450SLC 3D printed rear speaker trims

Last year, I replaced the speakers in my 450SLC.  As part of this process I was quite keen to go back to the original rear speaker trims.  A friend of mine helped me get a set of the original speaker trims for the car.   However, even though I used 5″ speakers at the rear, they didn’t fit under the original speaker trims.

As a stop-gap, I used the old Pioneer speaker trims.  They were not too ugly and at least fit.  Some of the aftermarket speaker trims are horrific.

Doing some research, I found that some people had 3D printed slightly larger trims to fit under 5″ speakers.   A friend kindly offered to try and print a set of these on his 3D printer, but the printer was unable to cope with them.

A few months later, I found a set for sale on eBay that had already been printed.  I purchased them, and they have been sitting on my workbench for months.   This weekend, I finally got around to installing them.

On closer examination, they look pretty good.  They have an identical pattern to the factory trims, but are printed from a different material.  The factory trims have more of a matte look, as well as some fabric on the underside.

Regardless, they are a much better solution than ugly aftermarket speaker trims.  The installation process was very easy and I had them installed in a matter of minutes.

It is only a small thing, but I think it makes the car look much better. Compare old and new.

Especially looking through the glass, the difference in material is not really all that noticeable. 3D printing is a great solution to simple plastic parts such as these.