Guidance on glassing 3ways into my OBS doors

[seth350]

I got some Rainbow SLC365 3way components and I would like to glass the tweeter to my a-pillar and then mount my xover, mid, and woofer into my door panel. This is my first time messing with fiberglass and I am a little nervous about it, b/c I know what I want it to look like and Im not sure if I can get it that way. Anyways, my main concern is routing my wires through the door panel from my xover to the speakers and having everything non permanent. Meaning if I needed to take the panel off at some point in time I could easily.

Heres what I would like to do..


The speakers being glassed side by side and the xover glassed into the panel just above the pocket. I was going to actually glass over the pocket and then flush mount the xover there.

Also, if anyone has any pics of 95-98 door pods please post them. I can use as much guidance as possible, b/c I would like to do all of this myself that way when Im done I could say "I did that." Just one of those things ya know.

[thekl0wn]

Judging by the size of the woofer, it would be possible to glass the lower portion only. You'd have to break the 2 door parts apart to work on them. I'm f/g'ing the entire panel on mine, and placing ONLY my 8" in the lowest, most forward position of the panel, and then placing my mid and tweet in custom kicks. Do a search for OBS door panels, and look for a thread I started... That's the most recent postings I can think of, of TribalVision's panels... Whose method is the one I'm copying.... somewhat.

You may want to think about putting the mid & tweets in kick panels as well. It should give you better imaging on your stereo. IMO, if you don't do any mods to the rear of the panels, you should have more than enough space behind the panels to mount the x-overs... Much cleaner look.

[seth350]

I thought about putting the mid and tweet in the kick but in the rainbow manual it said that you dont want to put the tweet too low and that a more suitable place would be around mid way of the door or in the a-pillar. Plus, I am REALLY afraid of doing a kickpanel install b/c Im so long legged and I got big feet and they will get kicked by either me or one of my friends.

Also, friend of mine who does glassing for a shop here said I could resin over the carpet on my door and it would be fine. As long as I brushed in a way that the carpet layed down and didnt bulk up. Im prolly fixing to start on it tonight so any tips or anything would be appreciated.

[seth350]

Also, how do I seperate the bottom part of the panel from the top? They are held on by plastic welds I think is what they are called. Do I drill them out or what?

[///M5]

I wouldn't put the tweeter that far from the midrange. Kick installation would be way better.

[seth350]

What about leaving the tweeter in the stock location? Cause ive done put holes in my door panel from trying to drill the plastic welds out. lol

[///M5]

With a 3 way you really should be putting the mid and tweeter in the kicks. You could try and put both of them in the pillars, but that is going to be real tough to get any sort of aiming right and would take hours of dinking around to really nail it down. You'd also then need a dash pad for sure.

Don't you have to drill those out to mount the midbass anyway? If not, you will have to fill the holes with something.

[seth350]

Ok so as long as I keep the mid and tweet together I should be fine. I guess I will go ahead and do some kick panels. A friend of mine should be coming by to get me started today, so hopefully I will have some progress done by tonight.

Thanks for the help :)

[///M5]

As you experiment with position, put a blanket/towel behind the speaker and listen to them in your kicks. The blanket will help to absorb the back wave and give you an idea of how they image. Maximize the location before glassing them in place. I'd do this with my tweeters as well.

Good luck and have fun. Let us know if we can be of more assistance.

[seth350]

I tried the tweet and mid range in the kick and woofer where it would be mounted and put some tshirts behind them as it was all i had and I really didnt like the sound of it. I guess its just me and my bad hearing :P
I personally liked the tweeter up higher around the height of my window controls and the midrange and woofer below it around the stock location. Im not disrespecting your wisdom on this, I mean Im sure to a lot of you it sounds better in the kicks but I personally dont like it. So anyways buddy of mine is comming out here later on to get me started and we will see how it goes from there. Ill post pics and keep it updated. Thanks for all the help :)

[///M5]

You didn't have them aimed well then. Your stage height will be higher with them aimed in the kicks than in the pillars. As well as you will have fewer complications on the install.

I will tell you that I aim & listen for a few weeks before actually permanently glassing them in. I like to hear nuances in all sorts of different music before settling on an aiming. There are a ton of people that will tell you they aim the tweet at the opposite passenger, at the side window in front of the passenger, or towards the middle of the truck, and so on. IMO they are all wrong or possibly just right for their application and their tweeter. For every different driver it takes a lot of experimentation to really get it nailed down. This is part of the reason I really favor 2 way setups for those who haven't done this before. A poorly installed 2 way will smoke a poorly installed 3 way. Since you already have yours now you just have to install them well. Just laying them on the floor and making a decision isn't doing justice to the set you bought. You need to precisely aim them and give them a listen.

Out of curiosity what direction were they aimed when you liked them on the a pillar?

[Exalted512]

In my OBS, it sounded better in the a-pillar than in the kick for the same reason, i could never get the stage high enough with them in the kicks. When this truck is finally 'done,' the first thing I'm going to do is get rid of the q-logic kicks and put the midrange and the tweeter in the a-pillar. If it doesnt sound better, or it sounds better in the kicks, ill stick them there in some custom made kick panels, but if its anything like my old truck, theyre both going in the a-pillars.
-Cody

[///M5]

Cody you are doing it the right way as you are moving the midrange and tweet together, plus you have processing to deal with the different locations. From my understanding in this application it was either the tweets up high and the rest in the doors, or the tweets and mids in the kicks. Between those choices from a staging perspective using passive crossovers the kicks will be far superior IMO. When I messed around with moving things up top in my NBS and my old Ford, I really didn't like all of the t/a that I needed to deal with the PLD. I prefer to use as little processing as possible, but again in the case of the OP he doesn't have that processing to use.

[seth350]

The woofer was standing up facing the hump in the middle of my truck, the mid and tweet were facing me. Maybe if I knew how to properly align speakers, Im just getting frustrated lol

You say put them in the kicks. I dont want them in the kicks, b/c I dont want them to get kicked and I need my foot room. (I have a size 16 shoe) I can put them in the A-pillar correct? The mid range and tweet? If that can be done then that is what I will go with, as far as alignment I can get my buddy to help me with that as he is an installer and he prolly knows more about it than me.

Thanks for the help again guys, sorry im being difficult.

[///M5]

If you can get away with it putting that 4" driver in the a-pillars could work really well. Aiming is going to greatly affect the stage width though.

I feel your pain on the 16's as mine are 15-16 depending on the shoe.

[seth350]

Any tips on aiming? I guess it would be different for every vehicle and application, but are there any basics?

[///M5]

Basically you should listen to them in almost every orientation. And not just for a minute or two. It literally takes me weeks to decide on aiming direction. Since you can't electronically alter the time delay on yours my main recommendation would be to try to have them not pointing directly at you on the drivers side. Some semblance of off axis will be required. Part of the beauty of the kicks is that the PLD's are similar and therefore the aiming is much easier as well.

[seth350]

Ok thanks for the tips, I have an Alpine D300 indash with T/A on it so that should help me out some.

[///M5]

Not if you are using the passive 3 way crossover.