Spooney's IB build log

[Spooney 10+ year member]

Nice glue bead laid down for attaching the revised center brace. Notice the notch in the bottom of it. This will allow it to sit over the ridges in the trunk floor and allow me to attach it to the trunk floor:



Glued and screwed down:



Spray glue laid down for carpeting the only visible part of the baffle:



Glue on the carpet for a good bond:



Carpet going down on the baffle:



Getting ready to cut the holes out:



Finished with carpet on the baffle:



Another test fit. Getting nice and tight now:

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

Weather stripping laid down where the baffle will meet the rear deck. Also get a good shot of the 2x4 braces mounted to the side boards:



Baffle forced into place. With the trunk carpet back in I literally had to climb into the trunk and kick the baffle into place. Bolts in the baffle and ready to be tightened:



Quick shot showing two of the five bolts I used to bolt the top to the car. All out of the way of the back seat and tightened up:



Three heavy duty wood screws on each side attach the sides of the baffle to those 2x4 braces you saw earlier(which are also bolted to the car) :



Weather stripping around the holes where the seat locks in. I can't totally seal these off but need to do the best I can:





One sub installed:



Both subs installed and a view of the brace secured to the floor with steel brackets that are bolted to the brace . The steel brackets are held to the floor with industrial grade epoxy. This stuff will not move unless I need it to. I cannot bolt through the floor here because the gas tank is right underneath :



Both subs installed from back. Please excuse the wiring job. I had about two minutes to get this wired after getting everything in the car and putting it back together:

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

Thats all my pics for now. A lot of stuff I did not get pics of. Mostly sealing nooks and crannies with tape,deadener,foam,etc. Lots more sealing to come and a new set of subs at some point. For now I am real satisfied with it. Plenty of output and real quick and punchy. Sounds great with just about everything. Hits some crazy lows. It isn't the loudest setup I have ever had but it has enough output for me and takes up little space. I do not care for these subs but they sound the best I have ever heard them sound in this alignment so I know it has potential. After I get it all sealed I will start the search for different drivers but these will do for now. Next step of the install is an amp and battery rack flushed into the side wall of the trunk which once complete will leave me with almost all of my trunk usable .

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

How's it sound? Have you tested yet

It sounds great to me. I have tried a ton of different subs in a ton of different ported/sealed enclosures and no matter what in this car it seemed like I either had low lows or that nice upper bass kick but with this setup I can play just about anything and after I installed a larger amp today they really came alive output wise and are sounding much better than when I first fired them up. I guess my old school Kicker Impulse 1252xi just wasn't a good match for these subs. Using an MTX Thunder 2300x bridged onto the pair of subs I now have about as loud of a setup as I ever had in this car without giving up my whole trunk to do it or using 2K worth of amps. As long as I can run IB I don't see a reason to do it any other way in my daily driver.

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

It sounds great to me. I have tried a ton of different subs in a ton of different ported/sealed enclosures and no matter what in this car it seemed like I either had low lows or that nice upper bass kick but with this setup I get both of those and after I installed a larger amp today they really came alive output wise and are sounding much better than when I first fired them up. I guess my old school Kicker Impulse 1252xi just wasn't a good match for these subs. Using an MTX Thunder 2300x bridged onto the pair of subs I now have about as loud of a setup as I ever had in this car without giving up my whole trunk to do it or using 2K worth of amps. As long as I can run IB I don't see a reason to do it any other way in my daily driver.

so how much power to them right now?

 

---------- Post added at 09:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------

 

you should get my JBL lol

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

so how much power to them right now? 

---------- Post added at 09:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------

 

you should get my JBL lol

Currently running about 800-1000 watts to them not figuring in impedance rise. Believe me I would love a one amp solution but I don't think the jbl has enough ooomph on the sub channel to keep me happy. The kicker amp I was using was approximately 500 rms but its a total night and day difference between the kicker and the MTX I have in there now. Shouldn't really be that big of a difference sonically but my ears tell me otherwise.

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

I would like to try that JBL though....... I have a feeling it is underrated on that sub channel. Just need expendable cash

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

Currently running about 800-1000 watts to them not figuring in impedance rise. Believe me I would love a one amp solution but I don't think the jbl has enough ooomph on the sub channel to keep me happy. The kicker amp I was using was approximately 500 rms but its a total night and day difference between the kicker and the MTX I have in there now. Shouldn't really be that big of a difference sonically but my ears tell me otherwise.

that's a lot of power. Maybe I should keep my 3 ms-a5001 instead of going off the ms-a1004 for powering the GTi. One more question, what kind of bolt/screws do you use to screw into the sheet metal of the car?

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

that's a lot of power. Maybe I should keep my 3 ms-a5001 instead of going off the ms-a1004 for powering the GTi. One more question, what kind of bolt/screws do you use to screw into the sheet metal of the car?

I didn't use any screws into sheet metal. I used 1/4-20 thread 2.5" long bolts for the top of the baffle and 1/4-20 2" long bolts for the side panels. I used a 1" OD fender washer on the back side of the baffle (the visible side) and 5/8 OD flat washer,1/4 lock washer,and nut on the other side to hold it to the car. I suggest stainless steel fasteners but zinc coated should work too as long as its in the car and not exposed to the elements. In other IB build logs I have seen people using self tapping sheet metal screws to secure the baffle to the car but if you have solid points to bolt to there is no good reason not to bolt your baffle in IMO.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I've seen a few IB's in my day. Definitely great sound and wide bandwidth but the compromise is output. If you build it right you'd definitely be happy if you found some drivers that were better quality with some modern technology and more suited to that alignment.

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

I've seen a few IB's in my day. Definitely great sound and wide bandwidth but the compromise is output. If you build it right you'd definitely be happy. f you found some drivers that were better quality with some modern technology and more suited to that alignment.

I was worried about output at first. I have been told that essentially its the same output potential as sealed with much better efficiency and that seems to be pretty accurate . This pair gets plenty loud for me. I do plan on finding some better quality drivers though now that I know this will work. I had these laying around and decided to give them a shot

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I was worried about output at first. I have been told that essentially its the same output potential as sealed with much better efficiency and that seems to be pretty accurate . This pair gets plenty loud for me. I do plan on finding some better quality drivers though now that I know this will work. I had these laying around and decided to give them a shot

Indeed, once it's tight and solid it's essentially a 20 cube+ sealed box.

Home | "Cult of the Infinitely Baffled" Hear The Bass, Not The Box The definitive online resource for Infinite Baffle subwoofer design Established 1999

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

So I knew that I had some holes lurking underneath the rear deck carpeting and trim so I tore everything apart this weekend and found some gaping holes!!!!



There was a hole this size on either side towards the front of the rear deck and in the back two even larger holes. Didn't get any pics of how I sealed them up but it was all deadener and man did it make a difference. Bass is a lot tighter and has more punch/kick than it did previously. I am really liking this IB thing //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[CerwinVega_Fan 10+ year member]

Oh wow this makes me want to do an ib setup now.

Coming along nice!

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

Oh wow this makes me want to do an ib setup now.
Coming along nice!

Thanks sir. Functionally it is almost where I want it. The rear deck itself flexes like crazy on low notes so I would like to find a way to stiffen that up but other than that I am pretty well sealed. I am still debating on whether or not to do a little trim panel around the subs/baffle. I don't think it looks bad now but it could be prettied up a little. After that I need to make myself an amp/battery rack that tucks into the side of the trunk