Fiberglass box material
 

Hey i need to know all i need to build a box besides glass mat ,brush,and resin ....i need to know the things i need for the lid to get the curve shape ANY imput will be well taken... thanks

Check out my link on the forum https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=233634 It shows my complete fiberglass box build... bottom shell, divider wall, rings, and top in great detail over a 4 month period.


Check out these links they have a lot of good reading:

https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/subwoofer.html

http://fbodyaudio.com/articleviewer....tealthbox.tech

http://fbodyaudio.com/articleviewer....cle=glass.tech

This site is really nice... shows lid, rings,... everything http://web.njit.edu/~cas1383/proj/main/

Basically I've learned the Walmart mat and resin might be ok for smaller projects but it'll kill you on budget and on strength for the larger ones. Best to get a quality resin in bulk from a good supplier. I used www.uscomposites.com for my build I went through almost 6 gallons of there resin I got some extra... but I had a extremely big box too. I used there 0.75 oz mat cause I was worried about formability, but I've since switched to a 30 oz+ biaxial cloth I've bought off ebay for cheap I like it extremely well.

Basically you need:

A huge supply of rubber gloves (resin is sticky and harmful)

A good mask made to filter out gases NOT DUST (cheap ones don't work cause there only made for dust)

Tons of cheap paint brushes... I suggest the toss aways that only run 50 cents each or so. I then take the ends and cut them back an inch or so it lets me work with the bubbles a little easier.

Saftey goggles/glasses might be an idea too... I wore them at first cause I was getting resin all over the place but eventually I went to just using them when I had to do the weird positions cause of the resin dripping.

You'll need Masking Tape.

Heavy Duty Aluminum foil (fiberglass doesn't like it cause it's too smooth so it works great for things you don't want it to stick to like brackets your make shift molding.

You'll need some cardboard if you wanna do anything to tricky cause you'll have to make molding for the angles.

You'll need a turtle wax or cheap subsitute. (really good for waxing over the aluminum foil and tape cause it acts like a release agent so the fiberglass comes off a ton easier)

You'll need plastic rolls and duct tape for precautions. It's very easy to get resin on the car... I even managed to get some on mine even though I had most of it taped off I was lucky enough to have just put a good 3 hour+ wax job on it before though so it came off with a little paint thinner.

You'll need some MDF to make the divider wall if you plan on doing 2 subwoofers and you'll need it for sure for the bracing and mounting rings.

Let's see what else... you'll need wood screws and liquid nails for the MDF pieces.

For the lid you might have to use wooden dowels depending on the shape you want.

You get the nice flowing arch by using fleece first and glueing it to the box and MDF. Then covering it with resin and letting it sit and cure then laying fiberglass over the top of that. (All covered in my thread I listed at the top).

For glue I used the good 3M stuff like 7 bucks a can.


Basically you better have some money to spend on the budget and a ton of extra time.

THANKS FOR THAT IT ANSWERED MOST OF MY QUESTIONS

If you have anymore feel free to ask.

Tips...

>get the heavy duty gloves, resin and hardener will eat through the cheap stuff.
>Weather affects how fast this stuff dries, If its below 60 out, its gonna take forever to dry, hours even if its like 95+ out it might dry in 5 minutes!
>The more hardener you use the more brital the fiberglass you make will be, easier to crack. The less hardener, it takes a longer timem to dry.
>what even you get this stuff on, it probably wont come off. EG pants, concreate, cat lol :p
>if your sanding it, get a good dust mask made for fiberglasss. Breathing this stuff in can really mess ya up.
>some plaster of parris and news paper can be an easy way to make a mold.
>never mind my terrible spelling lol

where can i get mdf rings and peices to make fiberglass spkr enclosures that i see on t.v? ex.pimp my ride, over haulin' etc... or do they just cut the rings out themselves????:confused:

It's all custom made. If you can find them premade I wouldn't consider it. Do you really want to get a premade ring that wasn't made exactly for the cut out diameter of the subwoofer?


For a quick easy tutorial on MDF ring construction look here.
http://web.njit.edu/~cas1383/proj/mdf/index.htm

yeah, i gues your right, i better do it myself....... im thinking about doing 2 of those xtant's 6 sided spkrs for my z-28, i like the way look...:D

I just like to point out i have a good "How to" on my fiberglass box maybe a bit bifferent then what your looking for but helpfull to others sence now this is a stickie.

