So i've decided to ditch my old sub box that i made with MDF quite a while back, and to give fiberglass a go. This is the first time I've attempted to use fiberglass but i've read quite a lot about it, so hopefully it'll work out!

My current sub enclosure is just a standard box. I think it's OK but it's pretty boring and i want to make something more aesthetically appealing.

This is what my current box looks like..



First, I taped up the area I want to fit my sub using blue painter's tape. I used around 2 layers in a 'criss-cross' style to make sure there's no gaps.



I then used a cheap brush to splodge the fiberglass mat onto the blue tape. I found this a lot easier than how difficult i expected it to be. Once i held a bit of mat in place, and then add a little resin, it pretty much held it in place which made it easy to apply the rest of the resin. I used quite a lot of resin for the first layer, as I already planned to apply a second which would soak up any excess anyways.



After I laid on 3 or 4 layers of mat, i switched sides and started taping the other side (i decided to split my subs into 2 enclosures... obviously ).



I left it overnight to cure and harden, then the following morning i went to check, and it was pretty solid! i was pretty careful pulling it out as i didn't want to ruin what i spend a few hours doing by cracking it, so i took my time and was rather gentle at first (this being my first time glassing especially). but the more i pulled at it, it still showed no signs of breaking or bending much to be honest, so i pulled at it from all sides, trying to pry it free from the car and then almost suddenly it just popped out!

After taking most of the blue tape off, below is what i was left with...


I was quite suprised how well it came out, though i know i've still got a long way to go till it's finished.

I left it a day because of work, etc. but the next thing i did was to glass the other side so i don't have to work in my car any longer (the resin really does stink out the car, and me being in Thailand, in the morning the car is FULL of mosquitoes because i leave it open all night).

Here is the other side glassed...


And here is a shot of a test fitting once both parts were dry (this morning)...


Tonight i'm going to sand any bubbles out and add as many layers i can.. hope it goes well!

 

subscribed!

i want to see the progression of this project. looks great so far and it's a very interesting read! +rep for you

 

Interested as well. Looks great

 

+1 for doing this yourself and letting us watch along the way.

 

Thanks guys! It means a lot to me .

Last night I had a few hours to spare after work so I decided I would work out how much of the mold I would actually need based on the volume requirement of each sub. I was thinking about just glassing the whole thing over and over until it was strong enough, but if i didn't need all of it then i would be wasting a hell of a lot of fiberglass and resin! so... i decided to get hold of some styrofoam blocks (the kind that comes in packaging of electronical goods, a Philips Ambisound in this case ) and break it up into tiny little pieces. then since i already had a container with the correct volume for each sub (my current enclosure) all i had to do was open it up and fill it with the styrofoam blocks to see how much i need.

Then what i did was take those styrofoam blocks over to my newly made molds and put them in and play with them a little until i was happy with the kinda shape i wanted, then i would know how much of the mold i would need so i drew an outline around the filled space, emptied the styrofoam out, and began glassing within the line.

You can kinda see where i drew the line because it looks quite a bit thicker compared to the area i glassed when it was in the car. the only thing i'm worried about is that when i'm adding layers, sometimes these bubbles appear under the new layer where it doesn't appear to "stick" to the fiberglass underneath. i'm gonna be careful applying the resin because i think it happens when there's too much. i think if it dries like that i'll have to sand them out . btw, i added 4 layers to each side, meaning i will probably add another 2 or 3 before making the frame for the subs! wish me luck!

 

What do you guys think of this design? Please forgive the crappy Photoshopping but it's a basic design i have given the required volume of the subs. (the black box on the back of the seat is where i'm thinking of mounting the amp)

 

looks like a sick project subscribed lol

 

no real updates today, after checking on the state of the molds, they seemed a bit "fluffy" in some places. like it was a little moist and soft. i am pretty sure i was trying to hold back on the resin a little too much because i always hear about people using too much. so i figured it might be a good idea to do a quick layer of just resin to make sure all of the fiberglass was saturated with resin. it looked a lot better when i finished but i guess i'll have to wait and see when i get home from work tonight. until then...

