Speaker box on a tube cage with a soft top.

IRCJB

There's 2 8" subs going up here, with sufficient airspace behind them in a sealed box.
I see lots of speakers mounted under the seat, but don't want to loose that storage to a box; and since this is a real off roader, I don't want them submerged when winching through a creek crossing.
To get the airspace I'll need, the box will have to wrap around the cage, and not interrupt the nice looks of a soft top.
Here it is with the top off.

BGW

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IRCJB

Stretch wrapped and flat panels stapled in place.
Polyester fleece stretched over, and wetted with resin to form the corners.

Cured up, pulled off, and standing on it's own, but far from strong.
Now, this may look a little funny, since the box is going inside the cage; but bear with me.

IRCJB

Now if ya notice, the tubes are stretch wrapped individually.
The play-doh will help keep the 'glass from getting wrapped too far around the tubes, and making this a permanent installation. For most of the layup I'll just eyeball the radius, but in this place I'll need some backup.

Put a few tabs in place to keep everything in position; so everything pre-flip is in the same place post-flip. Working 'glass upside down is something that us surely on the activity board at Satan's summer camp. The green "fingers" will be bolt pockets, so I can get the bolts that hold the cage together in & out without removing the box.

Here is the inside, layed up with no mat bi-axial.
Now turned back upright with the non-necessary sections of fleece cut away and the channels for the tubing exposed.

blake80

very cool boss, keep the pics coming

IRCJB

I skipped pics of cleaning up the outside channels with an angle grinder & skinning the outside with finishing cloth; but it's pretty straight forward. Just don't work the cloth down inside the channels too far, since it's already a "zero clearance" fit.


Here's the speaker's stunt doubles, ready to hold the form for the underside skin of fleece @ resin.


Detail of stunt double. Dimensionally correct, but no match on the voice. That's a foot from one of those tube & tarp canopies.


Stapled, stretched, skinned, & soaked. Takes about 1/2 gallon.

j12racer

wow dude thats gonna be sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bphemi

That looks awsome!!!

blake80

i cant remember where i saw this, but, i did see a guy mix bondo and resin together once all the glassing was done. it was really neat and cut way down on fine tuning with just bondo. i am going to try it when i build my sub and amp enclosure for my cart

BumbleBee

Nice work on the box so far. Have fun with the fleece and sanding. I did one with fleece and had a heck of a time getting it smooth. the next ones I did I used a couple of layers of heavy t-shirt material with the resin and had much better results. I also used a little bit of mat on the inside to make it stronger. it was a little more prep work but total time spent on the enclosure was a lot less.

I do have one question, I see you used a stand for the mock up of the speakers, how do you plan to get the stand out? The only way I see is to cut the stand in to a ring and pull out the stand. If this is the case, will the ring by it self be strong enough to support the speaker in the enclosure without cracking the fiberglass?

Not trying to be a pain just curious.....

Arin

IRCJB

Here's one of inside the face. I had to kick things in high gear to have this ready for Mudfest; so chronologically, the next pic is installed with the soft top back on.
I'll take it back down to add some more bracing, seal between the 2 sides, sanded down, and touching up the topside for waterproofness.

One thing to keep in mind when working with 'glass is that by itself in a single plane, it is very flexible; a major enemy in speaker enclosures. Add distance, multiple planes, and ribs to add considerable stiffness with minimal weight increase. There's still more to do, but this is how the inside was when it was time to roll.

That's 1/2" poly tubing (irrigation) with mat over it forming the ribs.