Ambitious but Rubbish - Custom boot floor sub project

[Cameron McPherson]

Alright, so I have a Legnum with 235 wide tyres on it, and a full sized spare in the boot - the problem is of course that the spare doesn't quite fit in the wheel well, and thus the tray and then carpeted floor sit a little bit not right, which annoys me.
I've been thinking for a while about working out a way to cut some out of the black plastic tray so that the wheel recesses into it a bit and everything sits flush, but thought it would be a bit messy considering the shape of the wheel yada yada yada.

But the car also has a pissy little sub and even tinier amp in the boot, which I was hoping to replace at some stage. So, two birds with one stone - new subwoofer mounted in the wheel well of my boot!

I'm in the very early stages of planning at the moment, and I've seen a few threads on here about people who have done stealth subs underneath the carpeted floor panel recessed in the wheel well, and they're a really good starting point, but at this stage I intend to cut a big hole in the plastic tray (the size of the wheel) that will allow the edges of the wheel the protrude a little bit, and also form a space for my sub to mount. Then a mount a piece of MDF to the tray and attach my sub to it - making sure all of that sits flush to the top of the black tray so that theoretically my stock carpeted floor piece would sit on top of it. However I think I might just get one big piece of MDF and cut it to replace that pull out floor bit, plus the two side compartments. I might work out hinges or separate pieces for the side compartments - I have my battery in the boot, so it would be good to get a piece made up to go around that box, as it's a bit exposed at the moment and doesn't look too neat. And I would have a hole in the top floor with a grill of some sort over it to protect the sub. Ideally the grill would sit level with the rest of the floor to make luggaging easier.

My main issue at the moment is that I want to keep my spare wheel in the well and recess the sub INSIDE the wheel. There should be enough space, but do you think I'd need to build a tubular box or something to keep the wheel and the sub separate? Or could I even just put down a duvet or thick blanket over the wheel to insulate it? I'm not going for super doof doof or winning any sound comps, I just want a functional and practical setup - so what do you guys think?

Thanks for reading my rant - as I said it's early days now so the above is just spitballing whatever my mind comes up with. Open to all opinions and any helpful links threads! Cheers

 

[niterida]

I did this with one of my rides - I fibreglassed the inside of the wheel, extended the fibreglass up to meet the floor which I remade out of 25mm MDF and then sealed the fibreglass to the floor with a very firm rubber seal.
The fibreglass 'enclosure' was obviously removeable from the wheel and the floor just sat on top but was pinned down at the tailgate opening so as to form a pretty good seal.
It wouldn't be considered a good way to do it but audiophiles but it worked a treat

 

[niterida]

I raised the floor a little to fit the amps underneath out of sight (it was a wagon)

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Looks sweet man, I'm not entirely confident with the fibreglassing stuff, but that looks really tight! Was hoping to get away with not having the fibreglass tub, what do you think?

Love the amp setup, gonna do something similar. How did you go with ventilation? Not too hot on the amps having no air flow over them?

 

[niterida]

Not that I noticed - but I didn't have them turned to max and only had a 10"sub. Had a couple of CPU fans ready to go but never needed them.

I was going to do something similar to my current car, but with bigger rim to get more volume, then I thought why not just seal the whole wheel tub ?
It doesn't matter that the wheel is in there if it has plenty of open space in the spokes for air movement - much easier solution

 

[pretzil]

I'm not doing a sub or anything, but what is the trick to removing the standard boot floor compartment, the bit that has the plastic recess into the spare wheel?
In particular, how do you remove the strip along the back of the seats that has the tie-down buckles?

Thanks,

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Doesn't sound the same as mine... post up some pics? My black tub just lifts straight out.

 

[pretzil]

Yer, not the best description,

I want to remove the green section, and I think that means I need to remove the red section.

How do I do that?

 

[whats_doing]

There are screws/bolts under the tie down points.

 

[craig]

I've spent quite a bit of time planning how to make a decent sized sub enclosure inside the spare wheel well. I wanted mine to be stealthy and keep all of my cargo space too while having good sounding bass.

I was contemplating making my fibreglass enclosure sit inside the wheel as well as the spare 2" or so above the whole wheel for extra volume. If the spare wheel was low enough you could make platforms on both sides all the way to the edge of the tyre, especially on the left over where the scissor jack usually goes, for amplifiers and other equipment.

If I end up doing it I'll probably get rid of the centre compartment plastic thing and the carpeted bit and replace it with some mdf or plywood to get more space underneath. Then just use hinges on the rear and have support under it.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Pretz my green part just lifts out without having to do anything to the red part. HOWEVER upon further inspection it appears the taps on the black tray in the green part that go into the red part have been snapped off. Probably in frustration of having to remove the red part to get at your spare.

 

[pretzil]

heh, normally it pivots up at the back to access the spare, its only when you want to fully remove the floor from the car that the red section needs to come up.

I was only trying to remove it for weight reduction next time I go to the track, I've noticed when resting it on my head getting the spare out that the floor in the back is bloody heavy lol.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Yeah it's a hunk of a thing, thick black plastic with sound deadening carpet on the underside.

Personally I think you should just go full weight reduction spec - Take out the back seats, spare wheel, carpets, carbon fibre hood + manual conversion

 

[whats_doing]

Even better weight reduction. Transform car into motorbike.

 

[whats_doing]

Lift up the metal tag:

Lift up the centre part to show the bolt holding it down.

From there I believe you have to have the seats folded down and slide it towards the front of the car.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Even better weight reduction. Transform car into motorbike.

Tried that. Didn't work.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Even modding it didn't seem to help...

 

[whats_doing]

Tried that. Didn't work.

View attachment 22944

I said motorbike fool!!!
Don't insult me with that "Vibe" rubish.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Update: cut my thing! And I'm getting a MDF floor made up to replace to existing carpeted floor in the boot.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

So I've ordered the new MDF floor that will sit on top of the above pictured mutilated black plastic thing and will house my sub and amp (undermounted). I ordered it through a company called TPA furniture (a client at my work), for $61 with the hole for the sub cut out. I was going to do it all myself, but I had budgeted $50ish for the MDF anyway, and figured this way I can just send through a template and get it done properly.

Below is the template I sent through to them if anyone wants to take the same path as me!