So after spending a lot of the weekend trying to chase down electrical problems and not really getting anywhere I decided I'd do something that would yield better results. I have seen posts before about how people have put speakers in the front of their polos, and have seen some very impressive results involving cutting door cards and making speaker pods.

 

I've gone a slightly different route and thought I'd show you what I did for those who (like me) didn't want to cut their door cards. What I've done is very simple and could easily be copied but is best explained with pictures. Using MDF I cut a piece 30cm tall by about 20cm wide (I didn't actually measure, sorry). I then jammed it into the door wedging it in a position that had minimal movement and marked out where the speaker would roughly sit. Took it to the work bench and cut a hole in the wood where I wanted the speaker to sit. Once I'd bolted the speaker into the wood I jammed it back into position (after plugging speaker wire to speaker) and used some firm packing foam to remove the little play / movement that remained.

 

This would work better with speakers that actually fit between the sections of the inner door but I was working with the speakers I already had, and it works well. I've now put the door card back on and it doesn't snag the speaker at all, I now have invisible front speakers.

Do you have anymore photos of the door cards? Did it sound muffled behind the doorcard

I don't have any pictures of the door cards because I left them completely intact, they look completely standard. 

 

As for sound quality, I have had to set the fade settings on the stereo to favour the front speakers so they are audible over the rears. But I think that's got more to do with the rear speakers being more powerful than the fronts. 

I've been playin around with ideas for this on my breadvan for ages. Previous ideas i had were to cut out new door cards from thin marine ply, mount the speakers directly to the cards and cover the whole thing in whatever material i had. Use rivnuts to attach it to the door. I actually did this but than had another idea. Using waterproof, heavy duty canvas material cut to size to replace door cards, put split rings, eyes, whatever you wanna call it, drill holes and use trim clips to hold it in place, which would mean easy access without having to remove entire door card. Mount speaker on actual door, as original poster has. 

What i've actually gone with is a bluetooth speaker that sits where the stereo would go, connected to my phone. Speaker has mic for phone and goes plenty loud enough to hear over the engine at full pelt. Have a dab app on my phone so i still have radio. Speaker is not fixed, can be removed at any point, so less reason to get broken into. I have a double usb charger in the lighter so i can charge phone and speaker.