EDIT2: I decided to put Evercoat Rage Gold on it(had a gallon of it layin around) sto make it all smooth. I still have a little bit left to sand but wont take me long at all. I posted a pic at the very bottom on it installed in my car. Its not bolted in yet and it doesnt have the carpet on it(obviously). Still unfinished but its almost there.

EDIT:
I finished the box, im just waiting for carpet. The picture is the last one on the page. It still doenst look as good as it will with carpet on it. I am ordering the cabinet carpet from PartsExpress.com

NOTE: THis is still in the process. I am making a subwoofer(2 of the total) enclosure that 1.) a sealed box takes up minimal space in the trunk that I would actually use and 2.) has exactly .75ft^3 internal volume. I have comeup with the box to go where the indention is behind the rear tail lights. People ask me how I will get to the tail lights if needed, well heres how im doing it:
I took out the clips that clip into the metal of the car that hold the carpet up. Im drilling holes in the back of the enclosure so i can bolt the box to the car so it wont move. Sure it might be some work to get to the tail lights but its not like im getting behind there once a day or anything. Anways...

Here is what I have come up with.

I will give explainations about what the picture is of. I will have this done tomorrow so I will update the page.

Any Opinions are welcome, good or bad ones.

Here you can see that a few layers of fiberglass have been laid down. I took this whilei t was hardening. Since this is my first fiberglass project, i had the fiberglass made way farther than was needed.


This picture is obviously taken outside of the car. After alot of layers added i trimmed it to where i needed it(except at the bottom) and installed the speaker ring where I wanted to point it. Its not pointing toward the back seat, its pointing toward the corner where the back seats are. TO test this i cut a box in hanf that i had made a long time ago and pointed them at that same spot and they sound great:


This one u can see looks like total trash! Holes everywhere! WEll they arent really holes; with the way I angled the sub rings, the right side of the ring was actually behind the wall so i wasnt able to stretch the fleece over that part. the left side is solid because i was able to stretch it over that. On the right side i attached the fleece from underneath(this part took a while) and then when the fleece was anchored to the ring i would stretch the fleece across the wall and attach it to the back of the whole mold. I had to do this in pieces tho so thats y it looks like trash:

Here is a picture showing if I stretched the fleece over the whole front from a top view...the red lines show the fleece and the purple shows where it wouldnt attach:


And This jumps way ahead. Its almost done! I have to do some more obvious sanding and i have to add a few pieces of fiberglass to the dark spots so it will all be smooth.


I dont like the angle that I took that last picture. It does look a LOT better in person than it does in that picture. I just have the sub layin in there to take a pic.
I AM going to carpet it tho, it would look too ugly to keep it the bare fiberglass.

Again, any opinions, suggestions or anything...


Here is the box finished. Waiting for carpet



You can probably see at the top corner where i still need to sand the bodyfiller down.




Modified by silentblackhat at 1:19 AM 1/19/2006

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by silentblackhat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
...
Here is a picture showing if I stretched the fleece over the whole front from a top view...the red lines show the fleece and the purple shows where it wouldnt attach:

..</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats when you get the hot glue gun or stapler and hold the fleece to the MDF ring attach it then glass it. Also you should go get some bondo and cake that thing in it. That what will give you the really smooth look you are looking for. Good luck and good job so far.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Iamcuddles &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Thats when you get the hot glue gun or stapler and hold the fleece to the MDF ring attach it then glass it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i thought about that but how i was thinkin about it, there would be too thick of glass around where the ring bends in so i wanted some space between the bottom of the ring and the top of it.

I am going to fill some holes in with the fiberglass, sand it all down and then put Evercoat Rage Gold on it, i love that stuff. So easy to sand too.

 

This is your first "glass" box?! Looks really good IMO. Bondo or "kitty hair" will do wonders for strength!

