My friend Steve, who i have met a short while back through this great hobby that is car audio, recently acquired a 2016 Ford Transit van that he intends to use for auto-sound competition. He contacted me to do some work on it when he found out i was going into the business myself. He wanted me to do the A-Pillars, which house Satori MR19PNW-4, which is a 5 inch midrange. He also wanted me to fabricate a housing for the Satori TW29BN-B tweeters, and install the Sony RSX-GS9 Radio as well as the Helix director. Steve had some very specific "wants" for the pillars. These were to 1) aim them on axis. 2) give them at least a liter of airspace. 3) Get them as deep and as wide as possible. 4) wrap them in Alcantara to match the soon to be dash wrapped in Alcantara, or a suede dash mat. and 5) do this all while keeping the protrusion of the pillars at or under 3.5 inches from the factory pillar surface in order to stay in MECA's Modex class. Steve saw them as wants, and if they didnt work out, so be it. But, i saw them as needs. No compromises.
First step, finding out what im working with, and how i want them to end up. I knew that since they were 5 inches and were going to be on axis and wont protrude more than 3.5 inches, that they would need to be recessed. Since theyre recessed, theres going to need to be a cut out, or "scoop". The black marker lines are drawn in a way so that when sitting in the driver seat, the marker lines look like it completes the circle of the blocked speaker perfectly. This will be the cut out.
Here it is with it cut out, but not at the angle of the drivers head rest, so in this picture it doesnt show the whole speaker. I should have gotten better photos
Heres what i was working with behind the pillars. since theres an airbag, i was limited to building the enclosure only in the triangle area below it.
After all testing and playing with ideas for mounting, this is how the pillars ended up.
As you can see, there was a metal tab that was stealing some prime real estate. In order to get the mids as deep and as wide as possible while still staying within the 3.5" rule of MECA's Modex class, this needed to be cut. There were 3 other tabs that held the a pillar in place so this one wasnt a big deal. The windsheild and dash were covered to prevent any accidents or metal shavings getting anywhere.
Also, getting the airspace would have been easy if we used that pocket seen in the photo. That would have made installation/uninstallation a huge PITA. I ended up not using it and still getting over a liter of airspace.
Tab removed.
Lower pillar area taped off and everything to prep for glassing.
Fiberglass layup of the back side.
First step, finding out what im working with, and how i want them to end up. I knew that since they were 5 inches and were going to be on axis and wont protrude more than 3.5 inches, that they would need to be recessed. Since theyre recessed, theres going to need to be a cut out, or "scoop". The black marker lines are drawn in a way so that when sitting in the driver seat, the marker lines look like it completes the circle of the blocked speaker perfectly. This will be the cut out.
Here it is with it cut out, but not at the angle of the drivers head rest, so in this picture it doesnt show the whole speaker. I should have gotten better photos
Heres what i was working with behind the pillars. since theres an airbag, i was limited to building the enclosure only in the triangle area below it.
After all testing and playing with ideas for mounting, this is how the pillars ended up.
As you can see, there was a metal tab that was stealing some prime real estate. In order to get the mids as deep and as wide as possible while still staying within the 3.5" rule of MECA's Modex class, this needed to be cut. There were 3 other tabs that held the a pillar in place so this one wasnt a big deal. The windsheild and dash were covered to prevent any accidents or metal shavings getting anywhere.
Also, getting the airspace would have been easy if we used that pocket seen in the photo. That would have made installation/uninstallation a huge PITA. I ended up not using it and still getting over a liter of airspace.
Tab removed.
Lower pillar area taped off and everything to prep for glassing.
Fiberglass layup of the back side.
