Custom LX450 tweeter pods, speaker and stereo swap (1 Viewer)

[nimoryan]

I am in the middle of a stereo and speaker swap in my LX450 so I thought I would put some pick and start a thread on it for fun.

Right Now I have a
Pioneer Avic x930bt head unit with ipod adaptor and gps etc.
Whole hog Sub adaptor and mounting plate for the rear.
Infinity Kappa 5 Amplifier for main speakers
Infinity Kappa 1 Amplifier for the sub
Kicker 6.5" sub with a modded front center console.
Infinity Kappa 3/4" tweeters for the door pillars.
Infinity Kappa 3.5s for the front dash
Still working out the door speakers as I want good clear sound but not sure what I am going to put in there yet. I know I do not want to cut anything in the car.

I am working on the tweeter pods right now for the front. I have mocked them up with fiberglass. at this point and will be making a mold for doing the pods in vacuum formed ABS

I Started by removing the mirror bolt / pillar cover and then used sticky tack to mount the tweeters until I got a good angle for sound.

Next I took a lightweight plaster of paris and formed around the tweeters to make a basic form of the tweeter housing. I them removed the assembly cut out the tweeters and wrapped it all in fiberglass to create a tweeter pod that sounds killer.

I'll post more pics of the progress as I go along.

 

[nimoryan]

Sorry about the pics, I can't seem to get them to load properly.

 

[guzzla]

If you rotate the images prior to uploading them to your image host server, they will appear as they should.

 

[nimoryan]

In the server and on the computer they are right so not sure what to do. I'll try and fix it when I get home.

 

[nimoryan]

Pics Fix

I got it fixed now, just loaded them straight from Iphoto and they work.

 

[nukegoat]

If your deck has some sort of time-delay functionality, it'll help quite a bit. You'll want to delay the driver's channel substantially.

 

[nimoryan]

The deck does have a delay function and there is a disc that comes with it that you allows you to use the voice command mike to set the speakers so the sound is uniform.

 

[western flyer]

You should produce these for sale. I was just eye-balling the tweeter pods in family Camry...

 

[nimoryan]

After looking high and low and scouring a bunch of salvage yards for something that would work good I decided to make my own. If they turn out good after I finish the mold I would be willing to make them and sell them. The fiberglass ones have turned out really nice, but are a pain to make and take a really long time. I planned on using those to make a mold to vacuum form them with ABS Plastic, so they would be easier to make and more like the factory ones. Still a long way from there though these are just some pods for my car. Curious though how many people would be interested.

 

[thatcabledude]

Looks good.

I would like to see pics of your vacuum forming process when you get to that point. Me and a buddy made a vacuum forming "table" for doing similar stuff with ABS. Took practice but it worked pretty good.

 

[nimoryan]

Update with more pics.

OK so I have the pods shaved down to fit the stock pillar covers and am fabing up a way to screw them together so you can retain the factory covers and they will be the point of attachment to the door. More on this later.

Right now they are sticky with sticky tack and I wanted to check fit and sound. all I can say is the sound is great and It will be better when I get some mids and the new sub installed.

Oh and i plan to repaint with matte, this rattle can said matte trim paint but came out way to glossy so I'll try something else later.

When I get this done I will post pics of the whole process, from original positioning to plaster mockup to fibergalss mockup to mold to vacuum forming....

so more to come.

Tell me what you think on looks? I know the pics are tough and don;t really do them justice, but would love to hear thoughts before I finalize what I am making.

 

[nimoryan]

Anyone want to give feedback on the tweeters? I might make a few extra sets and sell the I anyone is interested. Would like to know thoughts before I finalize the molds.

 

[western flyer]

Anyone want to give feedback on the tweeters? I might make a few extra sets and sell the I anyone is interested. Would like to know thoughts before I finalize the molds.

Is the overall pod volume necessary? IOW, could you slim down your molds so they look a bit less bulbous and organic? I was thinking that the interior of the 80 is not uber rounded, so if you could get the volume of the pod down, and straighten some edges a bit, it would match better. All opinion, of course... I appreciate the work you are putting in here.

 

[nimoryan]

I tried about a dozed different ways of doing it. In truth, they are just barely past the leading edge of the dash. and look fairly good when you are in the car. I d agree they are a bit big though. The point was to get the sound directed at the driver and passenger in a way to have a good cross of sound without distortion. I could slim them down but then the tweeters would have been behind the dash. or pointed at the windshield. I will mess around with it a bit and post some pics of the transition ideas later.

Ryan

Is the overall pod volume necessary? IOW, could you slim down your molds so they look a bit less bulbous and organic? I was thinking that the interior of the 80 is not uber rounded, so if you could get the volume of the pod down, and straighten some edges a bit, it would match better. All opinion, of course... I appreciate the work you are putting in here.