Kick Panels

[olds443]

BTW, those are awesome looking door panels! Did you say those are wrapped or not? Either way they look fine. I like the Grad Prix dash too. Got any pics of the rest of the car?

Actually just clicked your profile and went to your cardomain page. Cool!

 

[liquidh8]

O ok, I though maybe the under coat would stay "soft", and the paint would like chip or scratch off easy.

The door panels are smothed out fiberglass, i have a few build up pics. I have other car pics of both wagons on my cardomain site.

Thanks for the compliment, I love the GP dash! I have the buckets and console to finish up yet too.

 

[olds443]

I have used others that didn't stay soft but this one has. Maybe remove it when it comes time to wrap

 

[Yedi]

in the future, they do make a "paintable" undercoating that sets up harder, doesnt stay rubberized. Or you could use "gravel gaurd" that is normally used on rockers of cars. And...I know there is a product specifically for texturizing plastic repairs, that you put into a glass jar and use a aerosol sprayer, works real good. just some more options besides undercoating.

liquidh8, also nice work!

 

[liquidh8]

yedi, thanx for the compliments. Also, I never knew there was a product for texturixing plastic repairs. I'll have to find it on the net or something.

Olds, are you wrapping them anytime soon? I was looking around on the web briefly trying to find a place that sells the vinyl we would need to do it with. Just curious.

If I find any of these I'll post em up.

 

[olds443]

I picked up some marine vinyl for another project at a local chain store, Johan's Fabrics. It's good and strong. I don't have any plans to wrap them until later when I finally get to redo all the upholstery.

 

[streetworkxs]

Not sure if anyone has seen these, but if anyone gets them, let us know how they work out. I'm all about saving time. I love custom kick panels like the above. BTW I am not the ebay seller on the link below.



eBay Motors: 78-87 BUICK REGAL GRAND NATIONAL KICK PANELS SPEAKERS (item 310126457104 end time Mar-09-09 19:44:21 PDT)

 

[garyk1970]

Not sure if anyone has seen these, but if anyone gets them, let us know how they work out. I'm all about saving time. I love custom kick panels like the above. BTW I am not the ebay seller on the link below.



eBay Motors: 78-87 BUICK REGAL GRAND NATIONAL KICK PANELS SPEAKERS (item 310126457104 end time Mar-09-09 19:44:21 PDT)

q-forms are good kick panels but not great.reason so is because the speaker(midrange) has no sealed enclosure to play in which loses the midbass and the depth of the front stage....in the q's the rear of the speaker is exposed and trying to get the kick to seal all the way around is very hard.
if you can somehow put the front mids in a box it will sound 500% better...thats why the fronts that are in the doors are pretty good,the inner door is close to being sealed and the speakers have a large (almost) sealed "box" to play in.....HTH

 

[6APPEAL]

q-forms are good kick panels but not great.reason so is because the speaker(midrange) has no sealed enclosure to play in which loses the midbass and the depth of the front stage....in the q's the rear of the speaker is exposed and trying to get the kick to seal all the way around is very hard.
if you can somehow put the front mids in a box it will sound 500% better...thats why the fronts that are in the doors are pretty good,the inner door is close to being sealed and the speakers have a large (almost) sealed "box" to play in.....HTH

True in most cases, but not all. Some speakers work better in an Infinite Baffle setup (no enclosure) or an Aperiodic setup (semi-sealed, for lack of a better term). The Hybrid Audio L4 midrange I'm using needs to "breathe", so they work better in an IB setup My L4's will be vented into the body/fender behind the kick panel.

I've never liked the q-forms for anything bigger than a 5 1/4" midrange. Just can't be modified enough to work correctly for a midbass IMO.

liquidh8 - nice looking install

John

 

[garyk1970]

I've used q-forms before. They are still in one of my cars. But, they need some modification to be good, IMO. They work out great for 99% of folks. Quick and easy. Some fixes for them are matting them (Dynamat, E-dead, etc) and stiffing them with a 1/2" - 1" wood/MDF mounting ring behind the woofer. Just those 2 simple mods make them sound 100% better.



True in most cases, but not all. Some speakers work better in an Infinite Baffle setup (no enclosure) or an Aperiodic setup (semi-sealed, for lack of a better term). The Hybrid Audio L4 midrange I'm using needs to "breathe", so they work better in an IB setup My L4's will be vented into the body/fender behind the kick panel.

I've never liked the q-forms for anything bigger than a 5 1/4" midrange. Just can't be modified enough to work correctly for a midbass IMO.

liquidh8 - nice looking install

John

with the Q's, the front and rear sound waves hit and cancel out the sound...infinate baffle seals front from rear signal of the speaker(thats the key for it to work),and aperiodic is the same with the membrane on the front/rear of a SUB to dampen/control the speakers suspension.....
my point is that the q's are good for imaging,but you might as well as just set the speaker in the floor unless you are going to mod so the rear signal is isolated....

 

[GregInAtl]

I've used q-forms before. They are still in one of my cars. But, they need some modification to be good, IMO. They work out great for 99% of folks. Quick and easy. Some fixes for them are matting them (Dynamat, E-dead, etc) and stiffing them with a 1/2" - 1" wood/MDF mounting ring behind the woofer. Just those 2 simple mods make them sound 100% better.



True in most cases, but not all. Some speakers work better in an Infinite Baffle setup (no enclosure) or an Aperiodic setup (semi-sealed, for lack of a better term). The Hybrid Audio L4 midrange I'm using needs to "breathe", so they work better in an IB setup My L4's will be vented into the body/fender behind the kick panel.

I've never liked the q-forms for anything bigger than a 5 1/4" midrange. Just can't be modified enough to work correctly for a midbass IMO.

liquidh8 - nice looking install

John

Agreed 110% , rear separation is needed, but most people wont require this. A purist prob wont compete w/ Q forms, but if they do modding them the way yu described works very well, is cheap and easy. I found them to work way better as 4", and 5.25" panels...any larger the unsealed design hurts the midbass response to a very noticable level.
...gotta love the Hybrid design to be IB, sealed or even aperiodic! And sound amazing in any config...have you heard Marshes 4" in his dash...the tightest sound I have ever heard

 

[grocerygetter]

I like the HAT stuff. IASCA must too...I don't know if you heard or not yet, GreginATL.

 

[liquidh8]

Thanks for the compliment. You guys are right about the imaging. It was easy to hear the difference from the drivers seat with my J/l's in the doors, tweeter placement isn't the best right now, but that is getting moved.

When I did my panels, I isolated the mid-bass from the mid-ranges, with enclosures. Helps out alot.

I had the q-logic kick panels in my Elky and they worked for the tight confines of the cabin. I used the rigid plastic bowls in the rear to enclose the mid-bass speakers though, so they sounded pretty good.

 

[Dustin27987]

What material do you as your frame to strech the fiberglass matt over?

 

[olds443]

I used the dowels, the fiberglass backing that was shaped to the floor and kick panel and a baffle made from MDF. I did use a little really thin metal to get the shape I wanted and some balsa wood to fill the gaps. I wanted to keep them light and get the shape I wanted without a ton of bondo.

 

[youngdeezy510]

olds443 nice job on the kicks. hey what part of nor cal you from cause im out in the east bay 510 area and i wanted to build a few things myself so maybe we can connect with your down. i'll bring the beer and pizza with me :biggrin: