Grade me on my front door Speaker Pods - What do you think?

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RichElliott

RichElliott

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Grade me on my front door Land Cruiser Speaker Pods - What do you think?

Hi everyone!

I just finished my new stereo system! A good part of the time was spent working on making custom speaker pods for the front doors. Let me know what you think...

The placement of the front door speakers was huge PITA for me. With this project, sound quality was more important than OEM look and feel. Yet I still wanted to mount these huge CDT Audio woofers in a way that looked decent. Also, because of their 2 3/4” mounting depth these speakers needed to be at the bottom of the door. I ended up creating a streamline bolt on replacement for the stock map holder using fiberglass and MDF. I made the bolt locations in the same places as the original map holder for ease of installation.

I would like to hear what everyone thinks. Good? Bad? "Could be better if..."


BUILD PICS:

Traced outline of map holder with cardboard and decided where the speaker would go:
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Traced the outline to 3/4" MDF and used a router to cut out the shape. Also cut out a spacer and glued to the top. Used a rounding bit on the edges of the main piece and the spacer. I also bought a different bit to carve out some of the back of the main piece for weight reduction.
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Read up about fiberglass from a few different websites, went to Home Depot, purchased the fiberglass and resin. Then went to work. I used a t-shirt for the first layer of resin.
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After a little bondo and more sanding, it was off to the local upholstery shop for a layer of padding and gray vinyl.
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MORE BUILD INFO
 
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Very nice. Looks similar to what I want to do in my pickup. I think I spy the tweeters in the upper pad. So what, if anything are you planning to do with the stock cover?

What did you use for you base fabric to apply the resin to?
 
Slick craftsmanship!

You're way more serious about mobile audio than I ever was:p

My critique would be to find a way to preserve the door pockets forward of the speaker. That's my grumpy old man showing, but I bet you'd sell some if you were so inclined, maybe somewhat fewer if it didn't have pockets like you made them.
 
jynx said:
Very nice. Looks similar to what I want to do in my pickup. I think I spy the tweeters in the upper pad. So what, if anything are you planning to do with the stock cover?

What did you use for you base fabric to apply the resin to?
Click to expand...

Thanks man. The tweeter was placed in the top for the best sound imaging. It's actually a flush mount tweeter -- I hacked up the housing quite a bit on the back to get them to point back. The entire door is covered with Dynamat Xtreme . I removed the stock speaker and just put some black felt behind the grill so the tin foil would not show. This photo was before I glued the black felt on.

I used a white t-shirt to apply the first layer of resin.

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Luke111 said:
What size and model did you install.... They must sound great
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Front Doors: CDT Audio CL-62X 6.5" Component Speakers with Crossovers and HD-101 1” Silk Dome Tweeters.
Rear Doors: CDT Audio CL-6EX 6.5" Coaxial Speakers
Subwoofer: Memphis Audio 15-SC10D4 Shallow 4 ohm DVC
Amp: Alpine PDX-5
Head Unit: Alpine CDE-103BT.

The whole system really does sound great. It took me several months to get everything done. The system creates a well balanced sound with tight, punchy bass & zero distortion even at ear deafening levels. I have a friend who's a car audio nut and he was helping and advising me the whole way. He wasn’t afraid to tell me when I made something that was junk. On more than one occasion I had to throw out what I made and start all over. I probably made about 30 spacers before I learned the right way to make them.
 
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greentruck said:
Slick craftsmanship!
You're way more serious about mobile audio than I ever was:p
Click to expand...

Thanks!

greentruck said:
My critique would be to find a way to preserve the door pockets forward of the speaker. That's my grumpy old man showing, but I bet you'd sell some if you were so inclined, maybe somewhat fewer if it didn't have pockets like you made them.
Click to expand...

I think door pockets would be awesome too. My original design actually included them. This was my first fiberglass project... After reading about other people's experiences with fiberglass, I decided it would be too diffult for my first fiberglass project. I might attempt something like my original design some time down the road.
 
Luke111 said:
You solved my problem... I want to add 8 inch subs in the same area... These look fantastic
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Regarding the idea of an 8" sub in the door, let me know how that goes. From what I've seen with the door, I think it would be pretty hard to get and 8" sub to fit. Even with my CDT Audio 6.5" woofers, I had to cut a bit of sheet metal from the door to get the speakers to fit.

:cheers:

For my project, I made a downward firing 1.0 cf sealed sub enclosure that sits in the back. (It sounds great!) ;)

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everything looks awesome, but the stock speaker grill being there makes it look less professional. If it were me, id fill the hole and put new vinyl in that section. Great job!!
 
RichElliott said:
Thanks!

Regarding the idea of an 8" sub in the door, let me know how that goes. From what I've seen with the door, I think it would be pretty hard to get and 8" sub to fit. Even with my CDT Audio 6.5" woofers, I had to cut a bit of sheet metal from the door to get the speakers to fit.

:cheers:

For my project, I made a downward firing 1.0 cf sealed sub enclosure that sits in the back. (It sounds great!) ;-)
Click to expand...

You are correct a 8" sub would be difficult to stuff in there. I checked out CDT Audio's site....they make some pretty sick speakers .... I may have to follow your lead in the future as I'm not fully satisfied with my door components.... Its a huge difference then stock but it's missing the true clarity and punch that one gets from better speakers. I may have to pick your brain when I'm ready to move forward.....

Lou
 
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I don't think putting 8" subs in the front door would be a worthwhile endeavor. You just wouldn't be able to get the enclosure right, and it would take up prime real estate for a good 6.5".
Maybe the rear doors though, if you cut out most of the sheet metal at the bottom, welded in reinforcement, and the fiberglassed everything up.
Still, if you have a good subwoofer, when you get it tuned properly it will sound like the sound is coming from your front speakers, not from the back.

The pods RichElliot made look great. The only things I can think of to make them better would maybe have them pointed up a little, and keep the pockets.

Do you think it would be possible to use the stock pocket as a base, then cut a hole and fiberglass it into an enclosure?

This is one I saw that I liked. I'm hoping to have something like this eventually, except I'd still have speakers in the stock location, and I wouldn't have the tweeter down by my feet.
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There's some 8" slim subs that would work, but I'd look into some DIY audio speakers, if you were looking to put some 8s in there. I'd get some 8 in woofers, but not subwoofers. Keep the subs in the main structure, not doors.
 
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