Featured 2005 Ford Focus ZX4 new front door build 2 10" sb acoustics midbass 10/2/25

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

So, it has been a long while since I have done a build update. I have just been geeking out listening to the stereo trying to avoid the gorilla, neigh; the elephant in the trunk. Sometimes, I just don't have the motivation to work on the car. I have built 6 cars to this level of fab and I guess I don't have the fire in my belly I used to, but I digress. I started yesterday by picking up some wood and kittly hair for the build.
When I have the inspiration I hit the ground running. I made some crude measurements and got to work. I have a significant amount of gear to put in the car in a small footprint. I started with a rough estimate of how I wanted to lay everything out as you can see in the first photo.

This is a rough draft and after looking at the next photo; I knew there was some manuvering to be done. The trunk hasn't looked like this in well over a year. Given me the anxieties. lol

In any case I started doing my rough cuts trying to get it to sit in the car. I probably made 8 or nine cuts total to get it this far...

The eight screw points you can see are from the 2x2's I used to raise the platform. I tried raising it higher with 4 inches of clearance...and it..it didn't look right. In the next photo you can see I added a small bumpout on the drivers' side. I just felt like it needed it. The sides aren't symmetrical. I'm not sure how far out I will go as I have to worry whether I ledge myself up going too far and can't remove it for service without breaking it.

I boxed it out so it would look a bit cleaner. I think I'll end up putting a radius on the front side just to give it a little better look. Once I got this far I knew I could start the long walk that is finish work. I taped the area up and used some bamboo dowels and reinforced fiberglass to fill the gaps. I missed a spot as you can see but I will need to repeat this process at least two more times. So....much....tape. More tomorrow.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

I'll keep it short and sweet today. I still need to sand the holes for the snap bushings before I uphoster the platform. I should have it playing again tomorrow.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

I have a few more pictures. Cutting those fluted areas in the upper left were easier than trying to place a snap bushing there. That 1/0 has some give but it will out muscle that plastic bushing. I sanded all the holes and channels front and back.

Just watch how this material color changes in the sun in the next couple photos..
I am going to redo the hadliner with this material as well and let me tell you. This is some of the hardest fabrics I have ever worked with. No give..like at all. I had hand cramps that left me howling with uncomfortable laughter. Even though the panel is flat, this fabric did not want to play ball. Oh, I also found another adhesive from joann fabrics that is complete garbage. It's a good thing I had some Super77 on deck. I actually used a wooden roller to make sure the fabric got good adhesion.

Let me hit you with an uno reverse and show you the backside and some cable management..
I used the aluminum tape on account of me not being able to find my zip tie mounts anywhere in the house. No "P" clips. nothing. I had them in my hands two weeks ago. I'm sure of it. It was hot AF and (going to be hotter tom) I had stuff all over the car so I wasn't going anywhere. I don't have any cover and have built the entire car outside so if I need to get materials it's first thing or it has to wait until tomorrow.. In any case you can see in the photos it's easier to prep as much as possible before installing it into the car. The dsp RCA's and distro block for the remote wires could be prepped before putting it into the car. This is for the front and rear, and front and rear subs.

The RCA's that I used for the front and rear subs were extra long so I zip tied them and secured them with the aluminum tape. I had a few others that were darker and shorter but didn't really feel they matched. Too dark.

The flipside. The color really changes with direct sun and without. I used a speaker wire doubled for the remote and added a brass terminal with heat shrink. If it's worth doing; it's worth overdoing I guess.

As you can see above I have mounted a couple extra terminal blocks for a secondary battery input that I dont have just yet. I'm going to run a relay and/or switch for some Blue LED lighting as well. Just haven't gotten that far. I'm going to build out a trim panel for that grille over the subs too since I guess i've decided to build the whole trunk out. lol....

 

[BRAX Matrix SQ]

It's looking good KeV, how many months of physical hands on work do you estimate you have in the build so far?

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

It's looking good KeV, how many months of physical hands on work do you estimate you have in the build so far?

I’ve had to rely on the kindness of the weather. I am not sure how much actual time but I have around 30-40 just in the glove box sub. Building it and then matching the contours. A lot of this was new to me so I had to figure out how I was going to put something together on the fly. There are a few things I want to touch up. Like how the door panel seams for the midbass don’t match up perfectly and I would like to rebuild the A pillars as well but I want to finish the trunk first. I imagine I could build the car much faster now.

