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2011 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 system upgrade


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Today, I got a little done. My truck interior plastic is all back together and all the speaker wire is torn out. I decided to start on messing with my doors. 

I started by taking off the door panel again. I'm tired of brackets breaking lol. Oh well. First picture I ripped off the existing fiberglass speaker pods from my old build. Literally, just ripped them off lol. 

Second picture I made a stencil of that area out of sticky sticker paper my wife has for her arts and crafts. I'll transfer it over to thick cardboard once I'm finished. That colored part at the top is where my glove box comes down. With the old pods, I couldn't open my glove box while the door was closed and that always pissed me off. I've got to cover the hole in the door panel, but it will be a flat as I can make it so I can use my glove box. 

Third picture is of some stencils I made of my 8's. I didn't want to try to fit where the 8's where going to go with the actual speaker so I made those. If be livid if I was trying screw with my door and something happened to my speaker lol. Right now, I'm working on 4 more stencils for the tweeters as well. 

I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm just winging it lol. Any pointers, tips, or put downs are always welcomed. 

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2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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Templates for the tweeters are done. Next I'm going to make a cut template for the door panel. I have no idea what I can and what I shouldn't cut it off by door panel....I guess we'll find out 🤣 I'm not cutting anything yet, just deciding on how exactly to go about doing this

20210731_152729.jpg

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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So yeah.... maybe it will work🤣

At this point, I could use any and all tips any of you have a far as placement, a plan, how to cut, what to cut.... anything! I'm starting to feel very overwhelmed. 

20210731_174036.jpg

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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1 hour ago, Dafaseles said:

So yeah.... maybe it will work🤣

At this point, I could use any and all tips any of you have a far as placement, a plan, how to cut, what to cut.... anything! I'm starting to feel very overwhelmed. 

20210731_174036.jpg

 

 

The mock-up is looking good.  The biggest suggestion comes more in the form of a question - how hard would it be for you to lay your hands on a virgin set of door skins (maybe junkyard pulls?)  Knowing you have a backup set of door cards can go a long way towards calming the nerves.

 

Another thought - have you seen the Bass Van doors Sound Man is spending years working on?  I'm not super familiar with the interior of late model GM/Chevy trucks, but I wonder if you could maybe do something similar to what he has put together.  Then you could work on building out the bulk of it using 3/8 or 1/2" MDF and then bondo-glass and body work it onto-into the door skin?  Not sure if that would be easier or not.

 

I can't wait to see the first fab shots, your truck is going to epic when you get finished with it!

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34 minutes ago, Arthur79 said:

 

 

The mock-up is looking good.  The biggest suggestion comes more in the form of a question - how hard would it be for you to lay your hands on a virgin set of door skins (maybe junkyard pulls?)  Knowing you have a backup set of door cards can go a long way towards calming the nerves.

 

Another thought - have you seen the Bass Van doors Sound Man is spending years working on?  I'm not super familiar with the interior of late model GM/Chevy trucks, but I wonder if you could maybe do something similar to what he has put together.  Then you could work on building out the bulk of it using 3/8 or 1/2" MDF and then bondo-glass and body work it onto-into the door skin?  Not sure if that would be easier or not.

 

I can't wait to see the first fab shots, your truck is going to epic when you get finished with it!

My wife, seeing all this sprawled across the kitchen table, actually went online to find new doors🤣 the confidence she has in me keeps me going everyday! 🤣🤣🤣 anyway, $320 each, brand new. I could go to the pick and pull to look, but around here, I'm sure there's nothing left of any Chevy truck that has ever landed in there lol. 

I'm going to go look for those videos right now! It sounds like it may be similar to what I was planning on attempting. 

Some other things I'm worried about are the weight of all those 8's. I don't think just attaching them to the plastic is going to be sufficient. Also, I have to protect them. I wanted to use some speaker grill material from mobile solutions audio, but they're only 24"×24" and I'm not going to be able to space those 8's out any to be able to use 2 pieces. 

 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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3 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

My wife, seeing all this sprawled across the kitchen table, actually went online to find new doors🤣 the confidence she has in me keeps me going everyday! 🤣🤣🤣 anyway, $320 each, brand new. I could go to the pick and pull to look, but around here, I'm sure there's nothing left of any Chevy truck that has ever landed in there lol. 

I'm going to go look for those videos right now! It sounds like it may be similar to what I was planning on attempting. 

Some other things I'm worried about are the weight of all those 8's. I don't think just attaching them to the plastic is going to be sufficient. Also, I have to protect them. I wanted to use some speaker grill material from mobile solutions audio, but they're only 24"×24" and I'm not going to be able to space those 8's out any to be able to use 2 pieces. 

 

 

I *think* these are the first few door panel videos in the series:

 

 

 

 

 

He's got them all the way up to hitting them with high-build primer so far.  You've got to hunt around the BVV playlist as he's constantly dicking about with dash kits and other side projects, but his stuff always comes out really nice.

