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hen talking about this install with the other Instructors, it was decided to split up the vehicle into sections. Jason Anderson worked on the engine compart-ment, dash and the trunk, Nick Lambert worked on the Head liner and wiring, Jack

Randall built the doors and the rear deck. We all wanted the car to flow together that meant that we all had to agree on a certain style for the inerior of the car. What we came up with was adding come carbon fiber accent pieces with some aluminum trim for the doors. Decideding on how we should build the doors was a pretty big desistion, should we build from scratch, should we use some of the door panel, or should we just put accents on the factory door.

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EVO Door Panels

Text and Photos supplied by Installer Institute Staff

We decided to use about half of the door panel, this involved cutting the door panels to match each other exactly, a pretty hard task concidering that it was cut free hand.

First we had to remove the factory door panel and make sure every-thing is wired up for the equipment that was being installed in to the doors. Because we were rebuilding the bottom half of the door we had to remove what little dampening material that was on the back side of the door panel. That meant that we would have to put some Silencer (Tsumani’s dampening material) on the inside skin of the door. We also put some Silencer directly behind the mounting location of the JL 3 way component speakers.

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With the doors wired and Silenced it was time to design the cutout shape for the doorpanels, with a marker a line was traced on to the panels and cut out with an air saw and then sanded evenly. We also removed the cloth that was on the arm rest, the plan was to replace it with black suade to match the seats and head liner that we would be recovering.

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Now that we have the jigs designed we put the door panel back on the door and cut out a piece of ¼ MDF that would slide in and out to the door panels cut out. This was to be the base of the aftermarket door panel. With the base complete we use so 1/16” ABS to build walls around the entire base. Next we secured the jigs into place with super glue and blocks of MDF and poured some Fish Foam in to the base piece. Once the foam was dry the ABS wall were removed and the panel was sanded and shaped.

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Next speaker rings were cut and laid in to place. For the speakers we dicided to install the 6” and the 4” speakers into the door and the tweeter into the A-Pillar to complete the speaker installation. Then we designed the shape of the insert that would have the carbon fiber accent and aluminum ring.

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Now that the panel is shaped it is time for fiber glassing, when building a door panel the strength of the panel must be taken into consideration. The door is constantly being opened and closed and some times slammed, if you girlfriend is mad at you. So we put multiple layers of fiberglass mat onto the door panel.

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EVO Door Panels

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With everything fitting properly we used some high build poly primer, this primer can be used to fill in minor imperfection in the panel. You can spray on multiple layers or a fairly thick layer. When the primer is dry the panels needed to be sanded we started with 220 grit paper and sanded to 400 grit.

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After the fiberglass dries we started to body fill the door panels, we needed nice and even coats of the body filler to make sure all the imperfection were filled. Then the panel was sanded with 80 grit sand-paper. Next we taped up the edges of the factory door panel as well as the sides, so we wouldn’t get Dura-glass all over the doors plastic. We installed the door panel back on factory door mixed up some Dura-glass and seamed our door panel with the factory door. This was difficult and had to be filled a few more time to get it perfect. The reason why Dura-glass was use is because it is a fiberglass re-inforced body filler and much stronger than regular body filler. With the panel dry we removed the door panel and sanded to 120 grit sand paper.

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It’s time for paint, when painting panels make sure it is in a dust free environment, this will help with the overall consistencey of the paint. When the paint is dry we mounted the panel into the door, this should be the last time we have to remove the panel. The more you mess with it the better the chance you will scratch the paint and have to redo it. Because ev-erything was wired prior to fabricat-ing we can perminitly install the JL components speakers into the doors.

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Installer Institute1524 Ridgewood Ave., Holly Hill, FL, 32117(800) 354-6782www.installerinstitute.com

THE SOURCE

For the next step we made some real carbon fiber inserts for both the speaker loca-tions and the insert locations. For this we decided to router out the Tsunami logo into the insert piece and fill the logo with red liquid acrylic then lit it from behind.

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EVO Door Panels

Some of the final steps with this install involved covering the armrest in black saude to match the seats in the car and to wire up the neons behind the Tsunami logo. When that was all completed the inserts were mounted and secured. With the doors completed it made a great addition to the over all look of the cars interior.

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We also made an aluminum ring to go around the insert and covered it with the liquid acrylic. With the insert almost finished we sanded and polished both the insert and grill cover.

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