 

[BRAX Matrix SQ]

I’ve had to rely on the kindness of the weather. I am not sure how much actual time but I have around 30-40 just in the glove box sub. Building it and then matching the contours. A lot of this was new to me so I had to figure out how I was going to put something together on the fly. There are a few things I want to touch up. Like how the door panel seams for the midbass don’t match up perfectly and I would like to rebuild the A pillars as well but I want to finish the trunk first. I imagine I could build the car much faster now.

Completely understand, it takes time to create perfection!! My F250 build took a total time of 17 months with 9 months of physical hands on time throughout.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

Completely understand, it takes time to create perfection!! My F250 build took a total time of 17 months with 9 months of physical hands on time throughout.

I'm honestly flying by the seat of my pants most of the time. Freeform, Someimes I end up going through material but for me it's better to build something even if I know going it's a prototype. I have a really good imagination engine and I can rotate the part in my mind like auto cad; but its always better to have something in my hands.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

Ok. The heatwave is over even though I'm pretty sure I got sunburned...again I spent most of my day inside of the trunk folded like a pretzel. I'm 190 lbs and 5'10 so getting me in and out of the trunk is well equal parts amusing and challenging.
I have been trying to build the trunk out and made some decent progress.
I started by making some stencils out of some repurposed Amazon boxes. To be honest ,it took a good while to get the shapes that were needed. This did save me time when they were transferred to wood. Usually it's pretty laborious. Making some small tweaks and putting it back in the car and checking. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

This is how a lot of my panels start out. For tighter spaces and more detail I would use 3x5 cards but for the trunk this is enough. Once the amp rack had been built( temp installed in trunk.), and saw how great it came out; I saw the same material on a trim panel for the subs in my brain and couldn't wait.

Love the moths. They're bros. I have a butterfly bush in the front yard blooming for the last time this year and they and the bumble bee bros love it.
Once the template was transferred to wood I got a better idea of what i was looking at. My first idea was to cut a large circular cut out of the material but once I scribed it on the wood I couldn't find a way I like. Then I remembered that hexagons are the best a gons' so I decided to do something a little more geometric.

As you can see the two panels are actually two panels. When I attached the two piece together they would not fit into the car. Since they aren't symmetrical due to the reinforcing struts, and I'm the only one actually sees this stuff it didn't really matter. Besides, I think it made the build feel more mechanical. Oh, notice the wiring for all 4 amps is in? Just needs a couple more zip tie towers to tidy it up a bit.

Loose fit. I did drill some holes for the trunk baffle so the hardware could poke through. I could have used a forstener bit and just drilled to depth but there was no need. What you can't see and I didn't take pictures of, is three 1/2" spacers stacked, glued and screwed to the upper rear section of both panels. There is the metal of the trunk and it has a folded seam for what I imagine is for rigidity, that I needed a bump out for.

This is the center section which I didn't end up taking a photo of. Used some aluminum rivnuts for these. I never use a lot of torque to tighten them as I like to use lockwashers and butyl so well give them a shot and see how it works out. There is a piece of wood that will attach here and will connect to the passenger side trim panel. Should be easier see what I'm doing in the update tomorrow.

I had a couple more photos of them connected but they didn't come out great. I'm not sure if I'll build the trim panels all the way to the edge of the carpet but I may. I will definitely do the bottom section gap. We can't have that. I'm always psychotic about stuff like this.
More tomorrow....

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

I had forgotten to mention a couple of things. If you can't see from the photo, the wiring is silver tinned ofc from Knu concepts. I ended up buying much more than I needed. The colors were just what the doctor ordered though. The blue fabric I might've posted already is for a much needed refresh. The grey suede has been in the car for well over a year and has visible signs of wear. The black is 3 yards of suede meant for the trunk..

