Ambitious but Rubbish - Custom boot floor sub project

[craig]

Are you going to put the carpet on it from the stock plastic cover? I got a spare one in case I made a sub box and I think it's just stapled on the back but may also be glued. Nice job anyway, what are you doing to seal the spare wheel well as an enclosure of sorts?

 

[Cameron McPherson]

I've got a mate who is an upholsterer so he's going to hook me up with some cool red carpet to match my other red interior accents. I get the feeling it would be difficult to remove the existing carpet.

Not sure about the spare wheel just yet. I was thinking I would just leave it as is at first to see how it sounds. If I don't like that I will probably seal it up with a circle of MDF on the floor of the wheel and rubber seal around the outside, and some rubber seal on the underside of the MDF floor where it meets to seal it all up. I think someone on here mentioned that is shouldn't be necessary to seal the wheel as it would essentially act like one big ported box. I'm not going for huge sound, just something decent that's out of the way

 

[Cameron McPherson]

MDF floor came today! And less than 24 hours since I ordered it should be able to really get stuck into this project on Friday and over the weekend.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

All starting to come together now! My quick release connectors for 12v/gnd/rem arrived today (they're awesome even if you just have a normal amp and sub box setup that you take out regularly). Bought the extra cables and little things I need - just need to source some small bars to put across the hole so the sub doesn't get damaged when items are put in the boot.

Here is a rough layout of how the UNDERSIDE of everything will look.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Apologies for the LONG time between drinks - I've been a bit lazy and sidetracked with Legnum maintenance.

BUT progress has happened!

I was able to undermount my sub to the underside of my custom MDF floor. I purchased some dowel and cut it to length as safety bars across the top of my sub so that I can fully utilise the boot without fear of damaging the sub.

Here's what it looks like from the top:

It's not pretty, but it's going to be carpeted anyway.

This is the view from the underside, with the amp screwed to the underside of the floor. This is all pretty straightforward, it's just screwing into wood. I also cut two 38mm sound holes to amplify the bass. And used cable management hooks for Bunnings to neaten up the wiring.

That piece down the bottom is the female end of the quick release connector screwed into the floor, with 12v, Ground and Remote wires leading to the amp. The male connector is wired to 12v from battery, ground in wheel well and remote from head unit - and sits in the wheel well waiting to be connected. This is super easy and literally connects/disconnects in 1 second. That means that when I want to remove the setup, or get access to my spare wheel, all I have to unplug is this quick release cable and the 2 RCAs in the amp. Removal of the entire until takes less than 10 seconds.

Lastly, I stuck some velcro to the edges of the black plastic tray and to the underside of the false floor to absorb any rattle, while still maintaining easy release. You will see the velcro in the photo below, as it's white because I haven't peeled off the second side of the adhesive backing yet.

I'll try to remember to put a photo up of how my whole boot looks soon - it's very neat and tidy, while still being uber practical!

Next step is to 'carpet' it

 

[vr4ssz]

Nice, keen to see how this works out, I would like to do something like this.

 

[VOLK]

Long time out of the car audio game, but I have some thoughts.

Since it's infinite baffle, I think front ports may harm performance since there's already a multitude of air leaks and free air installs rely on some semi-sealed space.

In a ported application, ports are generally tuned length so the front wave arrives in phase with the rear, adding to volume rather than cancelling out. Might be worthwhile adding some tubes to your ports.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

In and running and sounding pretty nice! Just need some carpet and it will be all done.

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Long time out of the car audio game, but I have some thoughts.

Since it's infinite baffle, I think front ports may harm performance since there's already a multitude of air leaks and free air installs rely on some semi-sealed space.

In a ported application, ports are generally tuned length so the front wave arrives in phase with the rear, adding to volume rather than cancelling out. Might be worthwhile adding some tubes to your ports.

Will keep that in mind - tubes sound like a good idea! At the moment it's sounding pretty good, the ports were more my idea for reducing vibration (which has seemed to work!).