8W6 Door panel project pics

OK well I was going to use 4 8W6's in my doors for mid bass and I couldn't due to clearence issues in the front driver side door. Putting the speaker in my driver door would cause problems with my leg and I would have trouble shifting, so I decided to only use 2 of the 4 subs in the rear doors. I am currently in the stage of getting FG layed down on the panels to create a box type effect for the subs. I will then create a FG box for the sub and on top of that create my new door panel with lines and curves instead of the flat piece of wood as a door panel. So here are some pics of the progress which I just finished taking with my new camera phone since I don't have the money to afford a digital camera haha, but they are decent since the camera on the phone is 1.3 megapixels.

First layer of FG layed down and dryed

Another pic different angle

The speaker mount made of 5/8" mdf and wood dowels as support to lay fleece and FG.

The 8W6

Side View

Set inside of the speaker mount

Now that is what I call flush mount!

Speaker was mounted to JL specs with atleast 0.75" of clearence

2nd layer of FG layed down and is currently drying.

That is what I have so far, I plan to put some Components up front which I was going to do either way, but now I have room for probably 2 sets of comps. I still have not decided if I am going to put in 2 12" Kicker 06L7's OR 1 10" Kicker SOLO X which will basically cost the same amount of fedz. So what do you guys think thus far?? Criticism is welcomed.

Thanks guys!

First off, I must comment on those images.  Your shots of those woofers look like the size of a office building hahaha.

Two, it's looking good.  My client wants a SoloX 10 in his setup as well, still finishing up internals for now.  May end up going with a SoloX 12 since they come in both 2ohm and 1ohm, while the SoloX 10 in only a 1ohm (or maybe it was a 2ohm)

Funny you should say that, because that is my main buisness office. lol That would be pretty cool if it were true. . . Anyway, here are some updated pics of how the sub is going to look installed.

Panel mounted on the door of the car.

The original door panel with the original vinyl cover.

How my driver side door looks right now and the rear door looked before the FG.

A shot of the speaker in the mount on top of the panel.

Ready for a close-up?

Clearence shot.

Left Side.

Right Side.

Mocked up on the door.

Door closed.

Back seat on the left, front seat on the right.

A lil lower but same thing.

I have enough room.

Interesting looking pic dunno how the color got like that but it looks cool! lol.

That is how it is coming so far, updated pics still to come, only one problem. . . . WE ARE RUNNING LOW ON RESIN!!!!!!!! lol I buy resin by the gallon for $30 a pop, but am trying to look into getting a 5 gallon bucket from my uncles friend, we will see what happens.

Thanks for looking guys and keep the comments coming!

Just a few final shots for the day.

BTW if u look at this last pic you can see that I ran into my first clearence problem, the speaker mount will need to be moved up a bit to account for the FG that will be layed down. It is looking good so far and all is going well.

jlord16 wrote:

---

thats looking awesome

---

Thanks man I am happy with how it is turning out so far

Melted Fabric wrote:

---

Damn, as tall as I am, I would hate to be a passenger in the back of that car.

---

Yea the back seat is not really made for tall people either way, but to be honest it really doesn't take up too much leg room, as long as it is not a long 6 hour trip you will be fine haha.  Although I am going to be opening up the seat to see about modding it to make it either move the whole seat back a couple inches or making it so that you are somehow more comfortable, the only thing is that the back of the seat has a release latch to allow the seat to lay flat and then raise up at a 90* angle so that would also need to get moved back if I happen to move the seat back.

spookiestylez wrote:

---

maybe its just the pic but to me it looks like you might have to angle it up little more to get more clearance from that door sill, you'll want a little  play for the fleece and fiberglass. Good luck

---

exactly about having play, but I wasnt sure about angling the speaker.  I thought maybe just keep it the way it is and move the mount up about 1/4" or so.

What do you guys think should I angle the speaker upwards?

What I was going to do to get maximum volume for the box of the speaker without having clearence issues was to take 1''x1''x1'' wood to make a skeleton where I can fleece on that and make the biggest box possible to make the proper volume which is .375ft.cu. including driver displacement and bracing displacement.  Does this sound like a good plan?  I also plan on using pinto beans to measure the volume of the enclosure which I believe will work more efficiently than packing peanuts.

wasnt there any way you could have had the sub magnet in the door? I know on my rear doors when I mounted my subs there, even though it wasnt a stock speaker location, there was still a hole cut in the bar metal after removing the door panel. I had to cut the hole a little bigger, but I eventually made it work without too much modding.

Looks pretty good so far. I just think if you can get the sub to sit a little further back into the door it would solve a lot of your clearance issues and angling it slightly upward would help a little too.

spookiestylez wrote:

---

maybe its just the pic but to me it looks like you might have to angle it up little more to get more clearance from that door sill, you'll want a little  play for the fleece and fiberglass. Good luck

---

exactly about having play, but I wasnt sure about angling the speaker.  I thought maybe just keep it the way it is and move the mount up about 1/4" or so.

What do you guys think should I angle the speaker upwards?

What I was going to do to get maximum volume for the box of the speaker without having clearence issues was to take 1''x1''x1'' wood to make a skeleton where I can fleece on that and make the biggest box possible to make the proper volume which is .375ft.cu. including driver displacement and bracing displacement.  Does this sound like a good plan?  I also plan on using pinto beans to measure the volume of the enclosure which I believe will work more efficiently than packing peanuts.

