for all you young bucks that need speaker enclosures

[The Ghoul]

figgured all you young guys that need to mound some speakers would appreciate this. It works great for rear decks, and corners of trunks. Very trick custome look at a low price.
I got board so I did a write up on how I made my rear deck enclosure for my gc8.
enjoy
and feel free to email with questions.
Im very sorry, I tried to make this as short and as logical as I could but its late and ive been at it a while. I will look at it again later and revise accordingly.

Round up kiddies, I'm gonna show you how to fiberglass!!
Here is my solution to the inevitable issue of where do I mount my cd changer so it is still accessible to my interior??




First things first a quick materials list.
Beer (located at any supermarket)
Stretchy fleece cloth (Jo Ann fabrics; ya know girly stores where they look at you all funny for shopping there with tattoos on your fore arms)
Fiber glass cloth (murries or any decent auto parts store)
Fiber glass resin (again murries or auto parts store)
Very cheap paint brushes (mijer or any variety store)
Paint mixers
2L bottles
Bondo (murries ect.)
glazing putty
Putty appliers
sand paper all sorts ad varieties (mijer)
tin foil (moms pantry)
masking tape
thick plywood (MDF=medium density fiberboard works best)
electric jigsaw
Wood dowel
Hot glue gun
Spray primer
Scissors
Latex gloves


ok that being said lets begin.

This process is great for making one-off custom boxes and enclosures.. Its especially great if you have some trickey places that you want to locate this stuff in. My project is relocating the rear speakers and adding the cd changer on the rear deck. Keep in mind while going thru this, this example is the first time I attempted this so what you see is what I went thru when I was in your position.

The Lay out.
figure out what you want to put where.
You will need to plan out the size of each component and how you are going to mount it to the finished enclosure.

Little prep work;
while wearing some gloves, cut up one of your fiberglass cloths into strips of all shapes and sizes. fiber glass is very itchy so if you don't wear gloves you will regret it later.

The components forms.
It is best to make a form or a mounting bezel for each component you want to mount out of your MDF. Make sure to account for how you are going to secure the component to the bezel and if you want it flush mounted or not. I cut two rings of mdf for each speaker I wanted to mount, because I wanted them to be recessed under a grill when it was all done.
the first ring was to be the base that the speaker was to be mounted to, the second goes around the speaker to give us the recess. It is easiest to use your jigsaw to cut out 4 half rings rather than trying to cut the full rings (also a better use of material).
I find it very handy to make your mounts first to help with the layout.


Picking your base.
once you have your mounting surface picked out and you have figured out how you want to locate we are going to make our enclosure base.
Take your tinfoil and masking tape and cover the area you wanted to be your base. Make sure you cover the entire area, overlapped the tinfoil on all seems and masking taped every one. Also be sure to cover a little over the area you want.
If you are doing this project overtop of any fabric or any thing you don't want ruined you might want to wrap the area in plastic wrap first.

Once you have every thing wrapped and waterproof mix up some of your resin (as directed on the bottle). Make sure you mix it up in a plastic bottle (2L pop bottle works best) do not use a metal can.. The metal speeds up the curing process.
while wearing gloves take one of your cheep-o brushes and slap some of that resin down on your tinfoil and lay fiber glass strips on top of it. Keep doing this and over lapping until you have about 3 layers of fiberglass down in a crisscross pattern. You don't have to leave much time between layers, just go to town.
Allow it to set over night.

Placing the components.
Peel the tinfoil and what ever else stuck to the back of the base and trim the base to what size and shape you want your finished base to be.

Next with your dowels, and hot glue gun locate your MDF bezels where you want your components to be on the base.

Stretching the skin.
With the bezels in place take your flees fabric and cut it to size. You want to cut it so that way the fleece will cover the entire enclosure with enough to still wrap around the bottom of the base.
The fleece will be the outer most layer of your enclosure so it is important to keep it tight and wrinkle free from this point on.
Use your hot glue gun to tack the cloth down around the bezels.
Don't worry about the openings for the components, you can cut those later.
Once the cloth around the bezels is tacked stretch and glue the cloth around the bottom of the base. Once your cloth is stretched and adjusted the way you want it, mix up more resin and apply it very liberally to the fleece cloth.
Allow to dry over night.
dont forget to test fit when the outside is dry.


