2005 Ford Focus ZX4. Door Update 1/10

[just call me KeV]

For me, I can't abide by really large cases and it seems almost everybody is going that direction these days.

Anyway, collecting nice watches is good preparation for the sort of money you can blow on car audio so there's that.

I wont lie, I do have some 55mm case watches from diesel and the like but what I have found is that they are quite delicate. For me; it's reminiscent of the swatch watches I had when I was younger. Multi color cloth bands with a naked case and those were maybe 46mm and people thought those were crazy. This is me dating myself. haha
Onto some updates!

 

[just call me KeV]

Well I managed to get a wild hare up my posterior and have done a good deal of work in the last few days. I have completely sealed the rear passenger doors with aluminum flashing, sheetmetal screws and deadener. I did leave the outline so if I need to replace a window motor; God forbid, I can do it. Though it will be pretty unpleasant so let's hope that doesnt happen for a good while. Onto some pictures.
You can see that I have a before and after shot. There was a single 6.5" midbass in the factory locations. There is some non hardening modeling clay surrounding the driver on both the front and rear of the baffle amounting to about 4 lbs. Now my expectation and hope was that this was good for mildly higher temps but what I have found is that there was a small amount of oil that sweated from the clay and made a hug mess. When I used the cheaper shit in my Malibu (previous build), I had no such issues; though the car did have a permanent smell of wedding cake. Mostly amusing.

 

[just call me KeV]

Not to spam but I needed to start another post as I have a ton of photos to share. To begin I took some 1/2" baltic birch and made some light weight baffles with a few smaller pieces added to the rear for strength and add'l depth. The drivers I am using are 3 1/2" deep. They are the glass fiber Daytons that I showed in one of the previous pages. I am a huge fan of Dayton Audio and I suggest you check them out.

In the first phot you can see the holes I made in the door panel to accomadate the drivers. I will need to enlarge these slightly as I learned when reinstalling the drivers on the installed door panel.

Some further shaping of the panels will be required but I will address that a bit later.

No idea why this is upside down.

You can see doing some hasty measurements That I have the depth but when I attatched all the door hardware I noticed the upper driver is making contact with the sheetmetal at the factory speaker location but its nothing that a jigsaw and a metal blade cannot fix. Fortunately for me there is only a small section of the motor of the driver making contact with the door. like maybe 7 sq. in.

You see I am on the fence about further shaping the panel but I believe I will sleep on it since there is still a good deal of work that I will need to finish the panel.

About the yellow hardware. A few points. It is only for mock up. The panel; once complete, will be mounted to the door card from the rear and I will fill these holes

Notice the tape on the door frame? It has saved me from more scratches than I can count.

 

[just call me KeV]

Last post for tonight. The Bacardi has taken hold and Kev is getting sleepy. Part of building panels like this is getting them to have a smoother look by adding body filler to them to match them to the contours of the door panel. In a perfect world the panels would be flat like an old truck but what's the fun in that. You don't want to add tons of body filler to a panel. There can be issues with heat. Tons of layers which means length of time to finish the panel. Not to mention that this Shit can get super expensive esp. if your a baller and you are using products like upol.
So I got the idea to build up the panels with small bits of wood, then you can cover the outside wth filler. Thanks goes out to Peter from PSSounds for the idea.

A few of things that you will need.
1. Glue gun. 20 watts is more than enough for a project like this.
2. Glue sticks. It's like a fire in the woods. You'll need more than you think.
3. Wooden dowels. You can decide on this based on the project you are working on.
4. Coping/jigsaw to cut the pieces to fit.
5. KItty hair. This is slang for short strand reinforced fiber fill. You get the long stand and you will be having hand cramps. The good stuff can be both drilled and tapped but I wouldn't use more than 30 in. lbs. of torque.
6. Finally, the lightweight body filler (bondo, slang) of your choice. Use a good one or you will get small holes and pits. Which are a huge pain in the ass.
7. Plastic spreader/mixer. they usually come in packs of three.
8. Quality painters tape.

