# Subaru with Hertz, Rockford, and a fiberglass enclosure



## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

10 year old Forrester, sealed box with amp rack

Rockford P3 12", 1.4 cubes sealed. Hertz HDP5 pushing Hertz Hi Energy speakers. Very nice.


The pallette










Going to try to keep the jack storage


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Setting up the lines




























How do you cut a circle through 1-1/2" of MDF with only a 1" bit?




























Took some fancy footwork to get the amp in that close to the sub. Plus the help of this little guy...... and a bunch of duraglass to clean up the gaps....










And now, the giant router bit.


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## TheBetterMethod (Sep 19, 2012)

Really nice work so far!


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

thanks



going old school. Never actually used this method before. I doubt I ever will again, but it is sure better than stretching fleece to a glass edge and awkwardly trying to CA glue it.....



















big mess......


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Here's the trim














































first layers had no dye, so I can see the sharpie lines.










Bolted in place.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Tweeter pods made from stock ABS trim, sintra rings, CA, duraglass, and rage extreme.


























































Speaker baffles. How some 'high end' shops can avoid 'custom' work is beyond me. You CANNOT install a speaker correctly in a lot of vehicles out there without some setup to make rings like these.

these are also Sintra, 2 layers of 1/2" stacked. Notice the single-bearing-riding-on-2-surfaces-trick...

These rings were made in 20 minutes with a jig saw, router, an air saw, and an old ring hanging on the shelf that fit this speaker.



















not 3m tape....


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

I should have done this in 3/4"..... would have saved a bunch of blocking...



















fine tuning the fit



















the foam was all temporary, just for shape. All gone now. I have a little hole in the enclosure to fill.










My trim is THICK. I hate wimpy glass parts, and nothing could be worse than a customer pulling out the trim, dropping it, and having a chunk break off. 1/4" of glass


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

I had this bright idea to do a double bevel. We'll see if it ends up looking any good...














































Poly Primer


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

sealing everything up, and blacking it out





























This is the view from my shop, just the other night


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## FLYONWALL9 (Nov 8, 2009)

nice work


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## bigbubba (Mar 23, 2011)

Awesome work man! Can't wait to see the rest.


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## lashlee (Aug 16, 2007)

That looks great!!


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## TheBetterMethod (Sep 19, 2012)

I'm really diggin' this.


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## rugdnit (Dec 24, 2007)

Very nice work all the way around.


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## chithead (Mar 19, 2008)

I am liking this! Inspirational to say the least.


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## rugdnit (Dec 24, 2007)

I have a 2006 XT that I drove for sales that I passed on to wifey for a grocery getter about 2 years ago. The doors need alot of help in terms of treatment and a custom baffle to fit a nice set of 6.5s -- I really liked the extra work on the tweeter pods. Makes me want to dive back into the subie!


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## chithead (Mar 19, 2008)

rugdnit said:


> Makes me want to dive back into the subie!


Doooo eeeet...


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## rugdnit (Dec 24, 2007)

chithead said:


> Doooo eeeet...


Sorry to sidetrack.... NO TIME. Just got a new ride and Bing will be taking care of that in April. I hope you younger guys are aware that your time is valuable. Once you have a career and a family... There are just not enough hours in a day.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

thanks


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## danno14 (Sep 1, 2009)

Damn you do good work!


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Thanks


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## sinister-kustoms (Jul 22, 2009)

Nice work Nelson!


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Here's the conclusion

Everything was sprayed with some black urethane primer I had laying around. Everything is 100% water-proof, and blacked out for looks.






























The vinyl was wrapped with NO heat.... I pulled off the backer. Big thanks to Dan Ungaro for the tip of wiping the backing down with acetone first! that used to take ages.....



















the gap closes up nicely.










the radii of the box and grille look pretty good! I'm really pleased with the shapes here.










Tweeter pods wrapped, and in place.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

installed










tight fit





































Here's the double beveled amp window. pretty cool, but cheap and easy.





































Floor back in. Still has full access to jack and spare.
































































dirty floor mat back in. Trimmed it to fit.


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## strong*I*bumpin (Oct 3, 2005)

A lot of work has gone into this enclosure but the end result is BEAUTIFUL!....it just looks so stock.


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## Mile Zero (Oct 10, 2012)

Nice install, nice gear, I'm a big fan of the HERTZ stuff.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Thanks

Yeah, Hertz gear is great.


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## bigbubba (Mar 23, 2011)

bobwires said:


> The vinyl was wrapped with NO heat.... I pulled off the backer. Big thanks to Dan Ungaro for the tip of *wiping the backing down with acetone first!* that used to take ages.....


Well, I'll be damn. That tip would have been helpful a while back. Great work man.


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## ksoazn (Oct 12, 2012)

that some badass work right there


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

thanks


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## BoomHz (Apr 20, 2007)

Nice work. Hope you used some Fiberlay supplies!?!?

Haven't heard from you in years.........this is D.J. from old Plaschem in Anchorage and fiberglassforums.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Hey Boom! All this stuff is from Fiberlay!

what's shakin' up north?


