Custom Panels via Fiberglass

Jeff,

yea I concur, they are a bit big!, can you recess them into the door by cutting way on the door panel some so they don't pertrude out so much, also the choice of paint is a little loud, but the pods themselve, door not included look great!.  The fiberglass is in the process of drying on the doors of the civic, when my fiancee gets back, we are going to download the pics from her camera and I will post them.  My pods are a bit more complex.  I had to put tape over the desired area since it was not flat to make the bottom portion of the molding, I will remove it from the door tomorrow, hopefully it isn't stuck!!!, I have 3 layers of tape so It should be fine.  When I get them posted you can let me know what you think!

Craig

Ok, its picture time!

Yes..I have pictures...

http://www.geocities.com/tingolia/craig/

Thanks for bursting my bubble Craig. I know I don't have the greatest car but my 2001 4runner will run your Honda over... lol

As I said before I really don't hold out much for the first couple tries. I am no way expecting anything first class out of my first endeavor into custom parts. I learned a lot with these pods and will use that new found knowledge to make an even better set next time. As for setting them into the doors, I have a small problem there. If I want to set them in even more than an inch and a half, I lose the ability to role down my windows all the way. I plan on make a pod that brings the speaker out the inch and a quarter that will need to stick out and recess the other inch and half in the door letting me still role the windows down. My next set will also go along with the form of the existing door panel.

Did you wax the tape before you laid on the glass and resin??? You may have a slight problem if you did not... If you don't mind my asking, why are you making panels for the stock speaker location? Are the speakers you are installing bigger or smaller??? Looks like you have a good start. I especially like the MDF rings. What did you cut them with? They look real nice.

No I did not wax the tape b/c I followed what velocity said in an earlier post, I didn't have any problems when I tested it on a small section of plastic that I had lying around to see how it would come off.  The speakers I am putting into this car (this is my Fiancee's car, not mine ) is 6.5" Cadence ZX.  I wanted to improve on the imaging and the sound quality by giving the speaker some form of enclosurer, plus this is great practice on an area wear there is a lot of odd shapes and contours.  The MDF rings were cut out using my own pattern, with a hole cutter and a 1/2 and cutaway router bit.  I cut the patterns out just outside of my line using a band saw, then fined tuned it with a large belt sander.  I cut the circles out using a drill press with my adjustable circle cutter attached.  I then had a router mounted upside down in the bottom of a table (so just the blade is visiable from the top) to router out the lip you see in the picture, the grill section I used the same 1/2 router as before, but then used a cutaway bit to make the circle all the way through since my circle cutter I have does not adjust to 6.75 inches.  Not to difficult, but having the right tools is key.  A friend of mine lets me use his custom cabinet shop now and again for custom jobs, or job I do that require a lot of cutting, I make a lot of my boxes and stuff there, very nice facility.  FYI, I wasn't raggin on your ride :)...just agreeing with your point.   I think if you changed the color of the paint it might look a bit better, blend in more so it doesn't stick out so much.  Also you mentioned you were going to build your own panels so that will look a lot better anyway and you can make your own custom enclosures on the new panels ...  if the panel is similar to the ones you currently have you can cut some of the panel away from behind, (still leaving room from your window, and allow the pod ot rest in maybe 1/2 and inch or so, depending on the thickness of your door panel.  Measure 20 times and cut once!!!! :)

I always hate it when I think I have it perfectly measured, build the thing and it is 1/2" off or something stupid because I made a stupid error....I did that now and again when I first started doing design work in cars, really got aggervating, so now I measure it one day, then recheck it the next day, and that usually eliminates that problem...

Craig

No problems Craig, I was just pulling your leg.

A router is on my list of items to get in the near future. Many years ago I had access to a wood shop as well but I moved and driving 2 hours in LA traffic is not high on my list of thing I want to do. I have a jig saw and a scroll saw that work just fine to cut out most anything I need. It would be nice to have a DA Sander and a Router for projects like this though. I will definitely have those before I start work on my sub enclosure and amp rack. I have all kinds of ideas running through my head and need a few more tools to make them a reality.

Keep posting those pics for us. I love seeing what other people are able to make from piles of wood and fiberglass.

heh, no prob, the pods are looking great thus far, I will post more pics tonight, right  now they are drying, and I should be able to do the sanding and stuff in an hour or 2.....

i wouldn't want to DRIVE anywhere in LA......screw that....I think the movie FALLING DOWN would become real life for me if I did.

Craig

ok todays pics are there!

http://www.geocities.com/tingolia/craig/

Craig

Post report:  I had no problems removing the fiberglass panel from the masking tape, it popped right out!!!

I do recommend that you always overlap when you do this, because you can alway sand later to get a better fit.

Today was long, a lot of sanding, and itching from fiber glass particles all over my body! But other than that, it was sucessfull.

Tip of the day for fiberglass sanders:

• When you itch from the fiberglass particles in your skin, take a cool shower and your pores will close and then the fiberglass doesn't get into your skin as bad.

yes, i figured that out!!!!

the hard way!