# Fourthmeal's 2010 Ford Flex SEL



## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

This is a running build log, one where constructive criticism is encouraged and will be helpful. This car will be set up to compete locally in USACi and any other organization that it can classify in, locally. I won't be trailering it or anything, so continuing to be a daily-driver is key. It has been years and years since I bothered to even compete, and honestly from where I was from that wasn't really "competition", if you know what I'm sayin'.

This is the car, the day I brought it home.


































Holds a decent amount of bodies inside, that's certain.

These are pre-teardown pics of all the locations I'll be focusing on. This stuff is mainly being shown for anybody following my footsteps, which may or may not happen because there are precious few Flex owners currently doing anything with their rides. Maybe these pics will help urge them to go for it.

The driver's door. As you can see, there's a gaping hole to seal up, but the rest is pretty straight-forward.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

This is the factory door speaker. This btw is the Sony Surround-equipped model, which has a gaggle of speakers throughout the car, some active, some passive. Interesting setup.










This is the center channel, a 3.5" driver
















































That appears to be a small cap, I think it would be crossing at 1000hz or so if I'm doing my math right.








Its pretty deep in there, actually


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

I'm drooling over the amount of space you have for a center. I see a 6.5" full range mid in your future.


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## AAAAAAA (Oct 5, 2007)

Fourthmeal, you are a crazy kook but I love your build threads


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Center channel exploration continued:








































Now, the A-pillars
















The pillars are tethered


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

A-Pillar continued:


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Door panel revisited, this time we're deadening it and checking out the door connector.

I noticed the speaker aligns incorrectly with the door. I'll have to factor this when I make my adapter for my new speakers.








































Plastic pulled off









Door is pretty deep, big enough to put a camera in and snap









Beginning the process. I am using very heavy layering of BXTII to get what I need. The door is damn near a slab of metal, almost no curves at all.









About 6 sheets


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Driver's door deadening continued:

























And so, I decided to start tracking how much time I spend on the car. I've never done this before and I may come to regret it. But, for the record, this is about 2.5 hours of work including researching what's inside the panels.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

chefhow said:


> I'm drooling over the amount of space you have for a center. I see a 6.5" full range mid in your future.


I measured, and without cutting something important the best I can do is something like the W4 Bamboo. But... that'll probably do.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

AAAAAAA said:


> Fourthmeal, you are a crazy kook but I love your build threads


We'll see how crazy computes in the judging lanes.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

On with the build. Sunday I braved our 60+mph winds and rewired the engine compartment powers and grounds. 

Factory battery ripped out, OF COURSE the factory wiring is too short.

















That's the factory ground down there. This sucker is barely even making contact with the bare metal. Its painted, and only a few scratches of metal are present underneath due to the installation of this ring. This is NOT good.









Main fuse box power wire redone with techflex, and rerouted. The factory wiring here was robust enough for me to be happy.









Quick shot of the ground redone w/ 4ga, and ground down to bare metal.








And of course, painted over with Rustoleum black.









Starter power wire was way too short, so I added a fuse (100A blade) and ran 4 gauge.









Optima installed, wired up


















Loving these new Monster ring terminal clamps. Got them at Fry's locally for $19 each. Pretty damn nice.

This took 5.5 hours, bringing the running total to 8 hours so far.


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## scooter99 (Dec 21, 2008)

Nice start man! I always liked the looks of these vehicles. My wife was like "meh" they're ok. I'd like one, but that would mean I'd have to give up the civic and I've put too much work into that baby for it to go anywhere. I had my one shot at a new vehicle a few months ago. 

I'm definitely gonna be watching this one!


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## circa40 (Jan 20, 2008)

Wow, the Flex has great potential! Awesome speaker options


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

And for people not sure of my gameplan, let me lay it out:

Amps: Most likely Soundstream Stealth or PPI Phantom. It has to be TINY. And I'm doing 4 of them most likely. The goal is to put two under each seat, which thankfully is quite easy height-wise as I have more than 4" of usable height, and width/depth is also generous. I made some 3D graphics of the space I have, I might post those up later for reference. Anyway, Three 4ch amps, and One mono amp is my goal. 

Front Speakers: The doors are getting Exodus Neo 6.5" midbass drivers, the A-pillars are most likely getting W3 Bamboos, and the center is most likely a W4 Bamboo if it fits. For each one of those, I'm mating them with a Dayton ND28F tweeter or similar. I'll be doing a simple passive crossover on those (yet to be decided on what exact crossover alignment), just to get some of the off-axis response a little better. The A-pillar mids will be flushed into the stock A-pillars as much as possible, to reduce visible obstruction to near-stock levels. 

Rear speakers are an interesting issue. I consulted with Andy at JBL (super nice guy, easy to reach on here), and a few MS8-experienced fellas on here, and they all agreed that my rear speaker situation can be dealt with easily enough. See the issue is that I have rear door speakers, AND rear D-pillar mids too. The MS8 works well by controlling just one channel per pair of Left and Rights, though their locations are different. So, that's what I'll be doing. I'll have a 4ch amp for all the rear, with 2ch of incoming signal.

The subs will be a trio of Alumapro MX10's in the spare tire well, flushed in and stock deck height with the floor. The seats MUST flip/fold for me so I can treat the car normally.


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## crzygosu87 (Dec 1, 2010)

fourthmeal??? the same fourthmeal on acurazine??? Nice project! looking forward to its progress


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

I am subscribing for future updates.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

crzygosu87 said:


> fourthmeal??? the same fourthmeal on acurazine??? Nice project! looking forward to its progress


Yessir!

Thank you!


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Here's pics of the deadening done in the spare tire well


























































Covered with Ensolite









1.5 hours for this, making a total 9.5 hours so far.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Today I did a lot of fiberglass. I hate fiberglass btw. Necessary evil sometimes.

