jnsgardner
05-08-2005, 04:11 AM
First, some background. I had a '76 Goldwing with a Vetter fairing (yes, it was a long time ago) that I installed two 6" speakers in by cutting two big 6" holes and driving them with a cassette deck hidden under the deck lid of the false gas tank. With a volume control wired in the system, it was like having a two wheeled boom box that was loud enough to be heard while driving yet was nice enough to play for guests gathered around campfires. Ah, yes, Bob Dylan 'danced in the smoke with one hand waving free' many a night!
So, when I saw the ST in the showroom with those speaker grills molded into the fairing, I just knew that Honda would have a kit or an option for putting speakers behind them with something to drive them. Well, they do. It's called a GL 1800 and has all the speakers and drivers you want...and a lot more that I didn't want. My days of cross country trips are long over.
I guess Honda thought that the sport touring crowd (am I a metric biker now) wouldn't be interested in dispoiling the back country roads with blarring Pink Floyd and if you must have music, it should be discreetly inside your helmet...where you CAN'T HEAR firengines, ambulances, etc.
There had to be a way! I removed the tach/speedo housing (see another thread) to gauge just what was needed. I thought some weather proof marine speakers would work. I know 'it never rains in California', but this year, it poured. With all the vents in the fairing, I knew that it might get wet inside the fairing in a downpour at 90 mph. I actually purchased a 4" set from West Marine only to find that there was no way that they would fit.
Lurking around Best Buy's stereo wall on several trips, I decided on some Pioneer 4X6 TS-A4670Rs. They were 3-way for the best sound response in all ranges, they had a polypropylene cone which was at least water resistant, they were rated at 120 watts, so, by gosh, they were loud enough the store manager was quick to point out, and, oh yes, they were found on Mercedes-Benzs.
I got them home and they did fit canted at a 45 degree angle. But they were suspended over an irregular surface behind the grill area. I cut off one mounting ear to get a better fit on the lower outside edge. I cut into some plastic structures using a Dremel cut-off wheel to get them to nest even better, but they would never nest flush.
I went to Home Depot and got some Bondo with fiberglass mixed in thinking that I would slop this stuff in the area, press the speakers into it, resulting in a custom molded speaker sized mounting bed area.
Boy, was I wrong. It was way too messy, oozed and sagged, and then hardened too quick to make a speaker mold. Fortunately, it didn't stick to the fairing plastic either, so removal of the hardened mess was fairly easy.
I remember once using epoxy clay-like material that came in two parts and was manufactured so that cutting off a 1' or 2' hunk and mushing the two parts together until they were uniform in color would result in in the proper mixture. Home Depot didn't have any but the man thought that it was used in muffler repair. Auto parts stores thought that it was used in plumbing repair. Plumbing stores thought it was used in auto repair.
Finally, a trip to an industrial fastner store resulted in something called epoxy paste. Foul looking stuff, but it seemed to have the right consistancy and had over an hours working time. It was like thick peanut butter and went inplace without sagging. I imbeded two 10X32 bolts in place where two of the speaker mounting ears would be, wrapped the speakers in Saran wrap and pushed them down into the goop.
The next morning, I was pleased to find that the speakers released leaving a nicely molded oval, yet the stuff was not so hard so that you could trim off the excess with an Xacto blade. I made it fairly neat even if some of the stuff had oozed into some of the fairing speaker grill holes. It got harder as the days passed.
I wanted some kind of enclousure to protect the backside of the speakers from moisture. I went to Containers etc. or Containers are Us (I don't remember the name) and got some Tupperware like tubs. Got them home, too big. I went to Walmart and got two juice pitchers for $1.89. Cut the bottom off one. Too big, but now I have one cheap juice pitcher left.
I've worked with fiberglass before so I went to Home Depot and got some fiberglass cloth and a can of polyester resin. I cut out two cardboard disks the size of the speaker magnets and duct taped them in place. Then I continued putting tape strips over the speakers and under the cone edge until the entire back was sealed with duct tape.I kept adding strips of tape until I had a fairly uniform shape. I now had speaker sized molds that were just a little deeper (by the thickness of the cardboard) than the speakers themselves.
I cut out enough fiberglass cloth to make two ovals two plies thick. I cut some darts in the cloth (ask your wife what they are) and test wrapped them around the speaker 'molds' making sure that there was at least 1" excess material around the mold edge.
