Bought the Civic Hatch lease out, so rebooting the install thread

Haha, ya gotta love playing, building and experimenting
Amen!!

It's funny, back a couple years (or decades [emoji38] ) I wanted my installs to blow people away - though I only dabbled a little in competition, and with shop rides, not mine...

...fast forward through a bunch of totally experimental, cheap, stuff-lying-around, why-not winter beaters (can't drive the nice car all winter!) and too many forums, too many CES visits... maybe a little Pinterest in the past few...

Now it's just more fun for me to set a goal (or three), do my install - get stoked that I met my goals... and even if not that's an excuse to change things up. [emoji38]

DumDum is my idea of a competitor. Call me crazy but I NEVER loved the idea of competitors writing checks then competing as if that's THEIR accomplishment... it's the installer's achievement.
He's putting in the work, making the improvements, pursuing his goals AND the rulebook AND anticipating judges critiques AND experimenting - I love following his thread. :cool:

It's a car that would be on my short list (maybe just after anything 'Buwalda' and a few historical cars like either Richard Clark or Harry Kimura's HCLD cars) of "I wish I could hear that!"
 
Working around the freezing temps sucks - I'm hoping my texture spray ultimately is OK or I'm going to have to find a spray booth.

For now, I'm working on the parts indoors (basement shop) so they are warm, keeping the paint indoors so it is warm, putting it on a piece of scrap ply that's kept warm indoors...
Running them outside to spray...
Pulling them in the garage to fume off for about 15 minutes...
Then bringing them into my basement shop, opening both tiny basement windows in there for ventilation to let them cure a few hours at room temperature.
What a pain.

I'm getting closer on the bodywork - sprayed this filler primer a little too thick (find the run! [emoji38] ) but one more sand might do it.
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...and on the other hand, These sail panels - I haven't even started the body work.

There were a couple difficulties I've caused myself - I hoped not to have to touch the flanges that are where the doors closed, but I accidentally hit them with the hot plastic welder in a few places, so now I need to fix those spots. Ugh.

Other than that - these won't be as curved or flowy as the A-pillars. These just hold the other Bohlender Graebner Neo3s at the angle needed to align with the ones in the A-pillars. Hoping to basically just smooth them off, other than that - as-is.
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EDIT:
I think this is all the more shape I want to give them. Even after I sanded the hell out of it with 60 grit, I drilled a couple 1/4" holes and pushed it through for reinforcement, since adhesion to this kind of plastic is always sketchy.
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I may buy a specialty plastic filler or use my plastic epoxy rather than body filler for that same reason, to smooth this out.
 
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Getting closer.
Still a couple curves that aren't quite right - you can see from this angle.
And a couple pinhole air bubbles you probably can't see.

But - getting close to where I can get the texture on.

Bodywork always feels like an endless cycle of sanding, thinking it's good - then more sanding. [emoji38]
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Getting closer.
Still a couple curves that aren't quite right - you can see from this angle.
And a couple pinhole air bubbles you probably can't see.

But - getting close to where I can get the texture on.

Bodywork always feels like an endless cycle of sanding, thinking it's good - then more sanding. [emoji38]
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Looking good! Bodywork sucks....all....the.....time LOL. Maybe I'll get to hear your creation one day!
 
Amen!!

It's funny, back a couple years (or decades [emoji38] ) I wanted my installs to blow people away - though I only dabbled a little in competition, and with shop rides, not mine...

...fast forward through a bunch of totally experimental, cheap, stuff-lying-around, why-not winter beaters (can't drive the nice car all winter!) and too many forums, too many CES visits... maybe a little Pinterest in the past few...