You can see from the follwing photos we are building up the panel to strengthen the panel. Its similar to rebar in concrete. When the kitty hair is added it will fill in all the gaps. A smaller second layer will be added to build the final contour then the body filler will be added at the end to finish cosmetic touches. Keep in mind were are a few steps away from the pretty stage. Any of these can be knocked down after you apply the first layer of kitty hair. I like to use a rasp, hand sand, and an orbital.

You can see there needs to be a little more glue applied.
Once the first layer of reinforced filler is applied on the outside we can apply a layer of milkshake. (resin/bodyfiller mix with catalyst) to the interior surface to further strengthen the panels. I've never been proficient enough to build super pretty but mine are always bulletproof.
After that is all completed I will cover in the suede that I purchased which will match both the front doors and the IB for the 18's

More in a couple days...

 

[just call me KeV]

So I'm back with a few more photos. I made a mistake but rather than hide it I figured I would show you today then return later with the repair. In my haste and after about 6hrs working non stop on the car I made a mistake; albeit just an asthetic one. I drilled the holes so the alignment of the subwoofers is incorrect. I was so wiped I didn't even notice until I looked at the drivers mounted.
It's not a big deal and a quick fix so I'll eat my crow and fix it tomorrow. You guys know me I post everything. Total transparency boys...In any case I want to run the wiring closer to the upper center section of the baffle hence the orientation. I have some grommets on order so that the wiring will travel through to keep everything clean.
Why did I mount the drivers now? I just wanted to see what they would look like. It also felt as a landmark was acheived. The fact is though were still miles from me wrapping this monstrosity.

As you can see there is a significant amount of the rear deck area that is taped off. There is also wooden dowels that have been glued to the baffle. This is the beginning of me filling the gaps before I glass them. Whenever I have a glassing project I like to get all the projects that far that way I can do them all at once. Since I was working on the doors I figured two for one.
From the pictures you can see there is a gap inbetween the dowels. This was deliberate. I am building a brace that willl go from the baffle to the ceiling/roof. Kind of like a stripper pole. Looking from the trunk there will be another brace so It appears to run through the entire car. I know it's hard to wrap the idea around your head but when I make some more gains in the fab department it will begin to make sense.

Ahhh... the doors. I had a hell of a time with keeping the tape from delamanating in this damn heat. Despite cleaning the door panels beforehand. It's also been a bit of time using fiberglass (10 years-ish) so I mixed a couple batches with too much catalyst/activator and they cured before I could use them. Frustrating..
Neverless the first layer has been applied and I can fill the other harder to reach gaps once I remove them. This will give me a chance to retape the doors after some further modification. I also need to cut the holes for the doors and remove some of the sheetmetal to accomadate (sp?) those huge motors on the midbass. I'll take some pictures of this modification as well.

Even though I have made my fair share of mistakes and I am pretty happy with how everything is shaping up. I'll be working on the car all this weekend so we should be able to make a big push and I'll have more content to share. I need to speed the process up though I may have a new engineering gig soon and I'm already hearing talk of Canada and the Philipines.

 

[audiobaun]

So I'm back with a few more photos. I made a mistake but rather than hide it I figured I would show you today then return later with the repair. In my haste and after about 6hrs working non stop on the car I made a mistake; albeit just an asthetic one. I drilled the holes so the alignment of the subwoofers is incorrect. I was so wiped I didn't even notice until I looked at the drivers mounted.
It's not a big deal and a quick fix so I'll eat my crow and fix it tomorrow. You guys know me I post everything. Total transparency boys...In any case I want to run the wiring closer to the upper center section of the baffle hence the orientation. I have some grommets on order so that the wiring will travel through to keep everything clean.
Why did I mount the drivers now? I just wanted to see what they would look like. It also felt as a landmark was acheived. The fact is though were still miles from me wrapping this monstrosity.
View attachment 40784

As you can see there is a significant amount of the rear deck area that is taped off. There is also wooden dowels that have been glued to the baffle. This is the beginning of me filling the gaps before I glass them. Whenever I have a glassing project I like to get all the projects that far that way I can do them all at once. Since I was working on the doors I figured two for one.
From the pictures you can see there is a gap inbetween the dowels. This was deliberate. I am building a brace that willl go from the baffle to the ceiling/roof. Kind of like a stripper pole. Looking from the trunk there will be another brace so It appears to run through the entire car. I know it's hard to wrap the idea around your head but when I make some more gains in the fab department it will begin to make sense.

