outhopu

I'm still debating on if I like how 4 look there. I may just do 3 since putting a single driver in the door will save lots of time. I'm going to pull the door panel off to check for clearance before I go any further in the design. Here is a another pic of the ride. Drilled the top and put a few screws in it so I could get all the edges sanded even before routering the corners over. It will need more sanding to smooth it all down if I decide to satin it. Fits nicely with room for the amps and hydraulic set up. I should even be able to keep a spare tire as well.

I took the liberty to edit your post a little to reflect the real reasons for such a bastard fastener. lol. Everything is coming together reall nice. Going to be a very tidy install when your done.

It's moving along. I'm just really wishing I would have dropped the coin on a higher quality router. I keep having issues with the chuck coming loose and the bit slipping. Thanks. All I did was put the port in the box and used my router with a 1/4" radius round over bit and bam! Poor mans aero port. Word to the wise though, have somebody standing there with a shop vac to catch the sahvings. They become highly staticly charged and cling to everything. I looked like I was tarred and feathered when I was done. I wanted to make sure the silicon fully cured so I got started on trying to pick the location of the mids/highs. I'm trying to do (4) 6 3/4" per side up front. I can fit 2 per kick panel. I removed the parking brake assembly to make more room and relocated part of the fuse panel. I'm not sure if I like this lay out here or not yet. I'm going to play around with it a bit more before I pull the trigger on it.

I'll probably get it test fired before doing the finall finishing of it though. I've already spent a fair amount of cash so I'd like to know it plays the way I want before investing any more into it. It's been over 15 years since I've built a bandpass, so I'm not 100% confident that I'll be pleased with it. Getting closer. Radiused the edges on the ports and painted them black. Laid down a bead of silicon, covered it with plastic wrap and put the top on with just a bit of pressure to flatten the bead a little. It should have a little more than a 1/16" thick silicon gasket . I'll remove the top and plastic wrap after it's all cured and see if it worked out as planned.

The subs will face down but thats not really relivant. The ports ended up having to exit out each side, pics below. Thanks. I have to stay busy. It's the only thing that keeps me from losing my mind in this toilet of a world we live in. I'm sure the bass will be respectable even though the subs aren't monsters. Besides I only need 1400wrms to power all 4 so electrical upgrades won't have to empty my pockets. I've used Infinity Kappa components before and really like how they sounded so I'm not worried about how the mids/highs will do. I want to stain and polyurethane it if I can get it sanded down real nice. I need to get some would filler that is stainable so I can fill over all the nail heads to make sure I get a killer finish on it. I may do some paint inlays to match the color of the car also. Time, money, and energy will dictate how much of that actually happens though. Thanks everybody for all the positive comments. Now more pics. This is the only pic I have of the ride right now. My daughter and a good friend of mine took a 4 hour road trip looked the car over bought it and drove it 4 hours back home. Ran and drove like a champ. Only issue we had was one of the dry rotted front tires started coming apart, hence the donut spare. I'm looking for some wheels for it and already have a plan for the hydraulic set up. Just need to get the sounds done first. Finsihed framing the inside and carved out a V groove that will get filled with silicon to create a gasket to seal the lid. The groove should hopefully keep the silicon from blowing out. Cut the ports to size bored the holes for them and did a test fit. I'm not real happy with the port placement but it's the only way I could fit them. Each side will have 2 ports. The top isn't trimmed or attached yet. Hopefully I'll get the rest of the box done in the next couple days.

I think I may just buy me a rivnut gun. I bet you sleep with that thing under your pillow at night. Looking good. Thats a lot of interior space to deal with thats for sure.

Thanks.

I'm enjoying building this box. It's my first time using the birch and it's so much easier to cut than MDF. I can't remember exactly what I paid for the jig but I want to say it was around $40 or so. It works great and is well worth the cost. I originaly made my own circle jig but after having to modify it a few times for different dia. I'd had enough of that one. The only thing I noticed with the Jasper though is it seems like the pivot hole I was using already loosened up a little from cutting the dozen holes I did. Nothing that caused any issues but lots of use may lead to some.

