Was wondering if you had any plans that you went from while building your new kick panels. I really like the looks of yours, and I will be *trying* to make a set of them here soon (if you dont mind me mimicing yours). What materials did you use, how did you form them, etc, etc. Any info you could give me will help alot. Thanks!!

 

I just freestyled it. I should have took pics of the process, but when I get slinging that resin, it's hard for me to grab my $1,000 camera to take pics.

Here's what I did. Took the OEM kick panels out and cleaned them with alcohol. Aplied 2 mil decal vinyl to the exterior and made sure they were covered. Overlaps here and there are no big deal. I then took some fine cloth and cut some pieces to cover the panels. Resined it up and peeled when dry. They I just sanded the edges and laid some coarse mat down on the backside to reinforce the shape I had. then mounted them up and cut cardboard and taped together the enclosures so they fit the area. Then laid out some big sheets of vinyl on a sheet of mdf and laid some coarse mat on top. Poured resin and Rolled and squeeged out the resin. Once dry i had thin sheets of fiberglass that were still plyable to bend into shape. Cut pieces of glass from the card board templates and glassed all the sheets together then went over the whole thing with one more layer once everything was on but the top. Laid MDF mounts in and recessed the mounting rings. Bondo, paint. The first one took me a couple weeks. The second fell together in single digit hours. Both sides are a little different but it was well worth the work. They sound incredible!

Throw some questions when you get stuck!

 

I am somewhat familiar with fiberglass resin, because I used it for making my headliner for the car. Is the resin that home depot or lowes carry sufficient for the kicks? If it is, then I should have no problem (after practicing with a few junker panels). Thanks for everything. I am sure I will run into some questions when I start making them. You have been a great help!

 

Yes the polyester resin is all I used. Good luck

 

The best tip that I can give you is as follows.

Once you have your rough form and go to put that first coat of bondo on to smooth everything out make yourself a milkshake to do the job. What a milkshake is would be a mix of bondo and resin. You can vary the mixture to whatever consistency you need but typically you want it just like a thick milkshake. You will need to use both the creme and liquid hardeners to get both the resin and bondo to cure properly but if you use a mixing bowl with measurements on the side of it you will know how much of each you will need to get them to setup. What the milkshake does is gives you the sandability of the bondo with the added strength of the resin. It also helps level out low spots much easier.

 

Thanks Cgorris.....that will definitely come in handy when I start this. Hopefully this coming Friday I will get a little time to start out on it. I just replaced the factory speakers this weekend, and I am enjoying that at the moment. Way, way better than the crappy stock speakers. I replaced them with pioneer 6870's. I wanted to get the 6880's, but they were not in stock. So I settled for the 6870's, and still have alot better speaker. I will let you know how everything goes when I get around to the next project. Thanks again for all your help!!!