{"id":979,"date":"2018-06-09T07:48:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T23:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectkeira.com\/home\/?p=979"},"modified":"2019-11-13T18:33:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T10:33:53","slug":"tweeter-pod-project-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/tweeter-pod-project-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Tweet."},"content":{"rendered":"

So a couple months ago I finally got around to working on a project I’d had in my mind for quite some time now – custom front tweeter pods for my Hertz HT-25 tweeters<\/a>. They already sounded great, but I wasn’t 100% happy with the stock dash locations due to the fact that it aimed the dash speakers (or tweeters, since I was running components) up toward the windshield. Sure, it made the sound bounce and spread towards the cabin which was by design but when it came to distinct left\/right separation it wasn’t as “pinpoint accurate” as I was looking for. The solution was to figure out how to aim the tweeters towards the cabin where the sound would have a direct shot to the listeners (instead of bouncing off glass first).<\/p>\n

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Hertz HT-25\u2019s in the OEM dash location and position.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I thought about flush mounting the tweeters into the A-pillar but that would only bring the tweeters out of the dash. They would be still be aiming towards each other, not directly towards the cabin. Also, this might be a little odd but it would bother me that I’d have dash speaker grills with no speakers underneath them. The solution I came up with was to fab up some custom tweeter pods that would elevate and aim the tweeters from the factory dash location. I already had a pair of extra dash grilles so the plan was to build custom fiberglass pods using the dash grilles as a base and the Hertz surface mounts (included with my Hertz HSK-165 6.5″ Components) to create a pod that would literally snap into place where the OEM dash grill is.<\/p>\n

Oh, by the way:\u00a0I\u2019ve never done custom fiberglass before. Yikes!<\/em><\/p>\n

Right… so instead of whining about it on a forum (LOL) I decided to teach myself\/learn how to make my own fiberglass tweeter pods. I did the research with online tutorials, I watched countless YouTube videos and have seen 423,244,090 different ways a speaker pod is made, and then I jumped right in. To be honest I pretty much already had a good idea of the steps that were involved; a lot of the \u201cprep\/research\u201d time was picking the right chemicals as I didn\u2019t want to use any cheap stuff for something I knew I was going to spend some time and labor on. Here\u2019s what the \u201cparts\u201d list for this project ended up looking like:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 2x Hertz HT-25 tweeters (included with component system)<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. 2x Hertz HT-25 surface mount cups (included with component system)<\/li>\n
  3. 2x OEM Nissan Frontier dash speaker grilles ($20)<\/li>\n
  4. Evercoat 499 Fiberglass Resin, 1-qt. ($35)<\/li>\n
  5. Evercoat 911 Sea Glass fiberglass cloth ($16)<\/li>\n
  6. Evercoat 425 Metal Glaze Ultra, 30-oz. ($35)<\/li>\n
  7. Evercoat 360 Cream Hardener ($5)<\/li>\n
  8. SEM High Build Primer, 16 oz. ($22)<\/li>\n
  9. SEM Low Luster Clear Color Coat, 12 oz. ($16)<\/li>\n
  10. Bottle of CA glue ($5)<\/li>\n
  11. 3M Sanding Sponges in 60\/180\/220-grit ($12)<\/li>\n
  12. 3M Pro Grade Sandpaper, 440-grit Extra-fine ($4)<\/li>\n
  13. 3M Liquid Resin Hardener ($3)*<\/li>\n
  14. Custom mixed SEM Color Kit paint from a painting buddy (free)<\/li>\n
  15. Old pair of the girlfriend\u2019s pantyhose (free, duh)<\/li>\n
  16. Water spray bottle<\/li>\n
  17. Some metal sanding files I already had, gloves, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    *only bought this because I misplaced the hardener that came with the Evercoat resin<\/p>\n

    A lot of the stuff above I already had, I mainly had to buy the resin\/body filler stuff and the paints. So here we go\u2026 but first I had to make a small mod to the HT-25 tweeters. Since I knew I was going to be removing\/reinstalling the tweeters numerous times during this project I went ahead and soldered in some small connectors on the tweeter leads to allow me to quickly plug and unplug them when needed:<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Soldered and shrink wrapped plugs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Next, with some guesswork (as far as positioning) I started experimenting with the angle and location of the tweeters. Using the Hertz surface mount cups, I used a simple bolt and locknut to attach them to the dash grilles. This way I could rotate the cups easily while trying to find the right angle for the tweeters. From here I temporarily stopped working on the project because I wanted to take the next few days just driving around, listening to music as I usually do, and experimenting with the direction of the tweeters.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Trying to find the right angle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \"\"
    Note how I tried a few different mounting points.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    A few days? Fast forward about 21 days! During the experimental period I ended up repositioning the mounting bolt 3 times, and adjusting the angle of the tweeter cups countless times, until one day I thought to myself \u201chey, I think that sounds pretty good\u201d – so 3 weeks later I continued the build. The next step was to secure the mounting cups exactly at the position and angle I was happy with. This was as easy as using my hot glue gun:<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Hot glue is pretty strong stuff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    I didn\u2019t care what the glue looked like because I already knew it would be covered anyways by the fiberglass shell. To start the shell I used an old pair of pantyhose donated by the girlfriend (yes, I asked):<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    She doesn\u2019t use this color anymore on airplanes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Since my design had a concave section to it I couldn\u2019t just stretch the hosing over the whole thing and call it a day; to get the front part to curve from the bottom of the tweeter cups, I started by sticking the hose to the outer rim of the tweeter mounting hole using CA glue:<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    First the tweeter ring\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \"\"
    \u2026and then the perimeter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \"\"
    Starting to take shape now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    \u2026followed by stretching the hose around the base of the pod (the OEM dash grille) and also gluing the edges in place with CA glue. With this step done I had the basic shape of my tweeter pods set. Next it was time to form the solid shell of the pod, so I coated all of the panty hose (except the part where the tweeter would go) with one layer of Evercoat 499 Resin. Remember how I said I\u2019ve never worked with resin\/fiberglass before? It\u2019s a good thing I used an old cupcake tray to mix the resin, because it took a couple tries to get the mixture of resin and hardener just right (the first batch went solid in like 30 seconds… ooops!):<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    So it turns out that mixing resin and hardener is a science.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \"\"
    First layer of resin applied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    After allowing the first layer to dry I did a second layer – but this time I laid down some fiberglass cloth to add more strength. My fiberglass cloth laying technique was super newb, but I made sure to have total coverage. After the second layer dried I put a third layer of resin on for good measure and left the pods on my workbench overnight to ensure that all of the resin was dry.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Have you done this before? Me: yeah, sure buddy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The next day I trimmed the excess around the perimeter and took a look at my work so far. The mounting cups were secure and in position. The 3 layers of resin was enough for a strong pod. Both pods were starting to take form… however, I only did a fair job laying down the fiberglass cloth (first time, remember!). After the resin dried, the outer surfaces of the pods had a lot of bumps and stray fiberglass strands that required lots of sanding in order to get the smooth, curved shape back.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Could be better, but not that bad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    So YAY – next, here\u2019s where the hard labor began<\/a>…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    So a couple months ago I finally got around to working on a project I’d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[423,63,354,429,421,420,425,424,327,331,426,422,427,428,334],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audiovideoentertainment","category-custom-mods","tag-3m","tag-custom-mod","tag-custom-mounting","tag-dash-mount","tag-evercoat","tag-fiberglass","tag-fiberglass-mat","tag-fumes","tag-hertz-audio","tag-ht-25","tag-panty-hose","tag-sem","tag-stewardess","tag-tweeter-pods","tag-tweeters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1535,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/1535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}