How to build 17cm Custom Door pods

[Lippy]

I know this has been done before and threads have been created but I wanted to try it for myself and make a thread for other people as a sort of how to guide.

I registered as a premium member to see the door pod how-to guide but started it that night without having read the thread... lol

So heres how it went...

Firstly I removed the speaker inserts and cut out some 17cm internal diameter 12mm MDF rings and marked around the circumfrance of the speaker grills to get the outside diameter.

Then decided how much of an angle I wanted on the speakers by holding where I wanted it and then measuring how long the wooden supports needed to be

Next up I screwed the MDF ring & supports to the plastic grill.



Then covered it all in my gf's old nighty (dont tell her that though) and used her safety pins to stretch the fabric and hold it in place.



Mixed up some resin and hardener and covered the lot apart from the parts where the speaker is eventually gonna go.



Cut out the speaker hole and filed around the hole.



Mixed up some more resin and hardener and cut some small pieces of fibre for the next layers, couple of coats of that and then cut excess off again.



Mixed up some filler and covered the pods in that, also used some gripfil to go around the inside of the pod just to add a bit of strength.



Filed and sanded down the filler.



Just for good measure i then mixed up some more resin with loads of hardener to cover all over the nearly finished item.



Next up is to Cover the pod in black carpet (dont want it to stand out because it will attract unwanted attention)

Remove the door card and put loads of screws from the other side to hold it in place firmly and fit the speakers. Sorry this piccy isnt very good



Cable management... lol... Duck tape (didnt want any rattling cables when I get round to making the sub box)



Here is the completed pod on the door panel







This one is more accurate as the flash isnt bouncing off of the door panel!



Will take better daylight piccys tomorrow fitted to the car, im gonna respray the grey parts on the speaker black when I get time as then they will be more stealth...

[bluenotesmiley]

Looking good mate, keep up the progress in this thread. I think the finished article will look pretty good.

[grant_evans]

looking good mate, gonna do some myself soon, how long do you reckon it took?

[NickB]

fantastic images mate will really help me alot when i get round to doing mine thanks!!

keep us updated dude

and id just like to say cracking job!

[Add91289]

they look mint. think il give it ago

[Predator_R32p]

good stuff mate only tip i can give is keep trying the pod against the doorcard as the resin will distort the plastic during curing

[Lippy]

Didnt have a problem with the resin warping the plastic luckily, have finished 1 Door and im really happy with it! It doesnt look as nice as yours Predator but I wanted it to blend in with the door as I dont want to attract any attention!
Removed my door pins whilst I was at it and had the door cards off anyway!
I will take some piccys tomorrow and put them on this thread hopefully tomorrow night.

Tempted to make some pods for the parcel shelf and mount some mid bass 8" drivers...
and also cover the centre pocket like you did pred but I wanted to mount a single component and 2 tweets (centre speaker)

[Predator_R32p]

would be good but tbh components up front and a sub in boot as more than enough for a saxo, im sure your pods wil lturn out better than mine mate, you seem liek your clued up on filler and fibreglass and looks like your taking your time and putting a lot of effort in them to get the smoothed even though you are covering them

[Lippy]

only want to be doing it once!, used loads of screws in the rear of the first one and a fair amount of gripfill, shouldnt be going anywhere anytime soom, il show you piccys tomorrow, the screws are a bit messy as they are at angles and a bit all over the place! lol
Gonna build an oversized 12" glass fibre box next but not too sure on... 'to port or not to port' I have bass box pro somewhere to work out small parameters and port diameter and length etc just dont know if I can be bothered with porting lol

Anyone know where theres a guide to fitting induction kit? looks like theres alot more to it than my old Zetec Sport but im sure theres not, just havent looked properly yet!

[Predator_R32p]

off topic but what induction kit is it??

you know how your fixing them to the door card with yet??

[Elliott]

Looks good mate, how much in total to make them?

[Lippy]

<Pred> The induction kit is a quickshift VTS one... brought it from Ebay for £14, bit skint after buying the car 2 weeks ago! Fixed the second pod to the card tonight but its raining so cant fit the door card back on yet , Put 3 big screws through the std fixing brackets and then loads more screws at angles to make them rigid all over, then put gripfil between the screws bonding the std plastic grill to the car door panel.

<Eliott> Hmm not thought about it really, Il have a go at a list... Nighty - Free, 12mm MDF - £2, resin £10 ish, hardner - £2.50, Fibreglass mesh - £3, Gripfill - £3, Filler - £4 ish £24.50 Total...

<Grant> Sorry bud hadnt finished them by the time you put up your post... I started them Wednesday last week and Have finished them today apart from fitting 1 door card back to the car, Been working inbetween and have been out to buy various bits, Doesnt take that long and if done slowly they are well worth it! approx 8 hours not taking into consideration drying time for resin and gripfill I took my time with it tbh

<Latest piccys are at the top>

Cheers for your comments so far all much appreciated!

How do I make this thread easy for people to find who are considering making custom door pods?

[Dazza1]

Looking good mate, defo different!

[grant_evans]

they look excellent mate, looks like you have done a very good job, wanna make me some?

[jdizzy]

nice mate

[Lippy]

Cheers for comments im fairly happy with them! Just been outside carpeting my ply boot floor liner, next im gonna build a fibreglass 1.25 cu ft bass box, think i might spray that though...
Making one set of custom door pods is enough for me thanks, but if I every get round to making a mould and selling them then il let you know!

[grant_evans]

Originally Posted by Lippy

Cheers for comments im fairly happy with them! Just been outside carpeting my ply boot floor liner, next im gonna build a fibreglass 1.25 cu ft bass box, think i might spray that though...
Making one set of custom door pods is enough for me thanks, but if I every get round to making a mould and selling them then il let you know!

ive just gotta stop being lazy and make them myself tbh, got all the stuff sitting in the garage but theres always somthing more important

[liam_b]

very nice pods mate while you have them out try make the fiber glass as thick as posibal will make the mids sounds better

[Elliott]

They are realy good, and for £25 to make them you cant really go wrong.
Think i may try making these myself its worth a go

[Lippy]

<liam_B> Yeah I made them a three pass thickness in the end more than enough as the pods are carpeted which removes most of the resinance, they are rear ported too because of the 5.25" speaker hole so no need to be any thicker I thought. Are you local to the Exeter Area Liam? Id really like to check out your stereo at some point!

<Eliott> Yeah Im pretty happy with them, I never got the chance to make anything like that whilst I was fitting Audio for a living as no-one wants to pay the labour charges for them to be made!