- Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:59 am
#64338
It's been slow at work so I convinced my boss to let me build a spare tire sub enclosure for a Honda Civic (Wouldn't you know! Once I started it got busy). I have to use my own car since there's no customer. But I told the shop manager this is a popular car with a lot of following so I should have no problem selling it.
It's going for $1000 with the Alpine amp and sub and probably $500 w/out. The amp is 500 watts RMS and the sub is a dual voice coil wired at 2 Ohms.
Originally I intended for this to be a DIY but halfway into it I realized that at over $3000 in tools required, probably $100 in supplies that you wont use up completely, 3 days of work, and a few weeks of practice to learn it; it's jut not realistic for anyone to casually attempt this.
To start off I masked off the hatch area with masking tape. Then I covered the tape up with foil and then put down two layers of wax. All this is to prevent the fiberglass from getting permanently stuck to your trunk. Originally we thought we were going to use the whole area but it turned out we only used 1/4th of it.
I found that cutting out the frame to follow the contours of the bottom of the trunk was very difficult and time consuming. You need to get this as perfect as possible or else you will have a lot more work later.
7 layers of fiberglass. Let it cure for several hours with a space heater. Then break it loose from the bottom and remove all the masking.
Then we calculated the available air space and compared that to what the sub calls for. We were over double so we put a divider at the appropriate spot and turned the other side into an amp rack. We could have easily put in two 10's, a 12, or two 12 inch subs.
This guy in the picture is my shop manager teaching me how to do this. He's worked for Alpine and Sony training installers and building their cars. He's only contracted to my employer. He has his own business where he builds custom cars commonly exceeding 10 grand in parts and labor.
After sawing and grinding down the fiberglass that spilled out from the gaps from the imperfect fit of the frame to the trunk, you fill in the space with a fiberglass compound aka "mud". Then you have to smooth that down and make sure it still fits the trunk perfectly. After this step I traced the shape out on some cardboard to use as a template if I ever make another box for this type of car.
All done except to build the framing to cover the rest of the trunk area (replacing the flimsy stock cardboard). $1000 bucks. Sounds very nice. Nice and loud (easily as loud as two 10's of the same model but in a off-the-shelf box), and yet tight. How long it takes to sell will determine if I make another one.
It's been slow at work so I convinced my boss to let me build a spare tire sub enclosure for a Honda Civic (Wouldn't you know! Once I started it got busy). I have to use my own car since there's no customer. But I told the shop manager this is a popular car with a lot of following so I should have no problem selling it.
It's going for $1000 with the Alpine amp and sub and probably $500 w/out. The amp is 500 watts RMS and the sub is a dual voice coil wired at 2 Ohms.
Originally I intended for this to be a DIY but halfway into it I realized that at over $3000 in tools required, probably $100 in supplies that you wont use up completely, 3 days of work, and a few weeks of practice to learn it; it's jut not realistic for anyone to casually attempt this.
To start off I masked off the hatch area with masking tape. Then I covered the tape up with foil and then put down two layers of wax. All this is to prevent the fiberglass from getting permanently stuck to your trunk. Originally we thought we were going to use the whole area but it turned out we only used 1/4th of it.
I found that cutting out the frame to follow the contours of the bottom of the trunk was very difficult and time consuming. You need to get this as perfect as possible or else you will have a lot more work later.
7 layers of fiberglass. Let it cure for several hours with a space heater. Then break it loose from the bottom and remove all the masking.
Then we calculated the available air space and compared that to what the sub calls for. We were over double so we put a divider at the appropriate spot and turned the other side into an amp rack. We could have easily put in two 10's, a 12, or two 12 inch subs.
This guy in the picture is my shop manager teaching me how to do this. He's worked for Alpine and Sony training installers and building their cars. He's only contracted to my employer. He has his own business where he builds custom cars commonly exceeding 10 grand in parts and labor.
After sawing and grinding down the fiberglass that spilled out from the gaps from the imperfect fit of the frame to the trunk, you fill in the space with a fiberglass compound aka "mud". Then you have to smooth that down and make sure it still fits the trunk perfectly. After this step I traced the shape out on some cardboard to use as a template if I ever make another box for this type of car.
All done except to build the framing to cover the rest of the trunk area (replacing the flimsy stock cardboard). $1000 bucks. Sounds very nice. Nice and loud (easily as loud as two 10's of the same model but in a off-the-shelf box), and yet tight. How long it takes to sell will determine if I make another one.
Last edited by suspendedHatch on Mon May 21, 2012 6:21 am, edited 3 times in total.
... freakin sweet too! A+
