Whassup everyone:

I'm mounting a 50 lb sub in fiberglass under the strut bar. Just wondering what type of bracing and how many layers of resin/fg you guys would recommend to prevent flex and to make sure the box is super sealed?

Thanks!
Ravi

 

id make the FB at least 1/2" thick.. ill post pics of mine when i finish.. hopefully by next weekend.

 

What sub are you using, bro?

Also, how many coats should that equate to? Does the top most bondo count as a layer?

 

im using 2 Audiobahn 12s.. my trunk is gonna look like a giant bathtub with subs and amps in it... as far as how many layers, it depends. have you done fglass work before?

 

Awesome. Mine should be quite insane as well. Can't wait to see your pics and impressions. I have been around fiberglass work (yes) but my friend is an audio installer. We'll be doing this at my house as a DIY project.

Today I purchased resin, 2 yards of fiberglass, and bondo b/c the box will be painted body color.

ravi

 

if you wanna build it, if youre doin a full fiberglass box anyway, after you make the frame work, use something think, like old sweatshirts to build the thinkness. youll be sittin there with FG for months, and youll need lots more.. its a pain in the ***.. were doin it at my buddies shop, and hes sick of my car bein there already.. weve been workin on it for over a month now. but we should have it done this coming week. i hope..

 

Well literally the baffle is the only thiing that will be fg. The sweatshirt is a good idea, I guess that will be mad thick compared to a t shirt or regular cloth to begin with. I'm going to have the complete front fiberglassed and the rest will just be plain jane mdf.

peace! and thanks for the help man.

 

sure, no problem, the only reason were gettin kinda wild with mine is this moron with an eclipse with a daddy sponsorship wins all the local shows. i had a vw GTI, but couldnt compete with this eclipse, so i dumped the GTI, bought the Z, and from what i hear, this kids gettin pretty antsy to see my Z since hes heard its been in the shop for over a month now... plus his friend works at UPS and i have boxes and boxes of parts comin through there....

 

Awesome.

Show that guy up! Anyway, I'm debating on the rest of my setup. I was going to do all JL Audio, but now I'm going with all lesser known brands that I've owned before..

Thinking of: Elemental Designs ed6500s---ED's matching Amp, Surprise Sub/Amp combo haha.

Its really a tough choice. I'm also switching out my pioneer deh-p9400mp to an Eclipse 8 volt unit. I want my car to be insane this time around, no expense spared (sort of).

Peace

 

Can't wait to see your setup!!! Make sure to pack your Z with monitors if you want to win. If you need any ideas here is a link to the install of my system.

http://www.showtimeaudio.net/pics/Mark's%20350%20Z/

 

Thanks for the inspiration guys. Mark, your car is insane bro, mine wont be that crazy but none the less its going to be show ready and stupid, stupid loud.

ravi

 

hey hey! cardboard is great for gettin some thickness into your fbglass. it soaks the resin up, and its pretty easy to shape too but it stays firm, another +.

Im in the process of building my fblass system right now. eeeeverything is fblass from the rear deck all the way back, and Im doing it body color just like youre saying. Im still making the amp rack right now, I havent got to the sub chamber yet, but man when its done I am gonna be shaking the floor. 2 IDMAX 12s, 1250 watts a piece at 1 ohm mmm cant wait. haha
and I even got a monitor back there and some components like Mark said, haha.

 

Dude.....that is some serious poundage. 50lbs worth of sub, another 50-60 worth of box, maybe 30-40lbs in amps. Honestly, you would have a killer system with something like a single 12" higher end JL. Still heavy, but you could save a lot of weight on the box. Of course, I am totally obsessed with the weight thing, but that's just me. My car is still NA. If you are running an FI system, (?) who cares about the weight.

 

I appreciate your analysis, but seriously I've come to realize that I probably wont go on the performance aspect on the Z. I'm upgrading the handling as much as possible, n/a gains are worthless and only make the Z sound faster.

As far as FI goes, I'm too scared of blowing my motor and the associated costs so may as well have a sweeet cruiser, ya know?

As far as the audio equipment goes, I'm not a JL Audio fan at all. I've always gone with "underground" subs and schooled much more elaborate installs. I'm light anyway, so whats a good 150 lbs in the trunk

ravi

 

Well trust me, your absolutely gonna hate the feeling of your car lagging when you gas it. If your running around 600 lbs of weight or more, your gonna feel it bad, thats why i might be selling my box when i finish it, last thing i want is to lag my Z.

 

+1

Ive had a couple of friends warn me about weighing down my Z because I am going to be throwing some serious poundage into it with everything I am adding. (haha like 3 yellow top batteries and 2 50lb subs ) but i dont think it will affect the car THAT much. I AM trying to balance the weight though, like not stacking all the batteries on one side and whatnot.

Think about it though, its kinda like driving around with your overweight friend in your passenger seat, lol. Did you really notice your cars performance lagging so much with the extra person in it?

Im trying to add some N/A mods to compensate though, and I might go FI in the future anyway, but for GQ, if youre not really concerned with racing and wahtnot anyway then I wouldnt worry about it. For me having the nice setup in the back is more important, cause I cant get a ticket for that (unless Im an idiot and blasting it at 3am or something)

 

Thick stuff like sweat shirts and cardboard do nothing for rigidity. 9 layers of FG tightly squeegeed down, free of air bubbles will do loads more than a 1/4 inch of poly cotton blend.
The fleece should only be used for getting the shape, you still need the 9 layers on it for actual strength.

You can also use MDF for framing and rigidity, to give the box structure, fleece over that, then 9 layers of FG.

Chris

 

The JL was just an example because it appears to be a popular high-end brand. Please don't think I'm being critical in any way whatsoever. If having that kind of system makes you happy, by all means go for it. All this stuff we do to our cars is all just for fun after all, isn't it?. Just wanted to make sure you had given the weight thing some consideration, which, apparently, you have.

 

Thanks Speedracer--haha I didnt take it the wrong way at all. In fact I appreciate the fact that you brought it up. This community does have a lot of really great membrs.

Really my original goal was to make a beast of a Z. 450-500 rwhp. As time went on and reliability issues were being addressed, I realized I could not take the stress of FI on the Z.

Back to the post: I am going to pick the sub up this week! Yay! From there I'll make the trim ring, and start the mdf construction.

ravi

 

OK so here is some progress I guess:



Fiberglassing starts this week. I'm quite excited...the bracing is essential, we used 1" for the trim ring and the bracing. The box should be stupid solid once we are done. There is some sanding remaining (obviously) but we've made a lot of headway on what I believe is the most difficult part.

ravi