2005 Ford Focus ZX4. System update11/18 rear midbass enclosure

[just call me KeV]

It's been a long time since I've done a full build on a vehicle. Nearly ten years. Brass tacks; I can be a hack and rush **** but I am trying to turn that around on this build. At the moment all I have to offer is some photos of the car and sound deadening that I have done. I am making significant progress every week; however. This is an ambitious project and my intention is to push the limit as far as I can.
We'll start with the trunk first. I overdid it a bit. The seal for the trunk actually makes contact with the mlv when closed so I'll need to trim it a bit but I wanted to show my little mistakes too. It is still waterproof though so no leaks.
What you are looking at is siless deadener 80 mil in a single layer. This a new product for me but I would put it on par with noico. Butyl based. There is a layer of 1/16" adhesive backed neoprene over the deadener followed by a layer of 1 lb. per sq. ft mass loaded vinyl. I used 1/8" neoprene on the floor of the trunk. You'll see with the other photos of the deadening process that this is typically how I will deaden a surface which works to great effect. I haven't cut the mlv for the floor of the trunk yet but I will do that tomorrow after work and post a photo. It's a heavier material that is 2lb per sq ft and I will use that here in the trunk and the floor of the cabin.

 

[just call me KeV]

On to the doors. The plan is to put a 10" sealed back midrange in the front doors and maybe the rear. I'm still on the fence. I haven't fabricated baffles for them yet. I would like to get the ribbons and planars on the dash(more on that later), and the 8" midbass in the kicks before I start on the doors. I didn't take anymore photos but all four of the doors are done. It made the car much less of a rickety shitbox but when I did the doors you could really notice the noise coming through the floor. I used two layers of deadener which I'm not a fan of but these doors needed a heroic level of materials and deadening. I'm going to make some custom floor mats that have mlv and neoprene sandwiched together but that will be a bit later.

 

[just call me KeV]

The FrontStage. I mulled around thinking which would be the best setup for the car. At first, I was just going to do a few component sets and call it a day but that wasn't a very fun idea. So I've decided to go a different way. For midrange I am using a pair of Dayton AMT air motion transformers and a planar tweeters. These are typically used in home setups but I thought they would be nice to try in the car. They will be on axis in and around the A pillars. For midbass I am going to put the B&C 8" 8NDL51 in the kicks. I'm going to run four behind the front seats as well.

 

[hispls]

I have found that planars are very sensitive to what angle and plane you mount them on. They can sound great but I'd suggest to do whatever it takes to test how they'll sound wherever you intend to mount before you burn time and materials in building out some permanent home for them.

 

[just call me KeV]

I have found that planars are very sensitive to what angle and plane you mount them on. They can sound great but I'd suggest to do whatever it takes to test how they'll sound wherever you intend to mount before you burn time and materials in building out some permanent home for them.

My intention is to mock up a frame that connects the planar and the amt together for each side. Then dampen the rear wave with some towels. I'll run a couple sweeps and tones to get an idea of what I'm looking at. After that I can build some enclosures for them. I'm running jbl amplifiers with built in dsp so tuning should be straightforward.

 

[hispls]

My intention is to mock up a frame that connects the planar and the amt together for each side. Then dampen the rear wave with some towels. I'll run a couple sweeps and tones to get an idea of what I'm looking at. After that I can build some enclosures for them. I'm running jbl amplifiers with built in dsp so tuning should be straightforward.

Not sure about tones, I'd mock things up and try a variety of music. Sounds like you're on the right track anyway, if you can find a good mounting location/position you should be very happy.

 

[just call me KeV]

Not sure about tones, I'd mock things up and try a variety of music. Sounds like you're on the right track anyway, if you can find a good mounting location/position you should be very happy.

Sorry I meant to put that sentence at the end. I have a set of flac files that have reference tracks and a few of my faves. Those are very familiar. I also have my fiio and my Focal celestee headphones I can use as a baseline when I do the actual tuning after I install all of the drivers.

 

[metalheadjoe]

The sunlight was really ******* with me in the first few pictures.

 

[just call me KeV]

The sunlight was really ******* with me in the first few pictures.

It's bright out when I take photos. Sometimes they don't come out well.

 

[just call me KeV]

I tackled the rear deck/rear seat area today. Got a lot done. Total time was around 7 hours. I used deadener and 1/8 neoprene. The underside of the deck was done as well. Any loose wires were covered in aluminum tape. The speakers are for the build

 

[just call me KeV]

The rear seat area. I discarded the rear seat bottom. The rear seat is coming out to put the subwoofers in so it will no longer be needed. The top will be removed when the baffle for the subs are built. I repeated the same process as the previous post. You can see the plastic panels were also treated. Tomorrow I do the cabin and firewall.
So the lead time on the subs I was looking at is 45 days and here we are less than four weeks until Slamology is here. So for now I am going to use 3 18" from my home system. Peavey Black Widows. I ran them infinite baffle in my 550i 3 years ago. Accurate and musical but not really "loud"

 

[just call me KeV]

So I got the cabin deadened which took at least 12 hours over a couple days. It gave me the opportunity to look at the location for the 8" in the kickpanels. Unfortunately there are two wire harnesses that I can move but the work required would be significant. Slamology is coming in less than 25 days. The best compromise is to put them under the seats. I have plenty of depth to build and I can vent them into the frame rails.
Here are a few more pictures by way of an update for you guys. I didn't take a lot of photos this time but you guys get the general idea. 80 mil sound deadener and 1/8'' neoprene rubber. I also used the 2lb. sq.ft mlv this time. I nearly killed the UPS guy. I still need a fitted piece of mlv for the trunk floor but I will worry about that after Slam.
The cabin is so much quieter now. It's like a completely different car.

 

[just call me KeV]

Here is a few pictures of some gear that I got from Partsexpress. I decided to buy some 6.5" speakers for the doors. This was the easiest way to do it. I may move to a large midbass but for now i am going to use these. The car when completed will have around 24 speakers in it but Slam being around the corner their will only be 14. I also purchased a mic for when I start doing tuning. I will take screen shots of all the data so you guys can see it.
I got some terminal strips as you can see. I am going to run the power and ground through an pair of distro blocks so you can ignore those. The amps are 8 channel x 40w. So right now I have 16 channels to play with. I need to get a third dsp amp (Pictured below). That will bring my channels available to 24. Then I will run a dedicated sub amp. So at slam I will be bringing the thunder with 640 watts. haha

 

[ThxOne]

Mmmmm titillating.

 

[just call me KeV]

So here's the proposed location for the 8" midbass. These are the 8ndl51 from B&C. They are outstanding drivers. The other photo with the blue tape is a small mock up of another pair of midbass drivers but much larger. I really want to do a 15". I can vent it directly into the frame rails. I have openings on either side that I can enlarge to 5x8 which is enough for a 15". Keep in mind that this is a multi channel low wattage system. With that in mind every driver but the sub will only see 40 watts.