Untitled Document

First to introduce the project, I love good sound. With all the dynomat that is in the Truck, it's a decent platform for a real nice sounding environment. My first attempt went horribly wrong. I built a box that was too big, I had the port tuned wrong and the speaker had so much excursion that it kept punching the passenger seat until it self destructed. Live and learn, I guess. Subwooferage 2.0 was to be different. I originally had 1 10 in a .75 cubic foot ported box, it was way too big, couldn't put the seat even near far enough back, and the sound was too boomy. My musical tastes have changed quite a bit, I listen to pretty much everything, so I needed something that would respond well in a number of acoustic situations. So, I opted to go for 2 8" drivers. I did some research and the JL 1V1 series seemed to fit the bill. They handle about 150 watts, which if you understand the theory behind audio, is plenty. They require a .35 cubic foot sealed enclosure and most importantly, have a mounting depth of under 4 inches. I looked at a number of shallow mount woofers, but all the reviews I read said they made comprimises, plus they are pricey. The JL woofers have another distinct advantage: Cost. I bought them for $89.00/driver.
	Started with test fitting some boxes I had laying around. This box was a .5 cubic foot box. It was too wide and too tall.
	This is a .25 cubic foot box, it fit nicely, but lacked the other .1 cubic foot box of volume that I need for the JL speakers.
	The boxes are to be built out of .75" MDF, pretty common. Since the boxes are so small, no bracing will be necessary. I modeled out the box dimensions in Boxplot, and found that the measurements below would yield close to flat response between 30 and 100 HZ. I had to really play around with the dimensions to get the necessary volume and also make it fit into the truck and still retail some storage space behind the seats.
	My box sketch.
	Since I don't have a tablesaw, but needed accuracy with my cuts, I used the ol' clamp a straightedge onto the sheet of plywood method.
	First box sort of put together. The top piece was too long, but besides that the design worked out.
	Both boxes cut.
	Time to clean up.
	Approval!
	Next day, putting the boxes together.
	Sides on. If you notice, every seam is sealed. A sealed speaker enclosure should be as air tight as humanly possible to perform at its best.
	Approval!
	Test fitting it into the truck, to make sure my calculations were correct and it truly does fit. It sure was close, but did indeed fit.
	About 3/4 of an inch from the back of the seat.
	Inside.
	Next step, cut holes for the speakers.
	I was going out on a limb and cutting these holes via the spec listed on the website. A lot of people have a fancy router jig. I have a fancy jig-saw.
	The first hole.
	I got inspired when I looked up and came up with a great way to use that round piece of MDF.

	First box, assembled.
	Size comparison of my stock of boxes, .25 on the left, .35 middle, and .5 cubic feet right. My box looks closer to .5, but it's also made of 3/4" material while the others are only .5".
	If you wonder why I'm so anal about sound, this is my home stereo. Electronically crossed over 5-way, about 2200 watts of PA juice. It sounds... awesome.
	Speaker stack..
	Amplifiers, EQ's, power distribution.
	Input devices, digital decoders, and such.
	My Wii!
	Speaker boxes ready for action! While one is awesome, two is awesomer!


	Next step, install speaker terminals and carpet.
	This carpet was secured from Crutchfield, 3 yards of generic stuff, for like $27. Not a bad price and comprable to local places, but I added this to my order and got free shipping, etc.
	Getting ready to carpet the boxes. This glue pictured here is the ONLY stuff you should consider using. You can order it online for $6 a can from www.glueplace.com, number 185. Their trim adhesive is also some real good stuff.
	Cut to fit.
	I am trying a new method for the corners on these. I'm doing the hospital fold/triple cut method. Supposedly, it eliminates seams. First, get your corner bunched up, hospital fold it, and then cut down the bunched up portion. It will remove all the extra fabric and leave you with a seam that goes together nicely.
	This was a test, but it worked okay. Time for production.
	Box number one carpeted.
	Side..
	Other side. The method worked well to get rid of the seams. The flash illuminates them a bit, but they're difficult to see with the naked eye.
	Did some mudbogging to break up the monotony.



	Ready for phase III
	Speaker grills, these are designed to fit right into the JL speakers. They worked real nice, but were a little too tall for an ideal situation, but still fit okay. If I didn't have so much slack in my measurements, it could have presented an issue.
	Speakers are here!
	Speaker terminals prepared and put together.
	I used 10GA wire inside the box. I've also been getting in the habit of wrapping red tape around the positives, it makes it way easier to identify them.
	When building speakers, an acoustic stuffing will help in eliminating standing wave patterns inside the box which could sound boomy or even damage the driver.
	There are a million different opinions and products out there, but I've always had good luck with cheap polyester fiberfill, like $3/bag from wal-mart.
	Here's the woofer!
	Even the box was pretty...
	Here it is!
	Bam!
	Pretty beefy...
	It's so funny, 5 years ago, this would have been considered a top of the line driver. Now it's a bottom of the line, but still the quality was remarkable, especially since I've been out of the game for a few years in regards to car audio.
	I put the speaker in teh box and cut around. These speakers had a foam gasket built in, but it won't seal well on the carpet. So I cut it out, so the gasket will get a better seal against the wood face of the box.
	The speaker all ready to go!
	Complete.
	Installed these bad boys! I have borrowed a JL slash series amp, 250 watts mono into 4 ohms. The speakers I bought were 8 ohms, but the amp runs them in parallel so effectively they appear as a 4 ohm load.
	Not too happy with the wiring...
	Both of them in place. Overall, I am very pleased with the sound. They pretty much perform just as I hoped they would. I tested them in a large variety of music, tuned the amplifier and things are sounding pretty awesome!
	Next I decided to continue dressing up the subwoofer installation. This meant fixing the wiring and doing something about the rear bulkhead. I had a ton of carpet left over so I decided to carpet everything. Ambitious, yes, but awesome, definately!
	Being patient and using the right glue, it actually fit very well and ended up cleaning up the bulkhead and walls of the truck immensely. There was a bunch of dings in the paint from the seats and stuff, and seams and other nonsense that just made it look a mess.
	Old amp wiring.
	Installing
	I took the seats out to make the job easier and save my back. While they were out, I touched up some of the metal parts that had rusted in them, nothing major, just cleaning up a bit.
	I had a power distribution block that I couldn't find anywhere to put. So I tore the back carpet up and buried it in the soundproofing in the rear bulkhead.
	It fit perfectly, and eliminated that issue.
	Next I ran all the leads for the amp under the carpet.
	Im just borrowing this amplifier for now, but I'm sold on it and will be buying one when I get some $$
	Took and cleaned it up a bit.
	Painting some rusty stuff.
	Here's the bulkhead pretty much carpeted. This glue was real good stuff for this job too. I used their trim adhesive, as it's supposed to hold up to high heat better.
	Amp wiring ready to go.
	Amp installed!
	Yum, nice clean wiring, I'm a big fan of that!
	Approval!
	I don't know why, but whenever I work on my truck, there is always a ton of crap in the back of it!
	Pretty much finished.
	Speaker in place with everything finished.
	You can see the carpet wrapping around the side a little bit here. The end. Overall, I'm totally pleased with the end results of the subs and the carpeting. Well worth it. I probably had about $350 between the subs, boxes, cables, carpet, glue, and other miscellaneous stuff. Well worth it! The end!