Kick Panels

[olds443]

So this section seems a little dead lately. I know a few of you are doing instals on your Gbody's and I have been woking on one forever it seems. Seems I used to have more time before
Well hopefully this will stir some things up here.
Anyways here are some kick panels I am working on.
I had Q-forms in my Cutlass but they have been discontinued. They were easy to install and fit speakers in and in my opinion they sounded fine when Dynamat was added.
Anyways, one thing I don't like about all the pods I see people doing for G Bodys is all the curves, rounded shapes. The dash and interior of these cars have very hard edges and lots of square shapes and I wanted to incorporate that into these panels.
Here are some pics.
btw, this is the first time in quite a while I have worked with fiberglass and the very first time making kick panels. I did a set of build outs for a door panel once about 15 years ago.

 

[olds443]

I started as most do using dowels, hot glue and baffle to get the speakers positioned where I liked them. I know there are tons of theories for how to get the magic image and all that but this car will not be in any competitions, etc. It's just for my own enjoyment. I just went with what sounded good and fit into the locations. I went with 6 1/2's because I like BIG sound. For a smaller enclosure a 4" with some midbass's in the doors would have worked fine.

 

[olds443]

I tried out some shapes with cardboard first. Because I was trying out some different shapes I used some balsa wood and thin gauge metal to get some of the hard edges and shapes. These materials are cheap and easy to work with as well as light.

 

[olds443]

Oh and I didn't have a router to use when I first started so I cut out the grill and a pice to raise the grill surround area so it would be flush with the grill. I have a router now, boy that makes a difference!

 

[olds443]

Time to wrap it in fiberglass and drown it in resin:biggrin:

 

[olds443]

Did someone say Bondo? I used fiberglass reinforced Bondo.

 

[olds443]

After lots of sanding...... glazing putty and primer for more sanding...

 

[olds443]

Well I am not sure if I will wrap these in vinyl later or not so I got them as smooth as I could and sprayed them with rubberized undercoating to give them a nice vinyl-like texture.

 

[olds443]

And here it is with some tan SEM vinyl and plastic spray paint. I am still working on them. The other side is almost ready for paint and the grills will be done soon as well.

 

[olds443]

Almost forgot the door panel above is from an 85 Riviera with Concert Sound. It is heavy! It was just mocked into place and I am considering modifying them to fit the Regal.
btw I am saving all the stock pieces and nothing is getting cut up so the car can easily be returned to stock.

 

[DailyDrifter]

Looks good man. Im thinking about glassing a center console, with cup holder, guage pod, and laptop stand eventually.

 

[Old_Man_HyPsi87]

It is kinda slow here!

I have been looking on here for a few days and it just doesn't seem as informational here as alot of this website is...
I like to screw around with 'glass as well but never really have done much with it. I wanted to work on a tach pod, but I can't remember exactly where I wanted it, LOL! too many irons in the fire!
I got my drivers side door panel off and took out the door speaker, its an original and it looks like its brand new! I expected it to look nasty! I am going to keep them for now. I have the original stereo, the 4x10's and the doorspeakers and here pretty soon the dash speakers, so I will keep it all as a set in case it needs to go back to original. I hate gettin rid of stuff like that, don't know why...I always regret it if I do...
there has got to be some attempts at different speaker mountings in the doors. It looks to me like you could do some 5x7's behind those consert sound II's grills with some minor mods yet not tear anything up that couldn't be returned to original...
I know I have seen some 6.5's in there somewhere on this forum or maybe another...
Maybe I am under-estimating the 5.25's but they just seem so small! I know the originals are actually smaller than an aftermarket 5.25's

 

[olds443]

At the bottom of the main page for Car Audio go to "Display Options" and select a new date range, i.e. last 6 months, last year, etc. That will give you more info. There was a lot of posts in the past and info prior but lately it has been quiet in this forum.

 

[olds443]

Still have to finish the grill for the other side but here is the drivers side.
It is a piece of 1/4" fibre board wrapped with some brown cloth and the metal grill part actually started out as a Taurus speaker grill. Just cut, trim and bend

 

[garyk1970]

looks great....tired of sanding yet??? i know....

 

[Yedi]

nice job man, lot's of work.

I myself have a set of Q-Logic kick panels, bought them bout 5 years ago, I didnt realize they were getting hard to find, they are nice, but probably not as solid as yours by far.

keep up the good work.

 

[olds443]

looks great....tired of sanding yet??? i know....

That's part of the reason it took so long. That and the Holidays started right after I began these so a lack of time.
I am glad that sanding is done however.

 

[liquidh8]

Dude looks awsome! How did the color coat come out being srayed over he undercoating? Does it knick easy? I have fiberglass door panels, gauge pod and a few more interior pieces in the works for my century. The DP's and gauge pod are done, they are in my bu wagon. I'll post a few pics in the next post.

I too would like to cover them in vinyl, but have to get some a practice on other things. I had the q-logic KP's in my Elky, liked them, just not how the e-brake pedal kept me from relaxing my left foot.

Again, LOOKS GREAT!!

 

[liquidh8]

The chevy has this in it, but it is all getting transfered to the century.

 

[olds443]

The color came out fine. Part of the reason I painted them with the undercoating was so if they did get scratched or knicked I could touch them up easily and it wouldn't show. So far the only knicks happened when I installed them. The undercoat seems to have taken forever to dry, maybe due to it raining when I painted them.