# 1996 Honda Civic 4dr Install



## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

First and foremost I would like to give my thanks to this forum, I've been lurking here for the past few years. 

This project has been going on for the last 3 years and I can't really say that there was a time that it has been completed. 

My current gear:
Alpine CDA-9855 
Soundstream Rubicon 404 
Peerless Exclusives 7"
LPG 25nfa
Alpine MRD-m350
Infinity Kappa 12 DVC 

When I got the Peerless exclusives I have to fabricate a FG door pod to make it fit, or else I have to hack the plastic until theres nothing left in there lol. 

Door pods (July 2007)

Making the mold - I don't use foil or masking tape since resin doesn't stick to plastic. For insurance I sprayed some silicon lubricant. 
















Baffles - I don't have a router so i just use cardboard to hold the grill









Sealed the back part so it'll be mounted directly on the door metal.









Aiming - I didn't like the sound and staging when they're more in-axis so I just aimed then on the shift knob in the center console, it's only slightly aimed upwards.






















I just coat it with flat black paint so it won't be sticky, I still haven't find the time to finish it yet lol. 

To be continued..


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## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

It doesn't look like you have hardly any airspace in that enclosure at all. Are you sure that's gonna sound good like that?


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

No, it's not an enclosure if you look closely at the pictures above the center part doesn't have resin. The reason i did that is to have it sealed to the inner part of the door and mount it directly to the metal. 

This pic doesn't clearly show that the center has been cut off.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

Tweeter Pods(Jan 5 - present)

Thin coat of silicon lubricant to prevent the resin to stick on the plastic.









Gear up for the nasty fiberglass.









Popped the mold after 3 layers of chopped mat. I let it cure overnight









Making the rings









I use the tweeter aiming method posted by Rick, I use a laser pointer to make aiming more precise but still this is the hardest part. I had to cut small pieces of chopsticks glue it on the base and the ring then try if it still aimed right.


































Wrapped in an old cotton t-shirt




































Sanded and base coat  Just picked up a can of spot putty earlier.


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## azngotskills (Feb 24, 2006)

Kamusta 

If that MDF is wet, i wouldnt use it. I can start swelling and continue to deform and become useless.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

azngotskills said:


> Kamusta
> 
> If that MDF is wet, i wouldnt use it. I can start swelling and continue to deform and become useless.


Ayos lang  

You guys just notice everything huh..  

Its not wet, I just saw that piece lying around. 

Next step is spot putty and sand with 800 then 1200 grit. I'm still not decided whether i'll use flat black or metallic black. I'm excited to hear the LPG's mounted on these pods, they are just double taped on the top of my dash for 6months lol. But I'm holding myself to try them unfinished because I might get lazy just like what happened to my door pods.


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## dbTroy (Nov 30, 2007)

I never knew that resin didn't stick to plastic. No more countless hours masking that crap up when all you need to do in silicone it and go. 

I really like those tweeter pods. What will you use to mount them?


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## Thumper26 (Sep 23, 2005)

nice work. i had that same car, and had to dremel out those same panels on mine. however, i was lazy and just wrapped the whole bottom panel with grill cloth. my mids were attached to baffles bolted to the doors.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

dbTroy said:


> I never knew that resin didn't stick to plastic. No more countless hours masking that crap up when all you need to do in silicone it and go.
> 
> I really like those tweeter pods. What will you use to mount them?


Thanks  , the primary reason i didn't mask is because i don't want aluminum or tape sticking in the mold. We don't have those blue tape that you guys use over there for masking, we only got the paper masking tape. Some resin will still stick but its an easy job for scotch brite and dishwashing soap.

Thumper, I would prefer to just mount an MDF baffle to the door but it's a really tight fit for a 7", I had that when I was using a DLS MS6 set. I had to weigh the pros and cons before i finally decided to make some pods. Making them fit with MDF baffles will expose the back side of mids to moisture and water.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

Spent my weekend finishing the tweeter pods.

First coat of metallic black paint









Installed









Closeup

















Hope you guys liked it  

Previously, the LPGs are double taped in the top of my dash facing each other. The center image is spot on without any T/A but tonality suffers. After these pods, the tonality is greatly improved but I need a bit of T/A to lock the center image.

Next weekend, I'll finish the door pods for the Exclusives.

BTW, thanks to hc_TK's Audi Build for giving me an idea for the tweeter pods.


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## M-Dub (Nov 29, 2006)

They look awesome!


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

Megalo said:


> They look awesome!


I'm glad you liked it  


Deadening (Dec 2006)

Deadened with RAAMmat BXT and Ensolite
















1 layer on inner door, 2 layers on outer door shell

















2 layers of ensolite behind the woofers


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

After finishing the tweeter pods, I was inspired to finally finish the door pods for the mids. It took me 2 weeks to finish the driver side. My time is divided between software development (full time job), car audio and recently photography so I was only able to work on the pods for a couple of hours a week. 









With body filler, a friend let me borrow his Crystal SSCS6 grill for fitting, sadly I can't have it. 




























Final coat of metallic black paint, after countless hours of body filler, sanding, spot putty and more sanding. Shots are taken with Pentax K100D w/ 18-55mm f4-5.6


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

Fitted in the door, I had to paint the map pocket plastic to match with the pod and siding better (I think it faded).



























I'm planning to use this grill from the Morel Elates set. 









Finally the group picture! 

I still have to finish the other side, hopefully within the next few weeks. Hope you guys liked it.


