Mold Making Confusion

OK guys here is what I wanted to do, and did.

What I wanted to do. . .

Make a mold of my kick panel so that I can place my 6 and a halves and my tweeters on the kick panel instead of at my feet meanwhile I design and make new door panels, I want to replace the OG's when I do finish the doors reason being.

What I did. . .

To make a mold which I probably did wrong if someone can correct me if I did though.  What I did was lay down some blue tape and on top of that sprayed on expanding foam and let it cure over night.  I cut away excess foam so that it is flush with the back side, please note I did not tape both sides nor did I foam up the entire piece, just the front.  Once the excess foam was cut, I popped it off with the tape and pealed away the tape which I now realize I probably shouldn't have done.  Now it is a foam with some holes.

What I was supposed to do. . .

Was I supposed to tape the whole thing and foam it up, and slice the foam down the middle and leave the tape where it was?  Was there an easy way of taking such a small mold, the kick panel is fairly flat with few lines and measures about 1 ft. x 6 in. (please note the ft. and in.)  I am lost since I need to basically make a replica of what I have, and searching around the site there really are no explanations going into more detail on this topic.

Boy do I wish I had a camera to show you guys some visuals though.

THANKS GUYS!

If your making kick panel speaker pods, what you should have done was taped off the arear that you want to have the pods attached to with painters tape and then mark off the base shape with a marker. This marker will transfer to the fiberglass layer and allow you to know where to cut the base shape after the fiberglass cures. Lay in the fiberglass and I suggest 3 -4 layers for the pod. Remove the pod and cut out the excess fiberglass ( use the marker as your template ) and this will give you the base shape and also something to build on.

Now make MDF rings for the 6 1/2" woofers and the also for the tweeter ( you can make a tear drop shape for both if you wish ). Angle the rings with the aid of dowels and hot glue them onto the base ( or use CA glue ). Once in place you can use grill cloth to wrap over the entire project and resib over the cloth. Wait until dry and fiberglass over the grill cloth ( use 2/3 layers of matting ) & then sand away until smooth enough for first layer of body filler. Depending on what your using to finish the pods with, you can finish with 120 grit for carpet or vinyl and finish with 400 - 600 grit for paint.

ok I got it, and it is looking great, only problem I am having now is figuring out how to mount my tweeters securely as they don have the plastic twist things that most have for some reason, but these are damn great tweeters for not having a name on them HAHA all they have is a sticker that says TX350 350W can't find it on the internet, but they seem to be Impulse from the only thing google pops up with and has no pic!  What I was thinking is that I will Put some wood behind the mdf rings to hold the tweeter from falling back, and put another twist front that I have from another tweeter on the front of the mdf ring, as it kinda looks like it goes with it and won't be noticed by others, just me haha.  Any ideas guys?  o0o BTW have another question, can the very last coat of resin I put on be just resin without matting to make it smoother and easier to sand, or will that too brittle and break in time, that wouldn't be the final layer, as filler will go on top of that, was wondering what would happen any past experiences??

THANKS FOR THE HELP IN ADVANCE GENTLEMEN!

mustangfoo wrote:

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ok I understand I think, let me make certain of this though.  I do not need to make a mold, just tape off the kick panel and mark it with marker to know there to cut when it is glassed, and then I can just use the new glassed version to replace the stocker, need need to make a mold if I understand you correctly.  BTW Velocity your the greatest, I really appreciated that whole explanation even though I only asked about the mold!

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After you have the base fiberglass peice, this will be the peice that you can attach to the stock location ( where the mold was made ). Use a couple of nuts and bolts to secure the pod to the kick panel.

mustangfoo wrote:

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ok I got it, and it is looking great, only problem I am having now is figuring out how to mount my tweeters securely as they don have the plastic twist things that most have for some reason, but these are damn great tweeters for not having a name on them HAHA all they have is a sticker that says TX350 350W can't find it on the internet, but they seem to be Impulse from the only thing google pops up with and has no pic!  What I was thinking is that I will Put some wood behind the mdf rings to hold the tweeter from falling back, and put another twist front that I have from another tweeter on the front of the mdf ring, as it kinda looks like it goes with it and won't be noticed by others, just me haha.  Any ideas guys?  o0o BTW have another question, can the very last coat of resin I put on be just resin without matting to make it smoother and easier to sand, or will that too brittle and break in time, that wouldn't be the final layer, as filler will go on top of that, was wondering what would happen any past experiences??

THANKS FOR THE HELP IN ADVANCE GENTLEMEN!

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If you have another tweeter mounting bracket use it. If the tweeter has a threaded back you can use a screw with fine threads to attach to the back of a 1/8" board. Otherwise your idea for using another tweeter mounting bracket will work as well. As far as the final coat, don't worry about using just resin because after you sand the fiberglass for the first layer of body filler, it will get all roughed up anyways and it's also harder to sand resin than resin soaked matting.