...This project is still not complete I gotta finalize where to put the amps but dang its been a few weeks. I work full time and go to school and the past 2 weekends I've been on trips. Most of it was spent test fitting and then test listening of different crossover settings, EQ settings and tweeter positions.

But Id like to share these pics. I omitted alot of the right door pics, as they're the same as the left door, just a mirror image.

Components used are a 8" SilverFlute woofer and a 4" Vifa midrange driver. Tweeters are Vifa ring radiator. Crossed over by AudioControl DQX, using 212 Hz between 8" and 4" and 3.25 Khz for 4" and tweeter. Bass amp is Soundstream Rubicon 1002, mid amp is Rockford A500ii and tweeter amp is Polk C300.2.


Build up of left door test fitting 2 pieces. First piece is 1/2" MDF to adapt plate to OEM bolts, 2nd piece is 3/4" MDF to mount woofers.


Test fitting of door panel.


More test fitting.

 

Lookin' good! Can't wait to see the final stuff. I just started back on my project a couple of hours ago after 3 weeks. I was invaded by my family because of the hurricane so I haven't been able to work until today. Started the first couple of layers for the second box on the passenger side.

 

Application of Spar Polyurethane to keep MDF from swelling in humidity. This stuff was great, used 2 coats of it, smell dissapated after a few ays but it should be OK underwater.



Pic of the crude workshop.



Here you can see I had to use a heat gun to slightly bend the door skin to get the midrange driver to fit. If any one of the components were a mere 1/4" larger or thicker they would not have fit.


MIght not be able to see it, but the midrange is stacked slightly over the bass driver. As mentioned, everything barely barely fits.





Pic of the tweeter location. I did several different plates and decided this provided the best imaging, it was also easy to put them here too. My only concern is now they are in plain view, so it may tip off a custom stereo install.


Temporary locations of electronics, still ironing out settings etc before I do the final cut and hide all the wires etc.

One thing not shown was I used 1/4" MDF cut into the shape of those black vaptor barriers, polyurethaned and siliconed on the door. Fortunate we have a flat door to work with, it sealed perfectly and gave extra rigidity to the door "enclosure" for tight bass.

Overall impressions:
The only big downfall was a huge peak at 1Khz, most likely because the midrange drivers are about 1/3 covered and reflecting off the lower dash. I used -10 dB on the 1/3 octave EQ to tame this peak. Other then that it sounds great, image is nice and high up, although sometimes it seems the left channel dominates the right most likely because of the steering wheel and the hump for the gauges.

Even with no sub (plan on adding next to fill bottom octaves), this system gets very loud, very cleanly and has the punchy and tight bass I was looking for. I might not even add a sub. Next step is to get a new headunit.

 

ever consider covering them with some speaker grill cloth? that way the wont stand out as much and may look oem?

 

nice write-up and she is looking great

as far as theives seeing the tweeters ...it is a vette...it already stands out to theives I do suggest an aftermarket alarm if you have done that yet.

have you thought about doing custom door panels so the 4" mid will be fully exposed? You might be able to angle them a tad too for better imagining

 

Now thats a good idea. It will probably make it more flush looking, and hopefully protect the tweets from the dirct sunlight (another disadvantage).


Yeah I thought about it, I may do that sometime down the road, but for this car being a DD that goes with me to work (safe area) or college or my road trips, the less that is visible, the better even at the expense of sound quality. It took some tweaking to get the imaging to sound right for the tweeters, found a 3.8 Khz crossover worked best, any lower and the left tweeter would dominate.

Although the driver's and components are cheap, it was a pain in the butt to make those mounts after all the fitting, adjusting etc. Not sure if visible but I also used threaded inserts for all the screws. From now on, I'm using those for all drivers and tweeters, they work awesome, will never strip, etc.

 

that is a nice install...i like the use of miniwax poly...i may have to use that when i redo my system.

 

looks ok --

Id move those tweeters to the door panels.. the imaging cant be all that good .. the tweeters are firing up against the windshield .. and are soo far away from the mids - really should be on the same axis -

the door panel plates look good .. they definately make the difference in sound quality -

 

Yeah I think I may move the tweeters to the door panels. It sounded good at first up there but after listening a few times during my commute I'm not sure I like it up there. Don't you just hate that, you do one thing, it sounds good when you first do it, but then you decide it doesnt sound good. Even worse is the position of the sun visors changes the way the system sounds haha.

On my real time analyzer its evident I'm missing alot of 3-5Khz from my right channel, more then likely due to my placement of the tweeter. This also causes the left tweeter to dominate the right sometimes.

Another problem I have is a sharp peak at 1 Khz, more so on the left channel then the right. This causes the left channel to sometimes dominate the right and causes a very megaphoney 'shouty' quality. I'm gonna try some acoustic treatement behind that door panel to see if I can tame the peak before resorting to the EQ.

I will take your suggestion and try lowering the tweeters into the door panel. At first I really didnt want to chop into the door panels but my right side door panel is delaminating near the arm rest anyway so its already ruined haha. Now I need to buy two more A pillar covers.

 

Thanks once again for your update on this!!! I was considering placing the tweets in the pillars first but now I will go ahead and put them directly above the mids on the door to start. Hopefully I'll be satisfied.