Now it's just more fun for me to set a goal (or three), do my install - get stoked that I met my goals... and even if not that's an excuse to change things up. [emoji38]

DumDum is my idea of a competitor. Call me crazy but I NEVER loved the idea of competitors writing checks then competing as if that's THEIR accomplishment... it's the installer's achievement.
He's putting in the work, making the improvements, pursuing his goals AND the rulebook AND anticipating judges critiques AND experimenting - I love following his thread. :cool:

It's a car that would be on my short list (maybe just after anything 'Buwalda' and a few historical cars like either Richard Clark or Harry Kimura's HCLD cars) of "I wish I could hear that!"

why thankyou, it genuinely keeps getting better… and it’s just about to get even better after something I tried the other day with virtual channels to get left and right far more point source

demos when someone (who won an Emma championship in the U.K., granted I tuned it a little and built it’s boot for the I’ll fated Emma 2019 euros, pics early in my build thread from memory I think…) sits there and says “it sounded awesome before… but it’s even better now…” and “is there anything it doesn’t play very well?” Kinda make it worth it :)
 
Oh crap.

So - besides the endless "sanding" loop to perfect the shape - I decided to reference the OEM A-pillars and had an "oh crap" epiphany.

The A-pillars actually drop down about 1cm into the dash. You can see it molded into the original panel...
...and completely forgotten about by me when I stretched my cloth - which you can see from prior pics went ALL the way to the bottom.

So now, I have to cut and patch - a bit of a pain to determine my cut line by looking straight on at the right angle:
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Then you can see from the below angle what kind of hole I'm going to have to patch up - ugh:
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From the test fitting, I'm also finding two more areas I'll need to spend time on - both apparent in this photo:
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1) Even the small amount of material I added at the tips is too much to squash into the dash/windshield gap - and there's a bit of flex necessary to pop them in, so I'm going to try to reshape the glass so the tips are purely OEM material.

However, that plan exacerbates this:
2) Even the epoxy resin I used doesn't bond that well to this kind of plastic, as you can see.
That wasn't a concern if it fully wraps around like I had it, but now I'll likely need to drill through the plastic to make some anchors. When I fix that gap, I'll push the tiger hair through the holes to secure it. That way, when the tip flexes at install time, the fiberglass won't separate.


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When attaching fabric to plastics I always use one of the many SEM 2 part plastic adhesives then apply resin. This stuff can be used as a filler as well and actually sand decent. It’s not to late to cut back some of your filler & apply a 2 part epoxy. Also the original plastic prep. Clean plastic, scuff plastic clean again, then apply adhesive.
I didn’t read through he entire thread so I may have missed that you did this.
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No - I hadn't because I was completely not thinking of this area that recessed into the dash. That was even a thought behind the wrap - it'll wrap so I won't really have to worry about adhesion, the wrap and rigidity will re-enforce the bond inherently.

Now that I have this issue, I'm using an off-the-shelf product that I've had good luck with so far - though I only found it this year:
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That said -
When I do add the tiger hair to fill that gap (thankfully are least i won't have to worry about cosmetics, other than getting that cutoff line looking good relative to the dash), I'm still going to drill holes through the plastic and push the material through it - that will just lock it in a similar way to a wrap - anchor points that will ensure it won't come loose.

I want that confidence since I shot myself in the foot - I want all the originally intended integrity, as tempting as it might be to just rush the patch job to prevent even more timeline slippage.

Fortunately - this is an install for me. :cool:

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This might help visualize things -

I did end up with some other shaving and grinding to get here - but I have them fitting now. I have yet to fill that bottom gap, and I for sure have more rounds of bodywork to do to get the pods more, well, round - but wanted to share this pic to help understand the big-picture:
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For context, here's a pic of the last audition I did of this alignment -
I spent a whole hour trying to find a pic and all I could find was this shot after I started tearing the faux-car rig apart but fortunately I hadn't touched the speakers, so "good enough".
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The Bohlender Graebner Neo3s are in a sort of line array like in the rig - but in the car I especially physically time aligned them to a point between the headrests. You'll have to scroll back for the pic of the pencil on the wire - I'm not spending another hour finding that [emoji38]

Yes, eagle eyed observer - the lower one does have about 1/3 hidden behind the door panel - the bottom physically goes into the sail panel and behind the door panel.I didn't want to cut into my doors making more work and time, and I won't lose much - I've effectively got a physically time aligned planar driver extending from my windshield all the way to the base of the sail panel - good enough.

