C-pilllar wall in the Jeep

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

Curious about that amp too... What years were those produced? What ohm stable (guessing only 2) is it?

And how much does that beast weigh???

 

[Boomsday 10+ year member]

Looking good, and yep what you are doing with the osb will work just fine, as long as its braced properly your good

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Amp does around 8400watts @ 4ohm...it's a 2 channel. Installed one about 5-6 years ago in a C pillar wall build in an Expo.

OP curious about your wood/resin idea, care to explain it?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

****!!!!!!! That's a big *** amp. I didn't realize how big until it was on the box. How much power can that deliver?

Rated 6000W at either 2 or 4 ohm. They've been clamped at closer to 8000W into 4 ohm with enough battery.

how'd the lite testing go is she gonna be a beast

So far so good. Did a 151.5 in testing. Definitely room for improvement but I need to find a very remote place to wang on it without being a douche to neighbors.

That amp looks like a photoshop. One big mofo!
Also, it looks like you are building the box in a tornado debris field //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Also also, could you flip the amp over to shorten your cable runs?

Yes, amp is a monster. I go through more than 3 logging trucks full of softwood slab in a season making maple syrup. This yard is going to be covered with wood regardless what I do. That being said, at some point I'll be doing a little organizing and burning up some of the small stuff that's scattered around.

If I turn the amp over the logo is upside down. We discussed it very briefly but it's not like I'm dropping voltage in 5 feet of that cable vs if I shortened it to 1 foot.

What amp is that? Never seen one that big before its a monster..looks good, your install.

Curious about that amp too... What years were those produced? What ohm stable (guessing only 2) is it?And how much does that beast weigh???

JBL/Crown A6000GTI. They were made around 2001-2002 IIRC and sold for a staggering MSRP of around 6000$. Weighs close to 100 pounds.

Can be run at 2 ohm or 4 ohm, makes a good bit more power into 4 ohm according to people who have tested them so I've only ever tried it in 4 ohm mode.

They have some incredibly low distortion specs and are an all around great sounding and performing amp. The only downside as you can see is the size.

OP curious about your wood/resin idea, care to explain it?

Well, the subject of materials came up in a discussion with Shocker Mike. He told me that he had done some testing building identical boxes with particle board and MDF. The particle board was almost 2dB down from the MDF, but after applying resin, the MDF gained only a tenth and the particle board gained the nearly 2dB it was down from the raw MDF. So at the end of the day, MDF and particle board + resin get you to the same place. Furthermore, he suggested that the more porous particle board was better for laminating multiple layers together with resin since it penetrated better than into the less porous MDF.

So my original plan was particle board, but they didn't stock it at the local lumber yard... nearest alternative is like 100 miles away and they don't deliver free.... They did have the OSB and I do know a local guy who has some very loud builds that he uses Advantech OSB so I knew that would function. His theory is that it's the only 3/4 material that's OSHA approved for 24" studs and it's much more resistant to the elements than MDF.

No regrets, it's very solid once you resin a couple sheets together and everything was painted again with resin. I have ordered some carpet today and will be covering all or most of the wood with carpet anyway.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Seems like a lot more work/materials then using 11ply birch. How much resin did you use as that could make or break the cost savings I'm guessing...

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Seems like a lot more work/materials then using 11ply birch. How much resin did you use as that could make or break the cost savings I'm guessing...

This is implying I wouldn't be using epoxy to laminate sheets together or seal the interior if I were paying 100$ a sheet + delivery from over 100 miles away for fancy wood.

I bought a 3 gallon kit from US Composites plus the bucket of Aerosil Cabosil for thickening. Under 100$ in composites and I have used just a little more than half. I spent a bit more on some thick epoxy (bar top type stuff) which I may or may not even use on this... I had some non audio projects I had planned to use that in anyway.

 

[Beau M 10+ year member]

Looks like you could flip the amp then pop off the logo and flip it, or even unbolt that middle piece and flip the while thing. I dunno, I think shorter cables would look much better.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Looks like you could flip the amp then pop off the logo and flip it, or even unbolt that middle piece and flip the while thing. I dunno, I think shorter cables would look much better.

Look closely at the RCA side, the signal/clip lights will be upside down still even if you flipped around the logo.

Also this will be replaced with 8X Zed Minotaur at some point before the fall so this is only a temporary setup anyway. Trust me, I really did want the power terminals down but it is technically upside down any way you slice it.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

This is implying I wouldn't be using epoxy to laminate sheets together or seal the interior if I were paying 100$ a sheet + delivery from over 100 miles away for fancy wood.
I bought a 3 gallon kit from US Composites plus the bucket of Aerosil Cabosil for thickening. Under 100$ in composites and I have used just a little more than half. I spent a bit more on some thick epoxy (bar top type stuff) which I may or may not even use on this... I had some non audio projects I had planned to use that in anyway.