Foil laid down, first layer of fiberglass started. 








http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...jRo1btGQPbz4C/cC/f=0/ps=50/r=0/rx=720/ry=480/









2nd layer









The carnage









3rd layer

























4th layer, box is now out of the vehicle which helps my back greatly.









5th layer, looks similar but I swear there's another layer there.

















This took a while... 4 hours. So total is 13.5 hours.


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## wdemetrius1 (Aug 16, 2007)

Great job.


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## MTopper (Nov 4, 2009)

funny you should say "This stuff is mainly being shown for anybody following my footsteps, which may or may not happen because there are precious few Flex owners currently doing anything with their rides. Maybe these pics will help urge them to go for it."

i just recently build a sub box for the back of a 2009 Flex. going to finish the whole install of speakers, headunit and amps this weekend. keep going with the work, i might have to show the owner your build so he understands "quality sound means more work"


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

Subscribed.
Here's hoping you go the PPI Phantom route.
Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

MTopper said:


> funny you should say "This stuff is mainly being shown for anybody following my footsteps, which may or may not happen because there are precious few Flex owners currently doing anything with their rides. Maybe these pics will help urge them to go for it."
> 
> i just recently build a sub box for the back of a 2009 Flex. going to finish the whole install of speakers, headunit and amps this weekend. keep going with the work, i might have to show the owner your build so he understands "quality sound means more work"



Is the one you are working on equipped with the Sony surround system?


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

PPI-ART COLLECTOR said:


> Subscribed.
> Here's hoping you go the PPI Phantom route.
> Bret
> PPI-ART COLLECTOR



Grizz mentioned a "June-tember" release date which may or may not work for me. If not, I'll just go with the Stealths and maybe later go Phantom. Stealths are about the same size anyway.

I'd actually be WAY better off if anybody made 8ch amps anymore. With less amps, I could compete in a lower class.


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## 4ofakind (Jan 22, 2010)

Good to see progress on the Flex. :thumbsup:

I spent the weekend sanding on my dashboard to make my 10" screen bezel perfectly purrty. Sanding fiberglass :shrug: sanding plastic and filler? I can't tell which is worse.

Mal


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## adrianp89 (Oct 14, 2007)

Looks good so far, but your overkill on the sound deadener.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

4ofakind said:


> Good to see progress on the Flex. :thumbsup:
> 
> I spent the weekend sanding on my dashboard to make my 10" screen bezel perfectly purrty. Sanding fiberglass :shrug: sanding plastic and filler? I can't tell which is worse.
> 
> Mal


Fiberglass without a doubt. But I hate both with a passion. 

I'll pull you over next weekend if everything goes well, we can design some amp racks under the seat. I got slider drawers!


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

the727kid said:


> Looks good so far, but your overkill on the sound deadener.


I gotta disagree. I just rapped on it until it stopped resonating like crazy, and then added about 10% more. There will be a LOT of power and a LOT of movement going on in this car, and if it makes one peep I will be displeased. I'm not going with MLV everywhere because there is almost no road noise, but I am positive that three 10's and a pair of Exodus midbass in the doors is going to buzz some stuff.


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## adrianp89 (Oct 14, 2007)

fourthmeal said:


> I gotta disagree. I just rapped on it until it stopped resonating like crazy, and then added about 10% more. There will be a LOT of power and a LOT of movement going on in this car, and if it makes one peep I will be displeased. I'm not going with MLV everywhere because there is almost no road noise, but I am positive that three 10's and a pair of Exodus midbass in the doors is going to buzz some stuff.


MLV and CCF reduce vibration much better than deadener alone. Just saying.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

the727kid said:


> MLV and CCF reduce vibration much better than deadener alone. Just saying.



CCF decouples, MLV is a barrier. CLD is the visco-elastic resonance damper.

Our guy Don (rudeboy) Sound Deadener Showdown - Your Source for Sound Deadening Products and Information does a great job breaking it all down.


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

fourthmeal said:


> I measured, and without cutting something important the best I can do is something like the W4 Bamboo. But... that'll probably do.


The W4 is a nice speaker and will do a nice job, but who really needs bracing in a dash?


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

chefhow said:


> The W4 is a nice speaker and will do a nice job, but who really needs bracing in a dash?



Yeah I hear ya. I keep waffling between FR89's and the Bamboos.


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## MTopper (Nov 4, 2009)

fourthmeal said:


> Is the one you are working on equipped with the Sony surround system?


no, this is just a base model that the guy is slowly upgrading to make "his own"... aka, rims, tint, vinyl stuff and all that stuff. i did do an all LED conversion inside for him though.

the sub box is for 4 SA-8s sealed in a bottom firing enclosure. its actually pretty impressive and clean. I would hate to have to deal with a stock upgraded system to overcome and such


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

4ofakind said:


> Good to see progress on the Flex. :thumbsup:
> 
> I spent the weekend sanding on my dashboard to make my 10" screen bezel perfectly purrty. Sanding fiberglass :shrug: sanding plastic and filler? I can't tell which is worse.
> 
> Mal


Pics?

Fourthmeal...diggin the work so far. Haven't done anything to one of these yet, since most people aren't modding them yet.

Jay


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

I just completed the passenger door fiberglass panel.

I grabbed some spare bubble wrap to shield the car door. Note that normal plastic would be just fine, I just have tons of this stuff. The factory plastic is going to serve as the template.









I laid fiberglass right over the plastic sheeting. That stuff is quite slick so the fiberglass will not stick permanently to it at all. 

















See? Popped right off. 

















I trimmed off the excess, and test-fitted









I trimmed it further, and got it ready to mount.









Deadening added


















I didn't take pics of it finally mounted, but I used butyl rope all the way around, and press-fit it in. The butyl rope method allows the panel to be removed if absolutely necessary, but it won't dare come off on its own anytime soon. 

I have an order for more Ensolite foam and stuff coming, so I'll open the door back up later and lay that in there.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Great job on the doors man. I was thinking "maybe he's going to fiberglass some baffles in place of those plastic pieces" and sure enough...


