wow, very nice clean install

 

Wow that looks great!

Just a couple of questions though.

1. Did you have to cut out any of the stock styrofoam in the trunk where the enclosure went?

2. Was the foam mold solid? If so, how long did that take you to build it up?

3. How many cans of the foam did that take?

4. How were the top piece(baffle?) and the speaker terminals attached?

Sorry for all the questions, but I like to build stuff

This looks like a great project! Not to mention it would save the $350-$600 i've been quoted for a fiberglass enclosure!

 

Garvin...you have asked some good questions...

Here are the answers:

Q1. Did you have to cut out any of the stock styrofoam in the trunk where the enclosure went?

A. The stock styrofoam is GONE! I removed the entire piece, and the sub enclosure fills almost the entire area that the styrofoam used to occupy.

Q2. Was the foam mold solid? If so, how long did that take you to build it up?

A. Yes, the foam mold was solid. It took a couple of days in the cold weather for it to set up. I tried to allow 4-5 hours of cure time between each 1-2 inch thick layer. Great stuff really needs about 8 hours in warm weather to totally cure, but 5 hours seemed to be enough time in the cold where I could start adding the next layer.

Q3. How many cans of the foam did that take?

A. There are 3 kinds of Great Stuff. I used the standard, and another kind called low expansion for Gaps and Cracks. The Gaps and Crack version seemed to cure faster, but both yielded good results. I think I used 3 cans total, but 2 were the large 20oz cans. So, maybe 4 cans altogether.

Q4. How were the top piece(baffle?) and the speaker terminals attached?

A. The top was attached after the mold (sides and bottoms already fiberglassed) was finished. After I ensured that the mold fit properly, I placed the mdf baffle on the top, marked its position, and held the top in place using several nails wedged against the subwoofer hole opening. Surprisingly, the nails held the top firmly when pushed into the foam mold. I think I used about 6 or 8 nails around the opening of the sub to secure the top while I attached it to the bottom. This kept the top in place while I fiberglassed around the perimeter of the top. Once I got it held firmly with the fiberglassing around the edge, I cut away the mold from the inside, using a knife, screwdriver, and a pair of heavy duty latex gloves. The entire foam mold was removed through the subwoofer opening.

The speaker terminal was added by cutting a hole in the finished enclosure. The speaker terminal faces the spare tire well, for easy connection. After the hole was custout for an exact fit of the terminals, I used small pieces of fiberglass and plenty of resin to seal in the terminals.

I hope this helps. By the way, make sure you work in a well ventilated area...fiberglass fumes are pretty rough. Also, amke sure you put down a thick piece of plastic sheeting, fiberglass resin will adhere to anything...

Have fun, you have some work ahead of you...

 

I have been wanting for some time to learn the art of fiberglassing in an automotive environment. You have shown me that it is not as hard as the "Pro's" make it out to be. But that's why they make the "big bucks"j/k Anyway, I have a question. If you make an exact mold of an area using expanding foam, and you placed the fiberglass on the outside of that mold, and built it up to 1/4 or so inches thick, would it not then be too large to fit back in that same space?<--(Extreme run on sentence) I love the way you did this. It looks great! But this question is bothering me.
I plan on doing a similar method to my Z but I am trying to get all the info I can first.

Thanks,

 

Stormchaser...

See the 2nd post in this thread to answer this question. You will see that I used 1/2" foam padding around the entire area, as a "buffer." Then after I built up the mold, as long as I stayed within this 1/2" buffer, the final enclosure would still fit.

 

That is great info! This will come in real handy when I give this a shot myself

Also, do you plan on putting a grill of some sort on the enclosure to protect/hide the sub?

Thanks a lot, and nice work!

 

Onecoolee,
Sorry about that! For some stupid reason I thought you left that buffer in for insulation. But I really appreciate you clearing that up for me. Like I said, I am learning.
It looks great, and when people complement you on it, you can say, "I did that myself!" Something to be proud of!

 

I may have missed this but did you cut the carpet where the box goes? Ever think about building more of these?

 

CLS...

Actually, this was my first stab at doing a 100% fiberglass enclosure, and it turned out very nice, but I have no intentions of making anymore. I think this one is a one of a kind...

As far as the carpet goes, the factory thin, cheap carpet was not cut, it is rolled underneath, beside the spare, so that the vehicle can be returned to the stock look. The upgraded interior trunk mat for my forst interior, which is thicker, nad has a rubberized backing, was cut. It is trimmed to about a 1/2" overlap and tuck neatly between the enclosure and false trunk floor.

Once the custom ordered carpet is installed, I will psot pics of the finished product, and my hopes are that the lines are tight, and seamless, and the feel is that this looks like a factory job. Good acoustical carpetting will hide any flaws, but there aren't many, so the addition of the carpet should clean everything up.

In the meantime, I added a 10W6v2 sub to this enclosure, and changed the bondo job slightly on the top to allow for this larger width speaker. The look is similar, but I will have pics by the weekend...

 

Does the bass sound solid in that enclosure? How do the JL components sound? I am thinking of doing a similar set up and I need to decide on speakers. I have a JL 10W0 that I may use so I dont have to buy another.

 

Here are the latest pics. I upgraded to a JL 10W6v2, and finished the custom carpet job. The new sub totally rocks and sounds so good. JL Audio really knows what they are doing, and it sounds like I have more than 1 sub in there. I can only dream of what the 10W7 would do in a Z.

Here's a new pic.

 

And another...

 

CLS...

The bass sounds very solid in this enclosure. Its very tight, and accurate, but it will go low too. I am quite impressed with the new line of JL subs. The 10W6v2 has alot of qualities that the W7's have, so its a good choice if you don't want to go all out with a W7.

The JL seperates are nice too, very well designed, and well worth the money. I think the low end output was better on my Boston Proseries 6.5 seperates I used to have in anotehr car, but these XR series JL components are strong performing speakers.

One more pic:

 

Here's another pic with the special JL Audio grill...

 

And another...

 

Another pic from the passenger's seat...

 

woops...

 

And another from the strut bar....

 

So, when's the group buy on THIS enclosure, onecoolee? HAHA

 

I am afraid this one may be a one-of-a-kind...unfortunately, I don't have the time or capacity to go into production for this enclosure.

Sorry