ttocs
Post Whore
Just as I got the stock trans off the car that wicked cold streak hit and made it no fun to be in the garage on the floor with cold steel. To fill the time I started on the subwoofer enclosure because I have the gear and have had a design in my head for a while. With that being said this will probably be a long build as now that its warmed but I am going to get back on the T56 swap but hopefully after that I can return here.
The goal is to build a box for 2 Morel Ultimo 12" subs that will have 4.15 cubic feet of airspace and will still fit through the opening of the trunk that is small and odd shaped. I also have a rear strut tower brace to build around that will make things interesting. Because of the size I am going to have to build the enclosure in 3 pieces that will be bolted together in the car.
The first part of the enclosure to build is the part that will take up the spare tire well that I will refer to as E1 from now on. I made what is called a kerf board that is just a piece of baltic birch plywood that I make repeated cuts every inch that allows it to bend. I could have just fiberglassed the entire bottom but I need to be able to attach the next part of the enclosure to the top of this one so I needed a smooth/flat top that will not flex to ensure that the the joint will seal perfectly.
I used a quick layer of fiberglass to lock the kerf in place and then made a top that fits nice and tight.
now never being able to leave good enough alone, I had a piece of 1" cast acrylic that was left over so I decided to make a small infinity mirror display that will look down into the box. I also made an aluminum trim ring that I will polish and the a piece to mount it to with 1/4-20 hardware and foam to seal it all up.
After that was all mounted in the top, I fiberglassed the bottom of it to maximize how much space it had and built it up to be strong enough. I am waiting on some staples to finish it up tomorrow and then I will be able to attach the top. The next part that was important was that I need to make a hole as big as possible that will go from E1, to the next part of the enclosure I will call E2. Along with that, it needs to be able to seal perfectly between the two and if I need to take it out later I want to have that option. To do all this I started off by figure out the size of the hole I was able to make and then I machined 2 piece of 3/4" HDPE that will work both as an alignment tool to make sure they are in the right place but also to increase the surface area of the sealing area to maximize the seal. One of the nice features of HDPE(plastic cutting board material) is that not much will bond to it so a thin layer of RTV will make a seal but I can still get it apart later.
I made a rubber gasket that goes between the two.
I also machined a pocket that the gasket seats into(.03" deep) and installed threaded inserts to use more 1/4-20 hardware to hold E1 and E2 together.
here the gasket is installed and I also added another touch to the infinity mirror.
At this point I cut the sides and top for E2 and put the frame of E2 together and put it in car to check my fit(you can see 2 of the bolts holding it together). E2 stops right before the strut tower brace and at that point it will mount to the 3rd part of the enclosure, E3. I wanted to make sure that the calculations I made while trying to remember trig from 25 yrs ago were right so I cut the side of E3 out of some cardboard on the cnc to see if it would fit and matched up with the back seat angle and would make for a nice seal to E2. It will.
More to come please feel free to ask any questions.
The goal is to build a box for 2 Morel Ultimo 12" subs that will have 4.15 cubic feet of airspace and will still fit through the opening of the trunk that is small and odd shaped. I also have a rear strut tower brace to build around that will make things interesting. Because of the size I am going to have to build the enclosure in 3 pieces that will be bolted together in the car.
The first part of the enclosure to build is the part that will take up the spare tire well that I will refer to as E1 from now on. I made what is called a kerf board that is just a piece of baltic birch plywood that I make repeated cuts every inch that allows it to bend. I could have just fiberglassed the entire bottom but I need to be able to attach the next part of the enclosure to the top of this one so I needed a smooth/flat top that will not flex to ensure that the the joint will seal perfectly.
I used a quick layer of fiberglass to lock the kerf in place and then made a top that fits nice and tight.
now never being able to leave good enough alone, I had a piece of 1" cast acrylic that was left over so I decided to make a small infinity mirror display that will look down into the box. I also made an aluminum trim ring that I will polish and the a piece to mount it to with 1/4-20 hardware and foam to seal it all up.
After that was all mounted in the top, I fiberglassed the bottom of it to maximize how much space it had and built it up to be strong enough. I am waiting on some staples to finish it up tomorrow and then I will be able to attach the top. The next part that was important was that I need to make a hole as big as possible that will go from E1, to the next part of the enclosure I will call E2. Along with that, it needs to be able to seal perfectly between the two and if I need to take it out later I want to have that option. To do all this I started off by figure out the size of the hole I was able to make and then I machined 2 piece of 3/4" HDPE that will work both as an alignment tool to make sure they are in the right place but also to increase the surface area of the sealing area to maximize the seal. One of the nice features of HDPE(plastic cutting board material) is that not much will bond to it so a thin layer of RTV will make a seal but I can still get it apart later.
I made a rubber gasket that goes between the two.
I also machined a pocket that the gasket seats into(.03" deep) and installed threaded inserts to use more 1/4-20 hardware to hold E1 and E2 together.
here the gasket is installed and I also added another touch to the infinity mirror.
At this point I cut the sides and top for E2 and put the frame of E2 together and put it in car to check my fit(you can see 2 of the bolts holding it together). E2 stops right before the strut tower brace and at that point it will mount to the 3rd part of the enclosure, E3. I wanted to make sure that the calculations I made while trying to remember trig from 25 yrs ago were right so I cut the side of E3 out of some cardboard on the cnc to see if it would fit and matched up with the back seat angle and would make for a nice seal to E2. It will.
More to come please feel free to ask any questions.