THE 3RD SYSTEM:

My current stereo system consists of: Infinity Kappa 6 3/4" door speakers, Two 3 1/2" Infinity Kappas mounted to the rollbar, a Pioneer CD player, a 400 Watt Infinity Beta Digital 100 Amplifier, and a JL Audio 8w3v2 in a footwell sub box. Above is my new aluminum amplifier mount, which is 9 lbs, lighter than my old amp display!
The other cd player seen in the pictures is my old Panasonic DF-801U.

Since my rear speakers used to be mounted in the headrests of the factory seats, they had to be moved when I installed my Sparco seats. I used a PVC pipe cap, sanded, painted, made custom brackets for it, and then bolted it to the car with a factory bolt location. They can swivel for imaging too! Now that Im back to stock seats, the speakers are back in the headrest and I am no longer using these "pods".

THE 2ND SYSTEM

My old sub box housed two 10" Audiobahn compression piston subwoofers in a custom made fiberglass enclosure that i constructed myself. The enclosure bolts to the seatbelt towers, allows full use of the softtop, and dedicates .54 Cu. feet of volume to each subwoofer. I sold this box in January of 2003.

(Press Ctrl P to print enlarged blueprints)

IF ANYONE ACTUALLY BUILDS THIS THING, I WOULD LOVE TO SEE SOME PICS OF THE INSTALL, SO EMAIL THEM TO ME!

BOX CONSTUCTION:
The box is basically made from five pieces of plywood, then heavily rienforced with woven fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. The five pieces (front, back, bottom, and sides) are first glued together, then the joints and interior of the enclosure walls are rienforced with 8-10 layers of fiberglass. At this point, I fiberglassed in a baffle in the middle to separate the box into two enclosures. The next step was to use posterboard, formed to the top "curve" of the box, to give the fiberglass a smooth consistent platform to cure on and adhere to in order to attain the rounded contour on the top of the box. This was then fiberglass on both inside and out, about 6 times on each side. Make sure to seal the center baffle on the inside of the box to the posterboard to seal off the chambers. After all of the fiberglassing is done, (make it as smooth as possible on the OUTSIDE, it looks better when its finished) apply several "gel coats" of resin to the enclosure, sanding smooth between each coat and filling dips and gaps with the next coat.

Here is a list of materials needed:

1)-3 yards of woven fiberglass cloth, 6 yards of chopped strand mat fiberglass. (available at most boat stores)
2)-1 Gallon of West System 205 Resin (also reccomend pumps for perfect resin to hardener ratio)
3)Lots of mixing cups
4)Mixing sticks
5)Lots of cheap disposable 1" paint brushes
6)Rubber gloves
7)plastic spreader
8)Sand paper
9)Paint and primer

NOTE: The box MUST be bolted into the car, I used the exhisting holes left over by the tannau cover snap bolts (10mm). The holes needed are drilled into the side pieces of plywood on the box, preferabley these holes should be rienforced with extra fiberglass and rubber washers should be used to help seal the enclosure around the bolts. I also used 1/4" nylon spacers to center the box between the seatbelt towers. To find where to drill the holes, the box must be test fitted so that it is as far back as possible with the soft top DOWN, so that it has 1/8" to 1/4" gap between the enclosure and the soft top.

THE 1ST SYSTEM:
This was my first attempt at a loud Miata, but not quite loud enough for me. I think it would have sounded better with different subs, but I cant be sure. My old system consisted of two independent fiberglass boxes mounted in the trunk. Each box held one 10" woofer. One box fit in the crevase in the left side of the trunk while the other box fit where the spare tire used to be. These boxes were sold.....

The amplifier used to be mounted in a vinyl covered "box" that fits in the depression in the center of the trunk and was covered with 1/4" LEXAN. Also in the "box" were two neon lights and an audiobahn .5 farad capacitor. Cool, but heavy