savvy

iTrader: (1)

So a month later I finally finished up making my sub box. For those of you who didn't catch my last thread I decided to embark on the world of fiberglassing. Keep in mind that until the day before i started my project I did not even know what resin was. So everything that I have done can easily be done by anyone with average craftsmanship skills.

Item List

Resin $35 a gallon at Home Depot
Fiberglass mat $6 each I used about 8 packs which is more than you really need.
Cheapest paintbrushes you can find $.79 i used a new one with each layer because these are cheap.
Disposable small bucket to hold resin $1.50 can be reused because the resin hardens and you just pour more on top of it.
Rubber Gloves $5 buy alot of them!
Respirator $25 You will NEED one of these. Not even debatable.
Blue Painting tape $6



I started off by taping off almost the entire trunk with blue painting tape. I strongly advise taping off an area MUCH larger than you actually intend to use. I also used a bag of packing popcorn to measure volume. I took a square box of know dimension and filled that with popcorn then poured that into a bag to get a rough idea of dimension.



I then used a spray adhesive and put tinfoil over the area i was going to be glassing to help make removal easier.



Now comes time to put down your first layer of fiberglass. The directions for mixing the resin and hardener comes on the bottle. You mix the stuff and brush a layer of resin over the tin foil then lay down your first layer of fiberglass and put more resin over that until it is nice and saturated. I did this when it was about 10 degrees out and this stuff took forever to dry. I used a space heater in the trunk and it still took about 5 hours to dry. Repeat this step until you have about 3 layers or enough to be able to take it out of the trunk and have it sit there on its own. I did 3 layers.



After about 3 layers i removed the back of the box from the trunk which is nice because your car will start to air out and not smell like resin anymore.



Once its out of the car you continue to lay down addition layers. Keep in mind the i'm using a W7 so that sucker is a HEAVY sub. You may not need as many layers as i used. I put about 6 layers on the back of the sub box and it was pretty damn thick. Some of the angles were weird and i used sticks from outside to hold up the sides because they kept falling down...i'm ghetto like that.



After you get all your layers on there and you feel that it is strong enough then you cut off all the excess fiberglass and use a hand saw to trim the edges to make them look a bit nicer. After that you make your wooden ring and i used a hot glue gun to secure braces to hold the ring in place. My ring came with my sub but most of you will have to make your own.



Once your ring is secured in place I then took a sheet i had laying around the house and cut it up to cover the front of the box. Yes those are penguins and I love them. I held the sheet there with duct tape. After you make the front of the box you then cover that with resin to harden it up nice and good.



Once that dries you can cover the front with more fiber glass. Again i used about 6 layers all the way around, and you will probably not need that many. After it all dried up I trimmed the edges smooth and applied some Bondo to fill in the divits and what not. PS bondo is F'ing amazing stuff



Bondo works wonders and gets nice and smooth after you sand it. You may need a few layers of it. I only did a rough job with the bondo because i was not planning on painting it but rather covering it in vinyl. I then cut the hole out for the sub and a small hole for the wire terminal.



Once it is fairly smooth and your holes are cut, you are ready to cover the thing in whatever you want. I choose vinyl but because of the odd shapes and turns it was VERY hard to work with. Getting the vinyl to look good was by far the most difficult part of this whole thing. Since only the top and the front of my box was going to be visible, I made sure those looked the best and just made due with what i could with the rest of the box. Overall this is a pretty large box 1.5 cubic feet to accomodate the 10w7 nicely. I think it looks pretty good considering I have never even touched fiberglass in my life.



Overall i used about 3 gallons or resin, about 8 packs of fiberglass, a dozen or so brushes, about 5 disposible small buckets, a gallon of bondo, a yard anf a half of vinyl and more man hours than i care to share. Total cost was about $275 which is a bit more than i thought i would spend but it was a fun project and again I used more material than i probably needed to so you all can do it a bit cheaper. This can certainly be done by anyone with general building skills that can follow directions. It is just VERY time consuming and I have a new found respect for anyone who does good work with fiberglass

savvy

iTrader: (1)

oopps i hit the wrong button...i will be editing this and putting in the rest of it...my bad

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

not sure qure ont he design, but when i build a fiberglass box, i also need:

1. some form or mold release
2. jigsaw, to cut the baffle that the sub is mounted on out of MDF, and also to cut the mold to rim it neatly, of course saw blades
3. spray adhesive and staple gun to proply pull the mold cloth
4. mold cloth, i use fleece
5. sand paper/sander, how much depends on how you wanna finish it
6. covering material, i.e. vinyl (in whcih case heatgun and a lot of saning), suede, carpet, paint (in whcih case a ton of san ding and paint)

what you listed i use of coures, but i am not sure how oyu can build a box with JUST those things

also, i dont use a respirator it fogs my glasses up, only time i use a respirator is when i sand ...

