Project Subwoofer:

Here's the progress in getting my first sub. After months of research and hours of designing, I've got things figured out and everything is going well. It has taken me a while to earn some money after getting the headunit, amps and speakers this summer, but its sooner than I thought it would be.

Here is just an idea of what I had to work with when thinking about where to put a sub.

I didn't want to go under the seats because there is not enough room to give any sub above maybe an 8 inch the proper mounting depth it would need an air space is very limited.

I didnt want to try and put subs in the doors; I just wanted to get some nice coaxials for those and behind the seats was not much room and where I wanted to put my amps.

Then I got this idea that I could somehow remove a seat. I didnt want to remove the seats by the doors because that just wouldnt look good and I didnt want a box sitting on top of a folded down seat for the same reason, so after much thought I pulled out the 60 section of the rear seats; the bench seat. First I took all of the leather off of the frame as well as the padding and measure the 40 seat, and found out how wide it was at different parted. I cut a section out of the 60 frame towards one of the ends (sorry no pictures) and had a local welder weld the end back on to make it identical to the other seat. Some reshaping had to be done to the plastic on the back to get the round that I needed like the other seat but that went pretty well. Next I took the frames, foam and leather to a upholsterer west of Savannah in Pooler, Georgia. He did a beautiful job cutting the leather down and restiching the end with the carpet on the side back on the seat to replicate what it looked like on the other side. I also had to find a new seat belt mount and modify both seat belt mounts to give me enough room for the box. When it was all done I was left with a 14" gap between the seats; just enough to squeeze a 12" subwoofer in.

October 3, 2004
Just got back from Home Depot with my MDF and PVC and ready to start my first box. Got the box all planned out and its going to be ported. Going to run an RF amp and a 12 inch Audiobahn. I'll get some more pictures up when it starts looking more like a box.

Wanted to make sure it would fit before I got too far into it. Getting it in there by myself was a workout. It fit perfectly except I had to move one of my amps and shave the bolts on the seat frames some to get it to sit right. Yeah, I know its ugly but thats the only way I could get four cubic feet.

Thats got to be some kind of record.

The Sub came in today. Its the Audiobahn Immortal Series 12 inch. It has a 9 inch mounting depth, weighs 50 pounds, and has a power rating of 2000 watts RMS! October 21, 2004

October 22, 2004
I am dropping the box off for vinyling this afternoon. Amplifier and Cap should be in by the end of next week and alternator the week after.

I've got it all installed. I pulled an all-nighter the final night because I had to do the install by myself. I had to put the box in the car by myself which is about 70 pounds and is pretty awkward. The sub was another 50 lbs and I had to stand the box on end while i dropped the sub in and bolted it in. I used T-nuts so that I wouldnt have to worry about stripping out the wood but I got to the eight, the last bolt, when one of the T-nuts fell out of the wood on the backside before I could tighten it up so I had to take the sub back out and find the nut in the bottom of the box and re-install it. You can see I still have some work to do behind the box. I am desiging out a display case for the two amps back there and crossovers, and to cover up all of the metal back there. I will probably have that covered also, it will look good when it is done.

Anyway, it was all worth it. I park next to my friends Lexus IS300 at school and he has an aftermarket car alarm with shock sensors installed on the car and a pager and I delight in driving up and setting off the alarm and sending him a page telling him that someone is breaking his windows when it is just the vibrations from the subwoofer. Its pretty funny. He has an assortment of high-pitched sirens that go off and all of his lights are flashing. If i could put videos up on cardomain, this would be one of them.

January 4 2005:
Last weekend I pulled out the front seats and center console, as well as the flooring on the front part of the car to install a second sheet of Cascade VB-4. This is the vinyl-based sound barrier with acoustical foam on the bottom of it. It helps to eliminate road noise but more importantly makes the subwoofer a whole lot louder. I installed a sheet in the back while I had my rear seats out before I put the sub in and I could tell a considerable difference just with the rear speakers. It makes the the bass a lot stronger and gives it more punch.

(yeah for some reason my brother wanted to try sticking his head in the box, it looks pretty funny so i thought i would put it up)

While I had the front seats and console out, the sub was easy to get to and I had ordered some DynaXorb for the sub box and my mids but everything else came in and it didn't and decided not to wait on that to put the sub in; that and I had enough things on my mind at the time, I was worried the ports wouldn't stay in because after 24 hours of drying one easily came lose and the chaulk was not even beginning to dry. But anyway, I was going to make this whole deal a full day project so I removed the sub with some help from my brother.

The DynaXorb came in thin rubber tiles that have something that looks like a small pyramid texture on top, which is for diverting the waves in different direction. This "attentuates subwoofer back-wave distortion", and although that sounds like a bunch of BS its not, it really does make the sub a lot more clear and gives it better tone, not to mention it is louder because there is less wave cancellation. My bro took a picture (through one of the ports)of me supergluing a sheet to the back wall; the box is right at 3 feet long so it was taking a lot of stretching to get back that far.

Here is my finished work, now I am ready to put the sub back in, which is a pain. It seriously takes 30-45 minutes to try and hold it flush while mounting it horizontally and be carefull not to put too much pressure on the screws when I am putting them back in so I don't punch out the T-nuts on the other side of the baffle. It's a nightmare, I hope I don't have a need to do this again for a long time.

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