How to: Custom Speaker Mounts

Most factory stereo systems have the speakers bolted to some flimsy plastic or sometimes straight to the sheet metal of the door. This is definately not ideal, you would never see home stereo speaker boxes made out of sheetmetal and it will not sound great in a car either. Wood reproduces sound a lot better than metal or plastic so even if you aren't serious about car audio and don't want to go to the length of building custom door pods, I would still recommend getting some wooden baffles made up. They would only cost a few dollars and weigh less than a Kg.  

The speakers I have are Audiophile 5.25 inch component speakers rated at 75 RMS however they are handling 160 RMS with no problems.The mounts are made out of MDF (wood) which is cheap, and fibreglass which is not cheap.

You need
10mm or 18mm customwood, preferably both.
Fibreglass, resin and catylist.
Angle grinder or a very rough file plus a strong arm.
Jig saw or similar
Drill and assorted bits.
Tube of silicone sealant (optional)
Self tapping screws.
Paint

First you need to cut a back plate out of 12mm MDF with the jigsaw in the shape of the speaker cover, you won't need the cover any more. It helps if you remove the door panels now, you will need to refer to them to make sure it fits properly. This process is a bit of trial and error really and it helps if you have an angle grinder.

Next cut a 1 inch thick strip of 18mm MDF which follows the bottom of the 12mm back plate. You need this strip to fill the gap between the bottom of the back plate and the door panel. I will draw some better diagrams of this soon since its difficult to explain. This strip will need to be glued to the bottom of the backplate.

Next cut a 1 inch ring of 18mm MDF to fit your speaker, mine are 5.25 inch. Also drill the holes to be able to screw the speakers down. You need to mount this ring to the back plate on an angle, it's up to you what angle to put it on and you might have to improvise to get it to stay there while you apply the fibreglass. I used the grinder to grind a corner of the ring off so that it sat on the right angle, then I used a self tapping srew to hold it down.

Now with your speaker ring mounted on an angle, you need to start applying the fibreglass. You will get some panels of fibreglass and two containers, one with resin and one with catylist/hardener. You might find it cheaper at a boat builder. Read the instructions on the bottles and mix up the liquid in an in an ice cream container or similar according to directions, best to test the container first since some plastics melt with the resin.

Cut the fibreglass into small strips, maybe 15 cm's long. Make sure they are completely soaked in resin mix and lay them over the space between ring and backplate. You will need to let one lot dry before applying the next or else it will sag so this process may take a few days. Make sure the fibreglass is nice and thick and finish by tidying up with an angle grinder.  You can make the surface nice and smooth with bodyfiller and sandpaper. Now you can paint or cover with vinyl.

To fit it to the door you can drill holes in the back (making sure not to go right through!) and screw some self tapping screws through from the back of the door panel, if there are any gaps fill them up with silicon.

 

 

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