[/QUOTE]

I think the enclosure angled up a little bit would make it look alot better and possibly sound better that having it straight in, in my previous post I was  just making sure you have enough clearance for all the materials needed to complete the enclosure , cuz it didnt look have you had enough room. Good Luck on ya project.

yea I was thinking about angling it in the begining but ended up not doing it, but if you guys back me up on the first idea than angle it is! haha.  I dunno about actually insetting the speaker though, that is a fairly good size hole to cut into my door!  lol.  But it is looking good, as soon as I get back home, I will get on top of framing a skeleton to give me my guidlines to create the best possible enclosure.  When I do that I will need some suggestions as I have a couple of ideas in my head, but are hard to explain verbally or in our case in writting haha.  We will see what you guys think actually looks the best.  Anywho thanks for all the compliments and encouragement.

o0o almost forgot haha you are probably right about the footrest comment . . .  . . .

haha nah man don't even trip potato chip I thought it was pretty funny, because the funniest things in life are the things that are true!  I will make sure that if anybody decides to use it as a footrest they either pay me for the material I use to cover the door in at the end, or I will just throw them the hell outta my car! lol.  But yea it is looking good so far and I think it will be nice at the end.  I seen your project on the front of that bug and it looks b***in!

I haven't quite gotten to the point of thinking about what I should use to cover my new door panels though.  Anybody have some suggestions in mind??

BTW I was going to ask, anybody know what a good deal on  5 gallon bucket of resin is, I had a guy tell me who would sell me a 5er for $150 when I though about it, it comes out to the same price if I buy the gallon bucket that I currently buy at OSH which is on the same block I live on, about 50 steps and I am in the door! lol

mustangfoo wrote:

---

yea I probably could do that sonata, but I think having it completely enclosed and not open to the elements is probably a better idea considering $135 a speaker.

---

I never said you couldnt build a box around it. Im using the foam baffles from crutchfield as my box for the subs in my door. I coated the outside with resin/bondo mix and now its quite solid and the sub is protected.

you could always use expandable foam to help you build a fiberglass box around the sub on the back side if you choose to recess it in the door.

When using vinyl on areas with lots of curves, its best to send the extra money and get the stuff that is much higher quality and extra stretchy. I tried to wrap my kicks in high quality vinyl but there was just too many curves and it turned out like sh!t. I ended up using suede flocker on them. Turned out really nice.

well I dont know what I will cover it with that was just an idea because of price and it looks very nice.

N-E-Ways here are a couple of pics 2 to freak some of u guys out.  I am currently having porblems getting the speaker mount not to move when stretching the fleece.  I opened another thread for some help on that but anybody that checks this one out if they can gimme some pointers it would be great.  I had done a kick panel with the same fleece and did not have a problem but darn it I am now.  Besides that heres a few pics.

Trying to get the mount stuck to the mdf and FG.

side shot.

And the rice I am using to calculate volume. it is about.4 cu. ft.! lol!!

true I could do that, but before I resort to that stage, I have used super glue with holes drilled and anchored the dowels into the mdf with 2 nails each dowel as a support between the two, and then hot glued around them.  I am about to go out and glue it to the FG and we shall see what comes out of it, if not I bought quick set mix glue to use also.

More pics to come in a lil bit, I need to get this glued up, and do some test fitting, as it was hitting the seat earlier, and also the fabric was sticking out too much either way and was hitting the seat when the door was closed.  Should be a nice result though, as the rice was perfect and the way I am going to adjust the final stretch should allow the rice to fill up correctly and to the rim.

ok guys, here are some updated pics.  I actually finally got the dowels to stay and not move even slightly with the way I described above.  So here are some updated pics.  I plan on adding some resin tonight, so tomorrow I should have some more pics.

pics of the SECOND covering.

filling with rice to check for proper volume.  All looks good.

After the THIRD and FINAL covering getting it correct! lol.

Hard to see, but on the door checking clearence.  All was good except one minor FG peak on the bottom which is easily taken care of.

Coming along good so far.  I need some $$$ for more resin so that I can get the other door started and up to this part.  After the box is made, I will be making an armrest and FG from the top to an appropriate spot.  I will be doing this to give the panel more of a 3-D type instead of just being flat with a FG speaker box.  lol.  From there I will put my aftermarket add on power window kit switch to the door.

haha that is for sure.  Besides in my car it isn't seniority, it's by height so the tallest gets to ride shotgun! lol

Anyway I just layed down a layer of FG and when it hit the area that were glued, it moved a lil bit not too much, shouldn't affect the end result, but it did effect how much sanding and bondo is gonna be needed! haha.  a lil more wrinkled then it was before but all is good.  Snaped some pics, and when it dries in about and hour or two I will snap some more pics and post them up.

If I am understanding you correctly, you are talking about how you get the fabric cut off after you are finished without affecting the "roundness" of the inner cut?

If that is your question, then the answer to that is to use the flush cut bit of your router to trim off all the FG without affecting the circle cut prior.  What the flush cut bit is and does, is that it is like a normal straight cutting bit with a bearing at the bottom which allows you to say cut where the bearing rolls up against.  Hope this helps.  If any other questions just ask if I am not able to answer there are plenty of vets in here.

yea lol, you should see it now, I might have to tak it off, because when I resined the fleece it came slightly unglued and moved and now I have a clearence issue with the seat.  I saw some better fleece at Joanns the other day, I got this one at Wal-Mart as it was the only and best thing they had.

As for grills I plan to make a custom grill, for sure as the backseat is smaller and the way the speaker is angled, I will try to get a few pics up before I take off the fleece and re fleece and resin it.

no it only has one layer of resin and some mat, should be easy pickin.

The project is on hold for now until I get some more funds.

Looks like the project is coming along nicely, cant wait to see it finished. Also, what power window kit are you gonna use b/c i was gonna do something similiar. But i want to do the power windows first, then i can incorporate the switches into the door panel i create.

Not to throw the thread all off topic or anything, but where did you pick up your kit.

Much appreciated

haha people are gonna hate me for this but e-bay haha.

dude!!!!!!!!!

very nice work with that i to would like to see the end product