MsBecky

The desired angle of the tweeters was to follow the rake the of the wind shield . Following the angle of the glass will allow the sound to travel with the direction of the glass . Think of water when you picture this . Pour water on glass and it will flow with the plane of the glass. Spray it straight onto it , and it will splash in all directions. We are trying to fill that windshield with sound. So we will use the glass and sounds wave of the tweeters to our advantage. The stage will be high and wide, about the same size as the windshield, hopefully bigger with a little processor added to it.
Here are the rings with a dab of hot glue holding them in place.

MsBecky

Once the angles have been determined, the rings where marked out on the tape and a cut was made in the plastic trim piece. This was cut on a bench and not in the car. The only issue I ran into was the antenna wire and wire feed for the rear view mirror had to be moves about a half inch forward toward the wind shield . The long side of the ring is 1-1/8" deep. so there is plenty of room behind the trim piece for this project.

MsBecky

On the back side of the trim piece , you can see the push in clip I described earlier. I try to keep these items in place if all possible, it is a big plus if you get to use them if you can . Also there is a good amount of hot glue on the back side of the trim panel . Sticks really well to abs and the card board mold.

MsBecky

At this point I reinstalled the plastic trim and temped up the factory tweeters in the new locations . I dropped in a disc I have listened to many times in my home and took a critical listen . The factory speakers carried the vocals across the windshield and behaved much better then they had in the factory location . Moving in the right direction now ..

MsBecky

At this point, it is time to temp install the aftermarket drivers in there new home and make sure there is no problems with depth or visual problems . This is the time to make any changes you need to make . From this point on , it is all finish work . The trim pieces will see about 5 hours of work to make the factory locations disappear and the new ones to be seated into the trim . Then they will get a nice vinyl stretched over them to complete the finish.
The new speakers look sharp and the angles and elevations match . Game on now !!!!

MsBecky

Today the two trim panels took a trip to work with me . We have a paint department there and during my lunch hour I addressed the areas that needed some work .
First thing was to cut out the factory tweeter location and tape off the front side the panel . Then the rest happened rather quickly during this 1 hour time frame including the clean up in the prep area in the paint dept .
(1) Making the factory tweeter location disappear.

MsBecky

After some sanding and a few skim coats of body filler , the OEM locations are not there anymore.
So lets do this , Before, During and after pics to simply this post . Tomorrow I will have to trim the panels to fit back into her HHR. Adding the vinyl that I bought for the panels will require cutting the panels where they meet into the factory dash pad and other panels . Taking off 1/8 inch of material to allow for the vinyl will be plenty room .

MsBecky

This is a very critical step. I am marking the cut along the bottom of the factory trim piece to accept the vinyl. I mark it with a sharpie, so putting down some blue tape on the dash pad is utmost important . Sharpie will NOT come off ABS plastic....... With out some serious work .
Marking the cut ........Driver and Passenger sides

MsBecky

The vinyl is applied and I am hoping it lays down and sticks well . Tomorrow I will decided if I will cut the opening for the bolts at the top of the trim pieces when I open up the tweeter mount. It could be a bad decision if the little plastic piece does not fit back into the place well . I should have filled it in with body filler and been done with it . Oh well , pobody is nerfict ....

MsBecky

As mentioned earlier in the thread, I had to revert to plan "B" on the rear cargo mat. There was an issue with the rubber backing and the machine to sew the edge piping . Today I started preparing for the soon to arrive new mat , in a Black color. Since I was having to remove the sub to apply the glue for the carpet. I removed the drywall screws and replaced them with a Stainless Steel wood screw/10-24 machined screw. I work with fasteners daily, so finding them was simple. Wood threads on one end and machine threads on the other .. McMaster Carr item . I finished them off with acorn nuts for a really clean look . Simple but effective.