Forum Name: Maverick

Speaker Pod Construction.

What you need:
1 Sheet of MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) No more than 1.5cm thick
1 Pencil
1 Straight Edge
1 Small Tin (Spray Paint etc)
Drill (Manual or Electric)
Electric Jigsaw
Wood screws, short and long
Sheet of medium Sandpaper
Yard of Black Leatherette
Staple Gun
Lengths of Light card

Construction:
1. Draw out the panels you need onto your MDF, (front and back pieces) Use a small tin to round off the edges. On the front panel draw a hole for your speaker to fit. Make sure by this stage you know which Door pod your working on, Left or Right.

2. Cut out your front and back panels and drill a hole at the edge of the hole for your speaker for your jigsaw blade to fit in and cut this out also. Run the sandpaper over the edges to take any roughness off.

3. Offer your speaker unto the hole making sure it fits ok then mark out your screw holes and attach using the short wood screws.

4. Stand your panels upwards. Decide how much distance you want between each panel depending on how much the magnet of the speaker goes back. I allowed 3cm between each of my panels. Do not cut a piece of MDF 3cm wide as when you screw into the edge it splits. What I did was cut two pieces 10cm x 3.5cm and nailed them together on there flat. Since the depth of my MDF was 1.5cm I now had two pieces making up my 3cm requirement. A 3cm x 3cm piece of anything will do the job also. Take the Speaker off now for ease of movement.

5. Screw these blocks to the back of the front on the Pod (the inside).

6. Get the old pocket and place it against the back of the back panel, which goes against the Door. Mark out the screw holes from the old pocket onto the MDF and drill these through. On the Front panel drill the same holes in the same places but with a larger Drill bit, room enough for a screwdriver to pass through it. Also drill a hole for the speaker wire to fit through.

7. OK now all pieces are constructed. It is now time to cover the back panel in leather first. This is the way I did it in order to have the Pocket open. If you didn’t want it open you could put it all together and cover it.

8. When you have covered the back panel punch through the holes for attaching to the door and the wire hole. Place your screws into these holes to attach it to the door.

I used long wood screws for the bottom and shorter ones for the top sides. If you use longer ones all around the window will not wind down the whole way. Offer the front to the back panel and screw from the back of the back panel into the blocks attached to the inside of the front panel. (Hope your getting this!) OK, so far your back panel should be covered and the front panel should be attached by way of 3cm thick blocks of MDF.

9. Now get some light card and cut it into strips the same width of the Speaker Pod. Staple these to the edges of the Pod to form a smooth cover right around the Pod apart from the open pocket piece.

10. Now you can cover the whole piece in Leatherette pulling it tight to be stapled at the back of the Pod. A bit of patience is needed here but it’s quite satisfying. Cut out the hole for the speaker also but don’t attach it yet. Pierce the holes for your screwdriver to go into from the front panel also.

Installation:
Take off all door furniture and be careful not to lose any screws like I almost did.
With a wide plain screwdriver gentle prize off the door card. There are clips at various points along the edge of the card so be careful not to force these.
OK when you have this off you should see the door with tape covering the holes at various places on the door. On the left of the door there is a square opening covered by tape. Peel some of this off.
Feed some speaker wire into the hole at the side of the door. There is a pulley hinge thing at the top of the inside of the door. I fed my cable in there (insulate the cable with tape for protection, from the pulley) and then you can see it through the hole, which you peeled the tape away from.
Offer your finished pod up to the holes in the door card and mark out the hole in the pod for the speaker onto the card.
Put card back making sure to feed the cable through the hole in the door card. Also put back the door furniture.

Now attach the Pod to the door in the same holes as the previous pocket, making sure to feed through the speaker cable also. Now you can wire up the speaker and attach it to the Pod. All that you need to do now is wire up the other end into your HU or Amp.
Finally for a finishing touch I added small black grommet heads onto the holes on the front of the Pod where we put the screwdriver through. These are the kind you find included in flat-pack furniture to cover screw heads. These finish off the project nicely.
Have a Cup of Tea sit back and admire your handy work .

Thanks to & written by Keith Marron.