Another fiberglass sub box tech artical-http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/186985/5

I started my own How-To Fiberglass Box Build article: http://www.sounddomain.com/memberpage/433125/11

Currently still the rough draft, but I'll be cleaning it up and fixing spelling errors little by little over the next few days/weeks.

My box wasnt very price efficient. The price range hit over 300 dollars. What really sux is loosing that box when I last moved to a new house. Ehh shat happens. Hey, those who have built F-glass boxes, <font color=red>how much did you spend on it?</font>

Mine came in around $650 total (that's including paint prep, but no paint since that hasn't been done yet). I built one that was slightly large size though compared to most. My box was 95 lbs and 6.x cubes. Sad thing it's still probably 50+ lbs lighter than the old box and it's double the size!

I'm planning on building a sub box for a single kicker square 15" sub very soon. It'll be similar to fireturds and curries.
I have a few questions if I may:

currie, do you remember how much resin you used in your box, or what the overall size was?

Fireturd, you removed the side plastic panels to build your box, i'm assuming you can't tell they're gone once the box is in? i'm thinking about leaving them in, like curries, but I need between 3-6CF for my sub, and also a way to mount a 15" square sub in the middle...? (it's only like 13" from the back plastic wall to the metal wall in front, in the middle, so if it's raised up a few inches I think it'll work...)

I'm also pricing out resin, and findind ~$40 a gallon, so with 6 gallons, that's.... freakin' expensive....
also, you (anyone) screwed MDF to the top of the fiberglass, to mount your subs in, how thick was the fiberglass that you screwed into? I'm thinking it would be very thin, and hard to hit a screw through without punching through sideways...

one final thing, did anyone thin the resin before doing this? The fiberglassing i've done so far has been very difficult due to the thickness of the resin, is it common to thin it out? acetone, laquer tinner, xylene, they all work right?

Thanks
-J

would anyone like to build me two of the stealth boxes for a 91 trans am?

Sonix: You can not see the sides where I removed the plastic. If you check out the link I posted it's a direct walk-through step by step with pictures on how I made my box. That should help you out a little bit.

You could leave the sides in place that should help out with your design especially if you only want 3 to 5 cubes.

I wouldn't screw MDF to fiberglass. Sounds like a good way to make stress cracks in it. I used liquid nails on my divider wall (MDF) without problems. In acouple days it was rock hard. I went back and used some bondo/resin mixture (covered in the article) to add more strength and seal all the leaks.

Resin brands and specs will be of different thicknesses. I started with the el cheapo resin from WalMart for my project it was very hard to work with due to the thickness and it was expensive. I switched over to some B-440 (polyester) resin from US Composites. It was about 1/2 the thickness and much easier to work with. It was also ~$20 a gallon when I bought mine.

yea, I read the walkthrough, just wasn't quite sure if you could see it at the end....
I might do that, then have the box flush with the rear "hump" to get the same space, and more cargo room... Then there's an empty hole where your spare tire would be eh? or at least the bottom half of the spare tire area, and front section are empty....
oh wait, I can't do it flush, then the sub wouldn't fit in the center, i'd have to put it on one side, and that looks goofy...



yea, my top part will be MDF for a cheap, level top. I just figured glue wouldn't be strong enough... hmm, well I guess i'd be fiberglassing it in as well, so we'll see...

yea, local shops are proving to have very little selection at all, so that uscomposites, including shipping over the border, and currency conversion is proving to be a good deal...
I was thinking the EB kind, 'cuz it's dirt cheap, and the sub box isn't really structural... but the "premium", 440, is just a little more expensive then std 435, and that's barely more then the cheap stuff, so.....
I asked them for a quote, and they haven't gotten back to me yet, so i'll see about that.


one last thing, where can you get a sub box port, with the flared opening? I can't think of a store to buy that at... stereo shop like visions/soundsaround?

I haven't seen even one flared port in person. I imagine crutchfield or similar store would carry them.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-UI21STl...sp?g=745&avf=N

ah, ok, neither have I...?
I just mean a normal sub box tube, with the "rolled" end, rather then using a chunk of PVC pipe again....

