Modding Bose Door Pods: Tutorial?

[LSN2meBoom916]

OK so if you guys don't know there's a whole friggin slew of Z32's here in SAC/Norcal area and I have the privilage of workin on few of em now and then.

They generally have the Bose "pods" housing mids front and in rear too and I have rebuilt the front/face of them to hold some better/after market component sets. So, I thought since I pretty much have it down to a reliable "system" I'd post what I do when I mess w/ these pods.

Here's a few of the rides the work went into:

Josh's Pearl white TT Cpe/BEAST (550 rwhp dyno'd)

Carlo's Baby Blue Cpe:

Paolo's Red JDM 2+2.

Ken's Uber Clean Black Cpe.

AND although NOT a Z32, Justin's Lexus 93 SC300 Had Bose pods too.

So here's where it starts:

The door panel:

Take that off.

The hole the pod sits in.

They start out with the mid in em (duh) and I just tape off where I wanna cut the face off and trace it on there over the tape.

Grill off.

Mid comin out.

They actually polyfill the lil pods.

Edited May 18, 2007 by LSN2meBoom916

[LSN2meBoom916]

Here's the cuts.

Face Roto Zipped/Dremmeled off (I use the grinding/cutoff wheel and it basically just shaves/melts it cleanly)

You can see I take the face off but leave as much as possible ESPECIALLY the mounting points and that makes putting em back in a piece-o-cake.

The face.

Here's the lil port.

Edited May 18, 2007 by LSN2meBoom916

[LSN2meBoom916]

These lil screw points are raised and need to be removed so the NEW FACE will sit flat/flush.

Better shot of the RETAINED mounting points.

Lift up the gasket and zip off those lil screw supports so it's flat.

This next part is optional:

I prefer to leave the pods SEALED once the face is on and that saves some time/effort, but on the first set I did I cut out the port and mounted it to the new pod face so it would still be ported, but in this small of an enclosure the port is not needed and in most cases allows the mid to move into over-excursion.

Poppin out the port.

I left some material around the edge of the port so I had a place to screw thru to remount it to the new pod face.

I keep that face piece I cutout as a template to transfer to carboard/then 1/4" mdf.

It's easier to get the mid alignment just right and make room for the magnet if you figure it out on cardboard 1st.

Trace that onto the 1/4" mdf.

Get it all lined up and test fit the face.

Should fit flat like this

The sealed verison.

[LSN2meBoom916]

Tweeter and mid wiring. Later filled in w/ hi strength liquid nails.

In this Fosgate FNP 5 1/4"set the x-over fits nicely right to the side of the pod.

Other side.

After the face is all figured out, I just goop it the hell up w/ a lotta liquid nails and glue/seal it in place.

I also use the stock mounting screws to bolt up the face via those holes w/ the screw guides that I zipped off earlier. So screws+ glue. The I paint em black just cuz I'm anal.

Here's the only shot I have of the ported version-essentially identical +port and Audiobahn comp. set.

Port is screwed and glued in place from the front of the new pod face.

[LSN2meBoom916]

Installed back in the stock location via stock hardware.

Clearence (or lack thereof) on the xover.

Other side

They got HELLA Z's.

Here's the Lexus Version-Prolly same in most Toyotas.

These are sealed and I used long strand/kitty hair-bondo-mud to build em up and used body filler over that, then sprayed em black.

[FieroGrande]

Thats a great tutorial bro! Nice work!

[LSN2meBoom916]

That's just "my system" that seems to work well.

You could do it all kinds of diff ways but this way works for me so I thought I'd share since some folks on here have voiced concerns and opinions about dealing with these bose setups.

Hope it helps.

The boxes actually have lil amps built into them and you just have to make sure you bypass the stock wiring and run wires driect to the speakers, not thru the stock amp.

Signal can be tapped at the plug that hooks to the pods plug (orange and green on the passenger side)

[freestylin]

man I had a tear when i saw all those fair ladies haha Wow I never knew there were a lot of 300zx out there in SAC maybe if i do get the chance I will probably go down there to look for one but that not gonna happen anytime soon but anyways nice tutorial man

[LSN2meBoom916]

Thanx man.

and yes they have quite a large fairlady crew in the Norcal area.

If you wanted to find some "Z people" also hit up www.twinturbo.net.

[freestylin]

ya I see a lot of 350z down here in san jose but not many 300zx or maybe I'm just blind lol thanks for the link

Edited May 20, 2007 by freestylin