 

not much of an update, i just added 2 more layers and made sure they got enough resin to saturate the fiberglass, so that makes around 9-10 layers. i think i'm they're pretty good to go on to cutting them and mounting some sub rings

(They look a lot more solid now I think)

 

Awesome progress! You've got balls for doing that fiberglassing inside the car with almost no masking! I'm planning on using multiple layers of plastic around where the fiberglassing is happening, I'm paranoid!

It's nice to see the progress, because this is exactly what I'm planning on doing in the next few weeks after my deadening project is done. But with only one ten inch sub. Hopefully I'll be able to convince my boss to let me install my remote start alarm at work today!

 

Wow, I'm just amazed...way to go for doing this yourself and having that sort of ingenuity. There is no way I could do that...your mock up design looks great, thanks for sharing your progress with us!

 

Quite a bit of work, but this is going to be sharp when it is done. Keep posting the progress.

 

i've been pretty busy the last couple of days, but i've managed to get a few things done

while the last layers of fiberglass were drying, i decided to go ahead and cut the rings for my subs to sit in. i used MDF and cut them out using a trimmer/router.


after the last layers of fiberglass were completely dry, i used a angle grinder to cut what i needed. i could still see some of the blue line i originally drew so i used this as an outline. one thing i can say is to make sure you wear a mask when cutting fiberglass as the dust gets everywhere! i wasn't showing any bare skin when cutting mine because i know how itchy it gets when the glass is in mat form, i didn't want to find out how itchy it would be in powder form!


the thickness of the fiberglass is around 1/4 inch thick at the moment and it's pretty damn solid so far, so i'm sure when it's finished it'll be almost unbreakable!! here is a pic of the fiberglass parts with their MDF sub rings..


when it came to mounting the rings in the fiberglass, because of the size, i could have just rested the rings inside and they would've been quite comfortable there. but i wanted to raise them up slightly so i made a simple stand out of wood for them to sit on and stuck them to the base using a hot glue gun (as shown below):


after i got the rings mounted, i got one of my mum's stretchy sweatshirts (thanks mum!!), cut it in half, and stretched each half over the open part of the enclosure, sticking it around the edges with some spray glue. it's the kind that you spray onto both surfaces, wait for 30 seconds, then press together. it worked a lot easier than i thought it would!


i then applied resin all over the cloth, making sure to do around the edges to make sure it sticks to the base. once the resin was soaked up by the cloth, i just need to wait for them to dry then i'll start glassing them up!

 

wow... so ingenious

 

damn this is cool. subscribed!

 

Hat size are the subs? The left side will have to be a bit bigger than the right side due to the design of the plastic. Remember to measure to airspace for best sounding results. I'll be done with mine next week. Good luck!

 

@ onestopcustoms - they're both the same 10 inch subs, i know what you mean about how the left one looks bigger than the right, but i measured the volumes of both to be exactly the same, it just looks like it's bigger from the front, but from the back there's a large "empty" space, which is why it needs to be a bit wider than the one on the right. thanks for the heads up never the less!

updates: i was on a mission last night, to get as many layers of fiberglass onto both enclosures... i managed 6 which i was quite happy with they seemed to have turned out pretty well by this morning, but no pictures yet, i still want to add 2 or 3 more before i carry on... until then!

 

What ounce fiberglass did you use? At 1st the one I used was too thin. I went and bought 1 ounce fg and it's way thicker. I'm waiting for the company to get the three ounce fiberglass, if not, I'll use carbon fiber haha...

 

lol.. i've never used carbon fiber before, i'd wanna try in the future tho!

to be honest, i have no idea what ounce fiberglass i'm using. i live in thailand and i can't speak the language so finding a source of ANY fiberglass took a while to begin with, let alone asking for different types! lol.. i think one sheet which is around 2 metres^2 is around 500 grams/17.6 ounces. i have no idea what that means tho, lol. it does take around 8 layers to make a solid 5mm thickness though.

 

damn, you're using what I started using, which is over the counter stuff... lol you'll need about 10 layers to make something thick hahaha. HEY!!! Next time, add some wood to the fiberglass to make it stronger so that it won't flex so much under the bass.

What type of glue did you use to apply the cloth to the fiberglass? I'm using pro hot glue to see if it works, if not, it'll be upholstery glue, if that doesn't work, i'm going to order CA glue which will definitely work lol.