Custom A-pillars?

[cjosisek90 0]

I have a 1995 Honda Accord. I was thinking about putting in some tweets in the a-pillars of my Honda. I don't want to make it a guess and check scenario and mess up my a-pillars. Is there any place or can someone tell me how I can obtain these custom a-pillars or how to make them?

Thanks,

-Curt

[JazzScreamer 1]

First mount them up in the pillars using some tape or by some other means and see if you like what you hear. Try different angles,heights and crossover points. Not everyone likes what they hear from the a-pillars as far as the stage of things. Mess around with that. I'll try and get some pics up later with some a-pillar installs I've done. What tweets and woofers are you using? Are you running active or passive? These are some questions that will be asked from you by others. I can run you through some fiber glassing tips if you need.

[fbi90909 0]

yeah making your own tweeter mounts in your pillars won't be too hard. just takes a little patience.

as mentioned above start off with pre positioning the tweets in the pillar and give them a listen. if you feel you are happy with the location then begin working on getting their angles set. what you could do for this step is make a tweeter mounting ring. you can make it out of popcicle sticks or out of mdf(which will be harder). i'd recommend buys some popcicle sticks and cut them maybe 3/4" lenth. then hot glue them side by side while wrapping them around the tweeter. try not to glue them onto the tweeter as you want the tweeter off the finished ring.

well after you make a complete ring out of peices of sticks. add another layer on top of it to thicken it up just a bit. mount tweeter in new ring and reposition it on the a pillar . when you have the angle and position you want. take more popcicle sticks and hot glue to the ring onto the pillar with the sticks. after you get the ring on nice and firm you carefully remove the a-pillar from the car w/o taking off the prepositioned ring.

when you got them off sand down the edges and surface of the pillar with 200-300grit sand paper to roughen it up.

then take a super thin spandex like material and stretch it over the a pillar. an easy way to stretch your fabric is to start at lets say the bottom corner. hot glue the fabric to the back of the pillar. then stretch that same side upwards to the top. make sure you stretch it tightly. when it's at it's maxed stretch point you hot glue the top corner down. after that area is glued just hot glue the rest of the side edge. remember to hot glue all the fabic onto the back of the pillar. after you got the top and bottom of 1 side of the pillar start stretching the fabric over to the other bottom side of the pillar. hot glue that corner down when you got it nice and tight. then stretch and glue while working your way upwards on the rest of the side area untill you reach the top.

if i explained that right you should have a nicely stretched fabric over the entire from pillar with no defects. make sure you have a strong bracing hold for the tweeter ring as there is a possibility of having the ring unmount while stretching. cut off excess glue on the back of the pillar.

a fast method of gluing is to keep a block of ice on hand. take like hald a can of coke and freeze water in it, when you set the glue into the area just press the ice on top of it. it'll flash cool the hot gue so you can continue working your way around w/o having to wait till the glue cools

after the fleecing is down take the pillar and mount it in the car again. make sure it fits and that the front portion of the fleece is not disrupting the mounting. if the front is good to go then it is time to glass. take some resin(i perfer US Composites B440premium resin for any fiberglassing projects) and resin up all the fabric. just don't add resin to the back side of the pillar where you hot glues. just get it up to the edje of the pillar. when dry add another layer of resin. after it dries add a 3rd layer. after that dries you can start adding fiberglass. since this is a small area and you don't want to add tooo much mass i would suggest you use .5oz fiberglass mat. it's thin suff and will work best with curvy items. well add a layer of fiberglass. let it begin to dry up for 30min-1hour. then add another layer of glass. then repeat. after about 4-5 layers let it sit and dry overnight. by morning you should have a strong solid looking pillar with a uniform shape.

now that the pillar is ready here is where you decide on what you want to cover it with. do you want to paint it? or do you want to put suede or such material on it?

well, get some body filler(i perfer Evercoat rage Gold) and put on an even layer of boy filler all over the front of the pillar. when the body filler dries you need to start sanding it. you can start with 32 grit sand paper to knock it down fast and get it to a desired shape/curve. when you got your shape/curves you start working up the grit. this depends on if your going to be painting or laying fabric. if your going to put fabric over it then you can just sand it up to 200grit to remove and deep gashes from the rougher paper. if you want to paint it. you will be doing A LOT of sanding. sand it witht he 32., then bump up the the next grit. and so forth till your wet sanding with 1000-1500 grit. after your done with sanding. paint or cover your pillar. cut off the excess fabric off the back and remove the hot glue. if you have a heat gun it will speed up the removal process. use a razor blade to cut the fabric close to the back of the edge and you should be done.

just drill a hole to run the tweet wires and just put in the tweet.

lol. i think i covered all the steps. this is how i would do a project of mounting tweets in the a pillars. i'm sure others have different methods as well.

if you do decide on fiberglassing and need some advice on how to just ask. i love fiberglassing. it's easy and fun!

oh, and if you do decide to do the project, please please take this into consideration, PATIENCE IS KEY! be patient. it's not a 1 day project. and if your going to paint. don't skimp on the sanding cause your tired. do i right!

