Top and bottom currently have about 3-4 layers of 1.5oz on them. I just got through running a small amount of milkshake around the inner edges to get rid of any possible leaks.
A chronological history of my:
Jade Green / Grey 1992 Trans Am Convertible
Page 6
In other news, stretched some ponte across the
upper portion of the rear pods and got a couple of layers on in the next
picture. Forget to take pics of the process, but it started out like the lower
section shown. Ponte stretched and resined to get the shape. The ponte shown was
just getting hard. Once I cut it down, all I had was the concave curve of the
gap between the pod and ring.
Top and bottom currently have about 3-4 layers of 1.5oz on them. I just got
through running a small amount of milkshake around the inner edges to get rid of
any possible leaks.
Here are the pods all finished up.
Back of the pods:
Speaker terminals. I got them from work, they're designed to go into wall plates
in home audio. I was really happy only two 3/8" holes had me some double sided
terminals... Then I realized they had a banana jack hole running all the way
through them. Wound up going ahead and putting the inner speaker wire in place
and duraglassing the terminals to maintain a sealed pod.
Dampened the door skin and started cutting out the real door to fit the pods.
First pod hooked up and pop-riveted to the door. Metal is too thin for screws to
really hold, and no way to get nuts on the back side. There's going to be
dampening material over the edges and the final foam over the entire thing, so
removing it was going to be a pain any way.
Door panel attached. The speaker pulls it tight, which is good since the plastic
pins are getting loose real quick.
Speaker installed. Philips bolts right now since I'll be pulling everything off
shortly. I quickly hooked it up to the 500/1 and I'm pretty impressed. I'll be
able to play with it more once I get the other side hooked up. I'll throw the
300/4 in to get some safer wattage to really stress it.
Since I didn't need to squeeze two drivers in
the front of the panels anymore, I pulled another set of stock speaker pods that
were uncut. Unless I got really good at my Singer, there would be no good way to
wrap the pods. So I started to fill in the map pockets and make a solid piece.
Pods attached to panel, insert taped up and put in place.
Three layers blending up into the pod and duraglass in the corners:
Insert removed and back of pocket trimmed to follow the front of the pod:
Pockets filled with foam:
Foam fully cured and trimmed to match the contours:
Cut the awful 'cup-holder' from the passenger side:
(Side note, GM's wonderful planning of the 93 Trans-Am produced a cupholder in
the center console (right in the way of the shifter) and this warped
afterthought on the passenger door panel. After many complaints, the 97's
(console I used) went overkill. Pull out cup holder on the front of the console,
one farther back in the middle of the console, two in the back of the console,
and of course they left the wonder holder in the passenger panel.)
Anyway. I cut down the door shaped back plates and placed them under the now cut
down pods. Stock tweeter locations should be pretty spot on, mid rings will be
aimed (instead of pointing down towards the front of the center console):
Backs attached to pods with plumbers tape. Plumbers tape slightly bent in pics
as I elevated the back slightly. This, like the rear speakers, will suck the
panel to the door when I screw the pods down to the door.
Laid a few layers of glass over the foam. You might be able to make out the
strips of glass I laid between the pod and back plate to secure the connection.
Layer of duraglass on the pockets to smooth it out:
Had to add a lot to the cup holder area since it appears the panel curves in to
where the cup holder jutted out. I'm trying to make both sides match as best as
possible.
Taped up the back gaps and did a full two layers between the back and pod:
Attached the rings to the stock tweeter area as
my pivot point and then used some plumbers tape to give me some adjustment.
I then attached them to the door panels and installed them in the car to set my
final location. I got the general location that sounded best and then pulled
everything off again. I was able to get both sides symmetrical while off the car
and then secured them with tongue depressors and hot glue.
The stock tweeter sections wasn't letting me get a good stretch with the ponte,
so I did wind up cutting them out. Forgot the camera for a few nights, so the
next shots are after I resined the ponte and got a few layers of matt on.
Added some Duraglass to make up for some inconsistencies between the two pods.
Got that all sanded down and now have a few passes of Rage on and sanded down.
Tweeter cups molded in, first coat of primer and glaze on the pods:
Started doing final molding on the door panels:
Few coats of different high build primer:
Got the panels assembled for a small meet the week before CTC:
Just enough room for vinyl/foam:
Got the outer panels spot filled and foam laid down. Not enough room for the
foam and vinyl around the edges, so foam is cut to just be on top.
Got them wrapped in vinyl. Not the happiest with how some areas turned out, but
you can't see the issues when in the car. Been working on them with a steamer
lately and think they'll be fine. I've got to do a some hand stitching on a seam
on each panel, but it's behind the speaker pod and on the hinge side of the
door.
I've now got the speaker pods wrapped in foam, but unfortunately there's no way
to wrap them in one piece of vinyl. I've been practicing my sewing the past few
weeks. I've got a Singer 201 that works awesome on straight sections, but
doesn't do too well on curves. I've got templates that are good and can do the
initial seam fine, but I'm having issues getting the exposed top-stitches right.
I've been getting to know a local upholsterer, hoping to use his machine and get
it done.