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

So, I'm still working on the trunk. I made a few mistakes today, (simple cosmetic issues) but I think with the hardware I bought I can turn them into a boon for the build. I wanted the trim panels for the speaker grille to have a little more meat, as it were. That being the case; I went with my wooden dowel/kitty hair approach.
Ideally, I would trim out the entire trunk with the wood including the underside of the rear deck but I would like to hear music in the car again and with work, and the traveling; I wanted to have the car stereo playing before I leave. I still have a a month or so; but, yeah. It's kind of like wanting to clean a house before it gets torn down I guess..Sometimes, I'm not so great with the analogies. lol
In any case, I got to work and tried to fill the voids around the bracing. I really am ok with having two panels but they need to be strong. This is part of the problem for me. People ask, "Do you have a plan? I say; "I have some tactical goals and a rough approach... This is where I make mistakes, but we'll Bob Ross this ish' and call it a happy accident.
I showed the picture of the two aluminum rivnuts that I sank into the center piece. But as I was in the car folded like a pretzel drilling through the wood and metal I made a mistake and didn't have the wood seated properly. So, you may ask; the two or three of you actuallly folllowing the build, "Why all the exposition Kev, Why not just fix it." The reason, "I don't know." I'm going to leave it like that and use some overpriced brass cabinet hardware to plus it up." lol

I bought a 10 pack of these to use as "Washers" so we'll see how that turns out. The hardware I'm using is anodized for baby cribs, but has a particular look I have grown fond of. It's the same that is in door panel build for my midbass.
This build log is becoming more personal journal at this point; which I actually have (had one custom made and everything blue leather bound ETSY FTW!) and that's fine but let me hit ya with a couple more pics before I post another update to what has become today.

There's more work that needs to be done esp. at the edges which I have left open. I wasn"t sure how tight I wanted the panels to fit. I'll probably fill them in but I want to sand the panel first and get an idea of what I'm looking at. I know, I'm weird. More tomorrow.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

Made some progress today. I have a little tweaking to do. Originally, I had wanted to marry the center and right panel together but even with long strand filler and a support bracket, I was only left with a two inch strip to attach the two together which you can see in the photos. It was just to fragile and it needed to be removeable multiple times. I had to split it into three parts.
I will definitely not be using this fabric again. It was a huge pain in the ***. lol Not even going to lie. It yielded for nothing. My hands are still sore. It does look super pretty; and, when I cover the other panels in the black suede I bought, it should offer striking contrast.
But the elephant in the room; or maybe the one, only I and a couple others can see is the center-top. I need to make a piece that covers this too. You can see the top of the grill material is exposed and and now that I have gone through all the effort of making these panels I should do something about that.

I should be able to get the system up and running tomorrow and I'll have a few more pics to share. I need to get my mic and laptop out and give the car a good tune. Give you geeks out there some REW graphs and then we can turn to the A pillar upgrade I want to do and the rear stunt doors. I'll be using some planars and air motion transformers in a line array setup which should be pretty sick. ..

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

So here we are, done with the trunk...And my back is super happy. I'm pretty healthy (runner with treadmill in bedroom) and flexible but at 46 years old this was definitely kicking my ***. There was just no easy way to do most of the work. I had to either be in the trunk completely or I was straddling the bumper with my legs in the air. No joke.

This is me at ~21 hours total. I am pretty happy with how it came out. There are a coulple more things I would like to do but I can get everything working and running in the meantime. I want to build a mount for fire extinguisher. I also need a place for my trauma kit and tourniquets. (I've seen 3 accidents this year coming home from work not including a rollover accident.) If you want to be a good guy, carry a med kit with you and take a "Stop the bleed," class.

Back to the topic at hand. I was able to wrap the panels in suede and God almighty. Suede does not like compound angles. I sincerely had to take a step back and breathe for a minute. I had to start with the compound angles first. Luckily the panels are made from a reinforced cardbord so I could manipulate them a bit. I should've used a lycra or something with any kind of stretch..at all, but man; the final result made it worth it.
So onto the pictures...

Here is the hardware that I used. It is a decorative washer used for backstops and knobs. I forget the proper term for it. The hardware is an anodized 6mm allen head screw/bolt. When I decided to build the car I really wanted to carry the same hardware throughout the entire build. I use the same in the front doors as well. It's all brass.

Pictures a little blurry. Fudge. lol With super 77 all over my hands. Here's a picture for reference.^^^ I use the same hardware everywhere. It's used for furniture, baby cribs, etc. It's all 6mm. The chrome pan allen head to attach all the speakers is all the same as well. I wanted to make it as easy as possible to take apart and there is something to be said when it comes to symmetry. It's those little touches that can personalize your build. Make it special.

