Custom Panels via Fiberglass

Well, I haven't gotten a chance to start glassin yet, due to poor weather.  Since I don't have a great ventilated area, I have to set up shop outside to do the glassin portion.  I have created my baffels out of MDF and I think they came out remarkably well, soon as I get the digital camera I will post those pictures. 

Craig

Got my speakers today and fit them to see how they are going to look. I learned I won't be able to use the mounting hardware for the tweeters that came with the components so will have to figure something out. Maybe I will use the flush mount and silicone it in place. I have both pods ready for resin and will have the first coat on tomorrow. I will then fill in the back side with fiberglass to help stiffen the pods. When all is dry I will lay on a thick coat of primer that will get mostly sanded off. This will let me get a good smooth finish to paint. The interior is old in this car so matching carpet or vinyl will be almost impossible. I just need to figure out what color I want to paint them.

Check out the latest pics at http://www.cardomain.com/id/1984gt

Hey Jeff.... nice work so far..... the only thing is that I would have put a more aggressive angle on those pods than that ( about a 30 degree pitch ) so that you get better imaging from the speakers and the tweeters.

Thanks Jeff, I wanted to angle them but I don't want to cut into the doors just yet and the speakers would have sat out farther from the door had I angled them. I want to get my feet wet with this project, then I will go ahead and make a set of custom door panels. The junk yard near me has several Celica's that I can pull door panels to practice on. I should have the pods ready for sanding tomorrow and then the paint will flow. I'll post more pics as I go....

Bondo is some real nasty $hit!!! I can now see why everyone who does this sort of thing has a good DA Grinder.. :)

I gave up trying to get a good finish using sanding primer to get a smooth finish and tried some Bondo to smooth things out. I got the stuff mixed up and started applying it to the pod. About 2 minutes later the stuff had gelled too much and would not go on smoothly. I used a little less hardener to see if I may have over done it and it did the same thing. How on earth do you guys do this stuff and make it look so easy??? I am just about ready to say "The He!! With It" and slap them in smooth finish or not. I guess if I wanted, I could carpet them or wrap them in vinyl but I really wanted to paint them.

I have newly found respect for the custom installers who work with fiberglass and make those smooth as glass parts. My hats off to you...

BTW!!!

Craig? have any Pics yet???

I posted a couple more on my site at http://www.cardomain.com/id/1984gt

The trick to bondo is get one that is higher quality so that it sands better instead of gumming up like that. Quality materials is very importatn here at this stage of the game.

Tomorrow is D day for mine, I made the baffels last weekend, but due to poor weather here, I could not proceed.  During the regular work week, school resumed for me, so I have yet to have free time to work on it.  But for sure tomorrow progress and pictures will be created.  I am tired of waiting!!!!!!

Craig

For some reason I can't get this massive grin off my face... I should have done this ages ago. I got the pods painted and they look like crap but I mounted them anyway and the sound, My God the sound is awesome. Consider my car had 3.5's in the front it's whole life and to now have 6.5 components up front just makes me want to cry with joy... You would not believe how much of a difference it made to mount these things like I did. I messed up and measured wrong on the clearance between the pods and the dash but made up for it by moving the pods back a bit away from the dash. They still hit a tiny bit but not bad enough to worry about. I already have plans for a new set of pods and with everything I learned in the process of making these, they can only be better.

Please check out my work and let me know what you guys think. http://www.cardomain.com/id/1984gt

Thank you all so much for the help,