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## cobra93 (Dec 22, 2009)

fourthmeal said:


> And for people not sure of my gameplan, let me lay it out:
> 
> Amps: Most likely Soundstream Stealth or PPI Phantom. It has to be TINY. And I'm doing 4 of them most likely. The goal is to put two under each seat, which thankfully is quite easy height-wise as I have more than 4" of usable height, and width/depth is also generous. I made some 3D graphics of the space I have, I might post those up later for reference. Anyway, Three 4ch amps, and One mono amp is my goal.
> 
> ...


Do you know something I don't or was the part I underlined an oops?

Build looks great already/so far! Nice job on the replacement panel for the doors.


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## winegamd (Mar 3, 2010)

subbed


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

cobra93 said:


> Do you know something I don't or was the part I underlined an oops?
> 
> Build looks great already/so far! Nice job on the replacement panel for the doors.



Kevin at Exodus/DIYcable had a pair of Exodus NEO's in his supply, and graciously supplied me with them. They are a discontinued model, the Anarchy replaces them.


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

Subscribed.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

**** I hope I don't let you subscribers down, lol!

The wind picked up shortly after I finished the right door work, so I had to pack it all up and stop right there. Hopefully one of these weekdays calm winds will return so I can get the driver's side done. The right side factory door speaker has more low end response, so it looks like this effort is worth it.


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## ecbmxer (Dec 1, 2010)

Door fiberglass looks good! You're gonna need all the sealing/deadening you can get for those midbass drivers!


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## scooter99 (Dec 21, 2008)

That fiberglass on the door to seal it up is just what the doctor ordered for me. I'm so glad you did this, I've been thinking of doing this in my new rebuild, and I've not seen many, if any that I can recall, do it. So I was kind of nervous to try it. Seeing this the way you did it, I'm all in now. 

Can't wait to see more. Oh and I get it, but no pressure from me, although I'm only one of many here. You do what you can do when you can do it. Nice job friend!


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## cobra93 (Dec 22, 2009)

fourthmeal said:


> Kevin at Exodus/DIYcable had a pair of Exodus NEO's in his supply, and graciously supplied me with them. They are a discontinued model, the Anarchy replaces them.


Thanks. 
Post some pics, I'd love to see them.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

cobra93 said:


> Thanks.
> Post some pics, I'd love to see them.


stolen from audiocircle website



























That's from Kevin's post directly


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## cobra93 (Dec 22, 2009)

fourthmeal said:


> stolen from audiocircle website
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks. 
Those look like pure sex to my ears.
Do you have the T.S. specs for them?


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

I forgot to list the time spent on last weekend's door fiberglass work, and I can't edit that post now. I will estimate 4 hours, which brings us to 17.5hours.

--- 

Oh, before I begin, I need to explain a problem I ran into. When I first installed the Optima battery, I extended the factory wiring by using a 4 gauge, 100 amp in-line fuse holder (blade style.) Well, this is a mistake! When I was at the car wash sprucing up the Flex, I blew that fuse and stranded myself. The starter could not engage. I ended up rigging it spectacularly _by shoving quarter into the slots where the blade fuse goes. MacGyver ain't got nothing on me._ That got me home at least. I ended up pulling the battery out again, and I re-wired by doing a direct solder job on more 4 gauge and wrapped it up with heatshrink and techflex once more. Ugh, 3 hours burned on a huge error. Folks, do NOT do what I did... 


On to this weekend's adventure. A whole lot of stuff came in like my techflex, my raw RCA wire, etc. I swear its like Christmas when doing audio sometimes.

So we are at 20.5 hours including that wire mistake - 

Friday afternoon after I got the engine compartment wiring sorted, I started tearing into the rear panels. 

















Factory RR speaker. Notice it is 8ohm. According to the schematics I've researched, the rear D-pillar speakers are a dual mono, parallel wired setup. 

















This is the C pillar mounted backup beeper. It appears to be a rattle-trap, loosely mounted here. Notice those plastic push clips. NOT good enough as there is a bit of space there and I KNOW I've been hearing this dang thing.

















This part right here is the C-pillar plastic, the one that goes over the backup beeper. This particular piece lacerated my thumb straight across my fingerprint and deep. Real nice mistake. I'm a pansy when it comes to cuts but I was also buzzed from a few beers. I didn't feel it right away but it hurts like the dickens now that I'm typing on it. Turns out the plastic ribs you see here are razor-sharp. Be careful!

The factory sub is out









The right side is pretty busy! Notice the factory mass-loaded vinyl (MLV) panel, that's a huge help when it comes to road noise.

















I pulled the MLV and started on the panel. 









I worked until I couldn't see anymore, as you can tell through the windows it was a bit dark, lol. 3 hours total (including time out to patch my thumb up) bringing the total to 23.5


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

I started again Saturday morning, with deadening









Then I turned my attention to the factory amp wiring.









Sorry I didn't take pics of the soldering and heatshrinking process. I was kinda in a groove. This side is the INPUT side to the JBL MS8.

























This is the OUTPUT side. I'm still waiting on my real amps, so I'm going to take advantage of the fact the MS8 has 8 channels of on-board amplification at least for a while. Because it is temporary, I just used electrical tape instead of heatshrink









I'm sure you noticed, that's a lot of wire. For the record (because its gotta be one), that's 8 inputs and 8 outputs + and - on each, minus the  sub signal because it doesn't go in the same loom. Each side is soldered to extension wire so that's 60 solder joints including mating to the factory wiring.

This part sucked. I drilled through the welded plastic in the panel, effectively destroying the part. There has to be a better way but I didn't find it, so this is what I did. 

















Next I used Peel and Stick Ensolite and covered this panel. I went right over the factory batting, worked fine.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

MLV installed and some deadener applied where it "flaps" a bit.









