dual4" kicks, progress...

[Poseur]

Okay, so some of you know how dumb I got this time.. putting a pair of 4" Home Theater mids in my kicks along with a tweeter. Lastnight I got my backs glassed in, for anyone wh hasn't seen it beaten to death all over the web and is curious, here's some shots.

These show prepping. I've re-locared my fuse box, and strange white mystery box on the pass side soasto allow more depth for my speakers to clear. The idea here is to get as far forward and outward as possible. Additionally, I'm trying to still retain a bit of my deadpedal becaus eI've been keeping track latley and I use it more than I'd thought.

After taping the area off and surrounding it with newspaper, etc, I used 3m#77 sprayglue to hold a few chunks of fiberglass cloth in place, then resined it all down.

 

[Poseur]

couple more pics for now... Driver's side all glassed, and pass side with one layer of matt glued and awaiting first resin. I really didn't get much for progress shots becuase digital cameras and stickymesses are a combination that I don't really think would be allthat good.

And then, both sides popped. I didn't extend beyond my useable area verymuch, but hopefully it'll be alright. Both have approx 3 layers of fiberglass cloth on them, and while they're decently thick, I'll be adding a couple layers of chopmatt before I trim them to shape to add some structure and avoid resonance.

Finally, for now. Here's the Driver's side backpanel with my full-scale drawing of what the faces should look like, and then on the top of the pic, that white rectangle is actually a chunk of 1/2" lexan (plexi-glass-like stuff that I picked up for free leftover at a construction site) that I'll be using to make grilles out of. The thought is for some led backlighting covered in grillecloth... Silly idea in my head, I guess we'll just have to see how it turns out.

 

[got wake?]

mmmmmmmmmm, fiberglass is fun i don't want to do too much FG in my new truck, cause i want to keep it simple and kinda stealth, but there are things i just have to make out of FG.

 

[Poseur]

You just wanna huff resin...

SPeaking of which... need more layers, no time like the present... *pops in a cypress hill cd*

 

[1sty]

Damn, that reminds me that I really need to get the pics of my STi's kick panels up. Maybe tonight

 

[sndsgood]

sounds like a group thing. i just started on the kicks for the fire, i ended up moulding them into the dorr trim panel that runs along the carpet. got the backing done and got the front baffles cut out just need to get my 6.5's mounted in the doors and i can start my listening.


one thing i did diffrently with these is used the tape, then just layed aluminum foil over top of the tape, used a bit of spray glue to hold the foil in. and made it tons easier to pull out and get the backing off.

 

[Poseur]

Okay, so it doesn't look like much, but I just added about 6oz of resin and 4sqfeet of chopmatt per side. We'll see how they feel, should be plenty of structure now, though.

Oh, and I haven't shown my speakers yet. They're Vifa BA11BG03-08's translates to the 4.5" 8ohm speaker they make for a couple versions of infinity's HT center channels.

2 4's and a tweet, MTM arrangement (the first pic shows them roughly how They'll be positioned) Gonna be interesting to get it to image, if they even will, but who cares, they're cheap. and I've got time to spare...

 

[1sty]

sounds like a group thing. i just started on the kicks for the fire, i ended up moulding them into the dorr trim panel that runs along the carpet. got the backing done and got the front baffles cut out just need to get my 6.5's mounted in the doors and i can start my listening.


one thing i did diffrently with these is used the tape, then just layed aluminum foil over top of the tape, used a bit of spray glue to hold the foil in. and made it tons easier to pull out and get the backing off.

I always just use masking tape, about 3 layers of it.


The trick is to use an air gun and fire it up under the tape, that basicly does all the work for you. It took me around 5 minutes to take out the molds and the tape and to remove the tape from the molds.

Kick panel tip:
Use a sharpie and draw the shape you want the kick panels to be on the masking tape once laid, The lines will transfer to the resin and glass and makes for an easy trimming pattern on the molds.

 

[Poseur]

I've actually been wishing I'da drawn out my shape beforehand... Of course, I'm also trying to see how little I can get away with using, so I really don't ahve a shape figured out. bassakwards perhaps. *shrug* if nothing else, my next set'll be nice.. *L*

oH, and is taht an F4i I see there craig? you doin the rocket thing now too? WRX wasn't fast enough? Honestly, with me, after riding one, I can't take any car seriously speed-wise.

 

[sam1]

damn you guys are up early!!! i dont even get out of bed until 6. but anyways, those are progressing nicely poseur. itll be interesting to see how they sound, and look for that matter. man, i need to get my ass in gear and start doing some of this s*** too.

