87 4ks

Well, maybe not the 27th, but as often as I've been changing my mind trying to come up with something I like it sure seems like it.

I have a couple criteria I am trying to stick to. One is to try and sorta make it look factory, nothing too crazy. I'll make the finished product out of fiberglass and then just cover it with padded vinyl. Second is that no metal be cut on the car. I've done that before in my youth and it only makes things worse in the long run. Behind the factory hole is the power window motor and, of course, the glass. The 6-1/2" speaker I am using is about 3-1/2" deep behind the mounting flange and has a magnet about 4-1/2" in diameter. Mostly, I have to build out the door so the magnet can clear the power window motor. And, since I had to build it out, I could only come up so high on the door otherwise the glovebox door would hit the pod.

As it stands now, I will probably have to make another, slightly thicker prototype. After I recessed the grille on this pod, the speaker magnet hit the power window motor. I thought it might, but I went ahead tried it anyway just see. Even if I add an inch to the thickness now, it will still be only about 1/4" thicker than the standard map pocket. I could live with that. I might also try and incorporate the back portion of the map pocket, too. I, so far, haven't been able to blend it in well.

Once I get a shape I like, I'll have to sorta reverse engineer it to get the speaker mounting ring in place and allow for finished fiberglass thickness. I just thought I'd shape things up first to get a feel for how the finished product will look.

I'm not really looking forward to messing with the fiberglass, either. Last time I did was the console in that '70 Mustang, blending the Grand Am console to match the lines on the 2000 Mustang dash. What a mess. Looked neat when it was done, though.

Please keep in mind this is definitely a work in progress. Once I get the speaker pods built, I'll be recovering the door panels with material to match the seats.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/68233/speaker_pod_1.jpg">


<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/68233/speaker_pod_2.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/68233/speaker_pod_3.jpg">

Of course, it would probably be a whole lot easier to just get a modern set of speakers that aren't so huge, but the old MTXs I have just plain ol' crank and sound good. I have the tweeters mounted in modified dash grills, but I'm not sure how they'll sound that far away from the woofer. That's worked for me in th past, though. If it doesn't sound good I could always make some pods and mount the tweeters on the kick panels, but the cars I have heard with kick panel mounted speakers have always sounded a little dull to me. I'll just have to wait and see.

Bored at work and just thought I'd share my latest project with ya's. Comments, critiques, tips, and suggestions welcome.

- GT Style -

If you're making the effort to glass up some pods, why the doors? Why not kick panels?

a-talk

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/76987/newspeakers.jpg"></center><p>And it worked out very well. I built mine from wood, I made layered rings so I could shape it easily. I wanted to use a set of Audax separates that were also very deep, but they did crank!

Looks great, I like how you follow the shape of the door panel. Keep us posted!

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/76987/wood_rings.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/76987/mounted2.jpg">

87 4ks

I placed them in that area and as big as the speakers are, I thought they took up too much footwell space to be comfortable.

I did not, however, take the kick panel off to see how much space is behind there. I'll have to look into that.

- GT Style -

There's some padding &amp; material that can be thinned out back there.

87 4ks

That gives me some more ideas. If you look closely at the top portion of my door panel, you can see some tape residue. Another thing I tried was picking up the dash lines and carring them down to the pod, one - for looks, and two - to fill the gap between the door panel and the side of the dashboard. The piece of tape along the top and behind the pod carries over to the line on the armrest, which is where I was going to try and blend it in, similar to the way the armrest on your 5000 goes forward to the dash. Guess I'll mess with that a bit more now, too, seeing how the factory did it.

Whitjr

That wood looks very good. if finished in natural/stained, be really nice!

a-talk

I sold the car last year so no go there, unless I buy it back from the guy .