Having not worked with fibreglass before i'm quite pleased with how these front kick panels are turning out.
They didn't have to be too spot on as they are being covered with speaker cloth and carpet.
As i don't need them to be removable im going to glass / seal them into place.
Top hole is for the tweeter, large one for the 6" and the other smaller hole is the port.
I realise that having the tweeter at a different angle isn't technically a good thing to be doing, but i'd rather have it towards my ears than legs! Due to space with the foot pedals it's really hard to get the larger speaker pointing towards your ears...so you have to compromise i guess!
Will post more as i go!
modulus ·
djnee wrote:I realise that having the tweeter at a different angle isn't technically a good thing to be doing, but i'd rather have it towards my ears than legs! Due to space with the foot pedals it's really hard to get the larger speaker pointing towards your ears...so you have to compromise i guess!
As higher frequencies are realtively directional and lower frequencies are relatively not, there is very little compromise there; you will get good tweeter sound and not lose out on the bass notes.
hth
djnee ·
My dear wife won't let me at any of the gear until my Birthday in September (grumble, grumble!!!!) so i'm sorting all the boring background stuff out in the meantime so that when i get it i can drop it all in without too much bother.
Unfortunately, car audio won't work without cables...and i hate cables!!!
I decided to trunk the cables through some hosepipe which will run via the heater channels on both sides to keep them out of the way. The heaters aren't connected on this car anyway...
Getting the hosepipe down around the 90 degree bend at the bottom of the A panel was proving impossible, so i decided to exit through one of the inspection holes and then continue though the heater channel to the rear. Probably a good thing as my front speaker cables will need to exit here anyway.
Cables will exit under the back seat on both sides. Ideal 🙂
djnee ·
Just offered the speakers up to make sure there's enough clearance behind.. (ok...i lied, i just wanted to see what it looked like...lol)
Gave them a coat of paint just in case the speaker cloth i use is slightly see-through.
trickysimon ·
That's excellent for your first go at fibreglassing👍
Joel ·
trust me carpet hides everything 😀
ive still got audio cables everywhere through mine now but its not half as bad now as it was when i had bigger systems
djnee ·
trickysimon wrote:That's excellent for your first go at fibreglassing👍
Thanks Simon / Joel 🙂 It's been good fun too...enjoyed it!
Ok, front speakers in and carpet stuck down!
Just gotta trim around the tweeters a bit to neaten them up and i'm done.
Passenger side..
Drivers side...
trickysimon ·
👍 Now you can make some up for me 😂
colonel mustard ·
Looks reaaaally good dude. love it. 🙂
eraser ·
Very nice 😀
djnee ·
Thanks guys 🙂
Quite pleased with how it's all going so far!
Just started taking everything out behind the rear seat now in preparation for the sub going in. Given it a coat of sound deadener to start with, then will line with some rubber to dampen it down further.
eraser ·
take lots of pics.. :P love a good blow by blow of peoples ideas and systems.
djnee ·
Had a few hours spare on a Sunday afternoon, so i did a bit more...
Took the carpets out from the gap behind the rear seat to sound deaden it a bit. Basically there was just thin carpet there before, and i want to keep the sound in / engine noise out as much as possible.
On the bare metal i painted a nice thick coat of body deadener and then coated in foil to keep the mess locked away! Then i got a couple of thick foam camping mats from Rays Outdoors ($7 each) and glued them on top.
Mats in place....hush engine!
Then finally glued the carpet on top of it all.
I won't know how easily the sub is going to fit until i have it in the car. I know it's pretty tight already...but im sure with some jiggling around it will be fine!
It's deffo a lot quieter inside than it was!
I plan to give the insides of the doors (and most places i can get to) the camping mat treatment..
colonel mustard ·
camping mat would kill alot of the noise, and proably feel better than carpet straight on metal... 🙂
djnee ·
Finished the box that will house the Kenwood 12" sub. Measurements had to be exact so that the internal capacity was dead on 1.25cuft. It's a pretty snug fit once the seat is in place!
To secure it in place i will be using ratchet straps that will go down through the floor, underneath the car and back up through the floor on the opposite side.
Made a start on the rear MDF shelf that will house the Pioneer 6's. The speakers will be recessed into the shelf so that it's flush, and will cover with speaker cloth.
