Fiberglass speaker pods DIY, lots of picks

[Rich White Male]

This is a tutorial for making speaker pods that fit on any car door.

Ok, first mask off the portion of the door where you want the speaker and cover it with a few layers of fiberglass.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado002.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado004.jpg

Once it dries, peel it off the door and cut it to the shape you want.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado003.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado005.jpg

Now, make a baffle out of wood and secure it to the fiberglass using wooden dowels and hot glue:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado010.jpg

Wrap it with fleece, pulling it tight so to remove all wrinkles, and soak it in resin+hardener. Once they dries, if it looks like what you want, go ahead and cover it all with at least 3 layers of fiberglass.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado008.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado009.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado011.jpg

Lots and lots of sanding with some bondo here and there, get a smooth surface:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado012.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado015.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado017.jpg

Now you can either pant it or cover it in a fabric. If you go with any high gloss paint, any imperfections in the surface will show like a zit on a pair of titties.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado018.jpg

Cut out the holes in the fabric and add the speakers. For this project, a guy was paying to make these for his 94 eldorado and he had some used diamond speakers (really nice stuff).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/project_eldorado020.jpg

Now just install it on your car using bolts through the door panel and run the speaker wire through the wiring grommet into the door. Here's how a pair I made for myself looked on my '81 Buick Riviera.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/danscar007.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Insomniac119/danscar002.jpg

If you want to do something like this for a subwoofer in the trunk, its basically the same idea, but you would need to use twice as much fiberglass to keep the panels from flexing. If you have any questions, just ask!

[Rich White Male]

bump

[RAM]

Good job. They look really nice. Seems like it would be an inconvenience every time you tried to step out of the car.

Maybe I just have big feet.

Is it good money for you to make these? How much do you usually get per car?

[Rich White Male]

Good job. They look really nice. Seems like it would be an inconvenience every time you tried to step out of the car.

Maybe I just have big feet.

Is it good money for you to make these? How much do you usually get per car?

It was, but I had a big car.

The fucker I made those for ripped me off and only payed me like half of what I thought I'd get.

[Virus]

They look fantastic, but I'm a perfectionist. The Baffle cuts are all rough :(.

[asilentbob]

I had wondered about how to go about this kinda thing before. Good shit.

[Rich White Male]

Glad to be of assistance.

[MunkeyQ]

Very nice job there with the fiberglass...looks extremely professional, almost like it came with the car in the last photo!

I will however add that I don't recommend building a subwoofer box out of fiberglass entirely without a sealed wooden enclosure inside like so many people do. It's a horribly resonant building material and the higher pressures inside will cause it to flex and sound like ass.

Car speakers are designed to work in an infinite baffle so if the enclosure is too small, you'll lose a lot of bass. I'd also suggest putting some bitumen sheet inside to damp the sides if you're really after sound quality.