered them for Xmas, but I still haven't put them on due to a long Maine winter. Thanks for the great info, but I have one quick question. Could you share what type/size sheetmetal screws you used? The ones you used look very good and I'd rather not spend a day looking through Home Depot for the correct sheetmetal screws.
Jeff

CainMotorsports2102

damn..that looks REALLY good..i may have to try that out

nbk13nw

I think the ones I used were 3/4" number 8's. I mounted the Rockford Fosgate Punch 8" drivers in both doors.

Philostang

Ack! I'm sorry vppreacher, I hadn't noticed you asked this question...didn't mean to dismiss it at all.

nbk's suggestion sounds about right as far as basic size. The only thing I would reiterate is the caution on the MOMO grills' narrow recess. There was nothing special about the screws I used, I just found some button-head stainless ones that were more narrow in the head than the stock screws (which have an integral washer--it's deceptively wide). I took with me one stock screw and just compared it to what was at the hardware store. It didn't take long.

Best,
-j