12" fiberglassed box
 

Hey there, I was thinking about fiberglassing a box for my W3 and wanted to be about to add another 12" W3 later on.. How should I go along with starting my project.. start with Wood and frame it out.. or what?

I'm building an all fiberglass box for my RE SX 12" and I utilized the space where one jumper seat was behind the driver's seat. It's been hell as far as fabrication and time goes... But i am DEFINATELY IMPRESSED with the results. I have some Pics I can post if ya want to show you what I mean.

Hell yea man thanks

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...61_31_full.jpg

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...61_32_full.jpg

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...61_30_full.jpg

I still need to lay inside mat down and bondo and paint the outside, should come out pretty good!

thats tight, how much that cost to make would you say?

that is looking excellent! what's been hell about it besides the normal azz raping that fiberglass brings?

that is sweet.. looks really good.. i may try making a new fiberglass box for mine next..

welp as far as $$$ is concerned...

5 gallons of resin: 120.00
i'd say 8-10 yards of chop mat/woven roving cloth: 65.00
speaker ring/dial rods: 23.00
Cloth: 8.00
Tape: 10.00
___________________________

all estimated*..... about 230.00 i'd say




This has been a first for me... so bare with me on some of the shotty first layer work on the outside of the box. Basically all you really need is time, patience, and a dad that has the know how. Theres about 7-8 layers of cloth/woven roving throughout all the layers. My advice would be to TAPE EVERYTHING OFF! I put a few scratches on the plastic trim pulling and pushing on the thing to get it in and out. Next I need to lay 5 maybe 6 layers on the inside of the outside cloth (black). Between that and finish sanding the outside for paint, hopefully late next week it will be painted, by a body shop. I wanted to get that along with my bezel painted too, the stock paint is chipping off. I was thinking of a dark graphite, like my interior, with some metal flake and a whole lotta clear... What ya guys think???

that looks really good dude! yea I was going to be buying 2 13.5" JL W1's but now I'm getting a 12" W3v2.. I only owe $168, I might just have them do a fiberglass box for me..

did that thing really take 5 gallons of resin or is that just the smallest size you could buy
?

well up to this point, id say that I used very close to 3 gallons. I'm gonna assume about one more gallon total to finish it. Now that I really learned this art, i'm sure future 'glass mods will be coming :)

Heres a tip:

When working with fiberglass or carbon fiber, if you have one of those food saver machines, one great thing that you can do is go out and buy your self some release film (tap plastics near me carries it) and then some cotton batting (any fabric store).

Then when you make your piece do the build up onto a model (styrofoam works great) then put the release film over the built up layers with resin, then cover with cotton batting. Next bag it and vaccum it. After that if your oven is sensitive enough (use a thermometer not just the dial) you can take the whole thing and put it in the oven and bring it up to about 150-200* farhenheit. Temp depends on the epoxy you are using.

What this process does is allows you to get more strength per layer by optimizing the amount of resin to the amount of fiber in the finished piece (this is from vacuum bagging) and also promotes the proper cure of the resin also increasing strength with the minimum materials and weight (oven curing).

http://info-central.org/construction...mbagging.shtml
A good reference on this

Isn't the bagging trick a lil too intensive for a somewhat large speaker box though??? For making a mold, I was going to use a liquid rubber and make it in 2 pieces, then i can fab. the box, first using a gel-coat. No???

I've heard it's hard to do the bagging trick for glassing something

4 gallons of resin on a single sub box? why so much? i have fabbed up many a custom job with 3-4 subs and used the same amount for a 6cuft enclosure with fleece and a 1/4" layer of fiber-mat.

BTW 1/4" is approx. about as strong as 3/4" MDF

well this was my first job ever using fiberglass so I had no idea on how much material I would use. I called about 5 different audio installers and they all said roughly 4-5 gallons. I understand why now... the box is completely sealed for a RE SX 12" and I'm putting about 1600 rms to it. I wanted to make sure there wasn't anyway in hell that the box could or would flex. I'm getting it sprayed and cleared on wednesday. So we'll see....

1600 rms in a sealed box is worthless. if you wanted big sound like that you should have gone ported. what amp are you using

I really don't prefer a ported box, also the room that I was working with really didn't allow for a larger box. I wasn't trying to reach big bass, just a good sql system. I have it hooked up right now get the sub broken in. It sounds truly amazing imo. I'm running a Hifonics 1606d Brutus for it...

damn, nice set up.. I just got my 12" JL W3v2 in a non ported box.. I wanted them to do it.. but it would have been like 50 bucks more cause they would have to change the design

Thanks!!! I actually just fully finished my install with the exception of getting my box and bezel painted... I installed my mb premiums last night and finally got everything up and running and started to tune somewhat. I cannot say how impressed I am with the sound quality. After the box is painted, i'm gonna get the mic adapter for my head unit and fine tune my PEQ and crossover. I'll post pics of the install after it's complete.

nice man

Any pics??

How much did your shop charge to paint the box and bezel? I think I'm gonna have my molded touchscreen bezel repainted.

WELLLLLLL.... for me, he's going to charge me $0.00, Only cause there's really not that much to paint and also i've brought him TONS of work through friends/family. I'm right now just smoothing out the outside of the box that isn't going to be seen with some light bondo work. I decided to change a few things on the box though... Pics are coming up soon i swear! I just want to wait till everthing is done, which it is other than my box. The amp rack has been in now for approx. 3 weeks and fans and caps. are working great! I also just got done edead'ing my doors with 3 layers and I'm FINALLY all done mounting my front components, MB Quart PCE216's. They sound truly amazing, from all the products I have owned through MB, I must say I will never use any other products, as far speakers are concerned. I also mounted my x-overs in the glove box, and they look extremely custom! But yes, picks are very soon, I promise...

oh, edit, This past week or 2 i've been helping out the dad alot trying to repair one of his boats so I had no time for the truck :( .... hence no great news.

How do you get the sound deadening on the "inside of the outer door skin" other than "very carfeully"??