You can see in this shot I'm working on some contraption to mount the processor. Unfortunately the fun stops here for now, because it got dark again. 









Time spent 11.5 hours, bringing total to a tidy 35 hours worth.


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## narvarr (Jan 20, 2009)

Looking good Bro!


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## Yuck. (Dec 28, 2009)

Those Exodus Neo's look a lot like the CSS SDX7 woofer I was going to use for door subs. Do those things use XBL motors? I was going to run the SDX7's free air in the doors, but the Qts was way too low (.35) to be versatile enough for my tastes, so I'm leaning towards Ultra LV 6's instead. There's just not many options, but the Ultra's seem pretty legit.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Sunday began with me trying to figure out how to mount this processor. This is the wood structure I managed to build. This was SLOW going, with me constantly test-fitting each piece in the car as I went. I wish I knew how to weld and metal-fab, I'd have had a much better time making this out of metal. 

That black bracket is the factory subwoofer mount. 

















This is the mount area in test fitting

















Quick test to see how it will turn out









Carpeted in carpet, black with grey specks.









This is the ground wire I made up









Remote wire constructed, pulling the remote signal from the factory sub amp connector









Factory ground was painted so I scraped that down to bare metal









And the factory ground point used for the processor ground. This is the same ground point used by the factory amp it turns out.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Yuck. said:


> Those Exodus Neo's look a lot like the CSS SDX7 woofer I was going to use for door subs. Do those things use XBL motors? I was going to run the SDX7's free air in the doors, but the Qts was way too low (.35) to be versatile enough for my tastes, so I'm leaning towards Ultra LV 6's instead. There's just not many options, but the Ultra's seem pretty legit.


Yes indeed they are XBL^2, and well suited to a door install. 

The Anarchy can do more Xmax by a little bit but these guys should do well in a door altogether. I followed Glenn's advice on this one, and I can't wait to see how it sounds when I get to finally use them.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Ground wire follows the factory wiring to clear the seatbelt mechanism









I tidied up the input and output runs and got everything ready

















Shot of how I bracketed it to the factory subwoofer mount. It is surprisingly sturdy and safe 









Final fitment, less the top cover (no idea what I'll do there, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

























Sunday's effort was 9 hours, bringing the total to 44 hours


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## negativegain (Oct 6, 2009)

nice work, good sir.
the flex is a car that piques my interest. seeing the work you have done really adds to my lust.
any plans to drop it or rims?


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## scooter99 (Dec 21, 2008)

Nice work! I like how you tidied up the wiring, even as a "temporary" setup. Most people wouldn't take the time, just shove it in there and call it good. I appreciate that kind of attention to detail. Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see more.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

negativegain said:


> nice work, good sir.
> the flex is a car that piques my interest. seeing the work you have done really adds to my lust.
> any plans to drop it or rims?



Dropping is a sensitive subject, because the door wraps around the sill and thus when you open it, the metal gets really low. Any drop and I have to watch for curbs as I open the door. I have seen points where I'm 1/2" clear to the curb AS-IS so I really have to consider this.


Now wheels... Done!
20x8.5" Foose Nitrous


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

scooter99 said:


> Nice work! I like how you tidied up the wiring, even as a "temporary" setup. Most people wouldn't take the time, just shove it in there and call it good. I appreciate that kind of attention to detail. Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see more.


I feel you on that one. I don't know how temporary it will be so I figured why not do it right. Its 60 solder joints and 32 runs of wire, so tidy is important. LOL Its like doing 4 cars at once all at the same time.


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

fourthmeal said:


> Dropping is a sensitive subject, because the door wraps around the sill and thus when you open it, the metal gets really low. Any drop and I have to watch for curbs as I open the door. I have seen points where I'm 1/2" clear to the curb AS-IS so I really have to consider this.
> 
> 
> Now wheels... Done!
> 20x8.5" Foose Nitrous


The Foose's look awesome!
The tire top to wheel well gap and the factory front chin spoiler are screamin' for you to lower it.
I'd have to see a front on picture but it looks like the offset of the Foose wheels puts them inside the factory flared wheel wells making the whole vehicle look even more muscular lowered and still give enough room for suspension travel.
By the pic alone, you should consider 1" down in the rear and 2.5" in the front adding a just a little street rod rake to it's stance.
FWIW....

Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

PPI-ART COLLECTOR said:


> The Foose's look awesome!
> The tire top to wheel well gap and the factory front chin spoiler are screamin' for you to lower it.
> I'd have to see a front on picture but it looks like the offset of the Foose wheels puts them inside the factory flared wheel wells making the whole vehicle look even more muscular lowered and still give enough room for suspension travel.
> By the pic alone, you should consider 1" down in the rear and 2.5" in the front adding a just a little street rod rake to it's stance.
> ...



Hey Bret,

There's only one spring option that I'd consider for the Flex, and its the Eibach kit. Its the exact same one used on the Chip Foose Flex as well, and it lowers it perfectly IMO, without killing the ride from what I hear. H&R goes too low in the rear if you constantly carry people or want a slightly raked look, which I do. 

Its on the "maybe" list, rest assured! lol. Its just those damn curbs and these damn extended doors, the reach around the door sill like a roller coaster might hug a track. As such, its not a typical design and curbs will be a big, big problem if I go too low.

Here's a pic head on. I managed to get the offset almost dead-nuts on flush in front, which was the goal. With the rear its really close but not quite there. The 255/45-20 and 8.5" width seem to be spot-on square so that helps a bit.









and another


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Now for the good news!

IT WORKS!

Sunday night I didn't have time to complete wiring the power wire from the battery to the ms8, so I drove Monday with no sound. I don't know about you, but I can stand that for about 5 minutes before I get pissed off. 

