Kick Panel Fiberglassing 1

From Nissan 350Z & 370Z Wiki

Fiberglassing tutorials duplicated courtesy of Chris S. His website is here: http://web.njit.edu/~cas1383/proj/main/

Please Read First

Any practices carried out by using the information provided within these web pages should be done with extreme care. Fiberglass resin fumes are harmful, MDF particle dust is harmful and working with power tools can be potentially dangerous. Always use extreme caution and the proper safety equipement, (i.e., respirator, safety goggles...)

Procedure

As usual, you want to remove all the debris in the area and clean it up as much as possible -- Smooth out any carpetting, remove any plastic panels if you plan on taking them out. In this project, the panel was removed. Also prepare the surrounding area, because you will make the glass larger than it has to be, and trim away the excess. Place your drivers roughly where you think they will sit -- This will give you a basic idea of how much glass you need to lay down. You can see here, my woofer will go to about the edge of the dead pedal, I will glass about 3" beyond that, then trim later.

Place your drivers roughly where you think they will sit -- This will give you a basic idea of how much glass you need to lay down. You can see here, my woofer will go to about the edge of the dead pedal, I will glass about 3" beyond that, then trim later. Cover with foil. Any surrounding areas should be covered with some kinda plastic or tarp -- Here i used garbage bags.

This is right after the first coat (2 layers) has been laid down. Glass was applied the same was as described in the earlier tutorials. Go grab a beer and chill. This is right after the first coat (2 layers) has been laid down. Glass was applied the same was as described in the earlier tutorials. Go grab a beer and chill.

This is right after the first coat (2 layers) has been laid down. Glass was applied the same was as described in the earlier tutorials. Go grab a beer and chill. Same panel, trimmed this time.

While that glass was drying, it would be a good idea to make mouting rings. These rings are made with the procedure described in the MDF Ring section. Here, 1/2" MDF was used all around. Next you need to mount your rings. As far as proper aiming, I simply used a laser pointer and aimed the center of the tweeter at a spot on the opposing window; repeated for both sides. For the woofer I simply had it fire straight across. Hot glue the rings into position, make sure they are sturdy, covering in fabric is next. Once the hot glue has dried, double check the clearance of the woofer/tweeter and make sure it will actually fit.

Now you are going to wrap the kickpanel in fabric. In this previous example, when fleece was wrapped around the enclosure it was pretty straight foward--it is a bit different in this case because the rings may be indented in reference to the edges of the glassed mold -- Meaning if you wrapped fleece around the whole thing, the tweeter hole, and possibly the woofer hole wouldnt be seen -- So you have to wrap a little differently. Using hot glue, apply in sections of the ring some glue, and place the fleece on it -- wait until it dries, stretch it, and apply a little more---keep working until the entire ring is glued.. You can do either ring first, woofer or tweeter, but it might be easier if you do the smaller one first. After the fleece is attached to the mounting rings, then stretch around the edges of the mold and glue them. Wrap around the backside, attach and cut excess. This is how the front looks -- notice how the fabric was pulled in such a way that the tweeter hole is still accessible. Test fit the drivers.

This is how the front looks -- notice how the fabric was pulled in such a way that the tweeter hole is still accessible. Test fit the drivers. After the fleece has dried, apply fiberglass and trim the speaker edges. Use a coarse grit sandpaper and sand down as much as possible.

Use a coarse grit sandpaper and sand down as much as possible. After sanding the body filler down. Only little pinholes are left, and these can be filled with spotting / glazing putty. This is the kick panel primed -- This is as far as this project went, I did not like the sound of these kicks (I guess I aimed them wrong, and the sound stage was way to low for my liking, So I abandoned the project).