rear speaker box

[DomWoo]

the other day i got bored so i decided to cut out some shapes and make a little speaker box. sence ive just been sitting around my house waiting for all my timing belt parts to arive and for my buddy to get me the title to my winter car, i decided i need a new speaker box

after cutting out my shapes this was my first stage


hey look its my new headliner :twisted:

i seen that i removed my little 4x3" speakers so i needed to add some new ones, i figured 6.5"



after sitting and looking at this i decided i liked it and i was going to make it my new speaker box. off to stage 2, its like 30' out side so i had to stink up the garage where its warmer



the next day (today) i took it out of the car and set it in the sun so i could get a better look at it


thats whats left of the snow after we had -40'f weather

right now its back in the garage getting more stink sloped on it so that its nice and strong.

[lanos2001]

i had a question on how you did the shape.

i've been hearing that you can just use a frame and some sturdy cloth like the ole heavy duty plaid shirts and just cover it up then just fiber glass it. is that what you did?

nick

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

Yes, you can use just about anything you want to stretch as a shape to start fiberglassing.

Make a frame or some sort, stretch the cloth as you want the shape to look, and brush on fiberglass resin (mixed with the correct amount of hardener).

The first layer will harden and you can then start fiberglass laminating for strength.

It's not hard, but as WooHoo said, it stinks!!
That stuff gives me a bad headache.


Cliff

[daewooluvr]

very nice but what type of resin did you use? Or did it turn black because of the color fleace you used?

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

Are you planning to seal the 6.5" speakers in some kind of enclosure to seperate the air pressure from the main enclosure of the subwoofers?

The air pressure of the subs can distort the small speakers and greatly reduce their sound quality.

If you are planning to install that into a sealed box, the pressure of the subs could possibly blow the cones of the 6.5" speakers out! (but probably not).

[DomWoo]

thats some good info but its going to be serpated from the sub encloser.. i thought about it but didnt know it could actaully damage them.. i just know they sound like crap

i use a " bondo " brand fiberglass resin, it works out pretty good, kinda a brown color, seems to be pretty good stuff though, it was green and when i put it on it made it dark dark green.


and yes it makes my head hurt bad!!

[daewooluvr]

haha yeah, head spinning... I know exactly what ya mean. I can't wait to do more fiberglass work soon.

[DomWoo]

hmm ok now its nice and strong.. i fell on it and it held my weight just fine

now for some clean up and body filler

[orangelmo]

i always wanted to do custom fiberglass box in my car. the one thing i could never figure out for some reason was how to secure it to the car

[DomWoo]

well i have come to the conclusion that body filler smells worse than resin

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

well i have come to the conclusion that body filler smells worse than resin

No ... what happens after burritos and beer smells MUCH worse!!

hahahaha

[daewoo]

Are you planning to seal the 6.5" speakers in some kind of enclosure to seperate the air pressure from the main enclosure of the subwoofers?

The air pressure of the subs can distort the small speakers and greatly reduce their sound quality.

If you are planning to install that into a sealed box, the pressure of the subs could possibly blow the cones of the 6.5" speakers out! (but probably not).

unless the subwoofers are freeair types he will have to make boxes with the right volume for the woofers. otherwise the subs will sound like crap. and if the sub's are freeair types he will have to make a box around the speakers. otherwise they will a. sound like crap and b. they'll break in no time.

[DomWoo]

with my old sub box i was only running 2 subs. now i need to buy another one


i was going to run 3 8" and 2 10" because thats what i have sitting here but when i got to testing it all out the 3 10"s looked better

box is almost done.. need to primer it and wet sand it and paint it then more sanding.. clear it and alittle more sanding and maybe it will be done

[PrecisionBoost]

Just thought I'd mention that the material thing works great but you should test the resin on a spare piece before going to the trouble of doing a whole setup.

The reason is that fibreglass resin will actually eat some materials.... I can't remember which ones..... I think it's pure polyester or lycra.... I can't remember.

Anyways.... the bad materials will soften and become a gooey mess within a few minutes (which makes your mold sag and become distorted)

The reason I think it was polyester is because most resin is polyester based and it contains solvents that can eat it.

Anyone know which materials to avoid???

[PrecisionBoost]

Oh ya.... I'd also suggest removing the seats.... the resin seems to like to get into the foam and make your car stink for a month or two.

Last time I did one of these I removed the seats and used some thin poly to block off the rest of the car ( so the sheet of poly made a barrier the smelly resin wouldn't pass through)

I made sure to leave the seats outside the shop in a shed and I left a large fan to circulate the air inside the shop. ( the time before this one I took out the seats but left them inside the shop..... man did they smell.... it was worse than when I left them inside!!! )

I left it overnight and the next day I removed the mold and poly.... the car still stunk of resin but after 2 or 3 hours of using the fan sitting in the back of the car the smell was almost totally gone.

I reinstalled the seats.... rubbed two sheets of fabric softener on the carpets and it was good to go.... I picked up my buddy that day and his only comment was "why does it smell like fabric softener in here?"

So I guess it worked... he had no idea that I had fibreglassed inside the car fourteen hours earlier.