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## shutmdown (Aug 24, 2008)

wow the attention to detail on this build is amazing....


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## hippopotamus (Sep 5, 2012)

great work sir.. very clean and very detailed..
not a big fan of hertz but i love the job u've done..


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## 07azhhr (Dec 28, 2011)

Damn nice work there.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Thanks fellas

If you don't like Hertz/Audison, what do you like?


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## RYNOMOTO (Oct 3, 2008)

Awesome work BOBWIRES!!!!


You should really make a few of these complete setups to sell to the Forester guys over at Subaruforester.org

They would eat these up!!!!

I had a 2004 Forester XT that I worked hard to get the doors and the rear sub decent... never was much more than partially satisified and spent more than $1,500 trying to get there.....


I loved that car, but decided I needed something with a lot more deep mud, nasty off road capabilities..... Mine had 220,000 miles and still put down 275WHP on a mustang dyno when I sold it....


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Man the finished product looks great! 

That's some excellent work for any seasoned installer let alone a young 24yo!! You have some serious talent there young man!


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## jboen (Jun 6, 2011)

man that is cool! I like that you changed the design and didn't "settle" great work here!


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Thanks a lot


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## mark620 (Dec 8, 2010)

Nice work excelent fiberglass and vinyl work , that pulling off the backing trick is pretty cool. Does the aceton make it more strechable?


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

very nice work, .....as allways


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## Wesayso (Jul 20, 2010)

Excellent work! It looks great, fit's right in.


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## CaptainMorgan (Jan 13, 2012)

Great craftsmanship, but I've gotten used to Nelson being awesome. Good to see him over here too.

Pulling the backing from vinyl sounds like a great way to make it wrap better, but I'm sure you have to be a lot more careful with it. I'm going to have to read up more on that trick and try it.


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## mklett33 (Dec 7, 2009)

Saw this over on FGF, but I love it! Remind me, what is the dye you use in the resin? Can I get a link?


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

very imprest with the fit and finish. Particular the tightness of the junction lines and adjoining surfaces.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

mark620 said:


> Nice work excelent fiberglass and vinyl work , that pulling off the backing trick is pretty cool. Does the aceton make it more strechable?


Just helps the backer off a little easier.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

mklett33 said:


> Saw this over on FGF, but I love it! Remind me, what is the dye you use in the resin? Can I get a link?


I get all my glassing supplies from Fiberlay. You can get all different colors of resin pigment.


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## evangojason (Feb 12, 2010)

One of the best enclosures I've ever seen.


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

Thanks all


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Nice work Nelson.

Very nice attention to detail and excellent final product.

One question I have is on the face of the enclosure where the line that meets the amp rack.....did you coat the bottom edge of the rack where it touches that cosmetic line with a grease.....coat the entire thing with reinforced filler....then shape by hand making sure to not ruin the perfect edge where the 2 pieces are intended to meet?


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## quietfly (Mar 23, 2011)

as always Nelson Top quality work!!!


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## bobwires (May 13, 2008)

GlasSman said:


> Nice work Nelson.
> 
> Very nice attention to detail and excellent final product.


Thanks



GlasSman said:


> One question I have is on the face of the enclosure where the line that meets the amp rack.....did you coat the bottom edge of the rack where it touches that cosmetic line with a grease.....coat the entire thing with reinforced filler....then shape by hand making sure to not ruin the perfect edge where the 2 pieces are intended to meet?


No, that method would really suck. I don't use greasy, vaseline, pam, or any crap like that. Just makes a huge mess, and you can hardly work with that area later on. Once grease has soaked in, you can't prime it, fill it, spray bomb it.... nothing. You could if you mask it first, but that's more thickness, and still doesn't compensate for the thickness of the covering material.

This is just a basic insert. foam mounting tape to make the gap the perfect thickness for whatever the finishing material is - in this case, I grabbed the 1/4" wide 1/16" thick tape for 2 layers of vinyl. I could have used 2 layers of 3m tape, which is 1/32" thick.

Duraglass isn't really necessary, but I usually use it anyway for the base layer. I lay it on a smooth as possible, and don't pile it too high. I just use it for build up on an insert more than 1/4" thick. knock it with 36g real quick, then lay on some regular filler. sand it to perfection, right up against the tape line. You NEVER want to be stuck sanding the edge you spent the time to make perfect in the first place. You really shouldn't have to do more than a quick swipe on the edges to round off the corners.


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

bobwires said:


> Thanks
> 
> 
> 
> No, that method would really suck. I don't use greasy, vaseline, pam, or any crap like that. Just makes a huge mess, and you can hardly work with that area later on. Once grease has soaked in, you can't prime it, fill it, spray bomb it.... nothing. You could if you mask it first, but that's more thickness, and still doesn't compensate for the thickness of the covering material.


Thats what I figured.

The first time I ever did a project similar to this I used a mold release wax and it was a bear to work that area afterwards....ended vinyl wrapping luckily but I learned the hard way using a wax or grease is not the best method when precisely fitting parts are needed.


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