I used no more then a gallon (or a couple liters) of clear resin (in combo with the cloth) but i also used a gallon or two of kitty hair stuff on its own also...just to increase the thickness quicker after i got a few layers of hardened matting out to make the basic shape. I still could of made it thicker but i didnt...like now its 1/2" thick or so in most places. Cost like 100 or so i guess. My box was all in the lower and upper hole but it was level with the hump....cheak out my pics.

oh and about useing screws in fiberglass and mdf ......it no problem if you drill 1st like your supposed to (always when useing mdf)..1/8" hole for the mdf and a little larger for the fiberglass as you want the screw to bite into the mdf not the fiberglass......now after that i fiberglassed in the seams and edges of where the two meet...check my link...so no stress will accure!! Screws were only temp till the glass drys...but ends up beeing for streghth in the end anyhow.

heir is what you need......
 

i would tell you everything you need to get and know, but ill just have you go to this website that thought me almost everything their is about fiberglassing except exsperience. here is the website: http://web.njit.edu/~cas1383/proj/main/.

if you need any other help or have questions E-mail me back.

P.S. Good luck

i got all my materials from walmart, napa, and buckites(some of you may not be familiar with that store) and i only spent about $50

Thanks guys this is what
i've been searching for....

Hey guys, im new to this forum, but i would like to offer some advice for custom fiberglass enclosures. Not that it's a bad idea, but instead of using aluminum foil to line the area, try using automotive duct tape, forms a little better and you dont have to use 9 hands. Once you have the area lined with tape, instead of using figerglass mat or cloth, run to wal-mart and pick up some felt, its cheap, you can pick a color so the painting process is a little easier, it also absorbs the resin alot better. Once you lay the felt and pour the resin, let it dry, and pull out the shell, the tape will off relatively easy. Decide where you want your speakers, make yourself some speaker rings and make some supports out of scrap wood. once you have the rings and supports in place, stretch some more felt over the top using staples to secure it to the speaker rings, add more supports to achieve your desired shape (i.e. curves, angles). make sure and cut out the holes for your speakers before you pour resin on the top piece of felt. Aside from subs, and amps, this method should run you around $50. My buddies and I build and install these things all the time. I am currently installing one in my 82' Camaro, so i can post pictures if you need visual assistance, feel free to ask any questions.

thats exactly what i have always done but i put chopmatt on the inside to strangthin the box a lil better, but i have done 7 vehicles since i have learned how to do this includding mine and all my buddys....and have made some good money from it, we even made a hood scoope for my buddys 4 wheeler...alot cheeper than buying one and need i say fun

yeah... most people will throw out a crazy offer to have you make one for like $200. So you are out the $50 for supplies, and the rest is for labor... I just thought i would throw this method out there for people to try... Glad im not the only one who does it this way.

Re: Fiberglass box material
 

another good site is
http://www.fiberglassforums.com/
there is a lot of information

Re: Fiberglass box material
 

where did you get the duct tape and resin? and how would the rings be made and where would wooden supports be placed?

Re: Fiberglass box material
 

I'M BACK! I also agree on the duct tape. I actually used that under my aluminum foil just in case of leaks. I got my resin from US composites. I noticed that MDF website I linked years ago is broken to sum up quickly basically it works like this. Get specs you need for your subs, measure, measure, measure, and then cut. There are different ways to do it. I think the cleanest installs are the recessed ones. To do that basically you need to cut 2 rings per sub. You will be mounting the top most ring on the bottom ring. Why? Because the top most ring needs to be able to fit the whole sub in it with room to spare. You will be mounting the sub to the bottom ring and top ring should be about the same height as the sub. This is because the fleece will be pulled tight against the upper ring and soaked with resin. It'll harden like a rock and you will either be fiberglassing on the outside of it or inside the box. You can cut out the fleece later around the inside of the rings to mount the sub. Your wooden dowels placement isn't critical it's just to hold the rings while you fiberglass for support. They can be removed afterwards.

Re: Fiberglass box material
 

Also check out my original post it has my whole build up in the link.

Re: Fiberglass box material
 

A Low cost tube woofer can be made with SONOTUBE "used for concrete work" with a couple layers of mat and resin "more for moisture resistance" and plywood ends. Wrap with a carpet or foam and material you have a solid enclosure.

Re: Fiberglass box material
 

SMD Sunflash. That stuff is legit. Have only done small little "test" work with it, but when I build my box for my 89 I am going to build a frame and fiberglass the box and will do the whole thing with Sunflash. I would suggest anyone looking to do some glassing check it out.

Re: Fiberglass box material
 

Anyone interested in building me a 4cube for a 15?