I first met Mike about 5 or so years ago at a car audio event in Syracuse where he was kind enough to give me a demo of his truck. This is when i was still very new to this hobby and had pretty much zero experience with a proper sounding car (i still listen to the first song he used to demo the truck). I loved it. His truck, along with a few other vehicles that day got me hooked on the pursuit of accurate reproduction of music in a car.. which brings us here. Years later he, a man i by now almost completely forgot contacted me to do some work in his Chevy Cruze. He has a full Pioneer Stage 4 speaker and head unit set up. He just wanted me to add the 2 5/8" midrange to the A-Pillars and to wrap them in matching black material, as well as tune the car via the Pioneer P99RS he installed. Two other requirements.. the pillars cannot block the inspection stickers, and build them to be on the same horizontal axis as the tweeters.
Unfortunately i didnt get as detailed with the photos after making the baffles. sorry
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Heres the stock pillars before anything was done.
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First things first.. Baffles
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Sized perfectly to account for the spacing of the fabric between the speakers outer edge and the flush mounts (shown below) outer edge. After doing the flush mounts, the rear of the baffle was chamfered to promote better airflow.
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After the baffles were made, i trimmed out the pillars, masked off the dash, and took a mold.
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The mold was trimmed, and the baffles were aimed via laser pointer. Mike wanted them to be on the same axis as the tweeters, so this is what we ended up with. It happened to work out perfectly in the end. After the first one was aimed, i measured down and across to find where the laser should be pointing on the second one. Hit the nail on the head.
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Like i said before, i kinda missed photos of some steps. Fleece was pulled in a certain way to achieve this shape. The shape i went for was to match the shape/design of the cloth trim panels that wrap around the inside of the car. It was reinforced with glass mat and smoothed with body filler.
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As with all of my builds, XT60 connectors were used for quick and hassle free serviceability. Threaded inserts and cap head machine screws were also used to secure the mid to the baffle, which you can see below in the finished pictures..
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All wrapped up and ready for install.
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Installed and ready for tuning! (side note, time for a new polarizing filter. its making some weird sploches on the glass and fabric at certain filter angles :/ )
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After the install, i did some tuning via the left/Right 31 band graphic eq in the Pioneer P99RS. I set up a couple that he can choose from since the P99RS has 5 eq presets. The measurements lowest in volume are left and right sides. i got them to match so well i can hardly see that theres 2 measurements and not 1. The dark green measurement is a base tune. Something flat after 180hz to give him a good baseline. i also copied this to presets 4 and 5 so he can do mono eq adjustments on either to adjust to his liking. The Red measurement were a few adjustments i made by ear to my preference. Overall, the car sounded phenomenal and reminded me what can be achieved with a simple left/right graphic eq. On top of that, these pillars are some of my favorite so far. Thanks again Mike!!
![Image]()
Unfortunately i didnt get as detailed with the photos after making the baffles. sorry
Heres the stock pillars before anything was done.
First things first.. Baffles
Sized perfectly to account for the spacing of the fabric between the speakers outer edge and the flush mounts (shown below) outer edge. After doing the flush mounts, the rear of the baffle was chamfered to promote better airflow.
After the baffles were made, i trimmed out the pillars, masked off the dash, and took a mold.
The mold was trimmed, and the baffles were aimed via laser pointer. Mike wanted them to be on the same axis as the tweeters, so this is what we ended up with. It happened to work out perfectly in the end. After the first one was aimed, i measured down and across to find where the laser should be pointing on the second one. Hit the nail on the head.
Like i said before, i kinda missed photos of some steps. Fleece was pulled in a certain way to achieve this shape. The shape i went for was to match the shape/design of the cloth trim panels that wrap around the inside of the car. It was reinforced with glass mat and smoothed with body filler.
As with all of my builds, XT60 connectors were used for quick and hassle free serviceability. Threaded inserts and cap head machine screws were also used to secure the mid to the baffle, which you can see below in the finished pictures..
All wrapped up and ready for install.
Installed and ready for tuning! (side note, time for a new polarizing filter. its making some weird sploches on the glass and fabric at certain filter angles :/ )
After the install, i did some tuning via the left/Right 31 band graphic eq in the Pioneer P99RS. I set up a couple that he can choose from since the P99RS has 5 eq presets. The measurements lowest in volume are left and right sides. i got them to match so well i can hardly see that theres 2 measurements and not 1. The dark green measurement is a base tune. Something flat after 180hz to give him a good baseline. i also copied this to presets 4 and 5 so he can do mono eq adjustments on either to adjust to his liking. The Red measurement were a few adjustments i made by ear to my preference. Overall, the car sounded phenomenal and reminded me what can be achieved with a simple left/right graphic eq. On top of that, these pillars are some of my favorite so far. Thanks again Mike!!