 

Yeah its my first one. It seriously looks a LOT better in person tho. On the right side u cant see it very well or at all but it looks really nice how it curves in smoothly. Im about to go out and finish it in a few minutes, Ill post pictures when its all done.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by omega02379 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This is your first "glass" box?! Looks really good IMO. Bondo or "kitty hair" will do wonders for strength! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Kitty hair? Well after i stretched the fleece over it, i put alot of fiberglass mat on it to shape it and give it strength. I purposly let the fleece sag a little(after iput the resin on it when it was still wet) so i could build it up with the fiberglass. I built this box stronger than wht it needs to be(only pushing 230 watts rms each sub) but stronger is better

 

I still have pics of the first glass box I did , that still need to be developed But I know what you mean when you say it looks better in person. That is very true. And yes stronger is better

 

hell ya man it looks good...are u going to do ur hole car in fiberglass?

 

well really idk, theres been SO many times that iv said "ok im not gonna do anything else with my car, im done"(mostly car audio stuff...the last thing i did was make my own PA system, my car looks 100% stock tho except for my alpine cd player). I said that i am done with the car after these 2 sub enclosures....i have to do the other side also but its exactly the same as the one im making now.

The reason y i am doin this is that I used to have a Nissan Altima 1995 GXE and it got totaled(not my fault ). I used ot have 12" infinity subs in my altima and now i have the civic. the box takes up alot of room so i decided to get 10" subs and make fiberglass boxes so they wont take up space that i will use

I have to now figure out what i want to do with the amps. I have the Kenwoon amp for my subs and the alpine amp for my front speakers that are just laying in the trunk. I was thinking of making a simply display thing toward the back of the trunk(by the seats) but i have to figure that out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by silentblackhat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I have to now figure out what i want to do with the amps. I have the Kenwoon amp for my subs and the alpine amp for my front speakers that are just laying in the trunk. I was thinking of making a simply display thing toward the back of the trunk(by the seats) but i have to figure that out. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Sliding amp rack out from under the rear deck!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by omega02379 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Sliding amp rack out from under the rear deck!!! </TD></TR></TABLE>

WOuld that involve metal hardware to attach it to the deck? Im just tryin to figure out what u mean, if thats waht ur talkin about, that would probably work well

 

Depends if you want motor or not. I don't see it being hard. A friend of mine did it. He just used rails from a file cabinet and a worm motor hooked up to slide out on either a switch or when the trunk opened.

 

I might think of doing that....ill have to figure out how to make that work but i 'figure things out' like that pretty well so i bet i could rig something up. I might think if still doin it on the floor or side of the trunk.

 

looks good kevin!

 

its updated

 

Oh , yeah. How is this gonna be held in?

 

Sorry i forgot to post that...i took out the clips that hold the carpet up in the trunk(the clips that hook into the metal). with the same holes ill find some bolts that will fit in there and i will screw the bolts from the inside of the box through those holes in the existing metal. I felt the metal and its plenty strong to hold it in. so if i have to get to the rear tail lights i can just take the sub out and then unbolt the box from inside the box....a little work but not too much. so between the bolt and the box(on the inside) ill have a rubber washer. does that sound good?


Modified by silentblackhat at 1:15 AM 1/18/2006

 

First off - good job.

Second, if I could offer a suggestion for those taking on similar projects....

1. that flat piece that rides against the floor - you should have made this from MDF - it would have taked about 10 minutes to do, and would be MUCH stronger then the same piece of fiberglass - also much much cheaper, and far less labor intensive.

2. Same goes for the main section of the back - again, unless you are SUPER crunched for space or depth, much of it was flat, therefore you could have done that from mdf as well.

3. you could have cut a ring to represent the sub itself out of mdf, covered it in foil, then screwed it to your sub mount (wiht the fleece under it) - then just stretch the fleece and you wouldn't have had any problems.

Just some ideas from a guy who has screwed up his fair share of fiberglass projects.

 

alright thanks. Ill keep that in mind when i do the other side. right now i have the ever coat rage gold on it and am sanding it down so its smooth cuz i cant decide if i want to do carpet or vinal material so having it perfectly smooth doesnt hurt if i go with the carpet. im happy with how the box turned out tho. its exactly how i 'visioned it' or how ever u want to say it.

