Sail panel tweeter frustrations!

Long story short, I decided after trying different locations (a-pillar, dash) and under the recommendation of a trusted audio guru, to move my tweeters to the sail panels.

What a fun little project. I had buckets that came with the Focal K2 KX3’s that I used for the rings. It took a few hours to cut and glue them in the right place on the panel. I am happy for the most part with the position. I didn’t have a whole lot of choice given I could only angle it so far.

I ran with that for a week or so then decided I could live with it and decided to finish them with body filler...

I bought sem adhesion promoter and cleaner as well as some overpriced body filler. I spent about 4 hours building and sculpting a beautiful set of panels. I wiped them down with cleaner and noticed what looked like a high spot. Turns out it was a crack. Ugh! I was able to peal almost all of the body filler off. It did not stick at all to the panel. WTF!

I then decided to grind the panel and use the adhesion promoter to the letter. Here is the thing, if you wait to long, it does not work at all. You have between 15-30 minutes to add a topcoat before it won’t do its job. I also let the first coat of filler dry for 20 min before I did the initial sanding.

I let them dry overnight after the initial shaping. It seems to be holding but I won’t know for sure until they are completely sanded.

If anyone can chime in about successes they have had doing this, there will at least be a thread for anyone else that wants to build there own speaker mounts.

Glued and positioned mounts:


Unfinished mounts for test fit:


Shaping done... until I realized it didn’t stick


I’ll post completed images... if I get them completed... lol!

 

I just drilled holes big enough for the magnet to fit through and that left enough for me to glue them. Then I painted them flat black, been in since 2015 without an issue.

 

Looks good. Your tweeters look much smaller than the ones I am dealing with.

Tweeter frequencies don’t work well off axis. My main goal was to position them so they are somewhat facing the listener. Had that not been a concern, I would have left them in the a-pillar. I lost a ton of highs with them facing each other.

 

For reference, here is the a-pillars. Anyone interested in them, I would be open to offers. They would include tweeters and mids and K2 woofers.

 

After much sanding and lots of body filler, I have finally finished these little pains in the ass.

I am happy with the final result.

 

Sweet they really look good

 

Like the texture . Bedlinner ?

 

SEM texture coating.

 

Nice. Wrapped my radio bezel and console . Might switch to that

 

What are you running in your front stage now? I have seen some of your postings but since you are selling those focals in your a pillars, i wasnt sure. Do you have rear filler? Do you have anything in the stock tweeter location? I saw how some people put tweeters in the sails and 2"-2.5" mids in the stock tweeter location.

 

I am running Focal KX3 K2’s. Long story short, I needed more power to the mid-woofers than was capable with the VXI 8’s single channel, I needed to bridge 2 channels. Doing that meant I needed to run 4ohm speakers. So I now have a spare set of K2’s as well as a set of KX3 mids.

As far as the mids, I have them in the stock tweeter location. It was fairly easy to mount them using the edge of the speakers as a pinch point. I had to cut a small part of the dash on the drivers side.

I am putting together a write up that will document the journey and all the things I have learned. At this point I am super happy with the sound stage.

 

Do you have the kx3’s running active? I have the twk 88 (same dsp software as you) running active 2 way focals up front but since the dsp only has 8 channels I can only run 3 way components up front *or* 2 way up front and rear filler (I have sub). I’m really leaning toward 3 way up front using stock tweeter location for 2.5-3” mids. Your thoughts on rear fill?

Lastly, were you able to make the cut for 3” mids to the dash without much issue? I haven’t physically seen the location since my tweets are in my sails.

Really looking forward to your write up, your current info is quite helpful too.

 

I have the KX3's running full active through the VX800/8i and the rears (165 K2's) running through the pre-outs which connect to an Audiocontrol ACM-2.300.
It allows me to use the crossover which I use to limit the range to match the mid-bass in the front doors. As far as rear fill, I really am just using them to add mid-bass.
I have plans to play around with them a little more and see if I can add depth to the overall soundstage.

By using the pre-outs for rears, I then had to come up with a way to tune the sub. I ended up biting the bullet and purchasing a VX600/1i to run the sub which then gives me crossover and eq for the sub.
It also gave me a slightly larger amp which I think matches the sub better. To my ears, the base is cleaner with more power.

As far as the dash speakers, I am not 100% sure of the total width of the KX3 mids but they are close to 3 inches. I removed a slight bit of material from the driver's side and was able to get it to fit.
Which Focals do you have?

Amp Setup:

 

I have the Focal access 165 AS's going to Jl 400/4 rd active. I have a JL Audio PowerWedge+™ 10" (amplified) that fits without limiting access to the child restraint hooks behind the seats. I have 6 channels on the twk 88 used for this current set up with 2 channels left.
After seeing your post and realizing that mids will fit in the stock tweeter locations, i am almost dead set on getting mids put in there. Since I don't have 3 way components I might find a decent set of 2.5" mids (might even try parts express) I can just try and add in. Not ideal, but I love my focals and I am sure i can find something that can compliment them.

I could also get crafty and use my Halo9 HU to run slight rear fillers on some Focal Integration ISC 165 i have in the rear doors. I wish I had more time on my hands. Work and kids in the summer are a tough combo.

 

Rage body filler, sand 80 grit before. Finish with glaze putty no cracks. Holding good for 5yrs now.

 

I will sell you the set of mids (KX3's) I have. They have never been installed... or the whole set (KX2, KX3 mids).

 

They are mostly likely out of my budget, they are just too good lol. I will PM you about a price mostly out of curiosity. Again, thank you for your posts.

 

How do you like your acm 2.300? Im running two acm 4.300 and one 1.300 but am thinking of swapping out my midbass amp (using 2 channels from a 4.300) with their own 2.300.

 

It doesn’t do much other than rear fill which is why I got it. For the price it is an amazing value. Clean sound and good power. It is tiny for the power output.

 

Gotcha. I really like the acm amps, though it does get cumbersome having 3 of them wired up.... Wish they made a 9 or 10 channel amp, but the best I think Ive found is the JL 8 channel amp.