View attachment 40786 View attachment 40790 View attachment 40791

Ahhh... the doors. I had a hell of a time with keeping the tape from delamanating in this damn heat. Despite cleaning the door panels beforehand. It's also been a bit of time using fiberglass (10 years-ish) so I mixed a couple batches with too much catalyst/activator and they cured before I could use them. Frustrating..
Neverless the first layer has been applied and I can fill the other harder to reach gaps once I remove them. This will give me a chance to retape the doors after some further modification. I also need to cut the holes for the doors and remove some of the sheetmetal to accomadate (sp?) those huge motors on the midbass. I'll take some pictures of this modification as well.
View attachment 40792

Even though I have made my fair share of mistakes and I am pretty happy with how everything is shaping up. I'll be working on the car all this weekend so we should be able to make a big push and I'll have more content to share. I need to speed the process up though I may have a new engineering gig soon and I'm already hearing talk of Canada and the Philipines.

Work Remote/From Home, and just Place either Flag in the background man. Good to Go. LOL

 

[audiobaun]

"You can see there needs to be a little more glue applied."
Silicone works just fine and not as messy or expensive maybe?? Just a thought

 

[just call me KeV]

Work Remote/From Home, and just Place either Flag in the background man. Good to Go. LOL

I'd love to but most of it is programming plc's. Installing and fine tuning equipment. On-site gig but it's only 21 days at a time.Then they fly you home, but you never go. You always want to finish the job; can't lose my momentum. When I worked field service for Amazon it was 30-90 days on site but the money was straight kill.

 

[audiobaun]

Looks Awesome man. Im liking it!! Nice work for sure!!

 

[just call me KeV]

"You can see there needs to be a little more glue applied."
Silicone works just fine and not as messy or expensive maybe?? Just a thought

I'm always down to try new adhesives and the like. I've been getting a kick out of this little glue gun. Fun like I'm making something with my nephew.

 

[audiobaun]

I'd love to but most of it is programming plc's. Installing and fine tuning equipment. On-site gig but it's only 21 days at a time.Then they fly you home, but you never go. You always want to finish the job; can't lose my momentum. When I worked field service for Amazon it was 30-90 days on site but the money was straight kill.

I used to do work like that in the past.I wasnt allowed in some places to go beyond a certain distance and was confined in some places as well. Money was nice, but ya. I got used to it.Almost 6 yrs worth

 

[just call me KeV]

Looks Awesome man. Im liking it!! Nice work for sure!!

Thanks bro. I havent done a real big build like this in a decade so I am relearning stuff. Still hackish but with a bigger budget.

 

[audiobaun]

I'm always down to try new adhesives and the like. I've been getting a kick out of this little glue gun. Fun like I'm making something with my nephew.

Glue guns come in handy. They can be a bit messy at times. just keep the stick out when not in use and the head cleared be good to go.

 

[just call me KeV]

I used to do work like that in the past.I wasnt allowed in some places to go beyond a certain distance and was confined in some places as well. Money was nice, but ya. I got used to it.Almost 6 yrs worth

I remember before we went to Brazil we had a few fbi agents give us a safety briefing. One of them was pretty hot too. People are like you went to Brazil? I say yeah I got an escort to an airplane hangar where I worked for 14 hrs a day. How glamorous right. hahaha

 

[audiobaun]

Thanks bro. I havent done a real big build like this in a decade so I am relearning stuff. Still hackish but with a bigger budget.

Its always a learning project no matter the time delayed in or out of Car Audio. You always are learning different techniques to get things done. LOL. Ive had to rip stuff back out just because I didnt like the looks of it.. even though it may have been covered back up..LOL OCD I guess