[Heylel]

I am in the process of replacing the cloth cabin of my E91 LCI with a leather cabin and have hit a snag.

While the front door panels are prepared for speakers, the rear door panels are not.

I have the speaker grilles on the existing cloth rear door panels available to me as the cloth cabin will likely be scrapped when I'm done.

I can see on the inside that the cut-out is actually there but there are no mounting points for the speakers like there is on the front door panels. Since the speakers for front and rear are similar, I would expect them to require mount points.

Are there any guides, suggestions out there for how to modify the door panels? Have looked but maybe I'm just not using the right search terms :-(

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by Heylel

Are there any guides, suggestions out there for how to modify the door panels? Have looked but maybe I'm just not using the right search terms :-(

Looking at pictures of both types (speaker and non) there is a mounting plate on the ones that have a speaker.

So, you will either have to source it out of some scrap yard or get creative. You may be able to use something like contact cement to secure mounting points on the inside or even lift the leather and put them all the way through.

[Heylel]

Originally Posted by Greyfox

Looking at pictures of both types (speaker and non) there is a mounting plate on the ones that have a speaker.

So, you will either have to source it out of some scrap yard or get creative. You may be able to use something like contact cement to secure mounting points on the inside or even lift the leather and put them all the way through.

Hmm.. since I don't plan to sell the old cloth panels, maybe I can salvage the existing mounting points from them and attach using some araldite. Looking at the way the mounting points are attached on the front panels (plate with "claws" that dig in to the fiber panel), I think that would be just as as stable

Will check with the local scrapper if they have any speaker-enabled panels available first, though :-)

Thanks for your input!

[vb7200]

Originally Posted by Heylel

I am in the process of replacing the cloth cabin of my E91 LCI with a leather cabin and have hit a snag.

While the front door panels are prepared for speakers, the rear door panels are not.

I have the speaker grilles on the existing cloth rear door panels available to me as the cloth cabin will likely be scrapped when I'm done.

I can see on the inside that the cut-out is actually there but there are no mounting points for the speakers like there is on the front door panels. Since the speakers for front and rear are similar, I would expect them to require mount points.

Are there any guides, suggestions out there for how to modify the door panels? Have looked but maybe I'm just not using the right search terms :-(

Do you want to actually retrofit speakers in there or just have the grilles with nothing in there to get the look? Rear door speakers I believe are part of the Logic 7 system, and if you wanted to run speakers, it'd be a pain in the a** to get the right sound to come out of those speakers. You could technically splice into the front speaker wires (if they are't fiber optic, you can still do it but that's a whole other animal), but then you're running 2 speakers off of the same channel, which reduces the power of each speaker significantly. You're basically only giving each speaker half the power it needs.



I work in a store that specializes in car audio, I've seen people try to rig up all sorts of things

[Heylel]

Originally Posted by vb7200

Do you want to actually retrofit speakers in there or just have the grilles with nothing in there to get the look? Rear door speakers I believe are part of the Logic 7 system, and if you wanted to run speakers, it'd be a pain in the a** to get the right sound to come out of those speakers. You could technically splice into the front speaker wires (if they are't fiber optic, you can still do it but that's a whole other animal), but then you're running 2 speakers off of the same channel, which reduces the power of each speaker significantly. You're basically only giving each speaker half the power it needs.



I work in a store that specializes in car audio, I've seen people try to rig up all sorts of things

vb7200, thank you for your input. Thankfully, the wiring is already there since the car came off the line with 4 door speakers and two under seat. The challenge is that the two rear door panels I that came with the leather cabin I bought, do not have the cut-outs for speakers, whereas the original cloth door panels do have the cut-outs (and speakers).

[david in germany]

I am about to do this on my wife's e90 as I am doing the Hifi to logic 7 retrofit. Her leather doors do not have the markings for the speakers but I found a set with the speaker markings to use. I will epoxy the mounting rings to the new panels and then cut the openings using my 335i door cutouts as the template.

[vb7200]

Originally Posted by Heylel

vb7200, thank you for your input. Thankfully, the wiring is already there since the car came off the line with 4 door speakers and two under seat. The challenge is that the two rear door panels I that came with the leather cabin I bought, do not have the cut-outs for speakers, whereas the original cloth door panels do have the cut-outs (and speakers).

