Box Material

[FuelEmpire]

Hi everyone,

Is MDF the ultimate box material?

An idea I'm playing with, using my spare tire well for a bass setup, is to use MDF for the tops and sides, but the factory sheet metal (sound dampened) for the floor. First off, how terrible of an idea is this? I know the aluminum, even deadened, won't absorb sound like the MDF could. But beyond that... is there even a glue out there that can adhere MDF to metal and withstand the constant pounding from a 12" sub?

Thanks!

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[TheRadio]

Mdf is not the best box material. It is simply the most popular due to price and availability as well as being easy to work with.

You will need a heavy duty solvent based construction adhesive or 2 part epoxy adhesive to adhere metal to mdf.

 

[Boominburban]

REAL 13 ply Baltic Birch would be considered the best. And PL8X is what you would use to adhere wood to the body panels.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

Fiberglassing the spare tire well would be your best bet.

 

[2RZ-FE 10+ year member]

I like a denser wood like MDF. I would bolt it down through the sheet metal and not rely on just an adhesive.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

I would also decouple the metal and fiberglass/wood enclosure with foam and or mlv and bolt it with rivnuts and bolts or screws.

 

[FuelEmpire]

Thanks for the feedback! I've moved this to a build thread. Follow along!

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

I do not think a metal floor would work well at least not without some stiffening bracing. And some stout deadener.

And mdf doesn't absorb sound. It rejects sound.

The whole point of the box is to separate the rearwave from the front wave or in the case of ported enclosures use the rearwave to couple with the front through tuning.

Birch is one of the best building materials because it is light and strong and fairly water resistant.

Mdf is adversely heavy and while it doesn't absorb water any faster the glue fails and it swells.

Birch swells when wet but when it dries it shrinks back mdf does not.

Honestly which would you use is pretty irrelevant for the most cases as long as the box is sufficiently braced.

Infinite baffle could be a candidate for you but most people don't like permanent modifications to cars.

 

[mat3833 10+ year member]

Did someone say infinite baffle?

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

Did someone say infinite baffle?

If he has a spare he could fit an 18 in there lol. That truck is a weird shape because of the convertible top.

Definitely the wrong car for sound installation

 

[FuelEmpire]

I wouldn't say there's a wrong car for a sound installation...

That said, I have already pulled the spare. I have 1 to 1.5 cf of space in the spare tire we'll itself and two 12 x 8 inch shelves on either side for my amps. Full floor install is possible.

I'll post a pic tonight.

 

[FuelEmpire]

Looks like it posted despite telling me there was an error.

 

[FuelEmpire]

 

[FuelEmpire]

We had a word for "infinite baffle" back in the day, we called it "free air".

It's been a while, though. I've built a few boxes and done no less than 20 installs for friends, but its been forever and I forgot almost everything.

It's important to note that when the top is up (or down, really), there is a pass-through to the cab. The trunk is not sealed. On either side of the convertible gear there's a flap on the "rear shelf" (whatever you call that part of a convertible).

Anyways, with the above dimensions, could I use a solid piece of deadened material to "infinite baffle" the spare tire area? And potentially mount the amp on the top side of the same piece of material on the passenger side shelf?

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

We had a word for "infinite baffle" back in the day, we called it "free air".

It's been a while, though. I've built a few boxes and done no less than 20 installs for friends, but its been forever and I forgot almost everything.

It's important to note that when the top is up (or down, really), there is a pass-through to the cab. The trunk is not sealed. On either side of the convertible gear there's a flap on the "rear shelf" (whatever you call that part of a convertible).

Anyways, with the above dimensions, could I use a solid piece of deadened material to "infinite baffle" the spare tire area? And potentially mount the amp on the top side of the same piece of material on the passenger side shelf?

Infinite baffle is not free air is still requires separating the front wave from the rear wave.

I mean you aren't doing a spare tire well build with a ported 12 maybe sealed maybe 1 10 ported or 2 10s sealed.

Really this is a poor choice of cars to get significant bass without using the trunk.