Have badly distorting speakers in my 81 GLT wagon. Not interested in a high end stereo just want the AM FM Radio to sound clear. I was able to acquire a NOS set of Volvo front speakers with the metal surround plates that the trim-colored plastic speaker grilles snap onto. From the looks of things the grilles have been hugging the doors since the day the car left Sweden. Tried to pry one off with various plastic tools and it won't come off easily and the plastic starts to bend.

Any tips for removal that won't damage the tabs that hold it in place, or worse, break the whole grille?

I'm really not sure which speakers you have in the door.

If they look like mine (79) they don't "snap" on. If they look like those on my 83, the snaps are robust if you know where to pry. The rest of the grill might fall apart if you don't. Kitty's pics show the speaker well enough to see where the tabs are.

I had to fix the pins on the old, thin style.









--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction."
-Albert Einstein

Hi Art...the pictures tell the story.


Re: the other thread about too bright HiBeam dash lights.
https://www.brickboard.com/RWD/volvo/1643639/220/240/260/280/dash_bulb_failure_lamp_high_beam.html

By the way...I found plenty of that blue gel. CeeBee1 is my official logged in ID here. check out my profile which has my email. Send me your postal address and I'll send you some strips of the gel

I never had a car with those skinny grilles.

http://www.2040-parts.com/_content/items/images/1/1211401/001.jpg
If you have these the grille should pop off. Just be careful. If they have never been removed they "may" still have 4 little line up pins, one in each corner. But don't hold your breath as they almost always break. You don't need them to reinstall the grille. The grille will snap back onto the metal frame.

That pix is not what I've got in my 1980 sedan

The stock ones I've got sit flat against the door panel. The grill is maybe a tad more than a 1/4 inch thick.
There is no rounded shoulder.

well..not sure exactly what yours look like but mine are original to a '91 and have a plastic cover over the metal speaker frame with a metal grille inside the cover. the metal grille comes loose (i have mine gorilla glued in). mine come off from the metal frame quite easily. if yours are 'stuck' i would leave them in the sun for a while then try to remove them by hand.
--
'91 244 200k auto

The early 80's had a different system. The speakers mounted on the cut out in the door frame. The grills are pinned the door panel - four plastic posts on the corners with metal cir-clips. You've got to take off the panel, to get to the speakers to swap in the new ones.

CB, I didn't know this. What year did the design change with the grilles snapping onto the metal frames?

Would that mean that on my 81 the speakers would be mounted conventionally without the integral steel frame? That's good in that you wouldn't need proprietary speakers. Bad, because I bought the wrong parts.

don't know what year. I've got an 80 and an 87 and they are different.

just take the door panel off and swap out the speakers.

The problem with the Volvo front door speakers, when trying to buy replacement higher performance speakers is the clearance. Most brands are too deep and won't fit. When I got new speakers from Crutchfield they only had 1 pair that would fit.

If you got Volvo speakers, they'll fit.

Hi

What set of NOS set of Volvo front speakers do you have? Do you have a model number printed on the front or on the speaker magnet?

Consider looking at the inner door card, the thing that secures to the inner metal door pale, from the front edge. There is a profile to the edge. See where the speaker usually secures in the horizontal recess of the door card? On a 1980, you see the recess and a 4" (100 mm more or less) speaker secured to the door card to both seal the air mass both to the front of the large speaker cone and to the rear.

CB makes mention of the 4", more or less, speakers, you find on more or less 1980s models. In 1988 or so came the HT-204 speaker models that secure to the inner door card with a speaker mount for the (usually Dynaudio brand more or less 5.25" speakers:





An after market item I just discovered using Google image search is:

https://www.kaplhenke.com/products/240-5-25-speaker-bracket-and-grill

Image:


Secure a 5.25" speaker to the front door whether you have power or manual windows. For both 4, 5, and coveted 2 door coupe.

What Uncle CD mentions is the 1980s 4" (100 or so MM) Volvo 240 factory mount:

The speaker grilles:


And the speaker mounts that were the speaker themselves, sometimes:


HATES photobucket. HATES, HATES, HATES photobucket. Use BrickPix, right here on your brickboard.

The speaker mount come secured to the inner door card using the rivets CB mentions. The grill secure to the speaker mounts.

