The final phase is currently in the works. When disassembling the car, I was able to find a fairly large cavity behind the glove box that could accommodate an enclosure with about 0.3-0.4 cu.ft. of space. This would work well for a nice 8-inch subwoofer. Perfect for what I want since i'm more into sound quality than quantity. I knew I wanted a sealed enclosure so I looked into my inventory of speakers and found that I had a 8-inch old school solobaric, several ID8v3, a couple peerless SLS 8's, and of course the JL8W3v3. The peerless SLS 8's would not work since they require a fairly large volume of airspace to work so that was out. The 8-inch solobaric would be a good choice, but I was always happy with the ID8v3 subs. They are able to play fairly low and will allow the Alpine amp to put out 500 watts at two ohms. The JL can play just as low as the ID8, but would only be able to extract 250 watts from the alpine amp, which I felt might not be enough power. One good thing is that the cutout diameter of the JL and ID subs is very similar, so I could test between the two in the same box and choose what I like. Happy with the choices I had, I went on with the build. I masked up the entire area and started laying a total of 4 layers of fiberglass. I then cut out an MDF ring, glued it in, and used some felt to build the front plate of the box. Once the resin soaked felt set, I installed 4 layers of fiberglass on the inside area of the felt, ring, and interface between the original mold and felt. The internal volume of the box came out to just about 0.3 cu.ft., which I felt was a little too small, as I was hoping for 0.35 - 0.4 cu.ft. Therefore, I stuffed the box with quite a bit of polyfill. To mount the box, I used 2 4-inch long 1/8" thick metal strips that attached to the box using bolts and to a bracket with 2 6mm studs under the dash. The lower portion of the box was secured to the stud used for the plastic kick panels. Once installed, it is invisible and no one would know that I have a sub in the van. I set the lowpass on the sub to 1khz and turned off all the other speakers and took some measurements. Looking at the frequency response allowed me to set my initial crossover point of 45hz at 12db. This allows the sub to play pretty flat to about 25hz. The bass is well defined, but a slight hint of muddiness in the very low octaves. I think I put in too much polyfill stuffing...Will try to play around with that a little later. I def like this setup 100x more than the factory JL ported box.
Now onto the a-pillar build. This is where i'm currently at right now. I made some MDF rings for the Tang Band 3-inch bamboo speakers. I can't make a decision on rear mount or top mounting the speakers. I've uploaded pictures of each one. I really like the rear mount, but I'm not 100% sure I can do that because of access to the speaker after I build the pods. I think I can, but won't know until I build them. I haven't had a chance to listen to the speakers on the a-pillars yet to set the angle, but will be doing it soon.
Now onto the a-pillar build. This is where i'm currently at right now. I made some MDF rings for the Tang Band 3-inch bamboo speakers. I can't make a decision on rear mount or top mounting the speakers. I've uploaded pictures of each one. I really like the rear mount, but I'm not 100% sure I can do that because of access to the speaker after I build the pods. I think I can, but won't know until I build them. I haven't had a chance to listen to the speakers on the a-pillars yet to set the angle, but will be doing it soon.
