ok truracer.. maybe you can help.. let's say your building a box for some good subs.. and your going to make it out of fiberglass.. you'd just make some speaker rings i'm assuming,, make a bottom piece out of wood, then attach the speaker rings to some pegs or something that will hold the rings in place whereever desired,, then stretch fleece over it all and just smother in resin.. now.. if this is correct,, it just sounds like it couldn't withstand the vibrations.. could you use a few layer's of fleece maybe. maybe let the first dry.. sand it smooth and apply another.. then I know you should smooth with bondo.. it just doesn't seem like it'd take the abuse of 1000 watt subs. but people do it.. and as far as that goes before you put the speakers in do you leave it all hollow or fill it with something to absorb shock... thanks in advance

Any idea on how they did made this?

See the cracks tho???

how you build your base structure dependes on what kind of car you will put it in and the location, but once you have all that figured out your good to go...as for strength, i tried using multiple layers of fleece on a console i did for a friends truck, but its hard to get fleece to stretch and lay flat on the previous peice...you will get alot of air pockets which leads to cracks...i use fleece as a base and then use peices of fiber mat that you can get at oreilys to build strength...it takes some time and is messy but you will thank yourself in the end. as for thickness, if you have a single sub that pushes a smaller # the i would go no thinner than an eighth of an inch...you said you had two subs at a 1000watts a peice?? id go with a half inch and no thinner if you want it to last for a long time, because like i said it will be fine for a while but over time you will run into problems with cracks..a half an inch sounds pretty thick but the fleece takes up about a fourth of that..as for insulation i use spray foam that comes in an spray can, but you dont need to fill the entire thing just put a good inch or so on the inside walls.the pegs that hold your rings in place take some of the weight off the fiberglass from the sub..so leave them in place...this will keep the fiberglass from flexing!!

good luck

door panels have the same basic prcedure...the reason the door panel you pictured above is cracked is not only because it isnt think enough to withstand the pressures of being opened and closed everyday, but this guy obviously didnt check to make sure the door panel cleared the dash when the door is closed. their are a buch of little thing that you have to think about before getting started...im not trying to say i know everything if thats what anyone is getting out of this im just saying that you have to think ahead and plan..all of these things can be prevented!!!

ok now this is starting to make more sense to me.. I could see a 1/2" of glass holding together.. I didn't realize that was done... I've got plenty of resin and mat laying around.. although prob not that much lol.. but no biggie there.. I just could never figure out how it could handle the power.. Have you built a box with a few 1000 watt subs before??? just curious if 1/2" is really enough for the app... I would assume it to be though.. then there's the prob of putting bondo over the top to smooth it... that could crack by itself.. oh well the fun of custom...

And besides everybody can do it the easy way!!!!

CHOP IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm enjoying all the post about fiberglass, I have a 54 chev hardtop I would like to cut the top off and lean the w/s post back some them make a fiberglass cover ( i.e. the old ford thunder birds had } but I'm not even artistic enough to make a rendition of it much less do it in glass, would'nt know where to start.

a half inch doesnt sound like it could handle it but if you get the glass layed good with no air bubbles it will be a hell of a lot stronger than youd think

Here's a better example of what I wanna do.



Now this is clean

I don't know, I no like..

I would assume that you would build that about like a sub box.
Just a good flat peice of MDF against the door, then mount some rings for the speakers, then just lay fiberglass on top of it from there.

That door either weighs a ton, or vibrates alot from all those speakers.
Whoever did that has got to have some problems with their door hinges.


Brad

I built a trans tunnel for my 32. It had to have pass throughs for the shift lever and parking brake. I made a thin rim around the floor opening out of plywood, then fastened chicken wire so it rose up enough to make the general shape of the tunnel. I pushed the wire flat where the shift and pbrake boots and plates were to go, then put blue masking tape over the chicken wire. I coated that in vaseline and laid several layers of fiberglass over the tape and vaseline. The vaseline lets you lift the fiberglass right off, toss the chicken wire and you have a rigid piece of fiberglass pretty much the right shape. You can then work the glass smooth with filler.

The point is you can be creative with the wire if you are making odd shapes.

I don't know if this would apply to your project. I used some thick glass mat and boy is the tunnel rigid and durable.

I am guessing you all are talking about the fleece used for sweaters, etc? Why use fleece instead of the fiberglass matte?

Because fleece is more forgiving when your stretching it out to make a form. The fiberglass matt can then be used on top to give it more strength.


Brad