So, as soon as I got home after work, I tore into the car again and completed this critical step. Let me be the first to say... GOOD LUCK finding a grommet or safe spot to install your power wire. I searched for over an hour and found not one single usable factory spot. So, I eventually grabbed the step-bit and punched a hole right through the firewall in between the brake booster and the cable for the hood. Turns out, it was a very suitable place, and I would highly recommend hitting this spot. Just be brave! Lol. There was a thick molded MLV layer on the interior side so I cut that out with a blade and then drilled from there. The engine side had a bit of soft firewall fire suppressant or something so I drilled straight through that and just ran the wire. I ran a leftover 4 gauge for now to the passenger seat area and slapped a distribution block down there to get the MS8's 8 gauge wiring connected. Its all temporary as I plan to run two 1/0's through the car (by punching another hole through the firewall right below the one I just made, actually.) Here's some pics with details

"Before", engine side, in between the brake booster (left) and hood cable (right)










"Before", interior side, I cut out the MLV and found plain metal









Test hole, make sure I wasn't going to blow something up or kill my brakes or anything.









Full size, made for a grommet for 1/0









Proof that I did my work right


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## tibug (Jan 22, 2011)

Lookin good buddy!


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

fourthmeal said:


> Hey Bret,
> 
> There's only one spring option that I'd consider for the Flex, and its the Eibach kit. Its the exact same one used on the Chip Foose Flex as well, and it lowers it perfectly IMO, without killing the ride from what I hear. H&R goes too low in the rear if you constantly carry people or want a slightly raked look, which I do.
> 
> ...


If Chip has his hands in the suspension design, it will be perfect.
That genius's talents has no bounds.
As for methods to lowering the vehicle, I was hoping someone would make a lowered front spindle for the Flex so the spring height, travel, and rate can remain stock. 
BTW, great job getting the wheel offset perfect.
Once lowered, the factory wheel well arch is going to look amazing once it's closer to the tire. That will become more apparent once you are looking more down onto the top of the arch than from the side.
I really get it about your frustration with the doors being low.
I remember worrying about every speed bump, dip, and curb in my 88 S-10 show truck with fiberglass ground effects and then again in the very low clearance in my 74 Pantera.
After awhile, you just get the hang of it and it becomes 2nd nature.
Also, I have been fascinated by the level of quality in the factory Ford audio components and layout for the Flex and I believe you said it's not even the high end audio option for the SUV?
Wow.
Lastly, really enjoying this thread and your progress. 

Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## sqguy (Oct 19, 2005)

hey how are those exodus working for u i have a pair also might go with them in my install. how much power are u planning tp give them


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

PPI-ART COLLECTOR said:


> If Chip has his hands in the suspension design, it will be perfect.
> That genius's talents has no bounds.
> As for methods to lowering the vehicle, I was hoping someone would make a lowered front spindle for the Flex so the spring height, travel, and rate can remain stock.
> BTW, great job getting the wheel offset perfect.
> ...


Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it. This particular Flex does come with the "high end" Sony surround, and I must say with just the factory deck, the MS8, the factory speakers, and a quick spare sub-and-box I had lying around, it sounds amazing. So much so that I question now just how much more I need to put into it. I had planned 4 amps, but I had no idea how well the MS8's outputs might handle some of the duties (like rear channels.) I'll come up with a gameplan.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

sqguy said:


> hey how are those exodus working for u i have a pair also might go with them in my install. how much power are u planning tp give them


Too soon! Right now they sound great in the original packaging that they were shipped to me in, because that's all they've been in. lol. Planning on 150W+ per in a bridged 4ch @ 8ohm.


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## sinister mob (Jan 11, 2010)

Congrats on graduating from the Escape to the Flex. Looks like you are having a lot of fun with the new space. Looks amazing. Tuned in for the progress.


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## bigguy (Apr 13, 2010)

Nice work so far.


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## decibelle (Feb 17, 2011)

Impressive work. I'm especially a fan of the large amount of mat and ensolite you're using. Sub'd, can't wait to see this build.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

millerlyte said:


> Impressive work. I'm especially a fan of the large amount of mat and ensolite you're using. Sub'd, can't wait to see this build.


Its not THAT bad actually!

I ordered 4 yards of Ensolite Peel and Stick, and 1 box of mat. I had a 26 sheets left over from two previous builds I did for others, so if everything goes to plan I'll be in it for ~ 2 boxes and 4 yards of ccf. The Flex has a surprisingly large amount of MLV in it which makes my job easier. I also noticed my entire floor is completely engulfed in a very sturdy, very large amount of deadening. YAY! I want to do all the little panels in the car just to keep rattling down and MAYBE catch some errant road noise (little bit of mat, coat in Ensolite), and the rear doors, and rear hatch are last. I have to say, the difference in sound between the front deadened door and the stock rear doors is hilarious. I was polishing the doors up and noticed right away the difference. Ting/clang into <thud>.


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## decibelle (Feb 17, 2011)

Got to love the thud of a thoroughly damped door. I'm nearly there, myself, but there's always something... you're lucky then if that massive vehicle is so quiet already I can only imagine if it wasn't... yikes.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

millerlyte said:


> Got to love the thud of a thoroughly damped door. I'm nearly there, myself, but there's always something... you're lucky then if that massive vehicle is so quiet already I can only imagine if it wasn't... yikes.



It IS quite satisfying! Also, when the whole system was down and the car was silent, it was amazing to hear how quiet this car is. I could hear the hum of my tires on the grooved highway, the whirr of the power steering pump as I turned the streets, some rattling of the change and ipod in the center console on bumps, and the exhaust had a little something going here and there. You can tell they spent time getting it right for the inside cabin.

My work is just augmenting their windtunnel and NVH studies. I am quite impressed with Ford's ability to make this car as little like a Ford as possible. And I mean that with love, having owned a Mustang, and Tribute (Mazda's Ford Escape clone).


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## decibelle (Feb 17, 2011)

What model and year was the stang? One of the good ones, right? (;


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

millerlyte said:


> What model and year was the stang? One of the good ones, right? (;


2000 GT 5sp coupe, and the Tribute was an 08 4cyl iTouring.

The Mustang was by far the most reliable car I have ever had. The Flex has had no mechanical issues but the TPMS keeps f-ing up and the rear d-pillar plastic keeps cracking due to bad design. 

