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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum
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First shot at fiberglass... ATTEMPTING to make a custom inclosure in my 07 335I
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| 10-22-2006, 12:19 AM | #23 | |
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/|/|uffin/|/|an
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| 10-22-2006, 12:28 AM | #24 |
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/|/|uffin/|/|an
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Alright I need some advice..... After considering how little airspace my subs need I am thinking it might be more practical to install BOTH subs in one enclosure on the left side... It would take MUCH less time to finish
 AND I would have more usable trunk space... Does anyone think it would look silly? Or have any ideas how to make it look neat also? Maybe if I put them both on the left front corner of the trunk(like in the pics) one sub facing straight back and one either straight too the right or at a 45 degree angle towards the back right corner of the car... I could mount the amp and capacitor near the back left of the trunk kind of off to the side up out of the way.. I would like this to be practical but also want the neat look..... I wish I could draw or use a program on the comp to give examples... BUT I cant  Anyways maybe I should just make up my own mind but hey thats what we're here for...... THANKS!!   Oh one more thing.... Is there any benifit for sound quality with 2 enclosures rather than one? Does the direction of the sub effect the sound? Thanks! Last edited by jusbechillin; 10-22-2006 at 01:43 AM.. |
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| 10-23-2006, 09:00 PM | #26 |
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Captain
 
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I did the custom fiberglass enclosure in my 330xi also....Id reccomend once your done with the fiber glass use a thin headliner to wrap around it so it looks 'stock' Fiberglass wrapped in vynl will look "uneven" if when its sanded down. Youll stil have bumps. Using the headliner will remove the bumps.
 Look at pics of mine for ideas if need be Good luck |
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| 10-23-2006, 09:50 PM | #27 |
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Never thought about messing around in "paint" with it...
Kind of like that but I think Ill put the sub on the left a little higher and pointing straight back- The one on the right a little lower and at a 45 degree angle... Basic Idea is right..... |
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| 10-23-2006, 10:09 PM | #28 |
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Anyways.... I ATTEMPTED to make the sub rings last night.... Sigh... what a mess I made....
Here's the basic Idea.... http://chris.pfharlock.com/glass/makerings.htm So using this as a guide I thought it would be cake.. I decieded to glue two 3/4" mdf boards together instead of 3/4" & 1/2" because my subwoofer face(the silver ring that covers up the connection between the sub and the box) is 3/4" tall... If I need to install it flush then I needed to cover the whole 3/4" face....ANYWAYS.... I did this using gorilla glue just because it has a pretty short dry time... Then I got the router connected to a piece of 1/4" piece of wood... Made my measurements and did my first "cut"... Problem was my longest router bit was 3/4" tall.... So I figured Id just have to make one cut, readjust and then recut the same whole deeper. what I DIDNT notice is that the piece that holds the bit in place was wider than the bit itself... So when I reset the depth of my router I didnt notice the reason it wasnt cutting very well was because of that piece... So after a minute or two of confusion I noticed a burning smell... WELL, the bigger piece was burning its way through the wood rather than cutting it... By the time I stopped the whole garage is filled with smoke and (you guessed it) sawdust.. WHAT A MESS!! Im doin it outside next time! lol I was going to trash the one I messed up but instead I think Ill just make sure the messed up edge ends up inside the box where it wont matter... So today I bought a longer bit ($20!!!!)... I just got home from home depot and am going to give it another crack. WISH ME LUCK!  |
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| 10-24-2006, 01:39 AM | #30 |
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Yeah like one day a week lol...
got a wife and an 11 month old baby.... cant quite hang out in the garage for my whole day off... I wish I could but I'm takin it easy... This will keep me occupied until Shiv makes his XEDE available for peeps outside CA!! ...... I realized that I bought a 1/2" router bit and mine takes a 1/4"... Im so frustrated with myself.... I guess Ill do the rings thursday..............................   |
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| 10-24-2006, 10:46 AM | #32 |
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Long, the sub should have a recommended enclosure size included in it's documentation. Then you get to do some math.