I could've went further but I have always enjoyed a function over form approach and considering I am but; "One man with a jigsaw on his lawn. "This is as far as I wanted to go, with the trunk at least. This suede picks up dirt like no other. I could've went with a blue but I can't imagine trying to keep that clean.

The trunk is a bit messy still and the car definitely needs to be washed. There are a few wires that need to be hooked up. I'd love to figure out some way to run copper tubing from the baffle to the distro-block but sometimes you have to know when to say when. When I start getting that tunnel vision, that's when I know I need to back off.

I am going to build a trim panel for the center between the subs to cover the mdf but I'm not done working it out in my head. I should have done it earlier but sometimes that's my process. I was originally going to use speaker grille material to cover it. It's easy to pull out even with the amp rack installed so I'll think on it a spell..

I am super anxious to start work on the rear stunt doors and have some crazy ideas I can't wait to show you guys but it many be Mid Oct. when I get started on them. I also have the full range up front in the "A"pillar, the floor mounted midbass, so it's not like were done. Not by a long shot. I'll have a tuning update this weekend with a couple videos of the car playing; hopefully.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

So it's time to start working on the rear doors. I have a plan to build something I can use at shows. Nothing crazy. For the people hadn't seen the build in totality; here is a picture of the doors as they were as of this morning...

Not a bad freshmen attempt, but I want to push the envelope.

I took a sharpie and traced the contour of the body lines. I will build an enclosure in each door and use wooden dowels and reinforced body filler to match the contours.

Here is a shot of the panel cut. I have a lot of room to work with now.

I then added some rivnuts (M6) in both of the doors so I can attach the enclosure to the door with none of the hardware showing. I haven't done the math to see what the volume is yet, but I know it wont be enough to port the midbass.

Tomorrow I will lay out a tape template that I can transfer to wood. Then I'll bolt it to the door and resecure the door card. The 1" baffle will be attached to the base by a few wood standoffs. Once this is complete I can use hot glue and wooden dowels to match the "enclosure to the door card. Then comes a ton of bodywork.
I cut it pretty close to the edge of the door panel since I want to completely cover the bottom of the door with this fiberglass panel

This is the first step. Once I build this out completely I will start on the top which will have sort of a crescent shape; housing eight 5" sealed back fullrange and two tweeters similar to the ones in A pillar.
Here is a picture of the speakers I am talking about. I had used them in a kickpanel build last year.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

Here's another update, as I continue to play to an empty music hall...
Instead of using cardbaord to make a template; I actually used painters' tape. It worked surprisingly well. I think the key is to overlap the layers and do a second layer of the first in an opposing direction. It was much more sturdy, (if that's the proper word); then I had imagined.

You can see the indents for the rivnuts that I sunk into the sheetmetal. Before I removed the tape, I used a sharpie to mark their locations. Then; when I lay the tape transfer onto the wood, I can drill right into those spots.
The picture below is with all 5 rivnuts installed into the door. The area has been taped up to accommodate the fiberglass. I cut short sections of wooden dowels to fill in the gaps around the base platform. None of this is really necessary as it will not be seen. If it's worth doing, It's worth overdoing; however.

Adding more reinforcement that really isn't needed, but I have this thing about gaps. I like to fill them and it makes an overall stronger panel. You can see one of my holes for the tape wasn't correct so I had to redrill it. No biggie.

This will be single pass with the reinforced filler. There is no need to go any further than this.

Above... A picture with the door card reinstalled. Which, coincidentally; I thought had more deadener on it. I will need to do some more treatment to the rear door as we go along. The areas marked with the sharpie show you where I will need to sand down on account of the wood making contact with the door card.

I spent a good amount of time thinking whether I should build the base all the way up like the area taped, but I didn't believe it to be necessary. The baffle for the 4 drivers will have an open area with nothing to attach to, but once I add the wood standoffs and mold it to the door card it will have more than enough strength. I'll be adding some deadener as well as some egg crate foam and polyfill.

