350Z Woofer Pods

Trimming and Thickening

I trimmed the fiberglass pod ‘cups’ to the marked lines. I really don’t remember what I used – could have been a Dremel, could have been a coping saw with the blade at 90° (I have a vague feeling that is what I used). In any case, these days there are a multitude of options.

I had made two layers using fiberglass cloth in the car. I have to admit that playing with fiberglass resin in my Z made me slightly uneasy. With the shells out and trimmed I used fiberglass matt to make the shells thicker. Looking at these photos the question that comes to me is .. why are there dark and red areas? I am sure there is an answer .. somewhere.

MDF Rings

Here we have the MDF rings that the speakers will fit on. Notice I have glued up a thinner ring on top of one with a smaller opening. The lower ring is the one the speaker will fit to and be mounted to. The outer ring was simply cosmetic .. the idea (which worked) was that the speaker would be recessed. This was fine with the original woofers. The problem that came later is when I went to replace the woofer with a newer model it was *slightly* larger .. enough so that it wouldn’t’ fit in the larger ring .. darn it.

Install Rings

The rings are positioned using dowels and hot glue. You should of course make sure that where you position the ring won’t interfere with anything in the interior. For me it was more what looked best. It is important to take the time to get both driver and passenger pod rings at the same relative location. Once the pods are finished the supports can be removed easily.

Covering

To cover the shell and ring I used some thick Polyester cloth I picked up at WalMart. This is very stretchy. Use a spray glue (3M™ Super 77 is my preference) and spray the sides of the shell and ring well. You can then drape the polyester over the ‘pod to be’ and pull tightly. Again – the stretchy nature of the cloth allows it to conform to the shapes.

Glass the Cloth

This is where the ‘magic’ starts. Mix fiberglass resin and completely soak the surface of the polyester cloth. Once this is done and it dries you have a set of pods .. almost.

Bondo

This part is actually fun. Sand, apply bondo, sand, apply more bondo and primer. Yeay .. woofer pods!! At this point I still needed to add the speaker connectors which I didn’t take a photo of but I purchased connectors from Radio Shack (ahh .. the days when you could walk into a local Radio Shack and pick up needed items).

Finished

Here we have the finished woofer pods as of April 2006. The only thing I don’t show is how I mounted them. I used large pieces of Velcro to the sides showing and to the other side where the pods fit into the car. Very good .. it was almost impossible to take them out the Velcro holds so strong.