 

Have you looked at some of the mesh you can get at some of the big box stores?  I was poking around on the interwebs and found this as well:

 

https://www.speakerworks.com/perforated-steel-powder-coated-black-p/ty153bhalf.htm

 

It looks like it's probably still not what you need, but you might be able to reach out to them and see if they can sell custom sizes.

 

I'm with you on protecting the 8s though, definitely not worth leaving them open to curious fingers or random stuff sliding across the seat when you have to jerk the wheel or slam the breaks.

 

As for weight, I'm not sure how much your 8's / tweets weigh, but if you go 3/8 or 1/2 MDF that's glassed, maybe throw some threaded inserts into the door sheet metal where you can bolt the door cards on.  It would be awesome if the mounting hardware could be installed through the cut-outs for the speakers and hidden once you've installed them...

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Arthur79 said:

 

I *think* these are the first few door panel videos in the series:

 

 

 

 

 

He's got them all the way up to hitting them with high-build primer so far.  You've got to hunt around the BVV playlist as he's constantly dicking about with dash kits and other side projects, but his stuff always comes out really nice.

 

Have you looked at some of the mesh you can get at some of the big box stores?  I was poking around on the interwebs and found this as well:

 

https://www.speakerworks.com/perforated-steel-powder-coated-black-p/ty153bhalf.htm

 

It looks like it's probably still not what you need, but you might be able to reach out to them and see if they can sell custom sizes.

 

I'm with you on protecting the 8s though, definitely not worth leaving them open to curious fingers or random stuff sliding across the seat when you have to jerk the wheel or slam the breaks.

 

As for weight, I'm not sure how much your 8's / tweets weigh, but if you go 3/8 or 1/2 MDF that's glassed, maybe throw some threaded inserts into the door sheet metal where you can bolt the door cards on.  It would be awesome if the mounting hardware could be installed through the cut-outs for the speakers and hidden once you've installed them...

 

 

 

 

Dude, you're the shit! Thank you for all the help!

I was just watching three of the soundman episodes. Yeah, it seems like if you're doing something that weighs a much as I'm assuming my doors are going to weigh, I need a little more strength than just fiberglassing to the plastic door panel. I think I need to rethink my plan of attack. I reached out to my cousin who loves to do any type of fabrication to see if he'd want to help. I'm positive if he's on board, it'll get done. 

Right on about the speaker mesh. I was going to look on Amazon myself, but I was watching those soundman videos lol. The ones from speaker works would be perfect, but yeah, they're not wide enough and that one from Amazon would be great, but it's aluminum. I was going to attach the grills using magnets, but maybe I can think of/ find another method in youtube. 

And as far as aesthetic goes, in order of importance, it has to work and be strong, it has to sound good (full spectrum of sound, no rattling, all that good stuff), then it has to look good. So really, as long as I have the first 2, and it doesn't look like absolute shit, I'm happy. 

I want to go to home depot tomorrow to pick out some wood. Do you think (if they have it) 1/4" MDF, or birch would be fine? Or just stick to 3/8's or 1/2" MDF? 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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3 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

Dude, you're the shit! Thank you for all the help!

I was just watching three of the soundman episodes. Yeah, it seems like if you're doing something that weighs a much as I'm assuming my doors are going to weigh, I need a little more strength than just fiberglassing to the plastic door panel. I think I need to rethink my plan of attack. I reached out to my cousin who loves to do any type of fabrication to see if he'd want to help. I'm positive if he's on board, it'll get done. 

Right on about the speaker mesh. I was going to look on Amazon myself, but I was watching those soundman videos lol. The ones from speaker works would be perfect, but yeah, they're not wide enough and that one from Amazon would be great, but it's aluminum. I was going to attach the grills using magnets, but maybe I can think of/ find another method in youtube. 

And as far as aesthetic goes, in order of importance, it has to work and be strong, it has to sound good (full spectrum of sound, no rattling, all that good stuff), then it has to look good. So really, as long as I have the first 2, and it doesn't look like absolute shit, I'm happy. 

I want to go to home depot tomorrow to pick out some wood. Do you think (if they have it) 1/4" MDF, or birch would be fine? Or just stick to 3/8's or 1/2" MDF? 

 

Hell ya man!  I'm glad it helped!

 

1/4 inch can actually be easier to work with in some ways (it's a little flexible without having to kerf it) but it's impossible to to screw or nail it in any way that would be useful for something like this.  As long as you are planning on reinforcing it with glass or bondo glass (or both) for strength, you could do 1/4 inch and fab it up with CA glue/accelerator and epoxy and I'm sure it would work out.  You might consider 3/8 or 1/2 for the speaker baffle rings so you have some meat for threaded inserts or directly screwing into to mount the 8's.

 

Yea, as soon as you mentioned the magnets, I remember chatting about that earlier.  I know around here you can get steel expanded diamond grill at the Home store, but the diamond pattern is pretty big.  Maybe throw a magnet in your pocket (or borrow a magnet tool while you're at the depot) and use it to double check that anything they have is actually steel and not something else in the wrong bin LoL.

 

Kick ass that your cousin is into fabrication, it's always nice to have another set of eyes on a project, especially experienced eyes!

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