Enclosing side door panel map pockets to hold 6 " Focal Access 165 CA1 Speakers

Calling all the fabrication masters of the hills from the nether region.

I need some assitance with ideas on how to go about integrating a set of 6" Focal speakers into my side door map pockets.

Here is the panel off of the car with the map pocekt mounted to it. By the way the map pockets are ABS and have 3 tabs at the bottom that fit into slots that are cut into the door panels at the bottom. Then there are 2 places for screws that thread in from the back. one on the top right corner and one on the top left corner.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...6&d=1170551613

Another angle

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170551642

and another


http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170551642

The panel with the map pocket removed

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170551642

The map pocekt itself from the front

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170551642

The back of the map pocket

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170552541

The Focal speaker sitting upright in the map pocket from the back to show the depth of the speaker in relation to the depth of the map pocket.
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170552541

The speaker next to the map pocket both sitting upright to show some more depth.
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170552541

The speaker sitting face down on the map pocket in the upright poistion . This is at the rear of the map pocket. There is obviously not enough room to cut a full circle in the pocket to get it in.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170552541
The speaker sitting face down on the front part of the map pocket. Even less room here in the front to integrate it.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170552541

My thoughts are to somehow make the map pocket a bit taller with Fiberglass I guess and then cut the opening for the speaker. I guess I will need to cut some spacer rings that go on the front of the map pocket so that I will not have to cut out a section of the door panel right? Cutting the door panel with a hole would allow sound to filter in behind the door panel and not allow a closed enclosure. So do I just put dowels at the top of the map pocket and then stretch fleese over them to wrap the fiberglass and make a kinda map pocket box? Wont the rear edges seem like they are dropping and not meet the door panel in a perfect 90 degree angle ? Making it loook hooky.....


I need any and all opinions of how to make this look flawless and sound great.

Be specific and if possible diagrams are sooo helpful to gain an understanding.

Thanks ! I look forward to my first fiberglass fabrication and hope to grow in knowledge and technique along the way!

Added to be able to post more images

my biggest concern would be the structural integrity of any speaker enclosure that is fundamentally hanging off the door trim panel.

i would sketch on paper some shapes for pods that you would find attractive in that location first, cut the very rough (and most importantly SMALLER) opening for the pod.

that way, you can build off the door itself rather than trying to glass to plastic... cracks, seams, that whole business.

so you basically build a fiberglass "sub box" the same way everyone does in their trunk, except using the contours of the door as the shape for the back, rather than a trunk cavity. This enables you to work with a smaller, less cumbersome piece and get it dead perfect. Not only that, but you can in fact cut that hole in your inner door panel and glass into it to get that magnet clearance you were after, but not letting the sound filter through the inside of the door. This way you don't have to make as much of an incursion into the cabin as you would building on top of everything, keeping it looking more to the OEM side.

When it's done and attached to the door frame, start fitting the trim around it, and cut out material where you have to and sand it to get a perfect fit to the outline of your box. Use weatherstripping foam between the trim and the box to avoid rattles there and trim off the excess with a knife.



OR


the other option might be to build mounts that securely attach to the door frame, and build the box on TOP of the door trim and put screws through the door trim all the way to the mounts on the door frame.... i think this wastes some otherwise very usable space behind the box though.

diagrams are a bit too much for me to crank out at the moment, but if you ask me again later i'll be glad to sketch something out for you to get the idea.

I dont fully undertstand what you mean? Cut a circular opening in the door panel and then cut an opening in the door pocket and make the box go back into the area behind the door panel? There is a power window mechanism that may interfere with this idea. I can weld some brackets to the outer door frame area behind the door panel that will come up and out and then bend at a right angle so I can bolt the speaker to those.

Here is a graphic of a concept that I illustrated just using Paint.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170555426

well, i'd check the clearance between the door and the window mechanism... sometimes there's actually a considerable bit of usable space between there. If it's too tight then you can only really build on top... but hopefully my attempt at ms paint explains it. also, check your scale (mine too for that matter). The more actual dimensions you can take, the more accurately you can define your solution.

I just checked the position of the window and window regulator in the door frame to see if there was a cutout in the door frame to allow the rear magnet area of the speaker to be placed back into. There is a cutout and some room. Since my window in the front is a stationary (normally vent wing window) then there is no window or regulator up in the front area. Only towards the rear as this updated drawing illustrates.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170559083

However if I utilised the cut out in the door frame to allow me to mount the speaker deeper then this is where it would line up in relation to the door panels map pocket. Kinda high in the pocket. So I was thinking to build a circular fiberglass enclosure that mounts to the door frame and the brackets that are welded to hold the speaker and then cut out the semi circle from the top of the map pocket area so that the speakers sound can come through and then building up the map pocket to achieve a kinda circle over the speaker to cover it.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170559515

The enclosure would be something like this.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...1&d=1170560304

as long as you've got some kind of structure to keep the speaker immobilized, i think you're in good shape. the last thing you want is your speaker vibrating the trim panel... which it will much easier than the metal door. naturally, any dampening you can add, like dynamat will improve the sound as well.