Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I'm just about done with a set of kicks that I'm building for a fellow board member and I thought I'd post the pics. The first two pics show the bare fiberglass after I put a few rough coats of bondo on. My molds are very rough, so the bondo is used to help smooth them out, and it also adds additional mass and strength to help keep resonance down. I don't go any smoother because when you're using carpet, it's just completely unnecessary. After I'm satisfied with the bondo, I apply some asphalt based sound damping material to the inside of the kicks. The difference is pretty amazing. Fiberglass is very rigid, but because of that, sound waves can pass through it pretty easily. When you knock on them, you hear a "clink clink" sort of sound. Once you damp them, it becomes very quiet when you knock on them. After I damp them, I add a couple coats of rubberized undercoating just as an extra measure.





The next 4 pics show the finished kicks with the tweeters and grills installed.









These last two pics show the back side of the kicks. I've decided that I'm also going to start damping the plastic kicks just like I do the fiberglass pieces, and that's what you see here.





These kicks are a bit unique for a couple reasons. The first is that when they were shipped to me, the factory kicks were Beechwood. I painted the kick panels black. Secondly, the owner bought a set of MB Quart components that have extremely oversized grill frames. Usually the woofers are flush mounted in my kicks, but these grill frames were so big, they were actually designed to extend beyond the opening. When I first saw these grills I wasn't sure how good they'd look once they were installed, but now I'm very pleased with how they look.

Right now I'm also working on 2 more sets, one of which is for my own car. Once I get those done, hopefully I'll be able to get started on my custom component sets.

KCobain147

Those are pretty nice. How much you charge (unloaded), or do you need the speakers first?

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

You can PM me for that sort of info. I want to make sure this thread stays technical in nature.

Thanks

CaysE

Wow those are hot as hell. Sorry Rez, but it looks like you have some competition!

Justins86bird

I had the same problem with those MBQ grills. What I did was use grills from another 6.5" comp set when I made my kick panels.

ScrapMaker

Damn! I don't know what kind of car I'll be driving when you get around to making these for us! I may be in a 99 Trans Am WS6! Maybe I can get you to make me something custom... Those kicks look amazing.

So you did your typical fiberglass-enclosure-mounted-to-original-kickpanel-cut-out-rear-of -panel-to-allow-more-clearance-thing?

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

My woofers are on the way, and I already have the tweeters and crossover parts. Once they get here, I'll have a prototype built. I'm hoping to use the proceeds from my last couple of kick panel sales to buy the rest of what I need to do my measurements. Unfortunately, I'm in the process of buying a house (hopefully), so my money might wind up going to other more important things.

Yup.

ScrapMaker

exxcellleenntt... dude.

miked

Those turned out nice Jim. Carpet just seems to be the natural fit down there doesn't it? I've tried paint (sucks for daily driving) vinyl, le mans grill cloth, and other things on similar designs as yours. They all looked out of place in this era of car.

Give us your input on the imaging achieved with the tweeter placement. I'm assuming the mids are not 'aimed' to keep foot space to a maximum. To aim that big of a mid perfectly you'd probably either have to come out damn far or hack some metal in the kick area.

Post some pics on fbody.com as well!!!

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Miked,
I've found that the imaging is very good from both front seats. The image is high (above the dash) and as wide as the windshield. Center images are pretty solid and properly located from the driver seat. On the passenger side, the center image is a bit more diffused and hangs to the right a little bit.

The mids are mounted like they are mainly for space considerations, but since most 6.5" woofers have a good off-axis response usually up to about 2khz, there isn't much of a penalty to pay by keeping them the way they are. The driver's side is angled more than the passenger side to help keep both sides around the same amount off-axis for the driver, which has a lot to do with why the image is so stable for the driver.

Tweeter placement is where it is because I wanted to be able to position the tweeter approximately 3/4" farther back than the woofer to help align the acoustic centers of the drivers, which is usually neglected in car audio applications. This will help most speakers sound more like they are intended to, because the tweeter and woofer should integrate better. This location also gives both front listeners a good line of sight to both tweeters, and helps equalize path lengths. I've found that at least in kick panel installations, that the tweeter location is much less critical than you would think. Because there's so much damned plastic under the dash, no matter where you stick the tweeter, you get a ton of reflected sound, almost like a half-assed horn. I've still got my old kicks in my IROC that has the driver's tweeter stuffed out of sight way up near the dead pedal, and the highs are still clean with a good central image. Since I feel that tweeter placement is less critical for solid imaging, I concentrated on where I could put them to help them best integrate with the woofer.

Gummie

I'm the person that bought the kicks. The reason that I didn't post before is because I didn't want to be bombarded with questions until I had them in my hand. The UPS man dropped them off today, so...

For those of you that have been following my threads, didn't you think it funny that I decided on a pair of MB Quarts in my component thread and then Jim made this post a few weeks later complaining about how oversized their grills are?

I'm going to post another thread with a review, so please post all your questions in it and not this one so that it can stay technical in nature

I will edit this post and add a link as soon as I am done with my new thread.

Brisk

iTrader: (25)

very nice work Jim, you certinally are a handy man

Jtufts

now them are nice

i also checked out your LCD setup . all i can say is wow, all you do is good work

vortech35091RS

WOW, I'am very impressed. Do you do any of this for $$?

ScrapMaker

well, they certainly aren't free

BumpaD82

JIM ! would you be interested in building another set of these for some more MBQuart 6.5's (reference series not Q's) ???

I have the kicks / grills / speaker mount rings / mock up speaker (a old blown one) / etc. to send to you....

let me know ~DaVe

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Send me a PM and we can discuss it. Thanks.