The random piece of blue tape at the top of the door... This is my sight line. As I sit in the driver's seat looking to my right; Everything forward of this, is the area I can see looking out the rear passenger side window. (FWD of Passenger Headrest) I wanted to build some stunt doors to play music at shows but I didn't want to completely obstruct my view out of the windows. So, I sat the passenger seat as far back as it would go, and leaned it back. This is my mark. The midrange drivers (5") I am going to use are sealed back as are the tweeters so they won't need an enclosure.

Here is a picture of how far I got on the passenger side. I still need to make the cut out and add some dowels and glass it. I also need to add a rivnut in the rear at that tight angle. I should be able to start on the baffles tomorrow so I will have some more updates. It's nice to actually be able to listen to the system while still working on it. I have an "A" pillar rebuild coming that may ledge me up but that's for another day.

By the By. This last photo is all the tools that I need to repair/adjust or completely tear down the system. Speakers, amps, fuses, and associated mounting hardware. There are a ton of benefits to have matching hardware. It allows you to condense the kit you need to carry with you.

More today, I guess. Since it's after midnight. lol

 

[shredder1 10+ year member]

Here's another update, as I continue to play to an empty music hall...
Instead of using cardbaord to make a template; I actually used painters' tape. It worked surprisingly well. I think the key is to overlap the layers and do a second layer of the first in an opposing direction. It was much more sturdy, (if that's the proper word); then I had imagined.

View attachment 60389

You can see the indents for the rivnuts that I sunk into the sheetmetal. Before I removed the tape, I used a sharpie to mark their locations. Then; when I lay the tape transfer onto the wood, I can drill right into those spots.
The picture below is with all 5 rivnuts installed into the door. The area has been taped up to accommodate the fiberglass. I cut short sections of wooden dowels to fill in the gaps around the base platform. None of this is really necessary as it will not be seen. If it's worth doing, It's worth overdoing; however.

View attachment 60390

Adding more reinforcement that really isn't needed, but I have this thing about gaps. I like to fill them and it makes an overall stronger panel. You can see one of my holes for the tape wasn't correct so I had to redrill it. No biggie.

View attachment 60391

This will be single pass with the reinforced filler. There is no need to go any further than this.

View attachment 60392

View attachment 60395

Above... A picture with the door card reinstalled. Which, coincidentally; I thought had more deadener on it. I will need to do some more treatment to the rear door as we go along. The areas marked with the sharpie show you where I will need to sand down on account of the wood making contact with the door card.

I spent a good amount of time thinking whether I should build the base all the way up like the area taped, but I didn't believe it to be necessary. The baffle for the 4 drivers will have an open area with nothing to attach to, but once I add the wood standoffs and mold it to the door card it will have more than enough strength. I'll be adding some deadener as well as some egg crate foam and polyfill.

The random piece of blue tape at the top of the door... This is my sight line. As I sit in the driver's seat looking to my right; Everything forward of this, is the area I can see looking out the rear passenger side window. (FWD of Passenger Headrest) I wanted to build some stunt doors to play music at shows but I didn't want to completely obstruct my view out of the windows. So, I sat the passenger seat as far back as it would go, and leaned it back. This is my mark. The midrange drivers (5") I am going to use are sealed back as are the tweeters so they won't need an enclosure.
View attachment 60394

Here is a picture of how far I got on the passenger side. I still need to make the cut out and add some dowels and glass it. I also need to add a rivnut in the rear at that tight angle. I should be able to start on the baffles tomorrow so I will have some more updates. It's nice to actually be able to listen to the system while still working on it. I have an "A" pillar rebuild coming that may ledge me up but that's for another day.

By the By. This last photo is all the tools that I need to repair/adjust or completely tear down the system. Speakers, amps, fuses, and associated mounting hardware. There are a ton of benefits to have matching hardware. It allows you to condense the kit you need to carry with you.
View attachment 60393

More today, I guess. Since it's after midnight. lol

Empty venue indeed... I feel you. Cabin work is one of the most overlooked things in car audio. What is on or going on the floor? Once you deaden that you'll find all sorts of places needing attention. Keep on building and know the peanut gallery is taking it all in.

About 10yr ago I made due with what was available to me and built a dual 12 setup that went from 145db to +149db on the same power. Deadening is paramount to real results,

I blew the hinges off the rear glass at a show once, I'm sure the 200lb of deadening had nothing to do with what happened.