I didnt think of the mdf on the bottom but the bottom is very thick so its strong. also i dont like my subs REALLY loud so the enclosures wont be overworked or over stressed. the walls are really thick too

 

Nice to see custom fabrication projects. It kind of gets tiring to see everyone just throw a simple box in there.

Everything looks good, except your edges seem to be very wavy. I'd use a 5in grinder disc to get a perfectly straight and smooth shape. You can even round off the corners quite easily with it. And if you cut off too much to the point where you make a hole, then you can always fix it with body filler. I find it hard to get everything perfectly shaped the first time, so you do need to cut off/grind a bit here and there, and then reshape with body filler/fiberglass. I also would recommend to cover it in carpet to match the factory look.

 

Another thing I want to add. Before you cover it in carpet (or whatever), fill it with water to make sure you have no leaks. And at the same time you can figure out the volume of your box by doing a simple conversion to cubic feet.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Odessa &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Another thing I want to add. Before you cover it in carpet (or whatever), fill it with water to make sure you have no leaks. And at the same time you can figure out the volume of your box by doing a simple conversion to cubic feet.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Good idea with the water^^^ I did that with mine to make sure as well

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Odessa &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> And at the same time you can figure out the volume of your box by doing a simple conversion to cubic feet.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I figured it out using packing noodles. i took a known volume sub box and filled it with the packing noodles. then i put those inside the box i ahve(makin sure they are all distributed evenly) and its exactly .75ft^3. i took a bit of time to figure out the angle and the distance the ring would be back from the rar of the box to get the .75 i needed. but then after i put the fleece on it, i tried it again and it matched perfectly. it looks a lot better now, the edges arent really bad at all if u see it in person, idk y it looks so crappy on camera tho; maybe the angle of the camera and the curve of the box for the ring? idk. I put body filler on the outside of the box and im just getting done sanding it down(used rage gold).

After i am done with all of that i will try the water thing to make sure thres no leaks. All is going well so far.

 

you don't want to get water anywhere near that mdf ring - unless you seal it with glass first - coating it in resin will work.

a great way to seal your box is to start with straight resin, then add a filler - I prefer cab-o-sil - you can even use baby powder until you get the consistency of a milkshake. Then mix in resin as you would regularly.

this stuff is great as it self levels really well - it will also seal any pin holes you may have in your glass. ou can also use it on the outside of a fleeced part to help with the sanding/filling

overall, a pretty versatile technique - I use it inside all of my glass boxes so thereare NO leaks for sure.

Keep in mind though, it will slightly reduce the volume of the box, if you apply to the inside. You can apply to the outside.

Another technique (on smaller boxes and kicks) is to apply non-hardening modeling clay. Not only does it add mass to the enclosure - ALWAYS a good thing - it will seal lieaks as well.

 

i did the water test(the mdf was allready sealed) and no leaks, i also figured out exactly how much water .75ft^3 is in the bucket(using the volume of a cylinder formula since the bucket is one) and it was exactly what i needed. This is the most accurate volume inside a box that i have done. Anyways, i got the bodyfiller sanded smooth and its ready for carpet when i get it in the mail.

By the way, why would there be pinholes in the fiberglass if u did it right in the first place? i had no doubt that there was goin to be no leaks but i filled it with water just incase(and cuz i had nothin to do). Leak free, just as i thought.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by silentblackhat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i did the water test(the mdf was allready sealed) and no leaks, i also figured out exactly how much water .75ft^3 is in the bucket(using the volume of a cylinder formula since the bucket is one) and it was exactly what i needed. This is the most accurate volume inside a box that i have done. Anyways, i got the bodyfiller sanded smooth and its ready for carpet when i get it in the mail.

By the way, why would there be pinholes in the fiberglass if u did it right in the first place? i had no doubt that there was goin to be no leaks but i filled it with water just incase(and cuz i had nothin to do). Leak free, just as i thought. </TD></TR></TABLE>

sometimes you can get pin holes in the corners, or id you are doing a very curvy piece that is very thin, then you can get small pin holes. I use a lot of knytex in my pieces - it's a hybrid of chop mat and cloth - it can develop some voids, but it builds up fast and very strong...