Very nice. That is going to be very helpful for a lot of people.

 

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.

 

Awesome tutorial. It makes me feel like I actually have the courage to give it a shot!

 

Please accept my praise and thanks. I will be venturing into fiberglass at some point in the near future.

Now all I need is your home phone (j/k), so you can tell me how to fix what I've botched.

 

Your milkshake is the best.

j/k
Nice writeup. Please don't take it down ever because I'm sure I'll need it for reference someday.

 

It'll be up for as long as my buddy's server is up. Thanks for the props.

 

That is a very nice tutorial... feel free to copy it over here if you want

 

Your milkshake is the best.

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.

 

great tutorial! thanks, i'll be bookmarking this!

 

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.

 

What exactly is the Kyntex?

Very nice tutorial btw, nicely done.

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.

 

Where can you get Kyntex also?

 

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.

Thanks for the effort!

 

Nice job and great write up. Especially because I think we have the same exact car (6?)

 

You got it.

 

How did you secure the box to the car??

 

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.

Are you ever worried about it coming loose? If you were to screw it in, would you just drive the screw straight through w/ a washer or L Bracket?

 

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.

 

Where did you get your heavy duty velcro from?

 

they sell industrial velcro at home depot and lowes

 

Yep, what he said. Lowe's.

 

Get the metra kit and a 880prs. Go active man. You got all you need but those passives are holdin you back.

 

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.

 

how did u estimate your box volume before hand?