Mustang had an IAC go bad one day, that's all it ever had.

Found a pic of the system in it

















Notice the crappy smoothing I did, it was my first fiberglass job ever and I got tired of seeing it not in my car. I WAS going to redo it and smooth it over later, but the whole system was stolen days later. LOL. Punks watching me build it I imagine. Notice this was WAY back in the day.


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## decibelle (Feb 17, 2011)

Sorry about the theft... I sometimes worry about that around here too. You're the only person I've heard of who has said their Mustang gave them no problems. Everyone I've ever heard of who's owned one has said it was fun to drive but unreliable. Maybe the manual trans had something to do with it not going out on you...


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

Thats why when I work on my install I do it at my brothers space (about 3000sq of space)


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Now that I've spent a few days with the MS8, I can detail a few things to you. Compared with the stock Sony setup, the image is far more detailed and clear. The Sony processing actually gets close to what the MS8 can do and in some ways is its equal, but you can tell there is a lifted veil of detail with the MS8. Keep in mind that the stock HU, stock Sony amp, and stock speakers (except for a small 10" sealed box thrown in the spare tire well for now) are in use still. Keep in mind a lot of deadening/sealing has gone on, and this helps quite a bit. 

The apparent image width can exceed the A-pillars on good, spacious recordings. Stage height is almost 100% on top of the dash. Center image is wide and high off the dash, acoustically right on the hood, pretty much. Right now the image placement and precision is not exactly what I want, it is almost as if the focus is a bit fuzzy. I also noticed that the stock speakers lose composure of detail (separation of instruments mostly) pretty quick. So, given the Stock + Ms8 setup, it is ALMOST there as-is.

Now, on with the new upgrade path. Given the performance of the current setup, I'm considering abandoning my rather ambitious plan of redoing the A-pillars and center with 3" fullrangers + small tweet. I may still do something like this but I can tell it simply will not be necessary to get a high stage height w/ the MS8. On the table is a backup plan of using a low-resonance tweeter (The SB Acoustics Neo dimple-dome) in the A-pillars, and a fullranger in the center. Doing this, the fab time of the A-pillars would be hours not days. With regard to the rear doors and rear D-pillars, I have decided to simplify this quite a bit. The Ms8's onboard amps seem well-suited to powering these speakers so an extra amp will not be needed. Right now, the rear D-pillars are not connected, because I did not know what to do with them initially. Well I I discussed the issue with some audio friends and the basic idea is to re-wire then so they are paralleled to the rear door speakers, with an "L-Pad" on the 3 1/2" speaker. Remember that the stock setup connects in parallel the two 3 1/2's, and runs them mono. These speakers are 8 ohm BTW. A rewire is necessary because we don't want a mono, shared parallel load to the MS8, we want a parallel (to the door speaker), stereo. I'm using an "L-Pad" (a dial attenuator) on the 3 1/2's because I don't want them too loud compared with the rear doors. What's cool is the MS8 can actually take two speakers and treat them as one when doing its tune, so this works very well in the rear if you don't' want to use 4 channels of processing power.

Given all these tweaks, I'll be able to shrink down from 4 amps to possibly 2. I have found a possible solution with Massive Audio Nano amps, a high powered 5ch and a potent 4ch may end up being all I need. If I do this, I can avoid running two 1/0 gauge runs of wire through the car, and it simplifies the entire setup by a large degree. Less cost, less complexity, less heat generated, etc.


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## ocuriel (Oct 7, 2005)

Awesome build. Glad you did not use photobucket or else I could not see this at work.


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

fourthmeal said:


> Now that I've spent a few days with the MS8, I can detail a few things to you. Compared with the stock Sony setup, the image is far more detailed and clear. The Sony processing actually gets close to what the MS8 can do and in some ways is its equal, but you can tell there is a lifted veil of detail with the MS8. Keep in mind that the stock HU, stock Sony amp, and stock speakers (except for a small 10" sealed box thrown in the spare tire well for now) are in use still. Keep in mind a lot of deadening/sealing has gone on, and this helps quite a bit.
> 
> The apparent image width can exceed the A-pillars on good, spacious recordings. Stage height is almost 100% on top of the dash. Center image is wide and high off the dash, acoustically right on the hood, pretty much. Right now the image placement and precision is not exactly what I want, it is almost as if the focus is a bit fuzzy. I also noticed that the stock speakers lose composure of detail (separation of instruments mostly) pretty quick. So, given the Stock + Ms8 setup, it is ALMOST there as-is.
> 
> ...


Your ability to, "scale back" your plans is very admirable and I am not sure I have the ability to do that.

Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Let's get back into it!
Power wire run (1/0 welding cable) to the passenger seat. Techflex'd of course


































Many layers later, I was able to trim the fiberglass tub down to a usable shape.

















This is the top board. Notice the chamfer and notch on the edge of the whole thing. This is so the top will snug into the fiberglass form









You'll notice there is space between the top board and the fiberglass tub. Don't worry, I've got a solution. This is never easy to get a flat top on the fiberglass tub, at least to me. But I hate fiberglass and fiberglass hates me ..lol.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Unfortunately when my hands are covered in resin or fiberglass dust, I don't take pics. I've already destroyed a camera doing this, not doing it again. So, here's what happened in between the pics I showed you before, and these. I cut holes for the subs first. I procrastinated on this because I was undecided on what subs would work up till the last minute it seems. I ended up finding a mate to my rare Exile Audio Xtec 10" sub I had in storage, which is a shallow sub so it fits this little box perfectly. The other sub is on the way, so for now you'll be seeing a bunch of pics with just one sub. 

