Car Audio how-to

The Basics of FiberGlass box building

SoundMan Staff — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:41:59 +0000

Building oddly shaped speaker enclosures can be very easy if you take the right steps. In this video you'll see examples of how we build our fiberglass enclosures.

Things you'll need.
1. Chopped fiberglass mat (we use 4 layer mat)
2. Fiberglass resign
3. Cheap paint brushes
4. Rubber gloves
5. Aluminum foil
6. Masking tape
7. Cardboard
8. Spray glue
9. Scissors
10. MDF wood
11. Jigsaw

First you'll need to take a rough measurement of the area you are going to be building your box. If the airspace is there, then go ahead and mask the area off with newspaper and masking tape to ensure that you don't get resign on the vehicle's interior. Now you can begin to lightly spray glue the area and line it with aluminum foil. Once you do that cut the fiberglass mat up into various sizes pieces. Some big, and some small. Mix the resign according to the instructions on the container. Apply a thin coat of resign to the foil. Lay the fiberglass mat into the area as you apply generous amount of resign. When it dries apply a second layer.

You are going to want the box to be very rigid so that it doesn't flex while the subwoofer is playing. once enough layers have been applied you can remove the box. I'll usually mark a line around the edge of the fiberglass indicating where i want to cut it. Cut around the edge of the fiberglass pan that you just made. Lay it onto a piece of 3/4 inch MDF and trace it. this piece will be your woofer face. If you don't want the face of the enclosure to be flat, you could mount a wooden ring in place and stretch grill cloth over the ring, attaching it to the enclosure. Apply resign over the grill cloth to harden it, then lay fiberglass over it to make it rigid. If you do decide to make the front flat, then you would simply fiberglass your MDF plate into place. Grind it down and Wrap it!!!

Pioneer Avic-920BT Bypass

SoundMan Staff — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:07 +0000

Pioneer AVH-P4200DVD Bypass

SoundMan Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:54:00 +0000

Pioneer AVIC-Z1, Z2, Z3 Bypass

SoundMan Staff — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:19:00 +0000

How-to build a sub woofer enclosure

SoundMan Staff — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:44:57 +0000

Tools needed for building your box.
1. 3/4 inch MDF wood 
2. Measuring tape
3. Skill Saw 
4. Wood glue or liquid nails
5. one tube of Silicone Calking
6. Calking Gun 
7. inch and a quarter wood screws or brad nails and brad nailer 
8. Jig Saw

Steps 1. Choose a sub and look at the spec sheet. It will tell you how much internal volume your box will need. In this video our JL Audio W3 eight inch needs 0.3 cubic feet. 
Step 2. Measure the height of your trunk. Then measure a second dimension. In this video we measured depth, because we didn't want to go past the strut bar. 

Step 3. Find your last dimension. First we take our height and multiply it by our depth. Before you do that you have to remember that we are trying to find the INTERNAL volume of the box so we have to subtract the thickness of the wood. Since we are using 3/4 inch MDF we will subtract 1.5 inches from each dimension (3/4 inch per side). Now we have to find our depth. On our box we had an angle on the back, so we have to average the angle in order to know our depth. [go to 1:45 on the video] Add the top and bottom together and divide that number by two. Now multiply the height with the depth. We got 59.5. Now we must convert our wanted volume into inches. One cubic foot (12x12x12) is 1728 cubic inches. So We're going to take one cubic foot (1728) and multiply that by the desired internal volume (in this case 0.3 cubic feet). 1728x0.3=518.4 cubic inches. To find our last dimension we will take 518.4 and divide it by 59.5 (our height x depth). We get 8.7 inches, in the video i round up to 8.8 inches to allow for displacement of the woofer basket. Lastly we will add 1.5 inches to our final dimension to allow for the thickness of the wood. Now we have perfect outside dimensions for our box. 
Step 4. Cut the wood, I usually start with the side because it's easy to test fit a side into the car in order to make sure it fits. Remember you're going to have to plan how you're going to assemble the box so that you don't change the internal dimensions. I cut the sides to fit on the outside. Then i would cut a large strip of wood with a width of 8.8 inches and cut pieces off for the top, front, bottom then back subtracting 3/4 inch on each of those 4 dimensions, so that the pieces over lap each other all the way around. (hope that makes sense).
Step 5. Cut the woofer hole. Usually woofers come with a piece of cardboard that fits the woofer. Trace it and cut the hole out with a Jig saw. If your woofer doesn't come with a template, measure the mounting lip, double it, then subtract it from the overall woofer diameter. Test cut the hole n a piece of cardboard just to double check your measuring. The last thing you want to do is screw up your box now, plus now you'll have a template for next time.
Step 6. Calk you box. You want to make sure your box is completely sealed, you don't want any air leaks. Also drill a hole and run your wire out, and Calk the wire hole.  
Step 7. After the Silicone dries (24 hrs), Bump it. :) I usually carpet the box while the silicone dries, but i recommend test bumping it before you go through the hassle of carpeting the box.

Acura TL type S 2007

SoundMan Staff — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:11:00 +0000

For this vehicle we installed a JL Audio HD 600/4 amplifier to power the Hertz High Energy component and coaxial speakers that we installed into the factory locations. A JL Audio 750/1 was chosen to run two JL Audio 10 inch W3 sub woofers. The sub woofer enclosure we built was a "band pass" box that was ported into the cabin of the vehicle through the cars factory sub woofer location. A acrylic window was attached as the front of the enclosure, and a panel was made to fit the trunk in order to finish off the look of the install. The amplifiers were installed under the seats.

Audi A3 JL Audio, Hertz High-Energy set-up

SoundMan Staff — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:09:00 +0000

In This Audi A3 we installed a JL Audio HD 900/5 five channel amplifier. We fabricated a fiberglass enclosure for a 10 inch JL Audio W3. The sub woofer enclosure was mounted in the drivers side quarter panel and hidden with a custom grill. The customer chose the Pioneer AVIC-Z110bt as for the source unit. The Avic-Z110bt has navigation, Bluetooth, CD, DVD, iPod support, and Satellite radio support. We installed Hertz High-Energy components in the front and High-Energy coaxials in the rear. This set-up was took two days from start to finish.

Alpine IVA-W505 Lamborghini Gallardo custom dash kit

SoundMan Staff — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:00:00 +0000

In this Lamborghini Gallardo we installed an Alpine IVA-W505 with a custom dash kit. We also show you the basic functionality of the IVA-W505. This unit is very popular among car audio enthusiasts

Corvette install JL Audio HD amps, W3 10s, Pioneer

SoundMan Staff — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:08:00 +0000

This Corvette was set up with two JL Audio HD amps and two ten inch JL Audio W3s. We fabricated two individual fiber glass enclosures that tucked into the corners of the trunk. The amps were installed against the back wall of the trunk with a custom amp rack. A Pioneer fold out audio / video unit was installed in the dash. JL Audio C5 speakers were installed in the factory speaker locations. This install took three days start to finish.

JL Audio HD amp, Avic-Z110bt Chevy Truck install

SoundMan Staff — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:24:00 +0000

We used a JL Audio Stealth Box in this Chevy truck. The Steath Box comes with 2 ten inch W3 sub woofer. We installed Morel speakers in the factory locations. A JL Audio 900/5 five channel amplifier powered the system. A Pioneer AVIC-Z110bt was used as the source unit. For the rear seat entertainment, we installed A VizuaLogic head rest system with DVD players built into each screen. This was a one day install.