Well I've had enough of working my life away building cool shit for other people. I scooped up a 1980 Caddy CoupeDeville about a week ago and will be putting a basic hydraulic set up in it. I'll also be using all the various audio gear that I have been storing in the basement for the last 3 years to put a decent system together for it also. I know the gear isn't high end stuff but I bought it before learning about companies like Fi and Sundown. Hey I did by it all at clearance prices at least so I'm going to run with it. Heres what I have planned for gear as of now. JVC head unit. (8) Infinity Kappa 3 way coaxs. May only run 4 depending on room. (4) 10" Infinity Kappa perfect 10.1 subs in bandpass enclosure (4th order I believe it's called) (3) Clarion amps (I have 5 to choose from I'll post specs later) (2) Kinetik 1800 batteries Big 3 Plenty of 1/0 cable Alternator to be decided on later. I decided to give birch plywood a try since I keep reading good things about. Had some of the cuts done at Lowes to save me some time. Laid out the baffles and started cutting with my new circle jig. Glued and screwed the pieces together . Figured rounding the corner off the back side of the opening couldn't hurt. I cut a slot for the center divider to go into for a stronger glue joint since I won't be able to get a screw or nail in from the other side. Got the bottom and sides glued and nailed together. Attached some strips to the sides to make stting the baffle in the correct place a bit easier. Dropped the baffle and center divider in. Framed the inside with another strip to give me more flange surface for better sealing and to help prevent the wood from splitting since I'll need to use screws on the top panel for access to the subs. I'm building this exactly to the specs given from Infinity. I know the box seems small but the graphs supplied with the sub shows it should be louder than a sealed box and play lower than their vented box specs out at. I'm still working on port placement.

Your goals are completely different than mine were so I'm curious to here what you think about how yours performs. Everybody kept telling me IB wouldn't perform well for many different reasons but in the end they were all way wrong. Good bass and trunk space, now thats a good combination.

I was fine with the cold temps all winter. Then out of nowhere we got a warm front of 50-65 degree weather for almost a week followed by freezing rain, followed by snow, followed by highs in the 30's for 2 weeks. I just got spoiled by the warm air and sunshine.

I didn't meter it before I tore it all out to do the rest of the build on the car. It hammers though. Plays lower than anything else I've ever built and still sounds good playing rock/metal with fast paced bass. I'm using a Sundown 2000D which puts out closer to 2400rms at 14v so each sub is getting real close to full rms power. The Fi IB3s have 30mm of excursion and can handle 550rms at 20 hz so I'm not sure how similar the ouput will be for you though. If you go to the bottom of page 11 on the link I posted there is 3 video links at the bottom. They just look like 3 fuzzy pics, just click on them and it should help give you an idea of it's output. I'll be working more on the body once it warms up outside to help control the body flex.

Thanks guys. It wasn't 45 but I was feeling motivated so... I finally got around to upgrading the power wire from the alternator to the battery and decided to throw a Kinetik battery in that I had laying around.

Thanks. I have a bad habit of getting carried away with anything I do. We wanted it to be loud and we got that for sure. I can understand you not wanting to hack into the car too much. You can always add panels if needed to better seal it off if the output isn't to your liking. Keep at it.

I did my first I/B install last summer using 4 12" Fi IB3's and was blown away by how good it sounded. If the subs your running perform anything like those you should be pleased. From everything I researched the key thing was to completely seal the cabin from the trunk to prevent cancellation. Heres a link to how I did my baffle if your interested. I sealed everything up nice and air tight and couldn't be happier with it. Good luck with the rest of your build hopefully you'll be as pleased with yours as I was.

Looks good for the time and money invested. If I didn't have a dozen subs laying in the basement already I'd give the sa-8s a try myself.

Are the subs your using designed for IB use? I'm not familiar with the brand at all and couldn't find much info about them when I googled them.

