I could detail this saga for pages but I'm going to be as brief as possible. When I got my '93 sedan the stock 5 1/4" speaker covers were cracking and I only made it worse trying to get a new set of Pioneer 5 1/4" speakers to fit under them - which all of us that have tried know is not easy because aftermarket two-way speakers have the damn tweeter sticking out three feet. I settled with 4" speakers for a long time.

Last month I found two '92 240s in the local yard, bought the 5 1/4" speaker covers for $1 each. Here's a picture of one of the originals from my '93 (left) next to the one from the '92. Same thing except for the Volvo HT-204 lettering, right? Then why is the part number on the back different...no matter.



So I decide now that I have extras I will chop/mangle one set to give me enough room for aftermarket 5 1/4" speakers underneath. I discover that even after overcoming the problem of the tweeter contacting the grill, the edges of the speaker touch the face of the cover and cause vibration/rattling. So, using a sanding drum and some steel speaker grills from a crappy Sony stereo I managed to give myself enough room for the 5.25" Pioneers I have. Looks stock, non?



Putting the new covers on I discovered that they fit oddly. I didn't alter the fitment of the cover to the spacer/back plate in any way so the speaker cover should still fit flush against the door but I have a 1/4" gap at the top. An incredulous light bulb went on and I compared a cover that came stock on my '93 and one of the '92 speaker grilles; this is what I found:



That is a shot of the tops of both covers, the '93 on the left and the '92 to the right. Still not believing what logic was telling me I went to look at Dad's '91 wagon. Sure enough, the top part of the door panel sticks out 1/4" more on his than on mine, and obviously, the same is true for a '92. To re-phrase, between 1992 and 1993 model years, Volvo made door panels that stuck out 1/4" or so less than the previous years and had to make new speaker covers to compensate and fit flush against the door panel once again. Why???

And the second thing I've discovered lately concerns the trim. I've been working to restore the gleem to my black '93 and break the monotony by uncovering the stainless steel trim that was painted black in the later years. I knew it was still stainless because the paint (powder coat, really) had been chipping and the polished beautiful stainless was showing through. So I set out to strip the black off which was working marvelously until I hit the rear quarter-window trim. Let me illustrate my findings with a photo:



In short, the last piece of trim does not match the remainder. Bare - even anodized - aluminum will never shine like stainless steel. Now, I've spent a month and a lot of research and thought and have a few ways to overcome this annoyance which I am currently putting in effect. I just thought it was interesting information - well, maybe only to me - and that I'd share in case anyone else ever wants to know.

Okay, this post is long enough, take care guys, hope you found some of it interesting.
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Sean Corron