REAR SPEAKERS

Here we have the makings of the rear deck. I started off with the stock rear deck to make things easier. Unfortunitly my stock rear deck was not in very good shape. I had a tree branch go through the rear window and deck crushing in the rear deck metal as well. If I were to do this over again I probably would have started by cutting out a new piece for the rear beck first and then going from there. Anyways, it will not be that big of a deal. I was not looking for perfection here, just something a little custom and nice. Once it is finish the center will be cut out to help vent the bass from the subs in the trunk into the car. Then it will get covered in black vinyl so it does not have to be perfect

First step was to take everything off the stock rear deck including the speakers covers and rear vents. Then I simnply soaked the whole rear deck in fiberglass resin, and lots of it. This will make a good starting base to work with and make the piece stronger. The second picture is the nice whole from the tree branch. After the resin dried I did a quick sand just to get the big stuff down a little. No real need to sand it smooth here. The rough textue will be a blessing, a good base for the foam and fiberglass to bond too.

Next I made speaker rings the shape and size I wanted. Nothing overly fancy here. Then a figured out the angle and placement I wanted on the deck. I used a few scrap pieces of wood to prop then up at the angle I was looking for. Then I Super Jetted them right to the deck where I wanted then. It does not have to be really strong at this piont. They only have to hold the forces of the foam. The fiberglass will add the strenght to hold the speakers....more on that later though.

Next step is foam....hmmm, got to love this stuff. This is two part expanding foam, NOT THE STUFF IN THE CAN!!! The stuff in the can you can get at the hardware store will not hold its shape once you put resin on it. Two part foam can be found at your local car audio shop or usually at a boat supply place. With the foam I used is a simple 1 to 1 mix, pour together, mix quickly and pour it where you want it. It take about 20 minutes to dry and then you can sand it or whatever you please  Heres a quick tip: Get a couple of roles of aluminium ducting tape. Use the tape to kind of build a dam to keep the foam where you want it, almost like a ruff mold. I, on the other hand, was to lazy to run to the store to get some and instead wasted a lot of foam and time.

You might need more then one layer to built it up the way you want. Sometimes I sand inbetween layers but here I did not. I just mixed up another batch of foam and filled where I needed. Pretty scary looking at this piont, LOL

Here it is after I sanded the foam into the shape I was looking for. Try to get it as good as you can at this piont. It will save you lots of time later. If you sand to much just add some more foam. Foam is fairly cheap and a feck of a lot easy to sand the fiberglass or bond.

Here I just added some more foam where I though it was needed. Like I said before getting the foam base as good as you can will save you later

Time to fiberglass. Here I have found its easier to use fiberglass cloth instead of mat as long as you think you can get it all to lay down smoothly with no rinkles. If your piece is too curvy then you might have to use mat. The mat when soaked with resin will conform to the curves better but does not leave as smooth of a finish as cloth. Anyways I just cut piece big enough to cover each pod. I pretty much wanted to cover the whole rear deck with the exeption of the center which will get cut out later. This adds to the strenght and will help to get a smooth uniform finish.

On to the resin, lots and lots of resin. Here you want to soak the fiberglass cloth with resin. I use cheap paint brushs to apply the resin. Use the resin generiously here making sure to get out any air pockets in the cloth. As mentioned above you do not wamt rinkles in the cloth either. Try to get everything as smooth as you can. You will be able to tell once you start doing it if you have enough resin on the cloth. Basically if you can still see the white cloth strings you need to add more resin. The first coat is very important. Make sure all of the cloth is well soaked with resin.

After everything dries its on to the really fun part...sanding, sanding andmore sanding. Try to get it as smoothing as you can obviously. After sanding the first layer I usually add another layer of cloth and resin. A good way to tell if you need another layer of fiberglss is if you can push the sides of where you foamed. You want it to be stronge. Plus adding another layer helps to smooth things out a bit more.

Once you get things strong and smooth with the fiberglass its on to bondo (body filler), well actually a mix of bondo and fiberglass resin. This way it makes it a little more soupy and you can apply it will a paint brush as well. The mixture is kind of trial and error bepending on how running you want it. Plus added the resin to the mix makes it a little bit stronger but its still pretty easy to sand. A good even coat of this mix will be the trick. You can also see that I started cutting out the wholes. I like to cut everything out that I dont need from the back side, including the extra foam and the wood piece used in the beginning to hold the ring up. Once I have done that I resin the pods from the back side. This not only saves a little bit of weight but also make the pods much stronger.

Sanding, sanding and more sanding. Again just try to get it as smooth as you can. Once you smooth eveything out you might find you need to add another coat in places to get it just how you want it. Usually this final stop coat I just use straight Bondo to get the little spots.

Once you have it just the way you think you want it, it time to prime. Even with this piece being covered in vinyl I still primed it just to make sure everything is smooth. Sometime you just overlook a spot or two and priming it will help you see those spots. Then you can sand then out and prime it again. If you are covering the piece it does not have to be perfect. With carpet you will not notice inperfections as much as if you were vinyling it. Now if you painting it the piece really has to be perfect or the paint will magnify even the smallish flaw.