Anyway, the top of the box and the fiberglass tub were resined together but as expected there was still a lot of open space between the two. So I mixed up what is known as "milkshake" and poured it in the box and moved the box around to get the mixture in between the box top and the tub's edge. Milkshake, if you are not familiar with the term, is the process of using a stranded fiberglass filler (I used long strand "Kitty-Hair") and mixing it with standard resin, in a slurry. A mighty messy slurry I might add, which is why there are no pics of this process. Anyway, here you go:










Sorry for the blurry pic, I forgot the camera was in macro. Its just a shot of the deadened and foam-covered trunk. All the factory carpet is back in place as well







.

















This is the fiberglass box in its home









Test fitting the Exile sub









Take note of this back panel. I actually had to use a razor blade and skim off some of the plastic tabs off this part because the sub box conflicts right here. 









Time to make the box pretty. I decided to use some ivory vinyl that matches the upper plastic trim of the car exactly. Nevermind the slightly rough cut, the sub covers it.









Made a trim board to go on top. 









I decided to cover these piece in a matching charcoal vinyl that matches the factory charcoal interior pieces.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Some more shots of that. Notice the shaping to go around the rear panel' plastic bits.

















This is the top trim board, which will be the final top of the trunk. It will be covered in black carpet to approximate the factory look, and will have an access panel for the subs with a metal grille covered in carpet.

















This is still in rough form so visualize it looking a lot smoother


















That's it for now, and because I totally blew it off, here's the summary of the last few weeks of project time.

I was at 44 hours after the MS8 was installed,
The 1/0 power wire installation including drilling through the firewall took 3 hours. Most of that was measuring a ton of times, and drilling once with my fingers crossed. That got the MS8 functional an there was about 3 hours of tuning but for the sake of project time, I'm NOT including that. Why you ask? Because listening to music and making subtle changes to the EQ is NOT hard work IMO. So I'm at 47 hours. 

Cutting the fiberglass box to shape and building the top board took 3 hours, including using resin to attach the two. That's 50 hours.

Doing the "Milkshake" process took 2 hours from mix to cure, which also includes cutting the speaker holes. 52 hours.

That leaves us with today's effort which was 7 hours, so I'm at 59 hours so far.


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## narvarr (Jan 20, 2009)

Man, this is coming along nicely. I like what you got going on with those subs.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Looking good! Great job on the box. Brings back memories of working on mine. Those tubs are so time consuming. Are you planning to bolt the box to the vehicle via an existing spare tire screw down at the bottom of the well (is there one?)?


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## ItsAdam1 (Nov 25, 2007)

awesome, I just bought a ford flex as well. I have been thinking of doing wheels and suspension first and then some audio/video. Keep up the good work


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

ItsAdam1 said:


> awesome, I just bought a ford flex as well. I have been thinking of doing wheels and suspension first and then some audio/video. Keep up the good work


IMO do just that, because good wheels and tires make this thing. I've seen a LOT of Flex wheel installs and I think I can offer some advice... Go 20" to stay light and relatively safe from the potholes and junk. 22" to push the envelope just a bit. 265/35-22 is about all that fits for sure. 265/40-22 (which looks GREAT if you can fit it and recal your speedo) can get really close to the strut unless you plan your offset and such really carefully. 

+35ET on 8.5" rim (like mine) seems to be a strong fit in the front, but leaves a tiny bit to be desired in the back. Staggering would be awesome for AWD models but of course rotation is out at that point 

As far as wheels, I have noticed that full face and concave designs look absolutely incredible. Deep dish doesn't work for the most part because our offset is medium high, so the only wheels that "dish" are ones that have to curve the spokes right back to the hub and it looks tacky as all hell IMO. Like a damn mushroom. I have noticed the concave wheels at Vossen look extraordinary for example. I also really like the Forgestar F14, and if you're going "only" 20's then the TSW Nurburgring may be worth a look. 

I have noticed that my slightly heavy Foose wheels changed the handling characteristics in the negative a bit, however the sticky tire did make up for it in other ways. Going with a lighter forged wheels like the F14 or similar may end up being the best of both worlds for sure.

Be careful about doing spacers or whatever because our wheel bearings (unit bearings, big ass $$$) are suspect to fail and I'm sure extra stress on them will not end well. It is also likely that modifications here may get the dealer in a huff about replacing those bearings if they fail. 


Be wary of your rear outside D-pillars, they will crack on you at some point or they may already be defective from the dealer lot. Just make sure you get the dealer to put somewhere in your paperwork that these are known to fail and even when replaced they will continue to fail until a redesign comes down the pipeline. Other than that, its a pretty cool car!


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## b&camp (Jan 27, 2011)

4thmeal, the quality of your installs is "otherworldly"  

K says hi.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

jsun_g said:


> Looking good! Great job on the box. Brings back memories of working on mine. Those tubs are so time consuming. Are you planning to bolt the box to the vehicle via an existing spare tire screw down at the bottom of the well (is there one?)?


The box is not held down by a bolt or anything, though that is a good idea sometimes. The back plastic panel overlays the box a bit so that holds it down, and when the box is fully in, it is quite snug in between a layer of ensolite and RAAMmat. I have had the box in the car many times during this build and I haven't heard a peep from it at any point, so I am going to call it "good" for now. 

FYI to those doing the same car, be aware that this box, if it were ANY taller (minus the trim boards on top if it) would be impossible to put in the vehicle without removing the 3rd seats. I had the fiberglass portion taller at one point, but I realized I couldn't even fit the darn box in the car so I shaved down the whole tub until it fit. It was this little surprise that sealed the deal for me on what subs to use. There is only ~4.5" of space from the top of the box (again minus trim panels) to the fiberglass bottom. I realized I could get a bit more space if I built up just the rear of the box and left the portion that tucks under the 3rd seats this height, but in the end there is also a conflict with how the 3rd seats flip/fold flat. So the height you see now is what I would consider the absolute maximum IF you want those seats to flip and fold somewhat flat. 