 

[sndsgood]

some of us post in the morning from work



thing is sometimes where your speakers are aimed may change any orignal shape u drew up.

 

[Poseur]

Personally I'm just a bad insomniac *L* nothing better to do when you can't slep than get things done....

as for shapes, etc. I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna stick with this setup. changing things around'll be quite tricky. If I can't get it to sound alright, then I'll just make new ones. I'd have likely known by now if I wasn't too damn lazy to go get my mounting plates taken care of today... *shrug* ohwell...

 

[1sty]

I've actually been wishing I'da drawn out my shape beforehand... Of course, I'm also trying to see how little I can get away with using, so I really don't ahve a shape figured out. bassakwards perhaps. *shrug* if nothing else, my next set'll be nice.. *L*

oH, and is taht an F4i I see there craig? you doin the rocket thing now too? WRX wasn't fast enough? Honestly, with me, after riding one, I can't take any car seriously speed-wise.

I just draw out the area I am willing to use up and to make sure the foot prints come out as identicle as possible. I just deal with the speaker positioning from there.


I'd rather be killed then have an F4i. Actualy I would be beacuse the 280 Ib 6'4" guy I work with would beat me sensless. Its a 2001 Katana 750. Its my first bike so I am taking it mildly. Next up ZX-10R (thumb)

Oh and thats WRX STi!

 

[chuyler1]

Lookin good, keep posting pictures. Be sure to cut a breathing hole in the back when you're done...otherwise you'll end up with some weird spikes in the freqency response

 

[1sty]

Lookin good, keep posting pictures. Be sure to cut a breathing hole in the back when you're done...otherwise you'll end up with some weird spikes in the freqency response

I always end up with that even after cutting out the back so I typicly cover everything with dynamat extream and stuff the kick with poly fill after cutting out the back.

 

[Poseur]

Craig> *L* alright, sorry for the double insult...

Andyea, cutting out a venthole is definately gonna happen, I just sorta wanna see how everything's gonna be lining up first. I've got a bunch of that paint-on edead stuff leftover I'll prolly just sorta fill them with thatstuff as well.

 

[Poseur]

Okay, so I've finally got something inplace and working... So far, right around where me my initial thought for aiming/placement seems to sound the best... I'm now regretting that I didn't really work hard to squeeze everything in tighter, but it seems to be workingout alright. I might end up trimming some excess fat off of my mounting plates, but at the moment, everything sitting as pictured is sounding pretty good. Of course there's MUCH more playing to be done, and I've got to get my fiberglass molds trimmed to fit better as well.

I'm actually thinking I'll likely mount my crossovers as part of the kick, Glass them in up against the side kindof like the one on the pass side is sitting in the pic.

THe speakers sound GOOD, really good. I'm quite pleased, actually. Guess I kindof got lucky what with the parts express ordering and all (I actualyl sorta makeshift tested them earlier to makse sure I liekd their sound) I can't wait until I can get them actually into panels and somewhat sealed (vented into the carpet ofcourse) but to a point where they'll give some semblance of lower mids as well. I'm thinking that they'll actually extend well down to about 90hz or so. THe detail in female vocals is astounding... Much more detailed than most of the 6" component sets that I'm familiar with, For one of the first tiems in my life I actually thinkI might need to brighten my tweeter presence a bit (which will be happening anyways, because I've got a CDT "Upstage" supertweeter setup that I'm going to be eventually installing in my a-pillars as well)

This is serisouly coming together nicely, better than I'd hoped for, really I was hoping it'd sound atleast decent, and perhaps look kinda cool, etc. but this setup really does sound VERY good. Perhaps I've just not heard many kickpanel setups, but the imaging is SWEET! somehow my dual driver setup isn't negatively effecting things (though I do hear some strange things if I tilt them toofar in any particular way and the drivers windup at blatantly different distances to the ear.)

 

[chuyler1]

Looking real good. So much for reserving some of the dead pedal though.

I know you've already found your angle but sometimes the best thing to do is to disconnect the tweeter. The mids, as you found out, are most affected by the angle whereas the tweeters only care about the distance. This is how I angled the kicks in my Grand Marquis and they ended up sounding great.

 

[macklum]

Keep up the work ,you are going to have one hell of a sound stage . you should have a strong center image .
A suggestion for you if you find the stage to low . Find a set of small 8 ohm tweeters ,mount them in the A pillars firing across the dash using a crossover point of 16k with the use a capacitor .

 

[got wake?]

no more foot rest