Thanks. I have always been a chronic researcher, and I didn't think many of the tutorials out there had enough detail on what to buy and how to use it. I know it's not 56k-friendly, but hopefully it will be of use to some folks out there.
j/k
Nice writeup. Please don't take it down ever because I'm sure I'll need it for reference someday.
Just save the site to your harddrive- go to favorites, add it as a favorite and click "make available offline." Or file save as: and then maker sure you have complete webpage as the selected save type.
Oh man, perfect timing for me! One of the best tutorials I've ever seen! Thanks for the time spent doing that and posting your work. You know it's done right when the final product just looks like it belongs in the car.
Oh man, perfect timing for me! One of the best tutorials I've ever seen! Thanks for the time spent doing that and posting your work. You know it's done right when the final product just looks like it belongs in the car.
Heh, wow, thanks for the compliments.
I'm no expert, but I was pretty pleased with the final results.
FWIW, I can't really stress enough the importance of the Knytex biaxial I used. Every other tutorial I've seen and pretty much every other box out there uses plain chopped strand mat. I used chopped mat on some surfaces for this project.. and I only used it because I had to. Knytex is absolutely superior in every way, except when you're trying to do any upside-down surfaces. I don't have the patience to lay 8-10 layers of chopped mat, and the Knytex is totally flex-free with 4 layers.
I used Extra strength Chopped matting, and 4-6 layers of it gave me a 1/8" of thickness, does the Kyntex stick to the surface or something special, never heard of it.
It's all in the tutorial, near the top of the page. There's all kind of commentary about Knytex, why Bondo brand resin sucks, etc.
"What is Knytex, and why use it? Knytex biaxial fabric is made by Owens-Corning. It is made up of essentially two layers of fabric – one side is stranded, and the other side is woven, and both materials are stitched together. Its primary use is for structural reinforcement in boat hulls. In this project, I used it as an alternative to regular chopped strand mat that's often used in fiberglassing projects (including this one). Chopped strand mat is great for certain purposes - tight turns, tweeter pods, and smaller fiberglass projects. But for making a subwoofer box, a thicker material, like Knytex, is preferable. Why? First off, Knytex is incredibly strong. When soaked with resin, using Knytex as reinforcement results in a much faster build-up. For impatient souls like me, this is huge. Three or four layers of Knytex will be as strong or stronger than 7-10 layers of regular chopped strand mat. In addition, for as thick as it is, Knytex bends around corners fairly easily. This stuff is excellent for building up a thick layer very fast."
You can buy it from uscomposites.com under "Specialty Fabrics". I bought 3 yards of the 17 ounce fabric.
It doesn't really do anything special except make for a much faster buildup. It lays up with resin very easily on flat and curved surfaces as long as they don't venture into being upside down (it's got too much mass to stick to a surface upside down). Once you try it, you'll see how much easier it is. Seriously, a night and day difference.
"For over 10 years, I've been into car audio. I've always built big, rectangular subwoofer boxes that take up most, if not all, available trunk space in the vehicles I've owned. After getting married, settling down, and buying a house, it turns out that I need my trunk quite a bit more often than before."
Oh my...you pulled my card with that. I have a 2 and 5 yr old and early this year picked up a nice used 300M and still find myself looking for space. That car has a very nice sized trunk but a box would ruin the layout. A side fiberglass box is the only way to really make use of the side space.
Heavy-duty velcro. It already was a pretty snug-fit, and it doesn't really budge at all. That area of the car doesn't have a really good spot to sink a screw into, but I may do that anyways.
Yeah, I know. The 3sixty.2 is on the wish list. For around the same price as the Metra + 880PRS (or any other really nice and flexible HU) I can keep the stock HU. I also need to add a second amp (probably a RF T5002) so that I can use the T4004 to power the each front driver individually.
Another fiberglass box tutorial..
Linear Mode