Ohhhhhh I'm so sorry I read that completely wrong I though it was the other way around

[ptpending]

Originally Posted by Heylel

vb7200, thank you for your input. Thankfully, the wiring is already there since the car came off the line with 4 door speakers and two under seat. The challenge is that the two rear door panels I that came with the leather cabin I bought, do not have the cut-outs for speakers, whereas the original cloth door panels do have the cut-outs (and speakers).

that means that these rear leather door trims came not from touring but from sedan (e90) because e91 even in most basic configuration have rear speakers
you can check also the upper side(near glass) of the leather trim differ from cloth

[Heylel]

Originally Posted by david in germany

I am about to do this on my wife's e90 as I am doing the Hifi to logic 7 retrofit. Her leather doors do not have the markings for the speakers but I found a set with the speaker markings to use. I will epoxy the mounting rings to the new panels and then cut the openings using my 335i door cutouts as the template.

By "mounting rings" you mean the threaded rods ie mounting points, right?

Any thoughts on how to cut (what tool that is) and how to treat the leather? Was thinking an X-acto knife and leaving about a cm to wrap around and glue to inside of panel.

[Heylel]

Originally Posted by ptpending

that means that these rear leather door trims came not from touring but from sedan (e90) because e91 even in most basic configuration have rear speakers
you can check also the upper side(near glass) of the leather trim differ from cloth

Are you saying that they won't fit? I've looked up the rear panels on realoem.com and it seems that E90 and E91 shares the same panels.

[ptpending]

Originally Posted by Heylel

Are you saying that they won't fit? I've looked up the rear panels on realoem.com and it seems that E90 and E91 shares the same panels.

then all will be ok
do you trying to replace all interior from e90 to e91 ?
because rear backrest side panels won't fit 100%

[david in germany]

Originally Posted by Heylel

By "mounting rings" you mean the threaded rods ie mounting points, right?

Any thoughts on how to cut (what tool that is) and how to treat the leather? Was thinking an X-acto knife and leaving about a cm to wrap around and glue to inside of panel.

There are actually plastic mounting rings with the three speaker bolts molded into them that glue to the door panel. I plan on using an x-acto as you mentioned and will cut the leather the same as it is cut on my 335i.
I actually got the rings from ptpending when I bought the individual audio bits for my 335i. (Great seller by the way)

[Heylel]

Originally Posted by ptpending

then all will be ok
do you trying to replace all interior from e90 to e91 ?
because rear backrest side panels won't fit 100%

If you are referring to the lateral side panels they are clearly stamped "E91" into the plastic inside, so they should fit. The rear seat and backrest look identical to the E91 parts I can see on realoem as well :-)

[Heylel]

Originally Posted by david in germany

There are actually plastic mounting rings with the three speaker bolts molded into them that glue to the door panel. I plan on using an x-acto as you mentioned and will cut the leather the same as it is cut on my 335i.
I actually got the rings from ptpending when I bought the individual audio bits for my 335i. (Great seller by the way)

Oh, ok - I have never had the rear panels removed, so I wasn't aware that the construction differed from the front panels where the speaker bolts look like they are fixed individually:

https://cdn4.pelicanparts.com/BMW/te..._med/pic08.jpg

[david in germany]

If you look at the photos in this link you can see the speaker rings.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/BMW-3er-E90-...4AAOSwY~1aHtG4

[david in germany]

This one is better.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/BMW-E90-E91-...oAAOSwZB9aKrav

[Heylel]

Originally Posted by david in germany

This one is better.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/BMW-E90-E91-...oAAOSwZB9aKrav

Thank you very much for this - makes a lot of sense now. I can easily pry that off the existing cloth door panels and re-use on the leather panels.

[Heylel]

Just to wrap this up - I contacted the place where I got the door panels and it turned out that they have a set with cutouts and grilles for speakers, so I'm gonna swap for these instead of going DIY.

Thanks for all the input and advice!

[david in germany]

I got my panels a couple of days ago. I will still post pics when I do it if anyone is interested.