The tweeters will be freestanding on top in each corner.
colonel mustard ·
djnee wrote:To secure it in place i will be using ratchet straps that will go down through the floor, underneath the car and back up through the floor on the opposite side.
Hold up hold up!!! your cutting holes in the floor.... to secure a box, with ratchet straps?? Serious?... No offence, but why??? couldnt you just use 4 bolts with large washers on each side.and wing nut inside the box.... then it would be pretty hard to seal....... wouldn't cut the straps ... wouldn't leave massive slits in the floor... and those ratchet tie downs will rattle heaps...
Joel ·
i gotta agree with mustard, thats so over complicating things and cutting precious early metal you will regret in years to come
i've lost track of how many enclosures ive built for mine over the years but my very first one was almost identical to yours
but with most of them all i do to keep them firmly in place is on the bottoms fit some of those wood thread insert things like these:
and them put bolts from underneath up thro the parcel tray floor into them
has passed pinkslip brake tests with 4 wheel discs and never budged
trickysimon ·
Don't know whats wrong with you guys. The only thing holding my sub box and shelf in is the back seat and its never budged 😂
Joel ·
i used to do that till that one time the seat just wasnt quite clipped into place
plus 6 volt bugs dont have a backrest locking system like fat chicks do
djnee ·
Have chosen to opt for 4 bolts instead! Still going through the floor, but less drastic!
The reason for doing the straps....
Back in the early 90's i met a guy who had a bass tube in his bug. It was only an 8" speaker, but his was installed professionally and they strapped it through the floor and around the chassis....and it was the craziest bass i'd ever heard, especially from such a small speaker.
But yeah, im going with the bolts now anyway!
With the car not having the backrest lock like Joel stated, plus with my 2 kids sitting there, the least thing i want is anything that heavy shifting forwards should we hit something.
Midlife crisis ·
Now that is a great job , well done
Marc
djnee ·
Many thanks Marc 🙂 Starting to feel like i'm getting somewhere now! 🙂
Ok....bit of an update today.....and typically i chose the only day of really heavy rain in months to be climbing underneath the car..lol 🙂
Drilled 4 holes to fix the sub in place and ran bolts to the underside of the car. Made sure everything is sealed with silicone sealer.
View from underneath the car. I made some rubber gaskets and used lashings of silicone sealer to prevent rattles and to keep it all watertight.
Mounted the speakers and crossovers, soldered everything up and coated it in grey grill cloth.
Before fixing the shelf onto the top of the sub box i applied lashings of silicone sealer to prevent any rattles.
Shelf bolted to sub box....Getting there!
Rear end finished and tweeters mounted in each corner....good to go!
Now to mount some amps....
Mick058 ·
well done mate, looking really good 👍
djnee ·
Under the bonnet was never going to be anything amazing...just wanted it to function really!
Cut a piece of mdf for the amps to mount onto and covered it with some black material...keeps the wires out of sight, that's the main plan here 🙂
The Kenwood 500W 4 channel amp i managed to grab off Ebay for $40 which i'm pretty stoked about! Many thanks to STIDUB for collecting it for me up in Bris and posting down to Geelong... (the ebay guy was trying to wriggle out of the sale saying the listing was meant to be collection only).
Just awaiting the 600W mono amp for the sub and i can start hooking stuff up 🙂
Joel ·
looking good 👍
just make sure your power terminals on the amp are well covered
trust me theres nothing like sitting in peak hour traffic when burning smell comes through all the holes in the dash cos a piece of metal luggage in the boot has decided to sit across the terminals.....
i now mount my amps under the front seats 😊
djnee ·
Original plan was to make something to house the head unit underneath the dash, but after trying a few ideas i decided it looked too bulky...
Saw a thread (on here i think?) where someone made a panel to sit inside the glovebox, so i went for that instead.
I made a wooden panel to sit a couple of inches inside the glovebox and glued it in place.
As the glovebox is essentially made from cardboard, i gave it a coat of fibreglass to strengthen it all up a bit.
Once the fibreglass was dry i then filled up the edges and smoothed it all out.
Finished it off with some white paint and refitted into the car.
Another job sorted...
Scarab ·
Thats some nice work there mate....you'll be pumping tunes in no time!!
Love the glovebox enclosure....I'll be stealing that idea for my Notch I think! 😁
djnee ·
Thanks Scarab!