[dave_Edwards 1]

I personally like the tweeters to be as far down the a-pillar as possible....that way they are as far from you (the driver) as they can get.

[cjosisek90 0]

Thanks Jazz and fbi90909, I am actually going to print this just so i dont lose this post.

And I have saved about $1k in cold cash for these projects of mine and not even 5 days ago I find out i need to spend 750 bucks on new friggen brake rotors because my car has to be the model that has PRESS ON brakes.

But I would much rather have a working car than no car at all.

Hopefully I can order my sub in mid May, get some of these projects knocked out in august.

Thanks again for everyones help.

Curt

[JimJ 11]

Unless Fi is going into the tweeter market, what does this have to do with them?

[///M5 2,833]

Thanks Jazz and fbi90909, I am actually going to print this just so i dont lose this post.

And I have saved about $1k in cold cash for these projects of mine and not even 5 days ago I find out i need to spend 750 bucks on new friggen brake rotors because my car has to be the model that has PRESS ON brakes.

But I would much rather have a working car than no car at all.

Hopefully I can order my sub in mid May, get some of these projects knocked out in august.

Thanks again for everyones help.

Curt

Exactly why I will NEVER own a Honduh.

[cjosisek90 0]

<--- Being 17 means you gotta start with some car. And the most affordable one I saw was the "Honduh"

Curt

[///M5 2,833]

I wasn't ripping on you, most of the country is confused. Bummer about the unplanned expense

[cjosisek90 0]

Its all good, making my car safer is better then making it louder. (Sounds stupid but)

My friends laugh at me cause they call it a little fart can because everyone in my area has just a exhaust tip that gives it its noise. (I don't have one)

I really hate how everything takes time and money.

Just taking it day by day right now.

Curt

[johnecon2001 82]

There are other forums than the Fi subforums. Please post in the correct one.

[///M5 2,833]

One other thing you never mentioned and that is why you want to put tweeters in the A-pillars and which tweeters/mids you are using. Both rather critical pieces of information before undertaking a project like this.

[ramos 2]

Tweets in pillars don't always have to go ON the pillars . Depends on how much room there is behind the trim panels.

On the trim panel

Behind the panels

I prefer the behind method, it looks better imo . But sometimes it's not possible

[Brassler07 0]

The custom pillars Meade made look sick. Do something like that.

[cjosisek90 0]

One other thing you never mentioned and that is why you want to put tweeters in the A-pillars and which tweeters/mids you are using. Both rather critical pieces of information before undertaking a project like this.

Sorry for the lack of responses, but the reason is, I feel I need more clarity coming from speakers when the subs are hitting, and the type of tweets I plan on getting are TS-C520PRS. I don't know, I always had a thing for pioneer, I think they are a great company.

Tweets in pillars don't always have to go ON the pillars . Depends on how much room there is behind the trim panels.

On the trim panel

I would like it to look like this, I'm just curious on how you make the tweets pop out and have the edges smooth and blend in on the trim panel.

[ramos 2]

One other thing you never mentioned and that is why you want to put tweeters in the A-pillars and which tweeters/mids you are using. Both rather critical pieces of information before undertaking a project like this.

Sorry for the lack of responses, but the reason is, I feel I need more clarity coming from speakers when the subs are hitting, and the type of tweets I plan on getting are TS-C520PRS. I don't know, I always had a thing for pioneer, I think they are a great company.

Tweets in pillars don't always have to go ON the pillars . Depends on how much room there is behind the trim panels.

On the trim panel

I would like it to look like this, I'm just curious on how you make the tweets pop out and have the edges smooth and blend in on the trim panel.

It's pretty simple. You cut out a ring for your tweeter , figure out where you want your tweeter. Rough up the plastic in that and the surrounding area by several inches ( makes filler and glue hold better). Ca glue your ring in place . Then drill some small holes surrounding the tweeter hole in the panel ( again gives the filler something to hold onto). Then use reinforced filler to get your shape, then sand sand sand. Fill again , sand sand sand , fill again ......... until you get the shape your after. Then wrap it and be done with it

[cjosisek90 0]

Alright thanks for the info. Everybody.

Curt

[BEAVER 0]

I' ll share what I consider to be one of the easiest ways to do your a pillars.

Make a basic template to ensure both sides look the same...

Mark your spot...

Next find a piece of PVC pipe just large enough to mount the tweeters in and purchase a hole saw the size of the outside dimension of the pipe. Tear in...

After aiming the tweeters in your car, epoxy them in place, then fill in around the pipe with a two part epoxy filler...

Once you've applied enough filler, simply sand evenly and wrap it in grill cloth. When you're done, you'll have something like this...

At this point, just cut out the cloth for the tweeter and place it in the a pillar with a little hot melt glue.

I hope this helps. It's actually a lot easier than it seems. This was my first attempt at anything like this and it turned out pretty well.

[cjosisek90 0]

wow that is definitely easier than I anticipated. Those pictures helped out a lot....Thanks