Molded Tweeters

[Mr Cali]

Hi guys,

Over the last few days I've been busy mounting my tweeters to the plastic sail piece behind the side mirrors.

I decided to write a how to on this to help others that may want to do the same.

Note that you can use this method to mount speakers on your A pillars too.

Anyway here it is, I originally posted it up on another forum but since my car is a Skyline I thought I would post it here.

Ok had some time spare today so I thought I would make a costum mount for the tweeters.

Again I will write it up as a how to just in case you guys want to do the same.

The location was pretty hard to decide, it was either the sail trim or the A pillar. I spent an hour with the using BluTac and tweeter location / angle before deciding with the sail trim. A second person would come in handy to do this, so you dont have to go back and foward.

Note: YOu can do the same process to mount the tweeters in your A pillars

Imaging is a big deal for me, so took ages to the angle just right with the BluTac, and once getting the ideal position I hot glued it in place. Once the hot glue cools and bonds, make sure that you add more glue to make sure that the bond is strong enough to stretch fabric over it without breaking.

Note: Before you start gluing make sure that you roughen up the surface with coarse sand paper and then use Prepsol to clean the surface.

Once the hot glue cools down you then cut a piece of elastic fabric to cover the whole piece. I got this fabric from Lindcraft for $3.99 per meter. Use some super glue and start with the tight corners. I put some on the plastic and used a flat head screw driver to push it into the corners. Do small bits at a time, and practice stretching the fabric over before using glue.

It should look like this.

Tomorrow I will simply use fibre glass resin to harden and bond the fabric to to the plastic.

[Mr Cali]

Now is the fun part

You will need these products and tools to complete this stage.

Resin

Activator (Hardener)

Latex gloves

Mixing container

Cheap paint brushes (discard when finished)

You then simply pour the resin in the container and then drop some activator into it. Ratio should be 1/100 but it was a cold day today so I mixed in about 5% so it will dry faster.

Use your brush and mixed the resin up with the hardener, making sure that you have mixed it well. Apply the resin with the brush, making sure that you have saturated the fabric and for it to seep through to bond with the plastic. Try not get too much on the back of the sail, cause you will need to trim if off later. Also dont apply any to the area where the tweeter mounts, this will make it easier to trim off.

Now just waiting for it to dry.

[Mr Cali]

Ok a few more steps.

I was a lil impatient with the drying so I stuck it in the oven at the lowest temp setting. If you do this becarefull not to have it too hot cause the hot glue will melt. It took about 30mins for mine to go hard.

I then trimmed all the fabric off and then used a Dremel to clean the rest of the edges. Sanded it back to get rid of all the lumpy bits

Ok at this stage you can choose to take the easy way out and just cover it up with vinyl or prep for painting. I opted for a carbon fiber finish, a lil bit more work but well worth me thinks.

So the first step is masking off the area you want to use in the CF, this is important to stop fraying and pulling of the strands.

CF requires a diff resin then FG, the resin needs to be clear so you can show off that nice weave. I have chosen to use surf board resin as it's easier to sand back and polish afterwards.

The laying of the CF was pretty hard as it was all one sheet. Trick here is to put resin on the sail first, lay the CF on and then apply resin on top. You kinda have to wait till the resin is tacky so it can stick to the sail. then lay heaps of coats on so you can sand it with out going through later on.

Will have to wait 24hrs now for it to dry, no hurrying up this process unfortunately.

[Mr Cali]

Did a little bit more today.

Trimmed all the excess CF off with a Dremel. Note if you are doing this I would suggest you get yourself one, even a cheap rotary tool will do, or else it's virtually impossible to do this. Try and not cut into any plastic though.

As you can see the CF dried a bit dull and lumpy. The next steps will be to sand it down to a smooth surface and then polishing it. I should be able to do this tomorrow after work.

[Mr Cali]

I was bored so I grabbed the wet and dry paper and started sanding it back.

This was done with 800 then finished with 1200 grit wet rubbing. I meant to start on 600 then 800 the 1200 but I didn't pick up the 600 at the shop by mistake.

Anyway this is one step closer to getting finished, I'll throw some polish on it and buff it up tomorrow to a glass finish.

Here's what it looks like rubbed back, also known as the dry carbon look.

[Mr Cali]

Ok the final stage.

This was actually so simple, I thought I would have to buff it with my Dremel, but instead I put on some car polish and buffed it like I would a car and hey presto done !!!!

Took about 5 mins each sail to do lol

Here are some pics of them

Hope this helped you guys that are wanting to do something similar.

[bloodsword27]

looks the goods. i'll be doin it haha

[Mr Cali]

Now installed

I think it fits right in with the GTR looks

[SL33K]

WOW, that looks awesome.

I wanna do that, maybe in the Holz

[5hu7o]

toooo gooodddd im not gonna try it cos i know ill stuff it up somewhere lol

[08yannch]

that looks so awesome i hope to do something similar some day

probs when i get my car back form the panel beater. i went under a flat bed not nice

well that is enough of my misfortunes

but great job

[cobrAA]

can you remove the tweeter if you need to or you need to break everthing to remove it!?

[SDEWY5]

shit man i just swapped my x type splits today from the front to back DDLinear in the back now and had no idea wat to do wit the tweeter, thought i was going to have to cut the door trim, your post has saved the life of my door trims, legend.

Also do u know a dude named Lloydstrom, he's got a calibra too and i remember he had a mate wit a 32 GTR that got painted at Louie's workshop? ring any bells?

anyway cheers dude

[Mr Cali]

can you remove the tweeter if you need to or you need to break everthing to remove it!?

Unfortunately the base of the tweeter is molded into the sail, but the tweeters can just twist out.

shit man i just swapped my x type splits today from the front to back DDLinear in the back now and had no idea wat to do wit the tweeter, thought i was going to have to cut the door trim, your post has saved the life of my door trims, legend.

Also do u know a dude named Lloydstrom, he's got a calibra too and i remember he had a mate wit a 32 GTR that got painted at Louie's workshop? ring any bells?

anyway cheers dude

Yep known him for ages, worked on his Calibra at Louie's workshop too.

[kb-r33]

damn looking sweet!

[DELLER]

That looks to good to true man, would love to do that to mine

[Carbon 34]

FYI,they come out better if you lay a smaller # GSM thickness carbon fibre cloth it wraps around the part without pulling on the weave so much(looks similar to other car dash trims make out of carbon, and if you dont have black plastic parts they wont come out the same at all. the background will show the original colour, and you may need "wax in styrene" if you want it to dry hard ?

and they also make a few types (speeds of hardener depending on the heat and humidity)

using the wrong stuff can melt the dash parts, distort them beyond repair, and worse case it can catch fire from the chemical reactions to harden ,plus if you buy the cheap stuff it stinks to like hell...lol

or never dry if the weather is too cool out. to hot it can blister as well.

Oh and they do make a at least 50 different types of cloths,weaves, thickness and there area a few tricks to do it right the first time and keep your sanity

not to stop the DIY people .....but inform you it doesnt always go so smoothe , and basic cloth cost is 5 times fiberglass cost in general in RAW form.

[ryan_r33]

you should do a few sets and sell them, i know i'd buy some

i'd just f**k them up haha

[Carbon 34]

you should do a few sets and sell them, i know i'd buy some

i'd just f**k them up haha

maybe in the future,,,which is why I warned people about it in advance..lol

carbon is a fussy bastard to work with sometimes to look nice.

[YZ250ftw]

Well done, Looks nice!