Operation: Big speakers little holes

[012RAMbo]

Hells yea that is going to be bad ass! Cant wait to see the finished product man

 

[BradKnob]

Hells yea that is going to be bad ass! Cant wait to see the finished product man

Thanks man.

This is more technical than any build ive done before. All the precise measurements, perfect cuts and routered edges isnt normally my forte.

I was going for a more subtle glow but that $**** is bright as fawk. hard to even get a good pic. I may have to hit it up with some lens tint and see how that works.

 

[UneasyJmitchell]

Not only can you play the Pantera, you can watch the vid too. Nice. Keep the pics/updates coming.

 

[autokraftgt]

That's awesome!!!
love to hear details on the lights...what's the power source?
i need to re-do my amp rack and would love to add a little bling to it!!!
great work!

 

[BradKnob]

Hate to give away my secrets but...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360888111369?redirect=mobile


Connect to 12v power and ground.

Lexan or plexiglass disperses light so LEDs aren't beaming

 

[BradKnob]

I'm back... Did work this weekend. Didn't accomplish what I had hoped because a few minor setbacks but still got a good bit done


Here's how the lexan made out...



With top on, gap is for room for carpet and paint etc



You can see channel that led strip runs through






In the truck






Trying to cut holes for amps to fit through.




Looked really crooked but i guess it's the weird shaped angles that throw it off. I spent a lot of time on the top for the amp rack and didn't want to F it up so ... Measure 173939 times cut 1

Used cord board as a template















Fingers crossed!!!















Works for me!

 

[BradKnob]

The beauty panel for the sub has been the thorn in my side for the whole thing. Had to remake it 3 times so far. Routered the wrong side once, Mia calculated hole and cut it too far left. Dumb $hit like that.


This one was perfect then the last hole I had to cut.... It happens again



Not sure what happened but I should be able to sand and blend that in later fck it







Round over and flushed



Transfer the shape to the lexan...







Still fits














**** me!!!







Now that sub box and amp rack is built and fits, I'm going to touch up some tough edges that have been bothering. Stuff that I won't let slide after all this work, not gonna half ass anything. First was the gap in the amp rack between wood and lexan. It's very visible when u look in the door so it must be fixed.


I don't want screws to be visible...




Carpeted to see how much it will fill the gap, hard to see in pic but it's there.







Now u can really see it






Nothing a little dynaglass won't fix




Now this I can work with...












Now I'm going drink a beer and call it a night.

 

[012RAMbo]

Looking awesome bro. Great work on everything!

 

[012RAMbo]

Looks like it might be pretty tough to get the sub out in the future because of the beauty panel. What if you kind of squared off the area that was messed up by the router and then put another one on the opposite side so you could get your fingers under the sub to pull it up if need be. You have an extremely clean look going on though, so you might not want those cutouts in there. I think with carpet on top, you won't even be able to see the little mis-cut on there.

 

[BradKnob]

Looks like it might be pretty tough to get the sub out in the future because of the beauty panel. What if you kind of squared off the area that was messed up by the router and then put another one on the opposite side so you could get your fingers under the sub to pull it up if need be. You have an extremely clean look going on though, so you might not want those cutouts in there. I think with carpet on top, you won't even be able to see the little mis-cut on there.

Thanks my man!



The beauty panel will be held on with neo magnets and will be pretty easily removable for that exact reason, to be able to get to the sub.

Also I had planned on painting the 2 beauty panels silver like on my dash/console and having the top middle (to break up so much silver) and bottom carpeted.

 

[012RAMbo]

Oh sweet! I figured you had something up your sleeve for that. That should be a pretty awesome feature.

 

[BradKnob]

That sub weighs a beastly 37 lbs so I had to be sure id be able to get a hold of it if I ever needed to.

 

[charonblk07]

You've done a great job so far, I just have a few questions/comments for others in the future that want to tackle something like this.

Do you have a circle jig for your router? It looks like you're relying on a steady hand with the jigsaw/sander to get your circles judging by the edge. A circle jig would get you perfect circles every time. I'm going to be doing door panels for my truck in the near future and I picked one up for $40, I'll probably never use it again, but perfect circles are stupidly difficult without either a dedicated template or a circle jig.

Did you use a dedicated template for the shapes and a flush trim bit to get them all the same? I've used this technique for different projects and is amazing when you need to have multiple panel layers line up perfectly. It looks like you did from some of the marking on the top panel, just curious.

That gap under the trim ring would have beem perfectly sized to allow room for some vinyl to be wrapped around the top beauty panel. I worry that you'll lose the amps and lexan into the panel if you paint them silver. You've done a great job on the panel to show off the amps, I'd hate for them to not stand out.

 

[BradKnob]

^^^thanks for the kind words and input


Yes i do have a circle jig BUT... it was not designed to fit my router so I had to modify it. Basically now, the measurements listed on it are useless, so i kinda still have to eyeball it. Ive determined that the beauty panel notch was from when i drilled the pilot hole for the router bit, it was a little off the mark so when the roundover bit hit it, it magnified the notch.

I assume ur talking about the underside of the sub panel that WAS freehanded with the router. That was the last cut made and since there was already a hole there i just did it by hand


As for the template, yes. That and a flush router bit get huge credit for keeping everything uniform and flush.

Honestly I never messed with vinyl before and it never really crossed my mind. I see what ur saying about the paint and that gap i filled could easily be sand down to fit vinyl. Now u have the gears in my head turning...

 

[charonblk07]

That sucks about the circle jig not fitting your router, I've tried mine out twice and I'm in love with it. I was wondering what happened with the underside of the panel, just didn't fit with the neat work you'd done before. I spend money on a rabetting bit set to handle things like that when I was building a set of cabinets a while ago.

And sorry about bringing up vinyl, I've just been watching too many youtube audio builds lately and the vinyl/suede builds always look so much cleaner than paint.

Which ever way you go, I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

 

[BradKnob]

It was a cheap router i bought a while back but i agree, the jig is worth its weight in gold. Being that it was the 3rd baffle I made for the sub, I tried a different method each time to get it right. I found that if i cut the hole for sub, lined it up both holes then traced the outer diameter of the box i got a better fit. After that, i routed the area around the sub hole for it to sit flush. I couldnt see paying $30 for a rabbiting bit ill rarely ever use. To be honest, at this point, I wasnt even sure if i was going to use this one. Still unsure.

Dont be sorry, Input is always good but i think ur right. Since u mentioned it, i immediately thought of some sweet ass suede installs ive seen. i may go see what i can find locally. maybe paint one side and cover the other and see what looks the best

 

[UneasyJmitchell]

I was wondering how your gonna do the back seat? You gonna raise the backrest too?

 

[BradKnob]

The backrest and bottom are 1 piece so when u raise the bottom, the back goes with it.

 

[UneasyJmitchell]

Ok, gotcha. So the seat will just mount on the sub box, but itll be a few inches higher now? Along with the back and headrest? Great job BTW.

 

[BradKnob]

Not exactly, the seat is only raised 1.25" and the box is built around the legs of the seat. Some of the pics earlier in the thread should illustrate what I'm talking about.