OK....drum roll.....haha
Finally finished!
Kenwood sub fitted! Good old silicone sealer was used to seal the speaker into the cabinet.
Amp for the sub mounted and wired up and all fixed into place.
Will make a cover of some sort for it at some point.
Finally finished! Yey! It's been fun to do, and sounds awesome!
djnee ·
Well...
my wife made the fatal mistake of saying that she hadn't got a clue what to get me for Christmas this year, so today i went outside and mocked up a rough design for another 10" sub mounted beneath the rear seat... 😂😂😂
The speaker in the pic is for template purposes only...just wanted to get an idea as to how well it's going to fit.
I intend for the final design to be a sealed box made from fibreglass and 18mm mdf.
Watch this space!
colonel mustard ·
Thats where i keep my tools/jack/wheel brace/spare parts..... 🙂 good spot if your not using it.
djnee ·
Swapped the front Alpine splits out for some more Pioneer TS-C1625's. Much louder and clearer up front now...
djnee ·
Righty, i've finally finished this project!
I sold my Alpine front speakers and existing Kenwood amp, which allowed me to go for these beauties!!
Pioneer GM6400 4 channel amp and a JL Audio 500/1 sub amp.
Got a few settings to tweak, but after giving the system a bit of a test this morning i can honestly say this is LOUD! Very rare that i get to the stage where my head can't take much more, but even i had to turn it down after a bit!
The JL Audio sub amp gives just over 500w RMS, compared to the Kenwood amp i had before which was about 200w RMS. So now LOTS of bass is effortless, whereas the Kenwood one gave decent amounts of bass, but always felt that it was right at the top of it's limits.
The Pioneer amp also powers my Pioneer splits much better.
I'm well happy with how it's sounding.....
Had a slight problem with the JL amp cutting out under heavy loads (ie, when i whacked the volume up!) but luckily a quick Google search revealed that if the current from the battery drops below 10v then the amp doesn't have enough power to deliver. Turns out the earthing point & the cable i was using wasn't really fit for the job, so i replaced the earth cable with some 4 gauge power cable, earthed on a better place and it seems to have cured it.
(earth cable should be black i know...only had red in a decent gauge!)
Will have to think about a possible battery upgrade / possibly an alternator too...but this will do for now 🙂
cam070 ·
Nice work. Bet people get a shock seeing an old bug duff duff'ing down the street.
DylanTheDubber ·
Joel wrote:i used to do that till that one time the seat just wasnt quite clipped into place
plus 6 volt bugs dont have a backrest locking system like fat chicks do
Joel , what you meen they dont lock into the back of the car?? i have had our clips off before and if you stop quick it just comes forward????? that would be anoying in an old 60's bug.
, Dylan
vicelore ·
Love the build up man.. Good stuff and inspirational for when i get my VW.. Cant wait..
Cheers Vice
Gangel ·
wiked build.. will be doing very similar to this very soon!
SebastienPeek ·
This is an awesome thread, I'll definitely take into consideration what you have done with the parcel shelf and subwoofer hidden in the back as that is exactly what I want to do.
How hard was it to do the wiring and how did you get it from the front of the car to the rear?
Sorry for digging up an old thread, but want to know what to do before I jump in and buy everything.
SebastienPeek ·
I keep looking at this and comparing to my own bug,
There looks like there is a lot more room in your "luggage" area than mine.
Or is it just the angle of the photos?
Do you have any of the dimensions for the sub box and parcel shelf?
Seb
djnee ·
SebastienPeek wrote:How hard was it to do the wiring and how did you get it from the front of the car to the rear?
Sorry for digging up an old thread, but want to know what to do before I jump in and buy everything.
Hi Seb!
If you look through the thread again on page 1, you'll see that i've run pretty much all of the cables through the heater channels (through hosepipe)
I must admit that i've since added better (thicker) power cables from the battery to the amps at the front, and for this i've just brought them from the bonnet area into the car near the fuse holders (just a 10mm hole with a rubber grommet) and run them under the carpet to get to the battery / fuses...
djnee ·
SebastienPeek wrote:I keep looking at this and comparing to my own bug,
There looks like there is a lot more room in your "luggage" area than mine.
Or is it just the angle of the photos?
Do you have any of the dimensions for the sub box and parcel shelf?