The domes are as far forward as I could get them. The Focal TN52 are in between. Before worrying about slight blockage or aiming with these beautiful tweets, the crossover points will reveal why they are rather simply mounted:

The real in-car Xover points I'll actually use are TBD, but I was blown away by them using these passive crossovers:
- Exodus Anarchy 6.5 (in cabinets) - 500hz down
- Volvo Dynaudio domes - 500hz - 2500hz
- BG Neo3 array - 2500hz - 10khz
- Focal TN52 as supertweeters - 10khz and beyond

In the car I'm hoping to improve things further - you can do a lot in a real install with a DSP that you can't with passives in a mocked up rig.

Can't wait - mainly just more rounds of bodywork in my way, now.
 
Rounds of bodywork.

Filler, sanding, filler primer, more sanding...
Filler, sanding, filler primer, more sanding...
For this photo we're still in the rough shaping - 120 grit angled sanding sponge after a tiny piece of 60 grit on a very small random orbit detail sander.
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Although for large panels, feeling the surface with your fingertips is the best approach to find flaws, you'll get to a point with small compound curves are tough to feel out after a point.

Also, filler primer (especially now that I'm spraying in freezing temperatures then pulling it into the garage, then the breezeway, then the basement shop for cure) can drip or pock, in both cases needing more sanding.

So - I use an LED penlight that works best to show surface flaws but for photo shot purposes this big flashlight gives you the general same idea:
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You can see the remaining flaws marked in pencil - and with this lighting you can see the flaws if you zoom in.

At this point, I'll be using only angled sanding sponges of 180 and 240 grit - and I'm thankful that I'll be texture spraying them, but you'd be surprised at what shows through texture.

Even if you were considering vinyl wrapping something like this, you'd be surprised at what can show through, so it pays to go a little beyond where you think you need it.

Filler, sanding, filler primer, more sanding...

Oh - you probably notice the speaker holes look a little rough - that's ok. The mounting surfaces are flat, the BG panels get gaskets and cosmetic trim on top, the Volvo domes have self-contained metal sealed enclosures, similar to done tweeters. Their wires come out each side, so I had to hog out two areas in each opening - and no, I didn't use a router for that, no need to get fancy there.


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Got them there:
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Pretty happy with then - this is a little glossier than the OEM plastic, but I'm not thinking it's worth the risk to try to spray a matte clear over this plastic texture, for adhesion reasons.

I'll take them into the car tomorrow to see what I think.

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I've been hesitant to wire these up this week - thinking through what my next step should really be... Thinking the glossy finish will be a little discordant.

So since the spray is a polyurethane texture (bedliner, basically) I initially thought of two things:

1) sanding solution / deglosser
2) matte clear

Sanding solution is a chemical typically used to degloss a surface so you can paint it, without causing sanding scratches. Crafty types use it to chemically scuff up an old piece of polyurethane-stained furniture, so they can apply that shabby-chic paint job.

Since bedliner is also polyurethane, and "glossy" is what I'm looking to reduce - why not try it on a test piece?
...well, it didn't do much. I did have some luck, but the finish wasn't perfectly consistent, which of course concerns me.

But surely clear won't stick to bedliner, right?

Then I came across this matte clear - says it "sticks to plastics" - which polyurethane is. Did some Googling on clear coats and there are some that are polyurethane based...
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Let's give it a try.

So after spraying some scraps of ABS with the mild-texture bedliner, and then taping across it for an easy comparison of the finishes... I gave the scrap a coat of clear.

My biggest worry was adhesion - it seems to flex without issue. This is more bend than they would get during installation:
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No cracking or issues - and it does knock down that gloss to a finish that matches the dash and door plastics (the glossy stripes have no clear, that's where the tape was):
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So I may get brave on a day that climbs over freezing, clear them, and try to quickly pull them inside, into the workshop to cure.

