+1 on safety equipment. I had a friend die in his 50's from breathing crap during a job he had for one summer in his teens.

There might be a bit of a market for duplicates considering that 4080 is going out of business and a lot of "kids" are buying RX-8s as used prices fall below $1k. 4080's sold for around $300 and, judging from mine anyway, are quite well-made.

 

Oh yeah I'm probably going to die an early death from stuff I've been exposed to over the last few years.

I also checked clearance on my FC's front wheels, looks like I need some tires.


Back on topic... Sorry guys.
I did add some more duraglas to the enclosure this morning, and did some more sanding this morning. Picked up a grill cover today also.

 

ever closer

 

Believe it or not this build has not died. The subwoofer I ordered is either lost in the mail, or the seller is trying to pull a fast one.

I did manage to pick up this welcomed addtion to the build last night.



Now I'll have to figure out where/how I would like to mount it. Any suggestions (trunk lid, opposite corner from sub box flushed in, flushed into rear seat, mabye in the space where others put 8's between the seats)?

 

hmm.. decisions, decisions

 

Storage dip in the trunk. Covered by the factory cover or plexi.

 

I always thought if you cover the amp in the dip, it will overheat easier... but I saw several photos of installations doing this. Is this not a potential problem? Especially seeing that the exhaust underneath heats the amp considerably.

As for where to mount the amp - I suppose this may be a bit big to be mounted on the underside of the rear parcel shelf, kind of where the factory amp would go. That'd be my first choice. But of course even if it would fit, it works only if you don't have the Bose stereo since then that space is already occupied.

 

Admittingly, cooling will suffer without some sort of active cooling installed, but it depends on many factors. What climate you live in, how long and how hard the amp is pushed, how well the amp's heatsinks cool your particular amp to begin with, etc. I've taken zero precautions against overheating (basically because I don't care), I live in Florida, and can go a solid 50-60 mins at blasting volume before the amp kicks into thermal protection. PLENTY of time to get anywhere in town. So on long road trips I pull the lid off the storage area and remove the center pass-through to allow air flow. Pretty much takes care of the problem altogether. Your results may vary with different makes and model amps. Installation of a couple 120mm fans in a push/pull configuration would likely solve anyones problems permanently.

Yes you could just mount it elsewhere, but I think it looks the best and is out of the way in that location.

 

Did you ever figure how much volume is inside your box? I have 2 8" RF subs that I am going to put in an enclosure just like yours. They only require .25 cu ft each so I am going to bet it won't be any bigger than the one you built.

 

lol you realize .25ft^3 is a 3"x3"x3" cube right? I think it would be impossible to build an MDF enclosure capable of mounting the 8" without at least .25ft^3 of air.

 

^^^ 0.25 cubic feet is about 7.5"x7.5"x7.5"

3" to a side would be 1/64th a cubic foot. Maybe you meant 3"x12"x12"?


OP: build looks awesome. I did something like that for my FC, though I never really painted it, still just a gray lump in my car :P Thinking of doing it for my new (to me) rx8 soon.

[first post ]

 

Bah. You're right. Good call. Point still stands though.

 

0.25ft^3 is not terribly unreasonable. Gotta remember that the sub itself takes up room that does not count towards its volume requirements. The box I built is for an 8" sub and uses 0.35ft^3 and I could easily make it smaller.

 

I am willing to bet that your 8" will sound leaps and bounds better in a box that is closer to .8'-1.0'^3.

 

Yup.

 

I am by no means an expert on this and I'm going off of what the manufacturer for my sub (Elemental Designs) has spec'd. Is there a reason I'm missing they would spec it too small? In my opinion it sounds pretty damn good as it is. I might have to build an MDF box, though, to play with it some and see how it compares.

 

For sealed boxes, larger enclosures yield increased efficiency and greater low frequency extension. Until the box is so big, and Qtc is so low, it's basically playing free-air.

If you're using the 8" as a subwoofer (<90-100Hz) then bigger is always better. If you're trying to use it as a mid-bass setup and capture the 80-175Hz area, then we might look at a smaller box.

 

I know when kicker solobarics were first released their claim to fame was they required half of the airspace of conventional subs. This was a great marketing ploy as you supposedly could get the same sound in half of the space. This was simply silly, the solobarics sounded great in properly sized enclosures, but not so impressive in the manufacturer recommended enclosure size.

 

Had 2 12" solobarics in my 93 explorer and shattered the back glass...

Anyways loving the project, i've wanted to play with fiberglass, alot of time but rewarding. Im sure you'll be pleased with the result and able to brag when showing it off.

 

Interesting. When I move everything from the t-rex to my 8 I'll have to be sure to make the box bigger.

 

The ironic part is the solobaric L7's required significantly more space in a vented design than comparable subwoofers to achieve a somewhat flat response. Contrary to their marketing hype. I think that's why they started marketing the "20% more cone space equals 20% more output from the same size driver" ordeal.

 

Isn't that amp a bit overkill? If I'm not mistaken those are best used with the W6. The 250/1 would have been sufficient, and much cheaper. Unless you plan on adding another W3 then the 500/1 would have been the optimal choice. It's a nice amp regardless though.

And fantastic job! It's really coming along nicely, I find the best way to figure out the internal volume is fill it with water. I have made few MDF and fiberglass boxes and I always have fun doing it. I'm only 20 so Time really isn't of value to me so I would much rather make something myself then spend $100's to get the same product.

 

Being that the 500/1 isn't made anymore.... and the amp has a couple small scratches on it, I'm betting he got a deal on it used. But regardless, you can never have too much amp.

I'd use packing peanuts. Especially since he already has the MDF mounting ring in place.

 

Since when has production on the 500/1 stopped?! lol I was just at a store the other day and they had them for sale... ? But thats true, I didnt even think about buying it used.

I still used water even with the mdf ring in place, I just set a blow drier in the hole for a while and it dried it out real quick. I have heard of people using rice also lol.

 

Since years ago. JL started producing the 500/1v2, and more recently, the JX500/1. But the amp in the pic has been discontinued for years.

Being it's a sealed enclosure, the size isn't critical in the least. Packing peanuts will give you a damn close ballpark without having to waterlog the mounting ring.