Made the door pod for the mid bass....

[I want a T5]

Finally finished a door pod for the passenger door 6.5" mid bass driver. This is the second and refined model as the first was a dry run so to speak and showed up some design flaws!

The idea is to create a solid baffle/mounting point for the speaker that also allows it to breath into the door cavity and enhance the mid bass response.

Thr door is pretty much sealed up but has a removalble plastic piece that reveals a letter box type slot in to the door cavity behind. My plan was to build a pod that would integrate with the modified door card that I have previously shown on here.

I started off with a cardboard template that fitted in between the window mechanism and the door edge which was then used to cut from 1/2" mdf. I bevelled all the appropriate edges in readiness for the shaping stage. This was then screwed to the door itself and then the door card with the speaker ring made from 3/4" mdf attached, was fitted to the door. I was left with a varying gap of 1-2" which i bridged with some dowel.

When the glued dowels were set and secure, I detached the speaker ring from the door card and then removed the card. This left me with the back plate attached to the door, with the ring standing off from the backplate. Then, I removed the backplate and ring as a whole and retreated to the warmth of my den!

I had found an old stretchy long sleeved top and cut the sleeve off at the shoulder. This was then carefully stretched over the whole thing and carefully stapled in place to create the smooth moulded shape. After I had trimmed off the excess cloth, I liberally soaked the stretched material with acrylic resin, pouring the left-overs in to the pod so that it ran in to the nooks and crannies inside.

Once set hard, I trimmed off the cloth so that it was all neat and tidy and removed the now redundant dowels. This left me with the shaped pod ready for reinforcing. Normally, I would have mixed up another batch of resin and used pieces of fine glass mat but as the insides were tricky to get at, I decided to just pug it up with glass reinforced filler carefully shaped with a small spatula and my finger so as to cover evenly inside.

A bit of a rub down on the outside and then a lick of primer and some satin black paint to finish off and voila!

Some pics below tell the story:













While I was cutting the various panels for this door, I cut copies in readiness for the drivers door so am now going to make a start on that side!

Note how it fits nicley in to the letter box at the bottom of the door and the slot in the bottom of the pod is for the air to move from the pod in to the door cavity. The circular hole in the back plate, is to allow for clearance for the speaker magnet as its quite a heft driver!

When it gets permanently fitted to the door, it will be screwed with some hefty self tappers along with a liberal squirt of some waterproof 'No More Nails' style adhesive. I shal then seal arond the 'letter box' with some black silicone mastic to create a good airtight join to the door.

Technically, this will work, I just hope that the somewhat confined nature of the pod does not strangle the driver's ability to make a good sound......we shall see!

[Dangerous Dave]

Brilliant, can't wait for your report on how it performs!

[claymore]

Great thread, I'm not into ice at all, but I'm really enjoying your threads, well written with good explanations and good pics to follow up the write up.

[I want a T5]

Nice to be complimented Sir!

[claymore]

I should also have said, great quality of work

[V70 Graham]

Very nice, quality work, looking forward to updates.

[Brett855tdi]

i love this stuff, not done any doors for a while tho, A class job

[I want a T5]

Have been working on the A pillars to mount the tweeters but keep getting distracted by a demanding missus (spent yesterday demolishing a wall to make our bedroom bigger! Plus this poxy weather doesn't help.

Pics coming very soon.