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

lol okay, i was owndering how the materials stopped there

b

Mike Wazowski

iTrader: (113)

This explains so much

savvy

iTrader: (1)

Everything should be up here, if you think i left something out or if you have any questions about my lack of fiberglass skills let me know

rotaryrocket7

Not bad at all for the first time. I used to have the same sheets when I was a kid, funny to see them put to good use!

Next I think I'm seeing a set of kick panels up front, same concept but smaller.

savvy

iTrader: (1)

i thought about try kick panels first but then i figured something much larger would be alot easier to work with so i made the sub box and just ordered a set of door pods from wickedcas.

jdohman

iTrader: (1)

That box honestly should be carpeted if you want it to look the best. It still has alot of work left on it if you want it to look good painted. You may want to go back with duraglass and do some shaping on it to make it a smooth finish and to mold to the curves and panels of the car better. You have the basics down on how to do the molding. Now the hard part is getting it to look good and that it came wtih part of the car or extreme custom.

savvy

iTrader: (1)

i agree that it probably should have been carpeted. I'm an extreme noob with all this stuff so i figured vinyl wouldn''t be that hard to work with but i was wrong. At least the part that is showing looks pretty good but the back of the box looks like crap because of all the angles but you don't see that part so its ok. If i get motivated enough i may rip off the vinyl and rework the box a bit but for now that took ALOT longer than i thought it would and i don't have the motivation for that now.

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

pretty much everyhting what justin said. you have the concept down, now its donw to learning how to do it so it comes out smooth and precise...there are many approaches to doing it...here is an example:

1. some people like to just add layers and layers on top,and then do a ton of filler, and sand a lot to get it down. this works great for people wtih great sanidng expereince, and have the right tools to quickly kick down the bondo, i.e a nice flexible small D/A sander.

2. for me, and some other people who dont like dust everywhere or who dont have the tools to do it, we do this. i mold an enclosure, pull the fleece tight, so it comes otu really nice. then i take it out, cut a big hole ont he back side of hte mold and fiberglass from INSIDE the enclsoure to build up layers. when i am done, i seal the hole back up. then it only takes 3 layers of bondo and sanding to get it smooth enough to go to paint. the pain in the butt part of course is to reach inside and dampen, i suaulyl also knock out the sub opeming so i can rach all the parts inside from both ends.

usually, with the rihg tools, method one is faster, but for me with not the right tools or space, method two is the only choice

again, i applaud you for doing this, and though there are improvements to be had for the box...it turned out a LOT better than the first fiberglass box i attempted back in 97

good job...

but as you can see, if someone doenst have any thing and want to build a proper one,t hey will end up spending abou thte same as some prefab boxes...so i honestly suggest doing this if you really wanna learn and try. cause 1. its often more expesnive, 2. it takes a few tries to iron down and get it right 3. often on the first try, it will either look not as clean, or may not sound good as some prefab custom ones out there

jdohman

iTrader: (1)

Yeah it takes alot of courage to dive into something like this. Fiberglass is a ART. You cannot just dive right into it and expect to have a amazing result. It take's year's of experience and training to get it down to have stuff like bing does. The more you do it the better you get. I remember back before there were message forums I went to a local shop and they told me to make a wood skelton and use a cloth to staple on. So I used a towel, Lets just say a towel is not the best thing to use on a fiberglass box.

savvy

iTrader: (1)

I definately have a new respect for someone who is good with fiberglass because it really is a major pain in the a$$. I had fun with it but overall i probably could have had someone make me one for not too much more money and had it come out really well. It was a great learning experience for me though

james840a

iTrader: (7)

Heres my handy work with Fiberglass.

savvy

iTrader: (1)

that looks pretty good man. I wish the w7 didn't require such a massive box but its sexiness is worth it.