Seb
Hmmm...pretty sure it's the same as yours? Excuse the poor diagram, but here's the dimensions of the shelf!!
One thing i didn't take into account was that when the sub is pounding, the speaker moves in & out a fair amount....and could possibly hit the back of the seat. So to be safe i have made the little black "bump stop" things (that the back of the seat rest against) longer, to bring the backrest forward a couple of cm's.
It does mean that the rear seat sits a bit more upright than normal, but not enough to notice. With hindsight i'd have just made the sub-box a few cm's shallower, and have it slightly wider to make the internal 1.25cuft.
STIDUB ·
hey, long time no chat, still streaming mixes on itunes?
SebastienPeek ·
Hey there!
Didn't expect to actually receive a reply, but definitely a thanks is in order!
I took it upon myself to jump in and just do it, so if you click Zelda in my signature, you'll see my build thread...
It's around the bottom of page 6... 😀
djnee ·
Hi Seb! Looking good mate 🙂 Weird how the shelf didn't line up at the back though? The shape of your car must be slightly curved in that section? Its no biggie though!!!
Well, i keep saying my build is finished, but i've since deleted those words off this thread...
I've had a tinker with the front speakers as i was finding that i could hear the rear speakers over the front ones, due to the fact that the fronts were kinda just pointing at my legs and not my ears!
Out came the fibreglass once more!
Here i have made the basic wood frame that angles the cones upwards. Only needed to hold in place with the hot glue gun, as the strength will come when they're glassed.
Covered with cloth to form the basic shape....
....then fibreglassed / bogged / sanded
Finished.....and sounding BRILLIANT up front now!
A few more changes happening in the next week or 2.....will post again when i'm done 🙂
SebastienPeek ·
It ended up lining up second time round, should be first post on page 7 😉
Damn that looks good, I'm planning on front speakers but currently deciding exactly where I want to put them...
Pumba ·
The thing i like about it is the stereo in the glovebox you didnt cut a hole in the old dash,can i ask who you got the carpet kit from???
cheers shane.
djnee ·
vwmad wrote:,can i ask who you got the carpet kit from???
Hi Shane!
OK, the carpet is just the standard Beetle carpet, with a hole cut in it!
To mark where the hole needed to be, i made a chalk line on the actual speaker pods where i wanted the carpet to be cut...then just pressed the carpet against them...which when removed, gave me a chalk line on the rear of the carpet...so i knew where to cut 🙂 (hope that makes sense!)
Pumba ·
That does make sense,but is it a new kit you bought im just wondering who you bought it from.
cheers shane.
djnee ·
vwmad wrote:That does make sense,but is it a new kit you bought im just wondering who you bought it from.
cheers shane.
Ahhh, sorry...the carpet was already in the car when i got it, so i'm afraid i cannie help on that one 🙁
djnee ·
Okey doke....a few recent changes!!
After blowing 3 subs, i decided to bite the bullet and get something that was going to hopefully last the distance! Ended up going for a JL Audio 12w3v3, which is more suited to the JL Audio 500/1 amp.
I also swapped out the rear Pioneer splits for some JL Audio Evo TR690-TXi 6X9's
And also got rid of the Pioneer amp for an ARC Audio xdi804 amp (4x80w rms)
The last tweak i want to do is change the sealed sub box for a ported one, tuned to 35hz...but not sure if i can accommodate it with the limited space i have behind the rear seat. I'll wait and see on that one.
Here's a quick youtube of the whole install, obviously the sound quality being limited with distortion on my cam...but you'll get the idea i guess!?
Cheers..
SebastienPeek ·
I'm curious, you have all that space on the sides of the sub box, why not have the amps in there?
I'm sure that'd make wiring a lot simpler...
Even still, I'm sure that video doesn't do it justice, but regardless sounds great!
Hope you scare as much people as I do with a thumping bug 😉
djnee ·
SebastienPeek wrote:I'm curious, you have all that space on the sides of the sub box, why not have the amps in there?
I'm sure that'd make wiring a lot simpler...
Hi Mr Peek....
It's mainly down to the fact that i've always found it less painful to run speaker cable down the car rather than RCA's (with the bulky plugs)
Also, i was told years ago that it's good to run real short RCA's if at all possible (that might just be an old wives tale though....lol)
Plus i'm looking to run a larger ported box at some point, and will need all the space i can get back there 🙂
