Tibbi

I found out today that our "rewards" program at work can buy car audio stuff. Now I'm not looking for anything competition worthy, just a nice clean sound for my drive and trunk wow for meets. Mind you I have not built a system since the 90's, so feedback is a must. It will be driven by an in-dash PC, amps yet undecided. I am going to go with a 12" in the rear under the spare with a customer enclosure, something like this:

That will happen but I also have to replace all 4 speakers, hence the set listed below. They're not phenomenal, but they'll likely be fine for my setup.







The things I am considering:

12" BOSS Phantom P12DVC



Amazon Value ~ $50

Questions -

It it worth a damn?

It's a very cheap sub for my tastes, but will it sound good at decent volume? (better than my 20 year old Fosgates?)

Sound quality on a 1-10 scale?

Product quality on a 1-10 scale?



6.5" Pioneer component TS-A1605C



Amazon Value ~ $100

Questions -

It's got a greater market value, but does that translate to value/dollar?

Sound quality on a 1-10 scale?

Product quality on a 1-10 scale?

If you had to pick between the 2?

faithofadragon

take most expensive option



sell it



buy better stuff

Tibbi

I'm going to be miserable and give the sub a try. Also, I found some very nice component speakers I had bought a couple of years ago and squirreled away to forget about because that's how my brain works.



If it's intolerable I'll sell it for the couple of bucks it's worth and invest in a good one. But at least this get me started building this new system.

Tibbi

A couple of weeks ago the ninjas at UPS hid this from me. It took forever to locate too...













So the test fitting begins:









This gives an idea of the desired end result







Now building the rings for the sub and tire:



Same setup a little closer

The wheel/tire rests on the larger ring and sub in the smaller as further pictures will show.

Also as I just realized, this was before routing and sanding. But you get the idea.







And the plug for the FG base structure:



Here is a close up so you can see how sloppily this this was assembled. I was rushed by impending weather and loss of daylight, plus had to make it thick to hold up during the removal and forming of the base mold. Luckily it was only structural since the base from was the goal, so sloppy and ugly made no difference.

Author's side note: Trust me on this one too, no matter ho much it's recommended never EVER do this with masking tape. At least not on bare metal. It stuck like a beast and cracked a little during removal.



Here is the plug freshly removed prior to some patching:









Some final fitment and measurements:



Same thing sans wheel.

Note that the coloration is a bit different. For the final I am using kevlar twill fabric. I had some shitty Bondo FG resin leftover and decided to see how that would work on kev; I had to coat both sides but it got saturated and holds strong. Plus the up side to the resin vs the epoxy is that the base has enough elasticity that it almost clicks and holds into place during the test fit. We'll see how that hold up, but I'll do the sides in kev with actual epoxy for stability.





Task for this week evenings and weekend: Finish the wooden substructure and get the cloth overlay done and wheel inner diameter fitted.

A bit left to do, but that was the hardest part of the project, the rest is gravy and time. The final is going to raise the floor of the trunk a couple of inches, but it will look like a flush install. I'll put in a small window for the amp too.

tibbytib

Well done man! Looks like it's coming along nicely!



I seem to recall a setup quite similar to this.....



I hate fiber glass! So I ended up re utilizing a 12" bass tube to do a similar setup. Looking forward to you finished product!

Stocker

For the next time you have to lay up glass in a car:



Line the whole thing with clear plastic packing tape, and make it smooth as possible. BEFORE you apply the tape to the car, apply it to the carPET. Rubbing/sticking tape repeatedly on your jeans or carpet or other cloth that will shed particulate matter onto the tape, will cause the tape not to stick as hard to the car.



Then (and this is important) apply a liberal coat of PVA mold release.



THEN laminate!

Tibbi

Yeah, I generally use a mold release wax, but I don't have any right now. I saw a number of places recommending this method so it was pretty much just a test. Never ever making that mistake again. But I generally don't work with resin either, and in that respect the resined kevalar reacted exactly as I expected, which is a HUGE plus. I was actually fairly certain that the resin wouldn't even saturate in the kevlar, but it did a pretty nice job. I stated in the lip thread, but the long term goal here is to build my skills so that I can start making parts for my MR2. I have HUGE plans for that car which basically require removing vast amounts of metal (northern weather + salt have done a good job starting that process) and making all new one-off components out of colored carbon fiber. The Tib is making a good testbed in this respect. I have some plans for the interior that will take this to the next level too. Both building my skills and improving the "show" quality of this car.