Sarge's Audio Adventure, now with a CarPC, My I.C.E. Build; never ending... Rating Options

[sarge]

hehe... I was wondering if that would ever come up...I may not be so generous to just give you one.
I'm sure if I really felt like going through this again I could always just make a plaster mold of the fiberglass - then mass produce them!! yah

This will actually be for a single 12", I've got plans to make the part closer to the seats sunk in a bit for the amp to go - though with the measurements of the amp I'm now getting - not sure if that'll work or not

it'll be a sealed box, cause I'm more for quality than quantity... that's what Google will help you determine..

[mlumz]

i know there of some sites where you can input the sub specs and box size and dimentions to make the perfect SPL box
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out of curiosity. If you spent all day doing this (how many dads would it take to complete the project?

[sarge]

well as a starter project it's so far taken me a weekend, and I'm not done...

Now this hasn't been fully working on things. Started around 12/1pm Saturday, that was the masking part - which took a while, probably could have/should have used a plastic sheet instead (so many things you can learn from making mistakes... it's incredible). So I finished the fiberglassing around 7 or so - cause there was a rain break in there for about 1.5hrs; let it set a bit overnight with the windows cracked to allow some airflow.
This morning actually got outside around 11/12 and peeled what I had out of the hatch, and removed the masking tape - was still very tacky in the inside... so I let it bake in the sun for a bit while I cleaned up and messed around with my deck a bit, and put in my coax wires. I then headed out to a 'Hyundai Performance' meet - wasted about 2-3hrs there, came back to do some trimming and whatever I got done tonight. Oh - that also includes making a trip to Walmart to pickup a saw because I though the Dremel cutting tool would do MDF... not likely!

So it's all a matter of what you're doing. I've heard of people getting something like this done in 15hrs or so. It'd be doable, but weather and facilities are a factor (bachelor apt and outdoor parking not optimal... ) The hardest part I found with this fiberglassing is getting the angles and the top - very hard to get done without making bubbles (in my attempts)... I'm looking forward to tomorrow night where I'll be able to work on it at whichever angle I want.

Man... I'm typing lots - I need to sleep!!!

[sarge]

oh boy oh boy... I've been toting this thing around for far too long....

Almost a year later and I'm just getting back to finishing it.... sheesh!! Guess it really wasn't high on the priority list.
Well it's outside drying for the night from the few little additions I did to it today. Tomorrow will bring another batch of fiberglass to the shell, I swear it'll get done this summer!

still haven't fully figured out how I'm going to hold it in place, but I think there'll be some brackets made to attach to the rear speaker cover and possibly another to the rear hatch/floor cover (the cover that has 3 bolts for holding straps or something)

I think with the time I've spent on this could have just enjoyed a nice premade box, but at the end of all this hassles - I'm going to have the experience and a custom box to show for it.

Thats all of the update I've got for now, maybe tomorrow will show some pictures.

[sarge]

Okay, well I did a bunch more work today, and there's really just one edge left to do and then some touch-up areas and I've got a fiberglass enclosure made. Whoohoo!! Is it a good one? who knows. But soon I'll find out whether this has worked out or not.

Question to anyone out there that has done fiberglassing... I'm not planning on carpeting this, but more just putting some textured paint on it. In most of the enclosure builds I've seen there's been the use of Bondo to smooth things out and give it that final smooth look. My question is rather than me going out to get a tub of Bondo, would some Lepage Poly Instafil do the same trick? It's pretty much a plaster/drywall repair compound, but I'm not sure of the stability of it. All it would be doing is smoothing out the spots that didn't work out so well with the fiberglass, and giving a light coating to give a smoother surface for the paint.

Well bedtime for me - pictures tomorrow as long as I remember to bring my camera up from the car.

[sarge]

Forgot to upload the pictures, so I'll put them here now.



There's some more work to be done, but that's basically it for the first ever fiberglassing project by me. There will be more when I get around to it, and it'll be better... I promise.

[popeye]

Glad to see someone else has taken their time to do something (and do it right...) lol!

[MEly]

Wow Steve. That came out looking awesome! How does it seem to be holding up (at least from a rough structural point of view)?

[sarge]

Glad to see someone else has taken their time to do something (and do it right...) lol!

I hope you're not thinking I did this right.... but has definitely taken some time.

Wow Steve. That came out looking awesome! How does it seem to be holding up (at least from a rough structural point of view)?

structurally it's holding up good. Though I need to properly hold it into place somehow... need to find some metal bracket and make some holes. Right now It's being held in place by some speaker wire strategically wrapped around (ghetto install)

With that there's still more for me to do to have it finished and not look completely like crap.
- as mentioned on my Hyundai Performance topic - stupid forum

Yeah, you could have sanded, or at least used a plastic spreader to apply it. It looks like you used a butter knife. At least throw some carpet on that. It looks junky.

I've now got some kickin bass so he can suck it! - yea!

[popeye]

I hope you're not thinking I did this right....

As long as you hide the wire, then it'll be right lol!

Actually using fiberglass and molding it to the trunk and glassing in the mounting studs was in the right direction for sure.

[sarge]

As long as you hide the wire, then it'll be right lol!

Actually using fiberglass and molding it to the trunk and glassing in the mounting studs was in the right direction for sure.

Molding it to the trunk I'm super happy with, granted could have been better.... but good for a first time sub box, let alone fiberglass project

as for glassing in the mounting studs... uhh I guess I should actually do that eh?
- right now it's being held in place with some extra speaker wire to the one rear speaker cover bolt

[mlumz]

just use some velcro