Well the calender may say it's spring but it's been in the low 30s for highs all week. So I still have more to do once it warms up a bit. It's funny though that this got bumped up because I did manage to upgrade the final run of power wire from the alternator to the battery. Ooh yes ! Very nice build. I'd love to make a listen. You gave me some good ideas ! Honestly the bass is hit or miss depending on the type of music I'm listening to. It does pretty good on say a kick drum when listening to rock/metal but it falls on it's face when listening to heavy bass tracks found in most rap. I'm fairly certain the door flex is causing a lot of cancelation so I either need to brace it further or just accept it for what it is. Considering I've used almost zero interior space at all I'm not nearly as picky about it as I usually would be. I have a Fi SSD 10" in a ported box thats collecting dust which will find it's way into the ride very soon though. I plan on putting a switch in line to allow me to play the 8"s if I need to remove the 10" for extra cargo space. That will give me the best of both worlds. I'm also going to put a larger sub amp in and probably replace the moped battery up front with a Kinetik and maybe even add a second one underneath the rear of the body if there is room. I just need the dam weather to take a turn for the better. I'm on strike until it hits 45 degrees or better. lol.

Thats bad ass man. Good work on getting those behind the factory grill. I hear you on not putting to much effort into corrosion control. I guess as long as you know you need to give them a look over once in a while it shouldn't be a big deal.

Thanks. Most of my efforts have focused on packaging and strength. I haven't really put much though on corrosion prevention. I can imagine the aluminum bars will eventually have some of that white flakey stuff. In how long, I don't know. I can anodize the bars black and just sand the area where the bars electrically contact the batteries. What's your take? WWouthopuD? One step at a time. That's all it takes. lol. I was thinking the same thing about getting them anodized. If you can precisely remove the anodizing only from the contact points and use a anti corrosion compound to encapsulate the conection thats about the best you can do as far as I know. I had a tube of some stuff that was designed for use when mixed metals are used in electrical connects to prevent galvanic corrosion but can't remember the name off hand. If I think about it I'll look through my tool box when I get a chance and see if I still have it. The last time I did a battery mount under my friends truck I opted to mount it with the terminals facing the ground to make it easier to inspect and clean.

I really like everything about that rack and mounting system. It's obvious you put a lot of thought and time into it. Whats your plans for keeping the aluminum bars from corroding? Between galvanic corrosion and the elements it's hard to keep connections clean for long.

Thanks it's coming along. I've been slipping on updating this topic. While I was waiting on the reams I moved on to assembling the axles and getting them in the housing to start sorting out the custom disc brakes I'm putting together. First thing I had to do was drill the 5 on 5 bolt circle in the rotors. Then I bolted them up to see where I needed to mount the calipers. Then my homie finally came through with the reams so I dropped working on the rearend and moved onto the spindles. Got them reamed and fit the new oversized uppers and lowers. Ended up being 1" taller overall. I didn't like how the geometry was working on the front end so I made an adjustble mock up lower to see if changing the length would get me the results I'm looking for. It did, now I have to start over on a new lower. Oh well shit happens. Had to modify my jig also. Version 2 of the lower a arm is under way. I'm actually glad I had to do another one. This time I'm doing it differently and should end up cleaner and stronger. Even made a spanner wrench for tightening the pivot joints. I used a few layers of shrik wrap for a grip. Beats paying $35 for one.

Well this week hasn't been as productive as I wanted do to issues with getting the reams for the spindles. So I just moved on to getting the rearend full welded and polished before welding the brackets on it. I DA sanded the center section to get all the brake creases out of it and also to soften the corners a bit. Welded the ends on completely and polished them down.

Nice link. Lots of good info in it.

It looks like it belongs there. I like it a lot. It's not going to be fun drilling all those holes though. I always hate having to drill holes when laying under neath a car. Do you plan on putting a plate in the bottom of the tray to protect the battery cases from anything that might get tossed up from the road?