[guilty]

Hey guys.. Now that my fiberglass box is coming together pretty well, I figure I'll post up some progress photos:



<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00843.jpg'>



<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00844.jpg'>



<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00885.jpg'>



The last picture is after a layer of bondo and a quick sanding.. still a lot of sanding to do before paint..

And the other side:

Taped off and tin-foiled:
<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00882.jpg'>

First layer of glass:
<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00883.jpg'></a>

This side is going to have the mount for the amp.

[S2]

Looking pretty good... nice work, how close is the internal volume specs to the sub going to be with that? Pretty hard to calculate it with all those 'arcs'.... just curious.... nice work..... seems like that is the place to put a sub in a focus these days, keeps the cargo space open.

[guilty]

The sub is just a super cheapo MTX I bought a few years ago for my old car.. not sure what the specs are. The box isnt very deep but I'm not really too concerned.. I'm not a stereo expert or anything but I think it'll be deep enough for what I want it to do. Really I just want a little bit of a bass punch.

I had the sub and amp from my old car so I figured I might as well get some use out of them and get to experiment with fiberglass too.

You can measure the inner diameter with that styrofoam packing stuff, fill it up and then shake them out into a box and measure that..

[Flofocus]

Looking good. Cant wait to see the finish product!

[Rob]

How bad does your car smell? and for how long does it smell?

[Flofocus]

Rob,Aug 30 2004, 10:57 AM Wrote:How bad does your car smell? and for how long does it smell?

when i did my guauge pod, the smell stuck around for about a week.

[guilty]

Rob,Aug 30 2004, 08:57 AM Wrote:How bad does your car smell? and for how long does it smell?

It's actually not that bad.. the first time I did it in my car the smell stuck around, but if you keep all the windows open and you're working in the hatch it isnt too bad. You can ask the guys at the g2g last night, they were smelling the back end of my car :D

If the car is totally aired out while you do it, and then you remove it when it's done, the smell in the car didnt last more than a day.. and that was a weak smell too.

[darkpuppet]

quick question...

do you know what the volume of the box is? I'd love to fiberglass a similar enclosure for my car sometime, but not sure how folks go about getting the desired q factor.

[guilty]

darkpuppet,Aug 30 2004, 09:47 AM Wrote:do you know what the volume of the box is? I'd love to fiberglass a similar enclosure for my car sometime, but not sure how folks go about getting the desired q factor.

the FAQ in the tutorial I used: http://web.njit.edu/~cas1383/proj/main

How do I calculate the volume of the box?

The majority of fiberglass installs are in sealed boxes. This is because ported / bandpass / TL boxes are very very dependant on box size for proper tuning. In a sealed box you can be off on volume by as much as 20% and not hear any audible difference. So usually, you can just guestimate the size of the box. If you are picky, always try to make the box as large as possible. Once you have it completed, you can fill the box with sand / water / packaging peanuts. Then empty that stuff into something of known volume (shoe box, milk jug) and add it up that way. That will give you your exact internal volume. If your volume is too big for what you like, add some mass inside (2x4 chunks glued down). If its too small, you can add some acoustic stuffing on the inside to try to accont for a smaller box. If it still sounds bad, you can cut off some of the box and add to it -- simply glass more, a new glass peice will adhere to the old no problem.

[FocusGuy7476]

it looks good, lots of sanding to get it smooth. whats your plans to cover it?

[guilty]

It'll get painted something like the liquid gray Focus color. I want it to be metallic and glossy, but also kind of blend into the color of the carpet a bit.

[_JC_]

wow awsome work i defintly have to try my hand at this ..its sumthign i've wanted to do for a while i just dont have the cash for the subs!

[GlennH]

lookin good, keep up the good work!!!

[guilty]

Well the project is getting to the point where it looks like it will be finished sometime soon (hopefully).. Boy I've been taking my time with this. But then again, the first time you have to budget 100% more time for the learning steps I guess.

Here's the sub box nice and smooth, primered and pretty much ready for paint:



And then the other side of the hatch will hold the amp in it's own fiberglass box..

frame:
<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00895.jpg'>



test fit with fabric:
<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00898.jpg'>



glassed and test-fitting amp:
<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00903.jpg'>



<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00902.jpg'>

bondo'd and a lot of sanding left:


<a href='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v96/guilty/Fiberglass/DSC00905.jpg'>

Hopefully it'll be done and painted and maybe even installed by this weekend.. we can only hope, anyway.

[SVTZX503]

It's looking good.Can't wait to see it finished. What color are you going to paint it?

[hemi]

guilty,Aug 31 2004, 09:28 AM Wrote:It'll get painted something like the liquid gray Focus color. I want it to be metallic and glossy, but also kind of blend into the color of the carpet a bit.

It would be a lot LOT less work if we'd just cover it with fabric cuz you wouldn't really have to sand it perfect. (trust me, the sanding is MURDER... i'm helping him out on this and it's in my apartment that we're doing all this... a little dusty!) I've probably put in 4 hours of sanding on what's been done to the amp rack so far and i'm only about half done. then i switch to 220 grit, 400 and then 600. Primer and then another 600 sanding. The high grit finishing sanding stuff doesn't take long at all.. But I'm using 80 grit on there right now to get it pretty much flat. then the 220 smoothes it down.

It's a fvck of a lot of work but it's sure better than paying someone like $500 to make one for ya. We're doing a damn good job for knowing nothing about it other than the how-to we read that guilty posted earlier. Plus i'm seeing that i like doing this kind of stuff and may take an autobody trade and make some money at it.

Hopefully i'll have the amp rack sanded and primered for this weekend. If it's nice enough out we may even get some colour sprayed on it for you guys. :ph34r:

[guilty]

Then I guess we have to wire everything up.. Or I could just put it in the hatch to look pretty and pick up the women. It's definitely a fun project.. a lot of hours but at least you get something out of it when it's done.

Oh yeah, and I have to applaud hemi for sanding for hours and hours, using his hugely muscular right forearm for some repetitive motion that doesnt need a &quot;NWS&quot; warning :P

[Raine]

man I have to try this. Looks really good bro

[hemi]

I'm amazed at how decent it's turning out. I mean we knew NOTHING about fibreglass, bondo or anything. It doesnt' look like a do-it-youreself type project but i think we're gonna pull it off.

I guess we'll know for sure when the paint is done.

Just a word to the wise... for god sake don't do it in your living room! It sounded like a good idea at the time as i don't have access to the garage where i'm renting a place. I mean i already smoke so the dust and s**t i could care less about as far as health but it looks like Whitney Houston came over and had a freakin' coke party!

[ANTHONYD]

Is that amp going to get enough air flo to cool the bottom?
you might want to wire a fan up in the bottom of the amp rack no?