Not sure what you mean by "using epoxy to laminate sheets together". You won't be using wood glue?

Good idea on getting rid of the Crown, team mate's caught on fire twice. Had plenty of electrical for it. Can't find anyone to repair it now...

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Not sure what you mean by "using epoxy to laminate sheets together". You won't be using wood glue?
Good idea on getting rid of the Crown, team mate's caught on fire twice. Had plenty of electrical for it. Can't find anyone to repair it now...

Not sure how much strength you get from wood glue vs. 635 epoxy resin. I've used wood glue in the past and wasn't really impressed. I found it quite nice to mix up a batch of epoxy with some Cabosil for thickening a little and slather it on the sheets with the hot-dog roller. I can tell you from using this resin to lay up carbon fiber that it's very strong stuff.

Sound West in Tacoma, WA did a super job repairing my amp a couple years ago. They were recommended by the tech at JBL/Harmon as an "authorized" repair center and about the only place around with a surplus of hard to find parts (from buying broken amps off the market mainly) and a repair guy who is OCD enough to spend 20+ hours on one amp.

I will say that it looks like I spent closer to 140$ in resin + thickener but IMO totally worth it.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Not sure how much strength you get from wood glue vs. 635 epoxy resin. I've used wood glue in the past and wasn't really impressed. I found it quite nice to mix up a batch of epoxy with some Cabosil for thickening a little and slather it on the sheets with the hot-dog roller. I can tell you from using this resin to lay up carbon fiber that it's very strong stuff.
Sound West in Tacoma, WA did a super job repairing my amp a couple years ago. They were recommended by the tech at JBL/Harmon as an "authorized" repair center and about the only place around with a surplus of hard to find parts (from buying broken amps off the market mainly) and a repair guy who is OCD enough to spend 20+ hours on one amp.

I will say that it looks like I spent closer to 140$ in resin + thickener but IMO totally worth it.

I've always had good luck using wood glue on wood LOL But for what you're doing resin is probably better.

Thanks for the amp repair info, my guy still has the amp so I'm going to pass it along to him...

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

So the theory here is that I'll be able to remove this if I need.... not easily, but I don't want a bunch of stuff permanently glued to the car so I taped up some trash bag to protect the panels and filled with spray foam behind my trim pieces to seal off the rear. The gap at the top of the box was quite tight so it was filled with a piece of foam pipe insulation, which I'd recommend.

Had some extra carbon fiber mat laying around so I laid that up on the back side of the wall. It's a bit thick for molding curved parts but definitely good for strength.

The wooden trim pieces came out pretty tight and are very solid with some spray foam backing them up.

Big thanks to Mike at M&C Audio in Portsmouth, NH for helping me find this carpet. He was a real sport about searching out the right color and custom ordering for me.... I felt like a broad picking out curtains. As an aside, I worked for Mike for a little bit in the mid 90's. He's a stand-up guy and I do regret walking away from that job.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Out with the old and in with the new

Added another layer of wood to the port to drop tuning a little bit and strengthen the port walls

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I need to float this outer amp board a little better and there's a few more things that I'll be cleaning up.

Posted up a 151.9 at the show last weekend (sealed DB-Drag style) and played a lot of music really loud. The Minotaurs are a bit of a gain in output over the Crown and a dramatic boost in efficiency. Playing as much music as I could stand I didn't have any voltage issues, didn't heat them up too much, and didn't open a 60A fuse on any of them.

What I enjoy most about these amps is that I can run 1 as master and slave all 7 to that one each driving 1 coil. Gain matching, EQ, and crossover adjustments between amps becomes a non-issue.

Will hopefully get a little more work done in the near future and update with more pics as I go.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

To update, I put some bondo and sanding into the port (could still use more when I can make time), re-mounted the amps, and replaced the mess of Y splitters with a single 1:8 splitter box and some decent quality RCA cables.

Plasti dipped the rear window to keep the amps hidden and put some black vinyl on the rear/side windows to black them out.

Last weekend I managed 152.6dB @ 44hz. I've been rolling up the volume until I open a fuse and have been gradually replacing 60A fuses with 80A as I open the 60As. I think I can get a bit more out of these amps if I fuse at 80A but I'm still trying to go easy on things so I don't break anything.