I finally finished a three week adventure building this fiberglass subwoofer enclosure. This is a second generation (my first attempt was horrid-looking). I wanted something that would would be extremely low profile (so that it would be hidden from view), so I used a Pioneer TS-SW124D (requires a mere 3-3/8" mounting depth).

Because I did not want to do the customary tape/foil the car interior and fiberglass, I decided to use the stock styrofoam storage bin as a plug in order to develop a mold. I masking taped it, oiled it, and then used plaster of paris and cotton strips to build the mold. This is how the mold turned out:



In the first picture, you can see the MDF ring that I made to allow recessing of the subwoofer flange. I also glued in some T-nuts so that machine screws could be used to fasten the sub.

After the mold was made, I simply laid the fiberglass within the mold to the desired thickness. After it dried, I sacrificed the mold to release the fiberglass shell. For the top, I laid fiberglass on a foiled piece of MDF and incorporated the MDF ring after a couple of layers. This allowed for fiberglassing the entire bottom piece of the MDF ring so that an interference connection (rather than the typical "glued" connection) could be made. After that dried, I laid the top piece onto the main body shell, trimmed it, and then fiberglassed the two together. Here are the results (pictures were taken after painting the MDF rings):



I also created an MDF deck to replace the stock pieces for the rear. This would allow for a clean one-piece look that was vibration-free. I was also able to cut out a section to act as a grille (perforated aluminum sheet metal hidden beneath the carpet). This is how the MDF deck turned out:


The following pictures show the finished product carpeted and installed. Note that you can see the aluminum grille beneath the MDF deck in one of the pictures:

 

I'm never less than amazed at people like yourself that have the know-how to do this stuff yourselves...congratulations on a great looking project. How does it sound, and what do you have driving it???

-Matt

 

A+

 

nice job, are you able/ willing to make others for a price? let me know

 

I was thinking about doing the same thing.....but I do not have the skills. That came out great! Very nice job! If you are ever going to build these to sell I would be proud to be one of your first customers. Again Great Job!!!!!!

 

great job indeed!

 

nice work....

 

COOL bones

 

Sweet Very nice work.

 

i wish i had skills like that good job!

 

very nice...

 

very nice how well can you hear it under that top tray????
Sweet install

 

I'd be willing, except that the wife would probably throw a fit...even for a decent amount of money! Problem is that I can't watch the kids while I work on this sort of project...very time consuming and requires a respirator and all of that...

What would you expect something like this to cost? Perhaps Audioformz could copy this setup?

 

Thanks for the positive comments, guys! If you guys want to tackle this sort of thing yourself, you can do it! There are plenty of resources and suppliers (www.fiberglast.com) on the net. Just be prepared to make at least one throwaway prototype. As with most things, it is difficult to get it where you want it on the first try.

You can hear it very well under the top tray since all that obstructs the sub is the perforated aluminum and carpet (non-vinyl backed speaker carpet). The stock Scion rear mat that I have on top of the top tray, however, does muffle it some (since it is vinyl backed), but it is very unnoticeable (although the mat does flutter a bit at high SPL). Perhaps the limited sound attenuation is due to the other air paths that the sound can take around the top tray. All in all, the mat does not affect the sound performance as I have experienced with my old Accord setup (trunk with the rear seats closed).

...Next stop (in the spring time when it gets warmer again) is to build a stealth amp rack (complete with fans and silencers) for underneath the passenger seat.

 

The sound is excellent...I am really amazed at how smooth and deep these subs can hit despite their compact depth. Also, the subs have this weird spiderless design and uses a second foam surround instead. The isolated air space in between the two surrounds is supposed to help with damping. I am also using a Kicker 350.2 which I have found to be more than adequate.

 

Nice job. Probably the cleanest installation I have seen on here yet.

 

damn i wish i was gettin mine but who knows.

 

Now that's gagngsta!

-THE DON

 

Nice stealthy install. Is there enuff air volume in the enclosure for the woofer?

 

brad that is the small airspace 12 from pioneer premier. it has a 4.25 or 4.5 inch mounting depth and was engineered to work it's best in small airspace situations. it is a high quality piece of speaker design. not best for a bass head but very very good low sound for a speaker of it's intentions/design.