Nissan Versa Hatchback with 10W6's and no loss of trunk space

[randy8876 10+ year member]

These boxes turned out to be much more of a PITA than my ones for 8's. The 10W6v2 is deep, and didn't want to be stuffed into the space I chose.

One thing I love about my car is the storage space available. For a tiny car it has decent room. I also enjoy a nice stereo, but won't give up any my precious space.

I cut part of the plastic trim panel away so I could utilize the room behind it. Here's a picture all taped up so you can get and idea of the space.

Here it is with the aluminum put into place prior to the first layer of glass.

The plastic panel must be cut and there is a thin piece of metal that must be trimmed. The metal has no structural value, it's just there to allow the plastic piece to be fastened down.

Here's a better view with the subs out. I tried to draw a red line along the part where metal has been trimmed.





Here are 2 pictures to show the the initial shell. I know it looks like hell now, but after additional layers and trimming it it will be a lot prettier.

Here's the side:

Here's the front:

Here it is with the flush mount MDF ring in place. I had to test fit the sub and test it in the car a few times to get the ring in a spot where it wouldn't interfere with the cargo bin. After it is in place I used a thick glob of resin mixed with fibers to lock it in place.



Here it is with the initial wrap of fiberglass on the front

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[randy8876 10+ year member]

I trimmed it up and test fit the sub.



Here it is in the car:



I'm happy with the position of the sub, but the box sticks out about 1/8" further than I wanted. I'll remedy that later.

Next it's coated with a bondo & fiberglass mix and sanded and primered and the cycle is repeated until the shape is nice and smooth.

Bondo:



Primered:



Here it is after the final sanding and painting. I'll mount the subs sometime next month. I still don't have my amp, so it's no rush.

Here is the passenger side. I got lucky and the hatch floor mat can fit under it.



Here is the drivers side. I had to relocate the light for the hatch, but I was stupid and didn't check to see it it would be blocked. I could still change it, but likely won't. Also I made it w/o the hatch mat in, and it won't fit on this side. I can get the mat hemmed for cheap, or buy a Nissan one that fits perfect.



Here are both in the trunk. The tape is still on them and the car is still apart, but it will be back to new this week.



Overall I'm happy with how they look and fit. Hopefully the sound will be good too. They are .60-62 ft^3 each and I'll stuff them with poly fill. JL suggests a box of .693 ft^3 and said within 10% is good, so with the poly I should be good.

I'll update this thread as my work continues. I've touched up the paint and will add pictures soon with the subs mounted.

 

[randy8876 10+ year member]

I also did some sound deadening. Starting in the back:



After 1 gallon of Spectrum and 2 sheets of damplifier:



The original plan was to remove all of the carpet, but that will require too much disassembly. So I opted to leave the console and fold up the carpet. I was surprised at what I found under the carpet.....



Large pieces of Styrofoam. Two pieces in plastic bags that even the floor out.



Lifting up the Styrofoam you can see the factory deadener. The floor isn't even, which make the job a bigger PITA.



Here it is with 4.5 sheets of Damplifier (9 sq.ft.) I would use liquid deadener for this if I had it to do over. I could only use 2 full pieces of Damplifier and the other sheets I had to cut into chunks to make it fit.

I didn't take many pictures of this part of the job, but I installed a layer of Luxury Liner under all the factory carpet. The 6 channels for my RCA's were also ran, and so were all my speaker wires for the doors and hatch area.

 

[randy8876 10+ year member]

Here are the boxes installed with subs mounted:



For comparison here's how it looked with boxes for 8's:

 

[bunkrd you 10+ year member]

looks great man. Will check back for more pics.

 

[iLL Ridge 10+ year member]

Nice work

 

[Boldtothemax 10+ year member]

Wow, those fiberglass enclosures came out awesome! Nice work....

 

[Annnarbor84 5,000+ posts]

Looks good!

 

[randy8876 10+ year member]

I bought an ebay armrest to help with my stereo install. I thought it would be nice to mount my fuseblock in it.

This proved to also be a giant PITA. A smaller fuse block with thinner power cables would have made it easier. The 1/0 gauge doesn't like to make sharp 90 degree turns.

Here's the armrest and console laying on it's side. You can see all the power cables running up into it. I bundled the positive & ground 4 ga in one piece of split loom for easier routing.



And here it is assembled a little more.



It's a Stinger fused distribution block with voltage and amperage display. I like these, although they are a bit big and tacky.

I had run a fairly rigid piece of corrugated plastic tubing through the console routed to the firewall grommet. This allowed the 1/0 gauge cable to be easily routed and keeps it protected from damage.

Here it is mounted in the car. The center console comes apart very easily, only 2 screws and 2 nuts.



And here's how it looks with the seats back in.



I'll build a cover later and make a place for the Alpine bass boost knob to mount. This will allow me to continue keeping everything out of sight, but still easy to get to.

My amplifiers are going to be mounted under the seats. An Alpine PDX-F6 for my mids and tweets and an Alpine PDX-M12 for the 10W6's.