The Kick Panels are finished.

Subwoofer Box is wrapped with Vinyl and Finished

I finished the subwoofer box by wrapping it in Vinyl with a little padding underneath to give it a good look. I tested it out, and it sounds great. Here are the pics.

Kick Panels Sanded Smooth

It took about an hour for one and about 2 hours for the other. The passenger side kick panel didn't fit just right so I had to to some shaping and modification so that it would fit in there. Too bad Q-logic doesn't make kick panels for 2007 Mazda 3's...but then again if I bought one of theirs I would spend aroun $150 rather than the $20 it cost me to make my own. They are coming along well. They will be ready for paint as soon as I use my new Ryobi Router and Jasper Jig to cut perfect speaker holes.

I know the panels look really ugly, but that is how fiberglass and bondo look after it's been sanded. They're really strong. I can stand on them and they don't flex at all, considering I made the mold with a tee-shirt and pencils to hold the speaker ring up. You're supposed to you fleece and something stronger.

Amp Rack Construction

I got started on the amp rack. The amp rack is going to be very simple and basic. Because the subs are going to be placed in the trunk in a box, I am not concerned about showing off my amps. I just want the amps to be safe, secure, and accessible. I don't want to mount the amps on the sub box because, the amps need to be more permanent and the subs more as optional. We frequently go on trips where trunk space is needed and the subs have to go, so I want to make the subs removeable and the amps to be permanent. Here are the pics of the beginnings of the amp rack.

Vented Subwoofer Box Update

I made some good progress. I was able to secure the pieces of the port. That was a little harder than I was planning, but I got it done. I rounded all the edges to help reduce port noise. I also made the port with 42 square inches of port area. I made the port way bigger than it really needed to be because my last box had severe port noise. This box will have next to none hopefully. It is tuned to 33-34 hz so it should hit nice and low. I got the top on too. The internal volume is 1.8 cubic ft. and the total volume with the port included is 3 cubes. I plan on putting some polyfill in it and sealing up a couple places before I begin to wrap it. I might put some LED's inside so you can see a glow from the port. It might be a little cheesy so I haven't quite decided. Here's the pics of the progress.

Custom Fiberlgass Kick Panel Update

I made some very good progress over the weekend. I finished sanding the fiberglassed kick panels, test fitted them, and began laying down some body filler (bondo). The bondo process was going well until I dropped one of the drying kicks and had to redo the edge. I smoothed it out the best I could, but it will still require some extra sanding. Here's what they look like with the bondo slathered on. I did a 1:2 ratio of bondo and resin so it would go on thinner and smoother. I did two coats which should be plenty.

Alternator Finally Came

The alternator came in the mail. This is the alternator I am going to have respun (rebuilt) to have higher output to replace my stock alternator that only puts out 90 amps. This one will put out 130 amps or 160 amps, whichever I choose. Most alternators are no problem to have rebuilt, but unfortunately mine is a little Mitsubishi and is very difficult. It took me weeks of calling around to find someone who would even take a look at this. It is absolutely necessary that I upgrade my alternator. My amplifiers (Kicker 2500.1 and Kicker 700.5) draw way too much current for the stock system. I've considered getting a deep cycle battery or multiple batteries or a capacitor. These are not really remedies to a poor charging system, more of a bandage that will eventually fail. If you'd like to see my take on a cars electrical system explained as basic as I can read the last paragraph of this post.

There is a good chance that this might not work so I thought I'd write about my options right now. This alternator is used and cost $35 and to have it respun will cost $115 assuming they can respin it. Option 2 is to build a bracket and install another alternator with voltage regulator and another battery which will cost a lot of money. Option 3 is to build a bracket and put a bigger beefier alternator in place of the stock one. Option 4 is to buy an HO alt for $400 +.
Your electrical system is much like a stream. Your alternator is the elecrical charging system or the flow of the stream. When you put a battery in it is like putting a lake in. You charge up the battery the same way a stream fills a lake. When the lake is full you can let water out. When the battery is charged you can begin to let current into your system which would consist of normal day driving and using electronics like your stereo. When you park it like you are cutting off the flow of water into your lake almost like a drought. You are slowly emptying your lake. The atlernator is no longer charging the battery and your car's electronics are operating purely off of the energy stored in the battery. When you turn your car back on however, the alternator kicks on into high gear and recharges your battery. It is like at the end of winter when the snow melts, the stream goes into high gear to fill up the lake. If you're using too much water too fast, the stream cannot refill the lake as fast as you are taking it out and it will eventually dry up. If your subs are drawing too much current on your electrical system, the battery will slowly but surely run out of juice or your alternator will wear out. That is why a bigger battery or more batteries is not a proper remedy. It only delays the eventual failure of your electrical system. A capacitor does the same thing. It costs just about as much as a battery and stores hardly any energy at all. If you are looking to invest in a cap, I would suggest spending a couple more dollars and buying a second battery and putting it in your trunk near your amplifiers.