So, you can mix and match speaker options, yet the most import thing with speaker install is:
- speaker must seal the air mass behind the speaker cone from that in front of the speaker cone.
- speaker excursion must be without limitation or resonance dampening.
- secure speaker to the inner door card only. Not the inner metal door frame underneath.

Some of my images of install:

5.25" speaker install using the later HT-204 speaker mounts in the hirzonatl recess:





4" (100mm) speaker install using after market. Demel or trim to fit the 4" speaker mount to fit the inner door card horizontal recess, secure the speaker and speaker mount to it, and secure the grille to the secured assembly.









Extra info:
http://forums.tbforums.com/showthread.php?t=266691
http://www.2040-parts.com/volvo-240-front-door-speaker-1980-s-brown-grille-rare-2-available-i1211401/

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Give your brickboard.com a big thumbs up! Way up! - Roger Ebert.

ok got me looking into it.
From K-Jet.org website

1982 – All cars get new speaker grilles in the front doors.

the rest is on this page:

http://www.k-jet.org/articles/projects/car-audio/

Well, your 240 has speaker locations as follows: One 4″ round speaker in each front door, and two 4″ round speakers in the back dash. If you have a wagon, then you also have 4″ round speakers in the wall by the back seat. Newer wagons have the speakers in the rear doors instead; I am not sure when this change occured. Four-inch speakers are small and have very little bass response, and you’ll need custom mounting brackets to get aftermarket 4″ speakers to fit in your car.

Sounds bleak eh? Well, first off, if you order your speakers from Crutchfield, they’ll give you the mounting brackets for free. At least, for 1982+ models. If you have a 1981 240, you’ll need to get some 1982+ style speaker grills for the front (they are about twice as thick as the 1981 style.)

Wealth of knowledge here. Thank you.
Apparently I have the thin grilles fastened to the cards shown in Art's photos.
I was hoping to keep that stock look but some of the alternatives look fine as well.

The '82 version with the clip-on grilles are the speakers I just purchased and could use by fastening them to the door cards and sourcing the revised thicker grilles. Although if I can find speakers to fit as is I may re=sell that NOS kit.

The Kaplhenke kit looks to make room for better performing speakers although at a higher cost.

if you want to keep the stock look then you need 4" speakers with a mounting Depth of 1 3/8" maximum.

Using Crutfield's "will it fit my vehicle" will not help you need to look at the specs.
https://www.crutchfield.com/g_51200/4-Speakers.html?tp=102&pg=1

these are 1 5/16
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_068R452N/RetroSound-R-452N.html?tp=102


https://www.crutchfield.com/p_068S42/RetroSound-S-42.html?tp=102
these are 1 1/2

PS--- put your money in rear speakers

For a wagon an option for rear speakers.

on either side in the rear of the wagon there is a metal post for the rear shoulder belts. Using the top of the post to measure... 5 inches toward the front of the car...under the lip of the headliner is a threaded mounting point for, if I remember correctly, an 8mm thread....I can take a hefty sized bolt

It's there for the Cargo/Dog cage accessory that can be added to the back of the wagon.

In the 2 wagons that I have owned I have used that point to mount 6 inch speakers.
Running the speaker wires from the dash under the front side carpet UP inside the plastic seat belt cover on the door pillars and under the liner.

Neither of these wagons originally had speakers in the doors and after looking at options this proved to be the best solution, when I upgraded the stereo.

You of course need speaker enclosures...but with that stout mounting point you can hang a big box.
.

This speaker position caveat... if you regularly have rear seat passengers, you'll have to balance out the Frt/Rear when they are in the car, as the speaker will be pointed at the passengers ears.


The speakers are high and out of the way. I've never had a problem loading the wagon to the gills. This is way better than a rear door mounting, since speakers mounted in the lower rear door would be blocked in a RearSeat foldedDown fully packed cargo space posotion.

The speakers I acquired are a NOS set of the type shown in Kitty's picture with the rectangular frame of the speaker also being the mount for the snap-on grille. I should be able to mount them to the door cards (after removing the originals from the door) and then source a pair of the snap-on grilles.

I think the Kaplhenke kit with 5-1/4" speakers would be the best option but would be close to $300 when done. Probably not worth the expense unless a really good stereo is backing it up.

Since my car never had rear speakers CB's suggestion of mounting some small enclosed speakers to the C panel sounds like a smart idea that I'm going to look into.