Templating the Afterburner

As I mentioned in a previous post about the afterburner lighting effects, I will be placing an outdoor/marine speaker in the afterburner of the car.  To do that I’m building a decorative piece to go inside the afterburner.  I received my inspiration from another build that I was looking at so I figured I would also give something like it a try.

Yesterday was silly cold and snowy so I decided to do some template work and mock-up this decorative structure.  The idea is to create something that may look like it would belong inside an afterburner, but at the same time provide an area where I can hide a speaker.

I started off with drawing a circle that matched the inner diameter of the narrowest part of the afterburner “turkey feathers”.  I figured that I would ensure that I could get the piece in and out of the afterburner without trouble.  Then I propped up my speaker on a spacer that would ensure the structure would be tall enough to create an enclosure and leave some space for the sound to echo out.

Then there was a whole lot of trial and error to get the angles and sizes of the pieces the way I wanted them.  This was just a lot of try.. trim… try… trim.

Once all the pieces fit, I taped them all together to get the structure/shape that I was shooting for.  The pieces when all put together create a peak over the speaker so that I can create a little enclosure underneath it.

Last step was to try it out in the actual afterburner.  Of course it seemed to be too small.  But that’s why it’s always a good idea to create these things out of easy to cut template material like Bristol board.  I ended up adding an extra 3″ of length to each of the legs of the structure to see if it would look better.

The first concept was that I would slide in the entire structure attached to the circular base plate, but now since the arms will reach out onto the base of the afterburner, I could just weld them to the afterburner base.  Hmmmm. That way I would have access to the speaker, and then can just bolt it on using the existing holes.  Still not quite sure what I’ll do.. I could also create an inside cylinder to house the smaller version.  But at least it’s a start!

I’ll have to see exactly what the size is once I cut the pieces out of metal and weld them together.  There’s lots of room to get it in and out of the afterburner, but I also want the “Y” to be at the top and it might cover existing bolt holes.  So I might have to get creative, but we’ll have to see once we get there.

I’ll also be adding two small “cups” in each open space around the structure to add some more decoration.  The picture below gives you more of an idea of the kind of look that was the inspiration for the center. I’m still not sure and may try a few other modifications.