Zed Amps, Stereo Integrity Subs, Hybrid Audio 3way front stage, Audison Processing

[toast]

This all fits behind the stock trim panel; that was the original goal, a sub box that takes up no cargo space and can be removed when the car is sold. No grill needed, it is bass so it is omnidirectional, just need a spot to move air and the grill for the stock 4" speaker will be fine.

[toast]

Originally Posted by quality_sound

Now that it's done, how much airspace is in the side enclosures? I'm going to order my BMs soon and I'm debating a few options. I wanted to do it in the pass. footwell but I think I want to run my horns.

My box is .35 cu ft, hence the 8" driver. If you are willing to 'glass right into the car like AtlasMick did you could in theory utilize all that open space (it goes all the way back to the trunk) and have probably 1.5 cu ft, but that would be a ton of work since you have to seal off the front and back of the space.

[quality_sound]

That's what I was thinking. It's a shame you couldn't squeak out .5. Then you could have gone vented with some Type-R 8s. That would have been pretty sweet.

[AtlasMick]

Originally Posted by toast

My box is .35 cu ft, hence the 8" driver. If you are willing to 'glass right into the car like AtlasMick did you could in theory utilize all that open space (it goes all the way back to the trunk) and have probably 1.5 cu ft, but that would be a ton of work since you have to seal off the front and back of the space.

It's a huge PITA, and you'll have to go back in a few times to work out the air leaks. I suggest going with Toast's method unless you absolutely need the .5-.6ft3. Or if you want to go infinite baffle it would make sense and be loads easier while still retaining use of your rear seats. You would need to cover up the holes where front seat belts are anchored near the floor and that whole area, then put some more padding and cardboard/sound deaden the rear deck and your in business. I thought about that method prior to buying my SI subs, but they were designed for sealed performance.

[quality_sound]

Originally Posted by AtlasMick

It's a huge PITA, and you'll have to go back in a few times to work out the air leaks. I suggest going with Toast's method unless you absolutely need the .5-.6ft3. Or if you want to go infinite baffle it would make sense and be loads easier while still retaining use of your rear seats. You would need to cover up the holes where front seat belts are anchored near the floor and that whole area, then put some more padding and cardboard/sound deaden the rear deck and your in business. I thought about that method prior to buying my SI subs, but they were designed for sealed performance.

Oh, I know. I've done side panel subs before and I had the BM MkIIIs as well. Great subs, but trying to think out my options. As much as I don't want to, I may delete the back seat.

[Z86]

@toast
Looks great, can you take some closer pics to show where you screwed it in.
How many layers of glass?
Really appreciate you posting, I'm getting inspired!

[toast]

Box isn't screwed in yet, but I'll take pics when I do.

1 layer of mat on the inside of the cardboard template. That was the biggest bitch because the mat sticks to your hands while you're trying to form it. Once that was hard, I just started ripping the cardboard structure away. If I had it to do over I would have coated the whole thing with a mold release. Then a 3 layer fabric coating on the outside where the cardboard was. Then one more 3 layer fabric coating to bond to the wood baffle plate. On the top and rear sides I cut the baffle to the size of the box and ran the fabric down over the edge of the baffle. On the front and lower half of the rear I made the last fabric layer have a lip to bond to the back edge of the baffle. I'm not sure I'm explaining it well, I'll take more pics tonight.

If I were to do it again I could get pretty close to .5; now that I see how everything fits together I could have made the rear of the box extend into the body cavity more and then when inserting the whole thing you would just wedge the back end in first. I still might do that if the 8" doesn't hit hard enough, I can just cut out the rear wall of my box and extend it. I have a Kenwood Excelon (don't laugh!) 10" thin mount driver that really worked well in my STI, but given the small interior volume of the BRZ I think the 8 will be fine.

I got my amp, a little Class D Soundstream Picasso Nano. It is crazy how small these class D things are. Only downside is that no one ever posts the S/N specs anymore because they are so bad (70:1!!!), but for a sub it should be fine.

More pics tonight, I hope to get the box installed in the car and the interior panel back on, I'm tired of listening to all the extra road noise you get with that panel off.

[toast]

Okay, so I lied. I buttoned everything up today and totally forgot to take pics. Mounted the box to the car in three spots, two along the front of the box and one in the rear. I had planned on just screwing the box right to the sheetmetal, but one of the mounting points was triple layer, wound up being almost 1/4" thick. Instead I just drilled holes and used speedclips with big stainless screws. Sounds fine, but doesn't hit like I had hoped. Probably going to swap out to this driver:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_13610TW...-4.html?tp=111

Going to open the box up a bit in the back to get some more volume.

Got the Nano mounted and hooked up, nifty little unit. I'm actually running the system with the 6" door speakers disabled, using the wiring for the factory amp to feed the Nano and drive the sub with a higher crossover frequency. Before I make any changes to the sub I need to get another amp for the front channel hooked up and get my components installed. Maybe once I push the crossover frequency back down the 8" might fill in the low end enough.

[AtlasMick]

Not sure what to do about this gap. My gf had the idea to make it into a cubby hole to put stuff in. Any ideas? I was considering using making a fiberglass piece to wedge in there with some velcro on the back.

[kmbkk]

@AtlasMick,

Here's a pic with the rear panel removed

[JoeMartin]

Took me a moment to realize that picture was sideways... I feel kind of dumb now.

There is SO MUCH ROOM behind that panel. It's absolutely amazing.
I am currently working on installing my shallow mount Kicker 10s behind that panel, mounted to MDF.
Since the subs are not infinite baffle, I have taken spray foam insulation and sealed the area off to be ~1 cubic foot of space (a little more than the required amount for it).
I sprayed going back to the bumper, sprayed the rocker panel section that's visible, then also sprayed between the body and door to seal that.
For the fender well to the body I used some aluminum tape to seal that up, same with all of the holes that are not used by the body panels.

I may take a few pics once I have everything ready to go back together. =)

[kmbkk]

There is a decent amount of room. I'll need to trim some of the sheet metal away. I'm trying to decide if taking some of the B-pillar away will cause any structural weakening, though.

[AtlasMick]

Originally Posted by kmbkk

There is a decent amount of room. I'll need to trim some of the sheet metal away. I'm trying to decide if taking some of the B-pillar away will cause any structural weakening, though.

There's no need to take any B pillar. Up to JL audio's 13" woofers will fit with only shaving the sheet metal beneath the rear quarter window.

[kmbkk]

Originally Posted by AtlasMick

There's no need to take any B pillar. Up to JL audio's 13" woofers will fit with only shaving the sheet metal beneath the rear quarter window.

Thats what I was hoping. I've also been thinking about cutting out the rear panel and flush mounting the sub.