Finally I got to do some real custom work again, seems like it's been forever. This customer is a great guy who loves to try out new speakers and gear all the time. He comes back regularly just to change things up a bit. This time, he wanted to take the kickpod plunge with his brand new Hybrid L3SE's and rework the door speaker position a bit. Since he does change drivers often, we had to make the door pods very user friendly so that he could. Here we go.

Stackin templates to relocate the speaker location.

Now, one shape.

All the rings stacked up. You can see the countersinking set that is screwed into the base is removable to allow for the trim panel design.

We cut the factory grill to use it for it's shape.

We applied some UPOL over the whole surface and over the edge to get rid of the area where the factory plastic and grill roll into eachother.

All done, ready for vinyl.

On to the kicks

These connectors take up a lot of space in the kicks.

Which just will not do

So, we removed them from their plastic container, cut away a small section of the a-frame and tucked the connectors inside. This gave us atleast another 1 1/2" behind the factory plastic kickpanel.

Here, you can see the shape of the future kickpod cut out of the plastic. I really prefer to do pods as and add-on, instead of building onto the factory plastic.

Same thing for the passenger side, except much more room over there.

Cutting the same shape out of each side allows us to use templates! So, we were able to build almost the entire kickpod out of MDF, outside the vehicle.

Next, we added a 1/2" trim ring to the shape, which gave us a 1/4" overlap all the way around to cover up the cut.

And the speaker ring goes in place, checking for fitment.

A little fiberglass getting some sun.

All the pods almost completely wrapped up. We couldn't find a match for color and grain, so we matched grain and we'll dye it for color.

Here is the speaker baffle and the door panel installed.

Now the trim panel goes on.

And of course the speakers.

And here are some finished pics.

These are some custom sail panels we made for his Hybrid L1R2's previously.

What do you guys think?

I think you are very good at what you do, would love to have someone like you near me to be able to learn from.......trial and error gets old

How do you do that??!! You're a machine.. I'm so envious it's not funny haha Awesome skills. I'll drive down to AZ to get some work from you

Glad to see you posting on here again.

Your work is always so damn clean. Lets me know I have a long way to go with my stuff.

Nice job Bro.

Do you pull the vinyl all the way to the back of the panel, or do you cut it right at the edge-wouldn't that be prone to peeling? You should make a youtube video of you wrapping a pod with vinyl sometime.

Really happy you posted some more work, everything came out looking like stock panels, I love it.

I also saw marks door panels you did for all the aa mids, epic!

I occasionally stop by the fiberglass forums and check out your section.

Do you pull the vinyl all the way to the back of the panel, or do you cut it right at the edge-wouldn't that be prone to peeling? You should make a youtube video of you wrapping a pod with vinyl sometime.

x2

If your willing, that would be very appreciated.

How do you do that??!! You're a machine.. I'm so envious it's not funny haha Awesome skills. I'll drive down to AZ to get some work from you

Sounds like a plan!

Glad to see you posting on here again.

Your work is always so damn clean. Lets me know I have a long way to go with my stuff.

Nice job Bro.

Thank you. For some reason, I am not getting much fab work lately. Don't know what the deal is.

Do you pull the vinyl all the way to the back of the panel, or do you cut it right at the edge-wouldn't that be prone to peeling? You should make a youtube video of you wrapping a pod with vinyl sometime.

I pull it over about 1/4". I could make a video next time I wrap something. I'm certainly no upholstery wizard, these were just super easy.

that looks sweet. i want something like that on my 03 tundra!

This truck came back in today for a little addition. The customer wanted to add some acoustic padding to the underside of the drivers and passengers side dash to kill any harsh reflections from the kickpods. Simply sticking foam to everything would not be cool, so this is what I did.

I started off by cutting pieces of 1/8" abs to shape so that the cover conforms to the shape of the components down there pretty well.

Then, i added some pieces to cover up the front of the components, again trying to make the cover as small and form fitting as reasonably possible.

This fastener will mount the piece.

Here you can see how I strengthened the bond of the plastic pieces. I used a 24 grit roloc disc to chew into the plastic a bit before applying the duraglas. Once it was cured, I used it as backfill to grind away the sharp corners of the piece. Especially near the kick pod.

Here it is mostly finished and installed. We weren't quite sure what to cover the whole thing in and also weren't sure if we were going to try a different type of foam so we just left it as is for now. He'll be back next week for me to do the drivers side, wrap them both and to tune the truck with a scope and an RTA.

Very Impressive work sir ...

Thank you!

Nice a/c cover. I think a little polyfill in between the cover and the a/c unit will go a long way in reducing a/c blower noise. Excellent job. How long did this take you to do?

Awesome as allways!! Love the integration into the factory kick panel!! Very clean and enhances the interior of the vehicle!

Good to see there are still a hand full of guys out there striving to do great work. Very nice job on going full custom while retaining a tastefull OEM feel. t