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| 10-28-2006, 01:23 AM | #33 |
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Okay so I got the sub rings done... Finally got the hang of it. My problem ended up being the flimsy peice of wood I mounted the router to(see first pic)..
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| 10-28-2006, 01:33 AM | #34 |
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Now I decieded it was time to trim the Piece down to size using a Dremel. No perfection here, just kinda eyeballed it. =/ This project is a time burglar!!(Corny I know)
Next I had to deciede where and how to mount the sub rings..... First I took some measurements of the opening of the trunk as well as the Hieght inside the trunk.. I decieded that the tallest I was comfortable making ANY part of the box was 15".... I also measured how deep the subs would sit past the rings so that they wont hit eachother when I mount them.. With this info I just messed around a little bit holding them and measuring.... You can see in the pic how quick the 15" hieght is used up... |
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| 10-28-2006, 01:51 AM | #35 |
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Now the next thing that I think is a GREAT idea I read online from another fiberglass page... Regarding the mounting of the subs to the box itself.... I was originally going to just use some woodscrews and go to town but when I ran accross this I figured with the time I have invested I would be a retard to not do it right! I layed the sub in the rings and traced where all the screws will go... Using These pieces....
I Pre drilled the holes where the sub screws will mount and then on the back of them I hammered the peices in... This gives a much longer lasting approach to the mounting hardware(if that sentance doesnt make sense I really dont care, its late and Im tired) Now I got my wooden dowells out and my hot glue and placed my first ring... The placement is obviously a personal prefferance so have fun and make it however the heck you like it.. I think mine will look ghettofabulous! At first I thought there would be no way that some glue and dowells would hold these in place given their weight, but I got creative.. I cut notches in the end of the dowells to give them more surface area to contact the edge of the rings.. I tried to use gravity to my advantage since I cant seem to avoid it!!  Then I also put a random glob of glue in the senter of the glass and once it dried it gave me something to push a dowell against so I didnt have to hold everything in place by hand for too long... Now I put the rig back in the car too look at the placement again.. |
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| 10-28-2006, 01:56 AM | #36 |
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Now to mount the second one.... Just look at the pics... Im dozing off here... Must SLEEP!
Next I need to determine the airspace... See you in a few days..  |
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| 10-29-2006, 01:17 AM | #37 |
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Okay this may not be 100% accurate but heres how I made sure my box was at least 1.38 C.F or more..... I took two garbage bags and quickly stretched em over the box... I then found a little box and measrured it (5.5"x7"x9")= aprox 346.5 cubic inches... There are 1728 cubic inches in a cubic foot... so I took my total space needed including the sub displacement (.65 air space and .04 displacement for each sub)... .65+.04+.65+.04=1.38 cubic foot. 1.38 Cubic foot equals 2384.64 inches (1.38*1728)...... So I need a total of 2384.64 cubic inches of air space in my enclosure or more...The container I have holds 346.5 cubic inches of packaging peanuts. 346.5 goes into my needed 2384 aprox 7 times....... SO I filled up my little box with packaging peanuts and filled up the enclosure... VWALLA! It holds MORE than enough! whew...
It is easy to make the airspace inside smaller but not bigger... Now I will buy some fleece and stretch it... After completing the box I will need to fine tune the air space inside.... I think the best method I've read up on is either using water OR popcorn kernals... Both will be very accurate.. Since I allready know my box is a little to big I know I'll need to put some fillers in it eventually..... After I figure out how much more airspace needs to be removed I can use 2x4s (obviously cut to size) glued to the inside of the box to take up space...... /yawn Well Im tired and Ill have to catch everyone in a day of two.... |
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| 10-31-2006, 01:23 PM | #38 |
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Looking good so far!! I can't wait to see the finished product. I wanted to do this, but never had the patience.
