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

[geolemon]

I'm sure you already know but..
Make sure to sand before you add additional layers to anything with cured bondo resin. It's got wax in it.

Lookin great!

I was hoping to avoid cheap Bondo resin altogether, but I lucked out with my timing anyway, with my mixes and layering. The curves and double-sided wood bonds helped - it's steel stiff. So no more layers needed, fortunately.

That doesn't mean I've avoided sanding or trimming totally - and I've definitely got some drips where I didn't want them, so those will need to be sanded off to let my panels mate up airtight - but nothing unusual.

[geolemon]

And...
...the cosmetic work begins.

At the end of the cosmetic fab comes the installation, so it's a good feeling to start it, even if that's just breaking out the wood filler and autobody filler.

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[geolemon]

Had a travel trip this week, just got back yesterday to find that even though I've been vaccinated, I tested positive for Covid.

So even though I'm feeling fine, I'll have to isolate even in my own house since my Fiancee tested negative. Pain in the...

Anyway, I took a rear door panel off to take a look. I started cutting sheet metal to seal it off. Then I laid down some Killmat, and then some CCF to absorb reflections.



On the sheet metal pieces, I put CCF on one side and Killmat on the other, and started screwing them on with self tappers. I ran out of daylight, but the other small holes will also be covered.

Now I just repeat this for the other four doors, and - guess what? There will probably be more work needed. Remember, these doors will all house my midbass drivers - I have no idea yet what will rattle until it's up and playing.

The reason I started with the rear was simply because I care more about my front doors - so I'll learn any lessons/make any mistakes back here, and have a better chance of a perfect result where it matters more, up front.

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[geolemon]

I also forgot to mention:
I originally said I was thinking about 3D printing some enclosures to go inside the doors. I even purchased some ASA filament, which is more heat resistant.

I simply decided not to START with that approach, because there's a chance this is not only fine, but better than inherently small enclosures.

I've been playing two of the Anarchy 6.5s in way more generously sized sealed boxes than I could ever fit in these doors, and even at that, they are pretty power hungry. So it makes sense to maximize their efficiency, even if it causes me a decade of chasing down door rattles

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[geolemon]

Here's the finished door before I snap the panel back on:

I'll be treating the panel itself when I remove them again to install the speakers.

Building on the point "I started with the rear because I care more about the front and will learn from the rear", the goo they used to seal the plastic inside is both annoyingly gooey, and placed in such a small circle around the openings that I kept getting it on my arms every time I reached in the doors, and then I got it all over my shorts...
So - process improvement:


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[BigAl205]

When AudioX did my doors, the pinged the metal with a hammer after installing it to tighten it up like a drum.

[geolemon]

I started today by soldering up the Xovers I assembled -
This is because I decided to run the Bohlender Graebner panels as my tweeters but they don't really extend how I'd like...
So it's my excuse to also run my Focal TN52s.

This passive Xover splits them at 10khz, so the TN52 will really be supertweeters.


Then I started making my router templates to make the amp rack window frame, and the two top panels for the sub box - one sealed, one holding two 12" passive radiators.


I'm using the template parts I made before to
1) locate the holes for drill pressing the mounting holes
2) create a template for the router to follow to make the dished recesses for the high-tech industrial look.

Going to be some tedious jigsaw cutting and spindle sanding to get the template perfect to the pencil lines.

[geolemon]

I started by using the drill holes portion of my template, transferring the holes to the actual panels.

Then, I used a hole saw and my table saw (jigsaw on the curved portion) to convert the templates to router templates. They looked like postage stamps at this step:

I used the spindle sander to shape each indent to the pencil lines.

Resting on top of the panels they will be used on, you can see how they'll be used to make the indented shapes.


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[BigAl205]

Are you a stamp collector?

That's a lot of tedious work...good job!

[Notloudenuf]

Jaws took a bite out of your amp rack?