Details details..lol.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

b&camp said:


> 4thmeal, the quality of your installs is "otherworldly"
> 
> K says hi.


Thanks bro!


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Ok got a bit more done this morning before the sun got out of control.

I cut one part of my subwoofer grille. This will be met with a strong perforated steel construction to protect the subs from anything plopped in the trunk. 









Test fit of the grille piece on top of the existing box and trim









One last test fit before final trim of the top board

















Top board covered in black carpet, and while I was prepping the panel I put a bevel around the whole thing for a little extra dimension









Another test fit of the grille piece. Yep, still fits.

















This is almost done as you can see. I need the sub to come in to match mine so I can install them and get it functional. Today was 3 hours of work, bringing the total to 62 hours.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Well the other sub just came in so its game on this weekend for a functional sub box assuming I can figure out how to fabricate a strong protective grille.


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## ecbmxer (Dec 1, 2010)

Grill should be easy now that you did all the hard work! I made a nice grill that I covered in black carpet to protect my sub also. I don't have a staple gun so I used hot glue to attach the mesh to the MDF ring. It was actually so strong I ripped one ring apart trying to remove it and had to re-do the whole thing. But I think I saw staples on the vinyl, so you could probably just staple the mesh down, which would be easier. Looks great!


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

ecbmxer said:


> Grill should be easy now that you did all the hard work! I made a nice grill that I covered in black carpet to protect my sub also. I don't have a staple gun so I used hot glue to attach the mesh to the MDF ring. It was actually so strong I ripped one ring apart trying to remove it and had to re-do the whole thing. But I think I saw staples on the vinyl, so you could probably just staple the mesh down, which would be easier. Looks great!


What metal did you use? I'm hoping for a perforated thick steel at home depot...if I can find it.


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## scooter99 (Dec 21, 2008)

Nice work man! Can you get a close up of the grill in the trim panel? I would like to see the seam. I'm going to be doing a bevel on my amp rack and I need to put cover pieces, as you're doing, on mine as well, but I want to see if I need to bevel the cover pieces or not. 

It's lookin good!


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## cobra93 (Dec 22, 2009)

fourthmeal said:


> What metal did you use? I'm hoping for a perforated thick steel at home depot...if I can find it.


If you have any steel fabrication shops (job shops) in your area I'd recommend asking if they have any "drops" that you could purchase. They may just give it to you.

Are you looking to do expanded metal (diamond shaped openings
), perforated plate (round holes) or something else entirely?

Your project is coming along nicely, BTW. Looking forward to your progress.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Well the 2nd sub came in so I took this weekend to finish the subwoofer setup.

First I cut a hole for the speaker terminal, and carpeted over the remainder of the box.









I doubled up on the terminal, soldered, and then heatshrunk the connections to protect them.









Terminal installed, ready to go.









Both subs installed. 









I cut some of this expanded metal into a grille shape, and routed the inside of my wood form to allow the metal to sit flush with the wood so the carpet will be as smooth as possible. This metal cut me pretty good btw, be careful with it.









Simple step but I wanted to make a little extra height on the grille, so I used Ensolite under it. 









This is the carpeted side









Now you see em.









Now you don't

















This took 4 hours, bringing the running total to 66 hours. IMO, NOT TOO BAD.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

scooter99 said:


> Nice work man! Can you get a close up of the grill in the trim panel? I would like to see the seam. I'm going to be doing a bevel on my amp rack and I need to put cover pieces, as you're doing, on mine as well, but I want to see if I need to bevel the cover pieces or not.
> 
> It's lookin good!



I beveled the outside but left the grille itself alone. That's because the tight clearance I had with the metal didn't allow any room for a bevel.

Its a bit tight but that's OK. I used a piece of black heat shrink wrapped a little like a ribbon loop, and stapled that to the underside of the grille, and let a bit of the loop hang out at the back of the sub box.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

cobra93 said:


> If you have any steel fabrication shops (job shops) in your area I'd recommend asking if they have any "drops" that you could purchase. They may just give it to you.
> 
> Are you looking to do expanded metal (diamond shaped openings
> ), perforated plate (round holes) or something else entirely?
> ...



I just did the easy thing and went to home depot, and picked up some expanded metal. It flexes a wee bit but after the grille was epoxied to the wood frame, it was stiff enough for a stroller which is usually all that goes back there.


Thanks everyone for the kind words!


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

fourthmeal said:


> I just did the easy thing and went to home depot, and picked up some expanded metal. It flexes a wee bit but after the grille was epoxied to the wood frame, it was stiff enough for a stroller which is usually all that goes back there.
> 
> 
> Thanks everyone for the kind words!


Great job!
Two questions come to mind.
How do the subs sound?
Where's the spare going?
Thx,
Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

PPI-ART COLLECTOR said:


> Great job!
> Two questions come to mind.
> How do the subs sound?
> Where's the spare going?
> ...


Subs sound GREAT. I haven't yet recal'd with the MS8 so I just used my EQ and fiddled a bit. I'm STILL powering off the MS8 amp, this time at 2ohm, so I have not opened this thing up at all yet. I think its going to be awesome though.

Spare tire was ditched. My logic is that anywhere in town, if I get a slow leak flat I keep a compressor onboard 24/7 and that'll get me home. If I get a fast leak, I'll call a friend or get a tow back home and slap on a stock 18" wheel /tire assembly from the garage. On long trips, like the one I have planned later in the fall, I plan on buying one of those Tire Rack storage bags that can hold a whole wheel and tire. Then I'll just treat that like extra luggage. My continued logic is that a dinky spare wouldn't do much out of town anyway, given I'm running my Foose 20's and regular hole-in-the-wall shops won't be carrying my size. A full-size spare carried in the cabin would at least let me get home safely while maintaining normal speed.


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## scooter99 (Dec 21, 2008)

I like your logic! 

Nice work on the finish. Looks great!


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

It's been months since you posted anything new.
How about a little update?

Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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