I mixed the resin and wet out the cloth on a Formica covered board that had been waxed with car wax. Anyway you like works. I put the cloth on a piece of plastic (a cut up big Baggie works), poured the mixed resin on the cloth, put another piece of plastic bag on top, and, using a plastic squeegee, worked the resin throughout the cloth moving any excess resin to the sides. Probably you should have disposable rubber gloves on as the next gets a little messy. Cut around the edges of the now wet out plies, take off the top plastic, drape goopy cloth over your speaker mold, remove the second piece of plastic, and work it around and wrap your molds allowing the 1" excess to fan out on your Formica board. Work out any air bubbles. Play with it until you can feel it start to stiffen. Try to work it down for a close fit between the speaker edge and the table. Clean off any cutting tools with acetone and open the garage door before you pass out from the fumes.
The next morning, a spatula will release them up from the Formica and a little 'persuasion' will release the duct tape covered speakers from your now custom speaker enclosures. Put your speakers in their custom oval molded epoxy bedding, trim off the excess flange, test fit the enclosure and trim as necessary to make a nice fit.
Admire your work. Have your wife admire your work so she knows you're not dead from the fumes stinking up her house.
Now, how to hold the whole mess together. I pictured bolts with nuts holding the speaker mounting ears down, but one ear was already cut off and the other was hanging in midair. True, I did have two ears where bolts stood out from the epoxy bedding, but they were both at one end. Hummmm...back to Home Depot (I should buy their stock) where I got some good two part plastic glue in a syringe . I mixed it, applied a nice bead around the speakers edge, and plunked them down into their custom epoxy bed. If these speakers were coming out again, it would be because they were trash so it didn't matter if they were destroyed in the removal process.
I was so caught up in this gluing things in place idea, that I grabbed a caulking gun of silicone sealant, put a bead around the speaker's edge, pushed the enclosures in place, put another bead around the outside, smoothed the sealant, and stepped back to admire my work and take pictures.
As I was doing all this admiring, only then did it dawn on me that speakers need to be connected to wires to work... and I wasn't seeing any wires anywhere. Something was wrong with that picture.
Needless to say, you won't see any pictures of the enclosures in place without wires nor hear the gr*@#$%^&
Long story short, they are there now, the speakers worked at the stereo installation store (though overlooked the ACC position...corrected later).
The XM radio Roady II is mounted on a Cycle Gadget's Roady II mount on the front brake reservoir with the XM antenna magneticly clinging to an overhanging plate with an excessively long cable bundled under it.
The Sony RM-XM10 wired remote is mounted on a modified Roady mount on the clutch reservoir...and all's right with the world.
...now where's the iPod going to go?
Any questions or comments, write me here or to jnsgardner@usa.net
So, when I saw the ST in the showroom with those speaker grills molded into the fairing, I just knew that Honda would have a kit or an option for putting speakers behind them with something to drive them. Well, they do. It's called a GL 1800 and has all the speakers and drivers you want...and a lot more that I didn't want. My days of cross country trips are long over.
I guess Honda thought that the sport touring crowd (am I a metric biker now) wouldn't be interested in dispoiling the back country roads with blarring Pink Floyd and if you must have music, it should be discreetly inside your helmet...where you CAN'T HEAR firengines, ambulances, etc.
There had to be a way! I removed the tach/speedo housing (see another thread) to gauge just what was needed. I thought some weather proof marine speakers would work. I know 'it never rains in California', but this year, it poured. With all the vents in the fairing, I knew that it might get wet inside the fairing in a downpour at 90 mph. I actually purchased a 4" set from West Marine only to find that there was no way that they would fit.
Lurking around Best Buy's stereo wall on several trips, I decided on some Pioneer 4X6 TS-A4670Rs. They were 3-way for the best sound response in all ranges, they had a polypropylene cone which was at least water resistant, they were rated at 120 watts, so, by gosh, they were loud enough the store manager was quick to point out, and, oh yes, they were found on Mercedes-Benzs.
I got them home and they did fit canted at a 45 degree angle. But they were suspended over an irregular surface behind the grill area. I cut off one mounting ear to get a better fit on the lower outside edge. I cut into some plastic structures using a Dremel cut-off wheel to get them to nest even better, but they would never nest flush.
I went to Home Depot and got some Bondo with fiberglass mixed in thinking that I would slop this stuff in the area, press the speakers into it, resulting in a custom molded speaker sized mounting bed area.
Boy, was I wrong. It was way too messy, oozed and sagged, and then hardened too quick to make a speaker mold. Fortunately, it didn't stick to the fairing plastic either, so removal of the hardened mess was fairly easy.