Support.
Cut the bottom out of your base.
remove all your dowels.
Mix up more resin and start applying strips of fiberglass on the back side of your enclosure! About 5 layers will support some ones body weight so you don't need to get too carried away. Make sure you lay some strips supporting the bezels to give them strength. allow to dry over night.

cutting out components and finishing.
Using a utility knife cut out where the components are located. If you happen to have a dremmel and a cut off tool that works a lot better.
right now you have a rough surface in the correct shape you want your box to be. If you have wrinkles and such, the more time you spend here fixing them the better you will be.
Mix up some bondo and apply a nice 'tight' layer of bondo.
allow it to dry completely.
sand it down and start to define your rough features.
repeat this as many times as it takes to get your overall shape smoothed out.
once that's done apply one nice thin layer of glazing putty and using fine sand paper smooth it all out, after it dries that is.
once that is done and looking good prime it up.
this can be a bit disappointing because it will show any imperfection...
Fix theses imperfections by repeating any of the above finishing steps.


Paint, place and install as you see fit..

Well that's it. this is how I made my box and I couldn't be happier with it.

How do I make a sealed box?
Easy.
Instead of cutting the bottom out of the base instead cut it where ever you want your 'seem' to be, lay your support glass, then use a thin strip of fleece or fiber glass to rejoin the two halves. You will have to do a little more work to make this happen but if you do it right no one will be able to tell the difference.

Hope this has helped every one out.
If you have any questions please let me know, and I will help you best I can.
cudaeh@yahoo.com

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Nice write up

[ChargerRob]

Excellent Info! 

[The Ghoul]

thanks, im glad you guys appreciate it.
I am thinking of using this method to graft speakers into the sail pannels, and a couple of componets in the door pannels... but it will be a wile before Im to that point.

[Mopar440+6]

Awesome write-up Ghoul! Very informative! This will be a HUGE help in making up kick-panel enclosures for the Charger. Plus I can make some money building custom boxes and amp racks for my friends.

[defiance]

I got kickpanels in my charger and one thing I gotta say - it's a CAVERN down there!!   I have an auto, so I don't know how much extra room a clutch would take, but I know that without a clutch, you can pretty much make whatever you want.  I actually started to do a 6.5/4/twt 3-way setup in my kickpanels, but decided to cut back on my budget and make it a more reasonable 6.6/twt.  But there was PLENTY of room!

Anyway, great job on the rear deck.  Nice way to prevent damage to valuable stock interior components!  Personally, I prefer mine a bit less... visible, though...  Great work, though, no question about that!

[The Ghoul]

I prefer mine a bit less... visible, though...  Great work, though, no question about that!

yeah that and the heat issue i was kinda concerned about. But i figgured it would be good encouragement to get the windows tinted.
Yeah I think the best bet for my charger will be the sail panel boxes and the door pannel. I was wanting to do a 2 channel set  up in the fronts but the kick pannel area is a bit tight (more so under the heater box than the pettals)...
this method works great for any fiberglass. i will be modifying my rear view mirrors using this method soon on my subaru (they stick out too far and I hate the 'riser' look of them.)

[defiance]

Interesting...  What's your subaru?  Seems we have similar tastes!  '72 charger and '03 WRX are my cars right now

I dunno, though, I seemed to have plenty of room under the heater box on mine...

Here's a pic of the passenger side kickpanel.  I didn't get too fancy with the angling or anything, it's pretty much just flat angled away from the panel base a bit... But as you can see, the 6.5/tweet fit easily, and there was still plenty of room for a 4" there too
http://www.edesignaudio.com/installs/images/edis/700.jpg

here's the overall pics if you're interested as well
http://www.edesignaudio.com/installs/userinstall.php?uid=92

[The Ghoul]

Interesting...  What's your subaru?  Seems we have similar tastes!  '72 charger and '03 WRX are my cars right now

I dunno, though, I seemed to have plenty of room under the heater box on mine...

Here's a pic of the passenger side kickpanel.  I didn't get too fancy with the angling or anything, it's pretty much just flat angled away from the panel base a bit... But as you can see, the 6.5/tweet fit easily, and there was still plenty of room for a 4" there too
http://www.edesignaudio.com/installs/images/edis/700.jpg

here's the overall pics if you're interested as well
http://www.edesignaudio.com/installs/userinstall.php?uid=92

2000 2.5rs 5 speed.
soon to be an rs-t
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2043248/1
yeah your right there does seem to be alot of room there..
its prolly just because mine has been appart for so darn long I forgot!