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Wow! great work! Including your photography. Can i suggest a black grill (like the one you borrowed from your friend) to cover that mid. It will tie it to the look of your tweeter. Making it look more uniform.
Well done either way.


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## Thumper26 (Sep 23, 2005)

very nice work. x2 on using a matching black grill.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

Thanks, as much as I would like to use that grill it will be very difficult to find here as it does not came from a very well known set. 

I agree, the mesh type grill fits a lot better to the overall look of the interior.


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## waternut (Feb 6, 2008)

Good pic's and ideas. I have also used Pam cooking spray for release when I can't find the silicone. My wife can't find her pam now.


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## mojako (May 27, 2005)

ah ha!!!

nice install!!!

parinig naman minsan pre!


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

Hey Jackie, thanks a lot! You're the one who answered my newbish questions when I was still starting. See you floating around the car forums again huh, what's new? 

I want to audition your excels too, I'm just in eastwood area, just send me a PM


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## isnowi (Feb 15, 2008)

Looking good.


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## mojako (May 27, 2005)

lsouljah,
sure.. but it's not installed yet. Sold my old car.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

Decided to finally finish and re-do my car install. 

I was driving one afternoon when my door just smoked, as if someone is smoking inside the panels. Upon inspection, almost all wires at the molex connector to the door has been pulled from the pins. I had to re-pin each 15 wires and put enough protection for the wires.

Molex with pins









Re-pinned each wire









Door harness fixed and techflexed 14ga wire









Improvised grommet from LPG hose


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

On to the trunk, I'll re-do the woodworks (sorry don't have pictures of previous installs) but to give you an idea i've been through 3 but none of them got finished. 

I got a jigsaw for ~$40 so I can finally make my own box. 

Test fitting the box 









You can see the existing wiring, I'm too lazy to remove those, i'll just fix them later 









The box, the left is a 1cuft chamber for the 12" Infinity Kappa sub, the right side will hold the amps, showing off the SoundStream Rubicon mounted vertically infront. 









Afraid of any leaks, i laid 2 layers of chopped mat on the corners.


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## mojako (May 27, 2005)

wow!!

nice DIY!


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

Thanks jackie, i sent you a PM


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## armed (Mar 13, 2008)

ganda ha....


wooot wooot



june


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## glidn (Apr 21, 2007)

awesome work so far man, keep it up.

Will be very interested in how it's going to turn out. the amp mount.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

For the amp rack, I was inspired by Simplicityinsound's corvette install, simple and elegant. 

The box will have a same face as this, only different color and vertically installed.









Thanks a lot to DIYMA for the inspiration.


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## maxxis (Jun 10, 2008)

Nice work.

I have a 98 Civic hatch that is being built to compete in SQ events and the tweeter pods and door builds are being done soon.

Thanks for the pics.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

maxxis said:


> Nice work.
> 
> I have a 98 Civic hatch that is being built to compete in SQ events and the tweeter pods and door builds are being done soon.
> 
> Thanks for the pics.


Please share your pictures as well, I'm thinking of re-doing both my tweeter and door pods. But I can't think of a way to fit a 7" in the doors without a bulky pod.


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## mojako (May 27, 2005)

isoul,
you know i was able to fit the 7" ca18s in my doors without pods. You just have to trim some of the inner part of the door panel. Which will not make sense to you because you already have door pods! lol


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## maxxis (Jun 10, 2008)

lsouljah said:


> Please share your pictures as well, I'm thinking of re-doing both my tweeter and door pods. But I can't think of a way to fit a 7" in the doors without a bulky pod.


Will do.

At the moment the Civic is second priority since all the goodies for the Jazz project has landed and the fabrication and install needs to get going.

On the Civic the tweeters from the DLS C6A splits is about 20cm up the a-pillars and slightly off-axis to play with different staging options. Also waiting for the new deck to finish playing in so I can focus on the proper setup. After that I need to slap in a bulk pack of Dynamat Extreme to sort out a few issues.


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## jonz80 (Jun 30, 2008)

nice work!!! got skills bro... sayang di ko lang ikaw matandaan, dame ko kasi nabentahan ng 3m.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

jonz80 said:


> nice work!!! got skills bro... sayang di ko lang ikaw matandaan, dame ko kasi nabentahan ng 3m.


Thanks bro, malapit lang ako sayo, sa may Tuazon lang. 









As expected this is a slow process, i was only able to cut the sub hole, was able to buy T-nuts and allen bolts to be used to fasten the sub 

I can only work 1-2hours at night if I can get home early, and I cannot use any power tools during the night, the neighbors complain.


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## lsouljah (Nov 19, 2006)

I've been busy at work for the past few months, nevertheless, I managed to put back the equipment for testing. I've been running without a stereo for almost two months I totally forgot how my system sounds like. 

Still can't decide on how to do the face so that piece is still missing. 









I'll clean up the wiring when I'll finish the build hopefully a couple of weeks from now.


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## azerathis (Dec 7, 2010)

looks nice how did you figure out which hole each pin went back in on the connector?


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

azerathis said:


> looks nice how did you figure out which hole each pin went back in on the connector?


You missed him by 2 years and 3 months { old-thread }

Get a wiring diagram in an auto book [ Haynes for instance ].

check online

etcetera


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## azerathis (Dec 7, 2010)

Thanks for your help. I should have looked at the date though. I have a Honda manual and it doesn't show the connector just the wiring. It doesn't give the pin locations.


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