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My new A Pillars

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pillars
4K views 32 replies 19 participants last post by  troye 
#1 · (Edited)
EDIT: Completed pictures are in POST #9

My new A-Pillars are almost done (THEY ARE DONE, see post #9). I decided I could no longer deal with the imaging from the stock tweeter positions... so I decided to build some A-pillars for the new front stage (MLK 165). They shoot right in front of your nose (actually aimed at the reflection of your ear from the door window beside your head).

Angled pieces of MDF bolted to the stock A-pillar (took a long time to figure out the angles ... still faster than using dowel)



Fleece pulled, fiberglassed, bondoed and sanded.



Primed with rustoleum plastic primer so that no color difference would be seen through the grill cloth.



Grill cloth pulled. The color is close to the headliner but not exact. Our stock a-pillar color does not match anything in the car anyways.



Just need to drill the holes for the speaker wire, solder some wire, and mount everything... then redo the baffles for the mid's in the door.

I had to do most of this at night since I have kids... so it took me about 2 weeks so far.
 
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#3 · (Edited)
They look almost stock when mounted in the car... with the Black trim ring and the grey grill, the tweeters look great when mounted too.

Probably be a couple more weeks until everything is done as I have a vacation coming up. I was just happy to finally get them wrapped given that I have to do everything at night...

If I had to do these again, I would use grill cloth instead of fleece and then fiberglass the grill cloth. The Fleece was a little too thick and not strectchy enough (hard to find good fleece when it is blazing hot outside... the stores just don't carry it)... meant I had to use a lot of body filler.
 
#9 · (Edited)
They sound simply amazing. Combination of the a-pillars with the Hertz tweeters = WOW. I had to use a little time alignment to center the image (as the driver's side speaker is on axis with the passenger), but man oh man oh man. With the time alignment I can center the sound stage where ever I want it... which was not possible with tweeters bouncing off the windshield. Love the detail and height of the sound stage. EDi woofers are still in the doors, but they sound way better too being run off the Hertz crossover.

Was a bit of a PITA soldering speaker wire under my dash with a flash light but it was worth it.

Passenger side. The color with the headliner is way closer than the flash makes it look.

Driver's side (just clears the dash).The tweeter should be mounted higher, but I don't care how it sounds for my passenger :D

Up close passenger, just clears the dash vent.

Driver's side clearing the dash.

Barely noticeable from the outside... ya I need a new windshield, stupid winter. My wife came home while I was listening to them, looked in the car and had no clue where the new tweeters were until I pointed them out... she thought they looked stock.


I am going to find a fellow west coast Canadian and trade my EDi components for the stock speakers (modded stock tweeter grill) so the dash looks stock again.

EDIT: Listened to Sarah Mclachlan for a good hour sitting in my garage. Rivals the home theater system (Pioneer Elite 92txh and Energy Connoiseur Speakers). Hertz MLK 165 is definately an awesome set of speakers. F'ing amazing. So glad I built these pillars.
 
#11 ·
I used standard marine grade fiberglass resin (from a boat marine store), Fleece (try using something thinner, like grill cloth) and standard Bondo (the one with the red car on the container). Then lots and lots of sanding.

Use hot glue to hold the fleece/cloth in place. I tried to use contact cement and the resin reacted with it and the fleece did not stay in place and sagged which meant more bondo and sanding (GRRR!).
 
#13 ·
Right now I am temporarily running a MB Q4.150: 150x2 to the front, and 220x2 to some Eu-700's (@ 2ohm) while I build the new amplifier rack and sub enclosure. I took my old subwoofer out to make room for the new system... so for now the eu-700's are doing sub duty and doing a decent job.

It will be MB Q4.150 [150x2 to the ML 28tweeters, 220x2 to the Eu-700's], MB Ref4.50 (bridged 200x2 to the MLK mids), and an MB Q1.1500D to two Hertz HX300D (750x2).

If the MLK mids need more power, I will get a MB Ref4.80 and bridge it to 320x2... as long as it still fits under my seat (trying to save space, all these amplifiers take up space). I think 150x2 to the tweeters will be too much so I will need to adjust my gains down.

It already sounds good. The ref4.50 will simply allow me to use an active crossover on the front stage... and I need to get my subs in.
 
#18 ·
Mids are in the door locations so they are off axis (only way to get them close to on axis is in kick panels... I do not like my speakers getting "kicked").

These are not truly considered on-axis as the driver's side speakers shoots at the passenger and vice versa. Generally considered the best option for good sound from both seating positions. Otherwise true on axis for the driver sounds like crap for the passenger.
 
#26 ·
I got the fabric off of ebay. The pictures in his listing show the color way better.

The grey is so close to the headliner that it looks great. I did not want black because the grills on the tweeters are grey and I wanted them to blend in better. Plus, black shows dust way easier... saves on cleaning.

---------THE COMPLETED PICTURES ARE IN POST #9-------------
 
#28 ·
About a year or two ago I asked Kanadian about his pillars and he gave me some great advice. Here is mine that I just got finishing. Props to Kanadian and thank you for the inspiration.

 
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