I built these doorpods for a customer a long while back and randomly found some pictures of it today,
They already had two sets of Focal components to angle up and towards the ear, space for two crossovers and keeping the design to look as close to the original door pocket as possible.
Achieving this in the given space contraints with the requirement of back mounting the driver was a challnge, the brief was very specific in keeping to the original lines without any extra protusion in to the cabin so any angle i achieved had to be within the limitation of the original speaker location.
Ive owed a mk2 Golf myself ive collected parts over the years and had a spare set of broken door pods i could repurpose for the project, so i started there, after several design solutions the customer decided on this, i think it was the right choice and keeps to the brief as tightly as possible.
Working with sharp 90’s design angles can be quite difficult when it comes to wrapping doorpods in vynil leather, Sharp corners tend to distor the leather or discolour it over time.
I opted for high quality multi stretch synthetic leather from As Trim as it not only stretches very well but doesnt white out when taught over an edge and can easily be warmed up to be very very pliable, when heated a little too much it can actualy form over objects and take shape, sort of like plastic forming using a vacuum chamber.
Regardless of the very limited design flexibility and time i had, its rewarding to not only meet a customers brief, but exceed their expecations even though their vision is clear from the start. I really enjoyed this simple yet challenging build, it was sure a learning curve in dealing with acute angle wrapping.
Another shot of the angle of the mid its very deep sunken inside the enclosure not an issue on the mk2 as the seats ride very low Sizing up the baffles with twin crossovers, i tried to keep the original feel of the door with that old school feel All joined with fibergalss filler and resin, the seams where drilled out to add some “grab” for the resin and filler Both sides complete Stage 2 sanding and filling Driver and crossovers in situe Fully sanded to stage 3 and primed ready for finishing Last checks on clearance for the leather vynil Love the look of the Focal mid against the flat black, the angle was a little hard to achieve keeping the OEM look Starting to take shape this was unfortunately the last picture i took before completing and sending out
