Here we are doing fiberglass kicks for a Dynaudio MW150 5.25" midrange and MD130 3" tweeter in a Honda Civic. First we had to remove the factory ECU located in the passenger kick area. It was relocated toward the middle of the car against the firewall. Factory carpet and doorsill trim is left in place, and the first thing you should do is tape off the entire area with duct tape directly over the carpet. Make sure there are no gaps in the tape job, or resin on the carpet will ruin your day. If mixed resin DOES get on the carpet, have a can of WD-40 and a rag handy. Soak the area well, and wipe it away. Shown here is the taped kick area ready for molding and the MDF baffle sitting there for the speakers.
After mixing some resin, use a 2" brush to apply a thin layer directly to the tape. Use small chunks or fiberglass mat to begin layering the area, making sure to thoroughly wet each mat piece with resin. A dabbing motion of the brush works best, ensuring even molding of the contours of the area. Cover the entire area with a thin layer of mat, and allow it to dry.
Then use a few more layers of mat to make the floor mold thick. The thicker the better, and over 1/4" is optimal. Here is a shot of our floor mold after thickening and trimming into shape with an air saw. This is a perfect form-fitted mold of the kick panel area.
Once you have trimmed the floor mold as in image 3, the baffle you want to use can be positioned onto the mold. Use pieces of back straps to secure the MDF baffle to the mold. You should notice we chose to countersink the midrange so the grill would be flush in the kick panel. This was done with bondo, securing the smaller cutout a full 1/2" lower than the surrounding baffle. Our baffle is 1/2" MDF, which is a good choice. After we secured the baffle, we set the speakers in and stuffed the backside with towels so we could listen to the kicks in "mock" fashion to ensure proper speaker angles and positioning. This also allows you to position for magnet clearance on the midrange. We had to also account for the clearance on the LARGE Dyne tweeter.
Once the baffles are secured in proper positions, we used Select Products mold fabric (essentially it is standard fleece) to stretch around the baffle and floor mold. Aerosol spray glue (3M Hi-Strength 90) is the glue of choice here, and you simply stretch the fabric tight in all directions and glue it to the bottom side of your floor mold. This gives your kick panels their shape.
Next step is applying resin to the fleece. Thoroughly soak the material with mixed resin across the baffle and to just around the edge of the floor mold. Allow to dry, and then apply another thin coat of resin to help smooth things out. Once it dries, you can use a razor knife, dremel, or router to clean out the speaker openings flush.
After cleaning out the speaker openings, pour some mixed resin into the kick panel and roll it around to make sure the inside of the fleece gets soaked. What I like to do to add stiffness to the fleece is pour in some more resin, put on a latex glove, and place small chunks of mat on the inside of the fleece walls. This helps add a lot of structural integrity to the enclosures and should be done! Once the inside is dry, it is time for sanding and trimming. Here is a shot of the kick after the excess fleece was cut away from the backside. I am using the D/A sander to smooth out the edges as well as sand down the outer walls of the kicks. Resined fleece sands very well , and you can get it pretty damned smooth without a ton of bondo.
If the surface of your kick is NOT smooth or it has "waves" in it, use thin layers of bondo to smooth them out. Remember the key to good vinyling----ALL noticeable imperfections will be seen! So, smooth even surfaces without any dimples or holes are a must. Here is a shot of me wrapping the kick in black vinyl. I have already sanded and smoothed the kick to perfection.
Here I trial-fitted the complete kick panel in the car, and our midrange grill fits perfectly flush into the opening. The tweeter is a monster and I had to make the opening sort of oval shaped to clear the speaker terminals on the sides of the magnet. Doing kicks in this fashion allows you to mount them VERY solidly in the car. Since it is a perfect mold of the kick area, it will only fit in one exact position. Once in position, I usually run a single screw thru the base into the inside frame of the car (thru the midrange opening). This pulls the entire kick tight against the car, compressing the carpet. I usually drill out a small hole in the bottom corner to run the wires into the kicks, and also use a 2-3" hole saw directly beneath the midrange to allow the mid to "vent" into the carpet. This gives it much improved midbass performance and a less-constricted, non-resonant sound. Please refer to the kick panel article for more on this.
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