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Joe's 72......"almost" a build thread

Thank man

I used 1/2" MDF (pretty sure that is what it is called, got it at Lowes), its a pressed board type material. I should have taken some pictures but didnt think about it till to late. I used a 1/2" peice of wood trim on all of the edges (inside), basically there are no screws going into the pressed wood, I countersank all of the screws and went thru the MDF into the wood trim on the inside, also glue.
I have a little more tweaking to do on it, I need to get my new A/C vent hoses so that I can make sure I dont have a problem with them where I tucked it under the dash at the front. It will eventually get carpet once I decide on an overall color scheme for the truck.
My next plan is to do someting in the back to replace the old panels, something that will give me some little storage boxes and house an amp and a pair of subwoofers, I may wrap the tire wells into it, not sure yet back there though.
 
Alright....I have not posted much for a while. I have done a few things to the rig so I figured I would use this as my "build thread" (loose term here)

So I mentioned I put a 4" Lift on her, all spring, I love the stance

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I sanded the whole thing down and am getting it ready for paint, since moving to Louisville I hooked up with a guy in my office that restores old cars, his cousin does the body/paint work. They are coming over to the house this Thursday to give me a quote on the little bit of body work needed and paint. I am going to go with Hugger Orange and a Tan interior.....pics to come of that once it happens, may end up being a few months away.

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I scored on a set of Bucket seats out of a 2008 Chevy Silverado, Both electric with the built in Seat/shoulder belts and the armrests....ready for this.......$140 for the pair, both working :woot::woot::woot:

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I have been working on my rear side panels, I am going to have these painted to compliment the tan interior that I am going with


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I put a 12 volt power supply in them so the passengers can charge their phones etc. I also mounted a 6" LED light strip to use as rear courtesy lights

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Slow progress.....not as thrilling as all of you "mechanical type" individuals :bow::bow::bow: but should be some good reading if you just can't get to sleep :D
 
So I decided to build some custom panels for the rear, after much internet time I decided to give it a go.

I built a form for the side, raised the "donuts" that I cut out that the 2 -6-1/2" speakers and the 10" subs would attach to. stretched some fabric over the whole thing and then started applying fiberglass, more fiberglass, a little more fiberglass and then bondo to get it all evened out and "workable"

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Here are a few shots of the dry fit on the Blazer

I mounted a 6" LED light into it which will eventually be tied into the interior lighting system. I also installed a 12v outlet so passengers in the rear have a charging source

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Here is the drivers side all painted and ready to go back on. I will mount them in the recess where the speakers will go, they will be all secured and sealed up to the blazer and there will be no bolts, screws or any mounting visible from the outside.

Hope you like them, I thought they turned out pretty cool

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Looks real good Joe. Do you have any more pics of the form or can go into that area of the build a little more?

Thanks,
 
I don't see any photos that indicate that those panels are sealed in the back...

The subwoofer is going to pressurize that cavity pretty badly, and there are going to be air leaks all around the perimeter of the panel where it attaches to the bedside.

Any air that doesn't whistle out from those cracks is going to then pressurize the back of the midbass / coaxials toward the front of the panel. I wouldn't expect that to sound particularly good either.

At the very least, I'd find a way to seal off the midbass drivers from the rest of the panel, and then silicone the crap out of the panel where it attaches to the bedsides to get rid of as many leaks as possible.

My $.02


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Greg, I think I did this one right....but it sure is pretty awesome to have input into anything I am doing on here. To say the least your input is right on and always appreciated, your first bit of advice to me a year ago when I first bought my Blazer was to "drive it for a while before you do anything to it, just enjoy it".....best advice yet!!! :bow: :waytogo: I am going on a year now and just got it figured out, sure am glad that I did not get into something over my head or just do things to it that look cool that I personally do not need.

When I started these I did a ton of research online about fiberglassing, once I figured it was something I could tackle it was on like Donkey Kong.

First I used the old stock panels and traced the shape onto a piece of 1/2" MDF. So the new panels that I built do have a solid back to them, each sub is very contained as far as any air displacement.
I then cut out the "donuts"... you know....the rings that the speakers screw into out of 1/2" MDF as well. Next I built a "tripod" to hold the donut at the height and angle that I wanted them to be on the side panel, I used pieces of wood cut to different angles for this. So it was basically a skeleton of what I wanted.
I then stretched some fabric over the whole thing and glued it down, this gave me the basic shape that the panel would look like when I was done with it. Next I mixed up several batches of the resin/hardener mix and basically painted the whole thing with that stuff. Once that dried it was harder than hell and gave me a base to start the actual fiberglassing. I put about 3 layers total of the fiberglass mesh down, I would sand/grind in between coats.
Once I figured it was a solid enough surface I started applying Bondo to it to get it to a finished look that would look good in my baby. I was worried about the air blowing out of the subs also, so to seal it a little better I reached inside the areas for the subs and sprayed some expanding foam where the fiberglass meets the MDF. I put a couple of wood rails behind it so that I can anchor it thru the speaker holes in the front and rear so there are no screws or bolts visible from the outside.
I had them on for about 4 months before we moved to Kentucky and they sound pretty awesome, all I have been doing for the last couple of weeks is dressing them up and getting them to the quality look that I wanted. so in the end I am pretty pleased with them.

As you all can see I am not to good on doing any type of write up so if anyone wants I can shoot you some better pictures of them or try to explain it a little better, I wont be putting them back on the blazer for a few months as I have a guy lined up to paint it for me so I am in the process of stripping it down and getting it ready for that. I will get some better pictures once I get them put back on. :woot::woot:
 
nice man! sounds like you did it up right. looks good too.
 
Good to hear those are sealed in the back... That solves a lot of problems and makes them sound a lot better.

Many years ago, I built some custom subwoofer enclosures for my K5. It was a tremendous amount of work to get them to fit and look as invisible as possible... I can definitely appreciate the amount of work it takes. :D

It also takes a tremendous amount of power to get a subwoofer to sound good in a convertible.... The sound just "floats away" when there isn't a roof overhead to help contain and reinforce the bass.

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