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| 10-31-2006, 01:52 PM | #39 |
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chichen
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 ..holy that is a lot of resin.....what's up with the aluminum foil?....that box is going to be pretty hefty from what i can see....you missing some steps....you lay masking tape in the desired location (which seems like you have done)......but, you don't use aluminum foil.....once you have covered the area by layering masking tape..... you use car wax.....put a layer of wax right on top of the masking tape....same amount you would put on a car... than you need to cut a piece of fiberglass mesh fabric that can cover the desired area..... than cut a piece of fiberglass (they have different thickness depending on the project)....you do not want to layer it...you want to cut and trim so that it doesn't over lap.... you need a nice hard (but, flexible) rubber scrapper....apply the resin on top and use the rubber scrapper to distribute evenly....remove any excess resin....use your fingers to work the corners....work all the air bubbles out and remove all the excess resin... dunk you hands and tools in paint thinner.....and have a beer....wait until the next day for it to dry and set.... once it's dry....pull it out...it would pull out easily since you coated the masking tape with wax.....trim the edge...and now work on your other panels...i assume the other panels will be flat.....do the same for each panel...cut the holes for speakers and wire housing, etc.....to put it together..use some fiberglass and resin to connect the panels together.... *seems like you are past the intructions already...but...for anybody else thinking about taking on fiberglass project....
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| 10-31-2006, 02:45 PM | #40 |
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chichen
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i'm not sound expert...but why not just cut circles in the fiberglass panels and mount the speakers on the fiberglass...why do you need wood cut outs?......
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| 10-31-2006, 03:36 PM | #41 |
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That looking nice. Cant wait to see more
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| 11-01-2006, 12:36 AM | #43 |
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If I just "cut holes" in the fiberglass I could see a couple things happening.. First off you need a VERY flat surface to get a good seal on the sub.. Im pretty sure the random hole in the fiberglass wouldnt be as flat as a machined piece of wood... And I can sink the sub flush with the box this way.... It will look much better this way in my opinion.
As far as getting ur fingers into the mess to get air bubles out... No thanks! I think the small brush works great and wouldnt look forward to soaking my hands in acitone either lol..... And I didnt find it practical to reuse the brushes even if soaked in acitone... buy the cheapest ones and use em like there goin out of style... My garbage is filled with em! The wax sounds like a good idea, although the foil served its purpose.. There were spots where I couldnt really get it off, but its on the bottom of the sub... who the heck cares? And as far as the comments about using a ton of resin..... Why yes...yes it is a lot of resin LOL.... Guess I figured too much would be better than too little! Unfortunatley it is the most expensive part of the project also!  |
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| 11-01-2006, 12:57 AM | #44 |
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Well stretching the fleece was a royal PAIN!
I went to a fabric store and bought the stretchiest fleece I could find... Considered buying a spandex material but thought It would be too thin... So I get home and lay it over my creation trying to figure out which way I would get the most stretch......Well after messing around with it I realized that either I made a shaped that made the stretch impossible OR I just dont know what the hell Im doin... You decide.... I take some 3m spray adhesive and tack down an edge and stretch my way around... I can not seem to make all the excess material disapear so I end up with two flaps on either side.... So after brainstorming I raid my wifes sewin stuff and cut the flaps out and sew them the best I can back together.....Sigh This is after I soak the Fleece with resin for the first time.... I sure drenched it but when I look inside the box I can see it didn't get all the way through... hmmm... Oh well... Also I notice that there was a spot where I happened to droop down below a curve in my car... I only realized because I've been doing a "test fit" in the car often..... Well Im glad I did!! So to fix the broblem I took a dremil to the spot I x'd out in the picture.... Then I stretched some fleece from INSIDE the box to cover the hole... I did it from the inside so that I had a little extra hight clearance........Sorry I was so frustrated it hapened(I didnt think I could fix it) that I forgot to take pictures.... I add three layers of Fiberglass mat to this and it feels very rigid... Im callin it good with the Glass...  |
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