Most recently I did the kick panels. In order to get there though I need to back up a little bit.
I made the decision to go with a custom dash modeled after the 05' Shelby concept car and in doing so I get to take a lot of liberties in what I need and don't need.
The kick stock kick panels are brittle and aftermarket ones that have speaker options look terrible in my opinion. The problem is that there really isn't any room on the drivers side for a nice speaker without relocating a few things.
First was the floor switch. I'll be putting it in the dash anyway, so that was gone. Then there's that giant windshield wiper pump. That's getting an electrical upgrade, so that was gone too. Third was the rather giant air duct that diverts wind from the cowl into the car. I'm putting A/C back in so I have no use for this. I removed and cut a circle of ABS plastic and bolted it in its place.
I now had room for kick panels.
Using cardboard as a template I cut the kick panel out of 1/4" MDF. Rather than cut it off at the sill plate like the stock ones I chose to run it along the sidewall all the way to the seat riser. It's just a personal preference thing but I think it looks more complete. Using a router and a very large bit for cutting cabinet insets I took quite a bit of material off the edges that meet the door seals and door sill. 1/4" MDF with another 1/8" of fiberglass/fleece is just too much to cram in there.
Then I cut rings with a router that allow the speaker to be flush mounted with the grill on it. With the kick panel and speaker in the car I figured out where I wanted the pod to be. It needed to be high enough to rest my foot under it comfortably (I'm off the belief that any custom work should not get in the way of function) but not so high that the driver would be directed toward the underside of the dash.
When I found the sweet spot I used a couple 1/4" MDF tabs and some hot glue to secure the rings in place. Then proceeded to wrap it in yellow fleece. Because the drivers on most higher-ish quality speakers are so deep, the angle of the ring is fairly dramatic. Any time this happens you're going to be dealing with complex curves and that's going to require a seem. Fortunately the back of the kick panels almost rest on the floorboard, so that's where I put my seam. Then on to the resin. It takes about a quart for a single panel this size.
Here's a helpful hint for anyone doing this for the first time. You can also use speaker grill cloth which stretches better, but absolutely has to be covered with matting or roaving. I like fleece becaue it's a thick enough fabric that you don't need anything but a lot of resin to get it rock solid and paint-ready. The problem with fleece is that (just like when you wash it) when the resin hardens it produces heat and a lot of it. When you saturate fleece and then apply heat, it shrinks. Just like washing it. You will end up with bowed panels if you don't leave plenty of slack. They're going to end up warped regardless though. Fortunately this stuff is really flexible and if you reinforce it during this process it will cut down on the warpage a lot.
When the resin has completely hardened, sand a lot. I mean a lot. fleece isn't exactly a smooth material and you want it perfectly smooth if you're painting or upholstering it. If you're carpeting though, you can just knock down the high spots. Use 40 grit then move on to 80. Because there isn't a lot of room between the verticle wall of the car and the dash I had to sand all the fleece off the backside of the kick panel to get it to fit. I also had to cut 3/8" releifs in the side dash brackets to get it to fit.
I decided to apply a skim coat of resin after sanding instead of going straight to duraglass because with 2 or 3 skim coats of resin, you won't need to do any more sanding. I just did this tonight so I can get any pictures of them in the car yet. Even though they look rather large, they're very comfortably sized when in the car and don't get in the way of your foot at all.
