Fiberglass enclosure...ideas?

Jovian2k · Post by **Jovian2k** » January 30th, 2006, 9:32 pm

I have 2 Rockford 12's which have served me good. Unfortunately my entire trunk is taken up by the bulky enclosure (bought at Best Buy). I would love to make a fiberglass enclosure and design it nicely to maximize the space in my trunk so that I can actually use it. I am going to read up on how to do it and maybe get some help...anyone have any ideas for the setup or have done a fiberglass enclosure let me know how it came out? (any pics, tips, ideas!?)

LooseChangeRacing · January 30th, 2006, 10:08 pm

i've done fiberglass enclosures for a few different cars, i'll be starting my mx-3 custom trunk within the next month or so, so when i buy a digi i'll take some pics of the progress, best place would be the corners in the back, you can fit a 12 in their nicely and have alot of trunk room left...fiberglassing isn't hard, it takes some practice and when you start i can help you out

Bochek · Post by **Bochek** » January 30th, 2006, 10:10 pm

LooseChangeRacing wrote:best place would be the corners in the back

thats exactly where im putting my 10's

Nice call!

Bochek

ovendenk · Post by **ovendenk** » January 31st, 2006, 12:25 am

here's mine that i made (with help). there's one in each corner and i can still fit $250 worth of groceries in the trunk.

after the first layer. sorry, i never took final pics of them.

before the painting, but in place.

i have tons of both room and bass. i love fibreglass.

Jovian2k · Post by **Jovian2k** » January 31st, 2006, 9:04 pm

Yeah thats where I was aiming to put them, looks like it fits really well. I would definately like to know how yours turn out loosechange let me know

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » February 1st, 2006, 12:22 am

Kevin's site has some great pics. More than what your looking to do, but the pics are numeruos and helpful.

1. build a sub box out of wood (get online of you need box deminsions. Most manufacturers will have basic square box ideas on their websites for each of their subs)
2. place ot box where you want it to sit using wooden stilts attached ot the box. They don't need to be srtong, just hold the box in place while you fiberglass.
3. tape off the WHOLE corner of your trunk with duct tape.
4. place the sub box in the corner how you want it to sit and stretch some fleece (fabric, just like a jacket or sweater) over the box and attach it where you want it to meet the plastic trunk pieces.
5. lay fiberglass resin over the fleece and the fleece will harden in the shape you stretched it to. 3-4 layers of resin will be needed.
6. Take the mold out of the car, take the tape out of the trunk
7. cut a hole in the fleece so that the speaker will slide through and into the hole in the sub box. Attention to detail here is necessary. If you cut the hole too big or lop sided it will look like crap when you are finished.
8. Take the now solid fleece and attach it to the sub box with some small screws. They do not need to be terribly strong yet, so use small ones.
9. lay fiberglass on the back side of the fleece (the side facing the fender, not into the hatch). You need to build the fleece up to about a 1/4-1/2 inch at all points. Now the fleece is a very strong piece of fiberglass shaped to fit exactly into the corner of your trunk. It also has a purpose built sub box enclosed inside the fleece that will maximize the sound quality of your sub.
10. now either cover the front side of the mold with vinyl or put body filler on it and sand the filler smooth so you can paint it. (painting a sub box is time consuming since the body filler will take some time to get smooth. Even after you get it smooth if you hit it it will crack the filler and look bad or scratch. So if you use your trunk much use vinyl)
11. drill a hole in the sub box and feed the power wire through. half fill the sub box with poly fill (stuffed bear stuffing). install the sub in the sub box/fiberglass facia. mount the facia in the corner. You may need to find a way to attach the facia/sub box to the car so that it doesn't move. If you can counter sink a screw it will be almost unnoticable.

It is alot of work, will take alot of time, and will cost a good deal of money (maybe 150.00 for all the material and tools) You'll most likely mess up and have to start over at least once. Do not drivethe car while the resin fumes are still floating around inside the car. They can cause many problems for you and your car.

Good luck

Ps, thanks to Kevin Gettins for the knowledge. He taught me all I know about fiberglass.

Bochek · Post by **Bochek** » February 1st, 2006, 9:55 am

ovendenk wrote:here's mine that i made (with help). there's one in each corner and i can still fit $250 worth of groceries in the trunk.

after the first layer. sorry, i never took final pics of them.

Looks like someone is alot cheep on the resin.

Bochek

ovendenk · Post by **ovendenk** » February 1st, 2006, 10:36 am

Bochek wrote:
ovendenk wrote:after the first layer.
Looks like someone is alot cheep on the resin.

Bochek

like i said, that was the first layer. we had just pulled them out of the car. we then finished off the resin on that layer. there is 7 layers of fiberglass.

they are super strong, believe me. to test them i jumped a little on the back of one no problem. plenty resin.

Cobra · Post by **Cobra** » June 2nd, 2006, 5:22 pm

Hey guys, I used to have an MX-3, but sold it earlier this year...I didn't have a fiberglass enclosure, but I did have a wood one that replaced the rear cargo cover. The enclosure would lift up in the front, like the stock cover, so I could still carry things back there. Some pictures of it are on pages 2 and 4 of my Cardomain page. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/737700

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » June 3rd, 2006, 12:46 am

Cobra wrote:Hey guys, I used to have an MX-3, but sold it earlier this year...I didn't have a fiberglass enclosure, but I did have a wood one that replaced the rear cargo cover. The enclosure would lift up in the front, like the stock cover, so I could still carry things back there. Some pictures of it are on pages 2 and 4 of my Cardomain page. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/737700

Wow, that looks great! I was comtempating redoing my CarPC's felt trunk cover in vinyl, I think that totally convinced me, it looks amazingly clean

Vanished · Post by **Vanished** » June 3rd, 2006, 4:52 pm

Cobra: Are those sub's "free air?" if not then your killing them...and the install looks stunning, very clean, yet probably very simple to do. I absolutely love it, exept one thing..

the sony part

Cobra · Post by **Cobra** » June 4th, 2006, 5:47 pm

Each sub has its own box underneath...you just cant see it in the picture. And yes, they are Sony because they were cheap and I didn't have a job yet. Now that I do, I'll be moving up to Kicker products in my Frontier soon, adding to my new Clarion DXZ865MP head unit I got last week.
I still have the MX-3 enclosure and the Sony subs/amp if anyone's interested. I would post it in the for sale section, but I can't until I make 28 more posts

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