Basic Fiberglass
Kick Pod
"How To"
I am going to cover the four basic steps of building a speaker kick pod for a vehicle. Mine was done on a 1993 Plymouth Laser (DSM). The process is pretty much the same for any vehicle, just adjust accordingly to your car. I chose a more simple method than fiberglassing into the kick panel of the car and making my own mold... rather I used the existing kick panel and worked off of that as a template. That way, I know it fits perfectly back into place. I will be using a foam baffle to create the enclosure. I am accustomed to and prefer the way the foam baffle sounds, and it is a quicker and easier method to building the kick pod. Please click the links below if you wish to skip pages.
4 Basic Steps:
What you will need:
- Wood (MDF works great, 3/4" or 1" is
fine, 1/2" will work as well if you're not flush mounting)
- Superglue and Hardener (go to a
hobby store and get FLASH and the quick hardener)
- Medium to heavy weight Fleece (Walmart dollar-table
works fine)
- Fiberglass Resin/Hardener
- Cheap Brushes, rubber gloves, aluminum pans or cans
- Staples & Staple gun
- Body Filler ( I prefer Rage Gold)
- Sanding paper (50 grit, 120grit,
320, 440)
- Primer (I use high build automotive primer)
a good spray can primer works too, just a few more coats
- Paint gun, compressor, etc (painting supplies, assuming
your using the better auto paints etc)
Building the framework for the kick pod is quite simple. I made some trim rings out of 1" MDF and used a router to flush mount the speaker into the trim ring. I will be using the grill as well, so I made sure that the grill and everything will fit nicely into the opening I made, and sit pretty much flush with the top once it's done. I rabbited the outer edge of the ring to give me a nice area to staple the fabric too. (if you don't know what rabbiting is, check out my Fiberglass Enclosure How To first). I also chose to round off all the edges to give it a clean & smooth look when it's done.
Once the rings where made, I attached them to the stock kick panels using superglue & quick hardener spray for the super glue. I used some little 3/4" x 1" stilts that I cut out of scrap. I got the rings at the angle that I wanted my speakers to fire. It took a bit of aligning and re-glueing to get them to match very nicely. Make sure you take into account the depth of your speaker. Once we're done, you'll need to trim away the remaining insides of the plastic kick panel, make sure your speaker will fit even once that plastic is trimmed away. I know mine will fit, because the driver side is already done so I don't have to worry about it. But if your not sure, test fit your framework with the speaker in place. It could potentially save a LOT of grief later!
To help the glue stick to the plastic, I scuffed the plastic with 80grit really well, then cleaned with rubbing alcohol
Once I had the rings in place, I stretched the fleece around the framework
I flipped it over and started stapling the fleece to the rabbited edge. I placed the staples very close to each other and kept the fleece tight to make a nice clean form without excess fabric bunching up anywhere.
Once it was stapled around the ring, I super glued the fleece to the place kickpanel, and trimmed off the excess fleece. This is where having the plastic scuffed up really well comes in handy. It will really make a difference on wether or not the superglue and resin stick to the piece.
Trimmed off the excess fleece everywhere I could, makes for less work later.
Ready for Primer vs. Just the beginning....
Go To Page 2, Resining the fleece to make it harden