single cab fiberglass sub box build

[wr250rdr]

after about a year of listening to friends complain about no leg room because of my sub i decided to remidy the problem!

first:

do this in a well ventalated place with a resperator and gloves! this stuff gets nasty and you dont want it in your lungs or on your hands

second:

this project is all about the prep work and trial and error if its your first time, take your time and you should get a satasfactory result.


supplies:

2 packs of chop matt from autozone - 15.00
1 pack of weve matt -7.00
1,2,3 inch chip brushes - 10.00
1 gallon of resin - 40.00
2 rolls blue painters tape- laying around the house- free
2 pair of sharp sizzors- 6.00
1 speaker ring - varies
flease fabrick- varies
graduated mixing cups- 5.00
1 quart acitone-7.00
car wax


steps

1 prep work and planning are key. I chose the rear corner of the passengers side of the truck to place my sub. I pulled my passangers seat to give me room to work then taped off the area i wanted to glass. Tape 6 inches further then you will glass if you get resin on your carpet it WILL NOT come out! Some people do a layer of tin foil and then tape over it for extra protection, my carpet wasnt in amazing shape so i chose to just go with tape. You can see that i taped to a little over the centerline of the cab and covered the floor to there the front seat bolts are because i would be working over this area with a cup of resin. I also taped around the jack stud rather then cutting it out i plan on using this as a point to secure my box to the truck.

2 Take your wax and apply a very liberal coating to your tape this will act as a mold release when you pull your base off you can kinda see the wax built up here on my tape layers

more to come!

 

[armadillon]

Ugh, I can't watch this thread. Dirty posting of photos.

Check your links, I was trying to go to them individually and they seem broken.

 

[wr250rdr]

just attached them rather then figure out the linking problem

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I find looking at pics in the post much better the clicking links. That way it's also easier to put notes explaining each pic above the photo. I use photobucket and use their medium size option for general use. For example I got nothing from the first five pics other than what looks like blue tape on what I think is the floor in your truck. the last pic is self-explanatory. Some explanations/clarifications on what you're doing would be nice.
Looking forward to updates,

Richard

 

[wr250rdr]

Next i chose to prep my glass before i went any further. I cut my glass into 5x5 squares with new scissors, the glass will dull them quickly so dont use the ones from the kitchen. After the glass was preped I mixed my resin in the graduated cups i mixed up my resin. im using the Bondo brand resin. the instructions call for 10 drops of hardner per ounce of resin. this is way too much and gives you little to no work time with your resin. i found that 25 drops per 4 oz is the magic mixture that gives you 15 to 20 minutes of work time.

Next step is laying your glass. I started right in the middle before you lay your first piece down put a dab of resin on your tape, this gives the first piece something to hold it in place. from here use a dabbing motion until the piece of glass is tranparent and you can see the blue tape under it. if you see white spots start to form you are forming air bubbles in the fiberglass. bubbles = weekness. Work until you have an area 1 to 2 inches past the area you want. You will cut this off later when you have an exact fit and measure.
build up 2 to 3 layers of strand matt and then an additional 3 to 4 layers of chop matt. You will need to mix more resin as you go, its better to work in small batches so you dont waste any once it starts to "jell." When it starts to do this its time to make a new batch. To make my base i used about half a gallon of resin.

Note the thin layers on the top and sides, These areas were built up after the pictures were taken. This is with the layers of strand matt and the first layer of chop matt.

Next take a break and wait for your resin to cure, 4-8 hours.

Now its time to pull your mold out. Your glass should have cured by now and you should have hard edges. A delicate pry from a flathead screwdriver will loosen a corner and work your way around the mold, then with both hands lift it free. Set your mold aside and put your truck back together.

Next take a dremmel tool and trim the exces fiber from the edges. Dont trim it to fit yet. Take your mold to your work bench and add more layers on the inside where you have better access. You want there to be zero flex in your mold.

This is my mold after trimming with a few more layers drying.

 

[wr250rdr]

i cut my speaker rings next and next was fit up with the dowels.

in the bottom of the speaker ring i drilled 1/2 inch holes (the size of the dowels) about a 1/4 inch deep to allow me a better fit in the speaker ring then epoxied them in place. i also used 4 dowels rather then 3 like most people i did this for better support.

here is a picture with the sub, ring and dowels rough fit into place.

and an overhead shot

Next i used some 5 minute epoxy to hold the top two dowels in place on the flattest portion on the box and proceded to glass in the bottom two legs while also drilling a small hole for my speaker wire and sealing that with fiberglass on both sides you can see the speaker wire in the picture above

 

[wr250rdr]

decided to do a little more work tonight.

i used a 2 part epoxy to glue down my fabrick. i started with one side and did the side opposite to it. i didnt take pictures of the streching because it was very fast work. but here is a picture of it after. if there are creses and folds in the fabrick the next few steps will be near impossible. be dilligant!

next step is soaking the fabrick in resin. this is where the gallon comes in handy it took me a full 24oz of resin to soak the fabrick. i mised it in 3 8 oz batches so i had some work time. there is no need to to resin the area your speaker will sit it will only make more work for you when your cutting it out.

note the color difference in the fabric between the speaker area and the surrounding, you want a full saturation. no color difference in the surrounding area.

again i cannot stress the importance of a resporator and a well vented area! i accidentaly took a whip leaning over to change the music that i had playing and i still feel a bit of a burn in the back of my throat!

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

That's looking good.

Richard

 

[509lifted]

thats looking good i really wanna do it but have to pay bills first and get a new motor then its on

 

[wr250rdr]

its a fun project after this im gunna do a headliner with 4 6 1/2 inch componants in it but this was more of a priority and a test run with the generic materials

 

[nine-teen91stxranger]

eww all this work and a kicker...?

 

[wr250rdr]

for now ya just a kicker, i have had this sub for a few years now and its in great shape but the box is built for an upgrade to a type r when i get the scratch for it

 

[wr250rdr]

Next step is to lay up more fiberglass on top of the fabric layer.

I chose to do a few layers of strand matt rather then any chop matt because it should make the next step of body work a little easier. This layer is just like all the previous work, though it may be tempting to do it in large sheets don't. it will only cause sub par results and lots of bubbling. once this layer is dry your next step is to sand down all of the really noticable high spots where your resin pooled and dripped and caused all kinds of nasty shapes.

here is a few pictures of the box after i had done my sanding

next step can go one of two ways if you think that your sanding is smoth enough you can go ahead and cover the box in your choice of carpet or you can do the body work on it with filler and proceed to paint. I chose the latter more updates soon!