I remember once using epoxy clay-like material that came in two parts and was manufactured so that cutting off a 1' or 2' hunk and mushing the two parts together until they were uniform in color would result in in the proper mixture. Home Depot didn't have any but the man thought that it was used in muffler repair. Auto parts stores thought that it was used in plumbing repair. Plumbing stores thought it was used in auto repair.
Finally, a trip to an industrial fastner store resulted in something called epoxy paste. Foul looking stuff, but it seemed to have the right consistancy and had over an hours working time. It was like thick peanut butter and went inplace without sagging. I imbeded two 10X32 bolts in place where two of the speaker mounting ears would be, wrapped the speakers in Saran wrap and pushed them down into the goop.
The next morning, I was pleased to find that the speakers released leaving a nicely molded oval, yet the stuff was not so hard so that you could trim off the excess with an Xacto blade. I made it fairly neat even if some of the stuff had oozed into some of the fairing speaker grill holes. It got harder as the days passed.
I wanted some kind of enclousure to protect the backside of the speakers from moisture. I went to Containers etc. or Containers are Us (I don't remember the name) and got some Tupperware like tubs. Got them home, too big. I went to Walmart and got two juice pitchers for $1.89. Cut the bottom off one. Too big, but now I have one cheap juice pitcher left.
I've worked with fiberglass before so I went to Home Depot and got some fiberglass cloth and a can of polyester resin. I cut out two cardboard disks the size of the speaker magnets and duct taped them in place. Then I continued putting tape strips over the speakers and under the cone edge until the entire back was sealed with duct tape.I kept adding strips of tape until I had a fairly uniform shape. I now had speaker sized molds that were just a little deeper (by the thickness of the cardboard) than the speakers themselves.
I cut out enough fiberglass cloth to make two ovals two plies thick. I cut some darts in the cloth (ask your wife what they are) and test wrapped them around the speaker 'molds' making sure that there was at least 1" excess material around the mold edge.
I mixed the resin and wet out the cloth on a Formica covered board that had been waxed with car wax. Anyway you like works. I put the cloth on a piece of plastic (a cut up big Baggie works), poured the mixed resin on the cloth, put another piece of plastic bag on top, and, using a plastic squeegee, worked the resin throughout the cloth moving any excess resin to the sides. Probably you should have disposable rubber gloves on as the next gets a little messy. Cut around the edges of the now wet out plies, take off the top plastic, drape goopy cloth over your speaker mold, remove the second piece of plastic, and work it around and wrap your molds allowing the 1" excess to fan out on your Formica board. Work out any air bubbles. Play with it until you can feel it start to stiffen. Try to work it down for a close fit between the speaker edge and the table. Clean off any cutting tools with acetone and open the garage door before you pass out from the fumes.
The next morning, a spatula will release them up from the Formica and a little 'persuasion' will release the duct tape covered speakers from your now custom speaker enclosures. Put your speakers in their custom oval molded epoxy bedding, trim off the excess flange, test fit the enclosure and trim as necessary to make a nice fit.
Admire your work. Have your wife admire your work so she knows you're not dead from the fumes stinking up her house.
Now, how to hold the whole mess together. I pictured bolts with nuts holding the speaker mounting ears down, but one ear was already cut off and the other was hanging in midair. True, I did have two ears where bolts stood out from the epoxy bedding, but they were both at one end. Hummmm...back to Home Depot (I should buy their stock) where I got some good two part plastic glue in a syringe . I mixed it, applied a nice bead around the speakers edge, and plunked them down into their custom epoxy bed. If these speakers were coming out again, it would be because they were trash so it didn't matter if they were destroyed in the removal process.
I was so caught up in this gluing things in place idea, that I grabbed a caulking gun of silicone sealant, put a bead around the speaker's edge, pushed the enclosures in place, put another bead around the outside, smoothed the sealant, and stepped back to admire my work and take pictures.
As I was doing all this admiring, only then did it dawn on me that speakers need to be connected to wires to work... and I wasn't seeing any wires anywhere. Something was wrong with that picture.
Needless to say, you won't see any pictures of the enclosures in place without wires nor hear the gr*@#$%^&
Long story short, they are there now, the speakers worked at the stereo installation store (though overlooked the ACC position...corrected later).
The XM radio Roady II is mounted on a Cycle Gadget's Roady II mount on the front brake reservoir with the XM antenna magneticly clinging to an overhanging plate with an excessively long cable bundled under it.
The Sony RM-XM10 wired remote is mounted on a modified Roady mount on the clutch reservoir...and all's right with the world.
...now where's the iPod going to go?
Any questions or comments, write me here or to jnsgardner@usa.net