Kick Panels are sanded and ready for body filler

I finally finished sanding the fiberglass on the kick panels. It took forever. I did a quick coat of resin so that it would fill in the cracks before I put some bondo down. It should make the bondo go alot smoother. I still have to cut the holes out. I am not entirely sure how I want to do that, but I'll figure something out. The kick panels are still rediculously ugly, but once the bondo goes on they will start looking better.

Updates

As I said on the very first post that I was going to install

2 10" subs in a custom ported box
2 8" midbass subs in custom sealed boxes under the front seats
2 6.5" speakers in custom filberglassed boxes on the rear deck (behind the head rests)
2 5.25" speakers in custom fiberglassed kick panels

Well I began working on the 8" midbass woofers' boxes and the 6.5" boxes that go on the rear deck a while back and haven't got back to them. They are almost done and so I thought I would include some pics of where they're at. I started sanding them after I had to fill a couple spots with more resin in the kickpanels and let them dry. They are all body fillered and need sanding. I almost finished sanding one of the rear deck boxes. I just have a couple areas that need to be redone and it will be ready for paint or wrap or whatever I decide to do.

Kick Panel Progress (sanding) 2/19/10

I began the long process of sanding the fiberglass. It is taking shape and smoothing out, but I still have more sanding to go and I'll need to fill in a couple small areas before I can throw down the bondo. Here's the pics of about an hour worth of sanding last night.  I decided not to cut the holes until bondo time.

Sub box Port

Here is the progress I made on my sub box. I haven't made much progress, but my wife bought me a new toy for my birthday that I am excited to use. I might do a flush mount now that I have it. I had an hour so I made my port. I'm really excited for this box because it will be tuned to 34 hz. It should slam. I made it so it is almost a perfectly flat response but with a tiny peak at 34 hz for those really deep lows.

Kick Panel Progress 2/16/2010

Here is the progress I made over the weekend on my kick panels. It doesn't look like much, but I reinforced the kicks, removed the fleece wrap from the back and began shaping them.  I did a test fit to make sure they would fit in there, and they fit very well. They look ugly as death but that is because they still need sanding, body filler, more sanding, and then painted or wrapped or whatever. Either way they fit good and you can finally see where I'm going with this.

Here is what the stock kick panels look like and so you can see how the two compare.

Time to start glassing the wrapped kicks

Thanks to my wife, I wouldn't have been able to work on them at all if it weren't for her who gave me some time to start fiberglassing last night. I got 45 minutes to get going and I got about half of each one glassed. I'll finish glassing them soon, and then the part that everyone hates. Sanding. Sorry the pics suck. It was dark and I took the pics with my Iphone. I'll post beter pics when it's all glassed and ready for sanding.

Kick Panel Speaker Ring Mounting

After I made the mold and cleaned up the edges, I decided it was time to mount the speaker rings and wrap them. Here's the pics of the work I did. It only took about 45 minutes to mount the rings and wrap both of them and put resin all over them. I will start glassing them up soon.

Kick Panel Fiberlgassing and Mold worked 2/3/2010

The kick panel molds came out perfect. They were pretty easy to pop off and the nice part is I didn't have to modify the stock kick panels which means when i sell the car, the custom kicks are coming out and the stock ones are going back in. I will be able to mount a speaker in that and re-glass it, body filler and paint!

Kick Panel Fiberlgassing and Mold 2/2/2010

Here are a couple pics of what I have been working on over the weekend. I don't want to do any cutting up of my car or permanent altering of the interior so instead of fiberglassing a speaker ring or cutting a hole in the kick panels, I decided to make my own. I put tape and releasing agent over the stock kick panels and began glassing. I hope it works. I've never done something like this before.

Subwoofer Enclosure Build 2/1/2010

Here are a couple pics of the box I'm starting. It is for the two 10" pioneer premier tsw-2500 subs. The optimal enclosure size is .9 cubes per sub. This box has an internal volume of 2 cubes for both subs excluding port volume. The first box I built was the same volume, but it had two 3" ports and it was tuned to 45 hz. It had severe port noise and was tuned higher than I wanted, so I'm building a new box. It is a slot port with a port area of 47"s and has a tuning frequency of 35 hz. It should be loud and have great sound quality compared to the last box. Here are the pics of the beginning stages. Sorry there are only two because measuring and cutting is kind of boring. I used a jig saw to cut the holes so they aren't perfect like they would be with a router. I don't have a router so I'm working with what I have. I flared the ports a little to reduce port noise as much as possible.