This is really making me want to make that workshop spray booth with a filter and outdoor exhaust that I should have made years ago...:cry:
 
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Gamble paid off. :cool:
New pieces top, original part bottom. Pretty good match on the sheen, now.
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So good.

I wish I could point you guys to a link, but it's a giant bundle of the softest closed cell foam gasket tape I bought way too much of years ago - I'm guessing I bought it at Parts Express. It's 1/2", it's 1/8" thick, and the adhesive is just awesomely perfect. Even after years and years.

I've never had to use it for something delicate like this before where I'm cutting it really narrow for these BG panels - it's working so perfect for that.
5 stars. Thank you, Parts Express.
I think.
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I did the sail panels already. I tested how I need to trim the real (3D printed in ASA) trim panels using the test set (printed in standard PLA). So you can see how the trim panels will finish it off.
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For reference, the cutouts that the BG Neo3s are poking out of are flush with the top of the door panels.
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I won't need to cut the upper ones at all.
 
Mounting the drivers.

The magnets aren't in these grilles yet - in fact I'm going to tweak and re-print the domes trim panels. Just not happy with the layer adhesion at the very bottom where it's supposed to cover the mounting flange - partly I think a 1mm thick wall is way too ambitious.

But here's a mock up, you can scroll to the primered pic above to picture it in-car.
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It dropped to 4°F today which is subarctic to me since we usually hover around freezing - so there won't be any getting this in the car this weekend, so I'll be getting everything finalized to go in.

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A 3D printer is a relatively inexpensive addition to any fabricator's set of tools, but one of the first things you learn is standard 3D filament - PLA - is designed to melt at low temperatures... Too low for car interiors, stuff will melt. Boo.

Lots of people use ABS but that does require higher print bed and nozzle temperatures and an enclosure to keep the heat in, a bit like an oven.

I found that ASA is maybe even better for car interiors, and I didn't need an enclosure - just a layer of Magigoo on my glass bed - 95°c on the bed, 255°c nozzle - no lifting and great layer bonding and finish.
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At any rate - I've found a few uses for 3D printing in this install.

I'm no perfect printer yet, pretty much ended up printing at least a couple extras of everything - but then those turned out to be useful for mocking up and verifying.

I've had the Focal TN52s for a while - they came from a K2 Power set back in the day - never used. I lost the metal clip and screw used to secure the recessed tweeter cup. No biggie, a few measurements and I made a clip out of ASA, convex to give a little geometric structure.
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Worked perfectly.
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I made those 10khz passive crossovers because I'm running the BG Neo3 mid/tweeter panels and TN52s as supertweeters, on the same amp channel. Well - I made them, so they have no enclosures.
They are just going to be hidden under the dash, but I just feel better with them having enclosures - even though they are bigger than standard Xovers.

This was an attempt to print on a glass bed bed at 88°F - before visiting the Magigoo site. Just a bit too cool for Magigoo and ASA. Changing temp to 95°F and I had no lifting.
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I printed this with "draft" resolution because I didn't care about the finish. Still is a 15 hour print, being so large.

Test fit of the Xover board over the mounting blocks inside, and of the XT60 connectors into the cutouts.
Rather than a super huge box, I brought the lid height down and just added an arch for the coil that's on it's side to ensure the inductors magnetic fields don't interact.
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Soldered 'em all up to the XT connectors and snapped them in place.
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Crap - I'm all out of #6 short screws. I need those to screw the board to the chassis riser blocks (printed 2mm holes in the blocks so I don't need to drill), and the lid to the box.
But here's what it'll look like screwed shut.
The holes are for zip ties because both will be hidden under the dash.
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Finally the speaker trim rings...
Square ones for the BG Neo3s, round ones for the Dynaudio Volvo domes.

You can see as these are being printed - I have recesses (holes) inside for the mounting screws, and 2mm deep mounting recesses for the little neodymium magnets that hold these trim rings on.
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The tape marks an end that lifted - no biggie since I'll cut the end off two of them - I prototyped with this PLA one I printed earlier:
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They fit:
View attachment 16892
 
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