Grill Cloth or Fleece to wrap enclosures?
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Fiberglass, Fabrication, and Interiors
Forum Discription: Fiberglass Kick Panels, Subwoofer Enclosures, Plexiglas, Fabrics, Materials, Finishes, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=40080
Printed Date: May 31, 2024 at 4:50 PM
Topic: Grill Cloth or Fleece to wrap enclosures?
Posted By: HottAccord
Subject: Grill Cloth or Fleece to wrap enclosures?
Date Posted: October 01, 2004 at 12:01 AM
I know a lot of you prefer fleece, but has anyone used grill cloth or other fabrics/materials? From what I see, grill cloth is way more stretchier than fleece and probably easier to work with. I'm currently working on a stand alone enclosure with sort of a moon shaped base, and it's a real b-i-t-c-h trying to wrap it cause of the odd shape, so its been a hassle trying to remove wrinkles. I have to constantly keep pulling the fleece off and resticking it.
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Im a fiberglass whore!!
Replies:
Posted By: xtreamcc
Date Posted: October 01, 2004 at 12:06 AM
See, the problem with grill cloth is that its so thin it literally will fall in on itself when streched to its max. Fleece on the other hand holds its dexterity when completely streched out and then resined. I know this isn't gona help u now but I make sure that when I design a box that it doesn't have 'hard-to-fleece' angles and bends and crap in it. The less work u have to do the better, the more open and and slightly graded curves u have the better, the less sharp cut offs and odd 360 degree curves u have the better. Box design is the key to a proper fleece job. Anyway, thats my ramble about grill cloth lol.
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"Shiny chrome when used in conjunction with bikini models is particularly effective in inducing brain deficit disorder"
02 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Monster System on its way.
Posted By: HottAccord
Date Posted: October 01, 2004 at 8:16 AM
Thanks, I appreciate your input. When I first started reading about glassing, I went onto the Alpine website and read about their demo cars. They used grille cloth in all their applications. I guess there are different grades/weights of grille cloth. This is sort of the shape I was experimenting with, so from the pice here, I know it can be done somehow. 
------------- Im a fiberglass whore!!
Posted By: HottAccord
Date Posted: October 01, 2004 at 8:18 AM
Well the pic did't show up, so here's the link: https://i4.ebayimg.com/01/i/02/88/47/9f_1_b.JPG ------------- Im a fiberglass whore!!
Posted By: ice4life8269
Date Posted: October 04, 2004 at 8:10 AM
man that looks sweet! I'd tell you to get an extra set of hands to help you.... and use staples to attach the fleece to the base , if the base if MDF..... and as far as the hard-to-fleece angles go, you can make some support braces around the curves to give you more places to attach to fleece...... ALSO, if want to keep the bottom smooth, stretch the fleece as much as you can and staple it to the bottom AWAY from the edge, and when you resin it, only go to the bottom edge of your base, and don't use any resin on the bottom. then when you are done you can cut off all of the fleece from the bottom and take out the staples.... good luck! -------------
Posted By: CarAudioHelp
Date Posted: October 04, 2004 at 2:39 PM
A shape like that won't cause many problems until you get to the concave section. You'll need a fairly stretchy material but nothing too major looking at the picture. Polar fleece would probably work as long as you aligned the cloth the right way so the stretchy direction is running up and down on the concave area.
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Posted By: HottAccord
Date Posted: October 04, 2004 at 7:57 PM
I definitely need to get my hands on a heavy duty staple gun for my next project. I am aware of a few points mentioned here..I never resin under the enclosure past the edge, the 1st time I did it was a pain in the a$$ to trip the stiff fleece from the underside haha Another thing that made it was easier to stretch the fleece over the wierd shape it to make sure your subwoofer ring is very stable. I finally tried the 2 x 4 piece of wood and screwed the subwoofer ring onto the base. This thing did not budge and it made stretching so much easier, no wrinkles at all..pics below Anyway, I decided to cut off the edges on my base and work with a little more of a rounded shape, everything went well. Check out the pic below, more pics to come soon as I find more time to finish this stand alone piece. I just finished adding bondo to the outside, so now it's time for some sanding... Pic before fleece (ring mounted on 2 x 4 wood)
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/hottaccord/FG2/IMAG0132.jpg
Wrapped in fleece - wrinkle free!! 
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/hottaccord/FG2/IMAG0133.jpg
More pics to come soon....... ------------- Im a fiberglass whore!!
Posted By: boxmaker85
Date Posted: October 05, 2004 at 2:53 PM
I talked to a guy today said he went to nopi nats and saw a guy there w/ a 100% flece box. No fg just resin and flece. Made a sandwich w/ it. Cloth like 2-3 layers of resin and then another cloth layer then another resin. What do you guys think? Will it hold if I put a 10" in it? or shoud I just fg the thing?
Posted By: CarAudioHelp
Date Posted: October 05, 2004 at 6:07 PM
I've made many boxes without actual fiberglass. You just have to use the right cloth and make sure the enclosure won't see high power. The best stuff I've found is plush felt (FishFabric). It's about a quarter inch thick once you resin it. That's plenty thick for a lot of applications unless you have a large flat area. Curves = strength
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Posted By: boxmaker85
Date Posted: October 05, 2004 at 7:04 PM
Plush felt huh? Wal-mart? Fabric Store? So a sandwich will work fine for a single 10"? Cool I'll go anc check out some stores today.
Posted By: boxmaker85
Date Posted: October 05, 2004 at 9:27 PM
Just bought some really thick fleece. It's the one way stretch kind. Goin to use that for now. I'll determine later if it's enough or if I need some glass to go over it.
Posted By: HottAccord
Date Posted: October 06, 2004 at 7:59 AM
[QUOTE=boxmaker85]Just bought some really thick fleece. It's the one way stretch kind. Goin to use that for now. I'll determine later if it's enough or if I need some glass to go over it.[/QUOTE Are you planning on using it on a new project? ------------- Im a fiberglass whore!!
Posted By: CarAudioHelp
Date Posted: October 06, 2004 at 10:16 AM
You can get plush felt at fabric stores. I get mine at Hobby Lobby which has a fabric department. It's $3.49 a yard.
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Posted By: boxmaker85
Date Posted: October 06, 2004 at 5:28 PM
HottAccord yeah it's new. I'm redoing my box. (trashing the old and building a new one). I'm kinda hesitant about using just the fleece. It's thick and will absorb a ton of resin but I'm not sure it'll hold the pressure of a 10" sub (not high power, bout 300 watts rms). What do you think just fleece or add a layer of fg (like one 6 oz. layer)?
Posted By: HottAccord
Date Posted: October 07, 2004 at 2:19 PM
boxmaker85 wrote:
HottAccord yeah it's new. I'm redoing my box. (trashing the old and building a new one). I'm kinda hesitant about using just the fleece. It's thick and will absorb a ton of resin but I'm not sure it'll hold the pressure of a 10" sub (not high power, bout 300 watts rms). What do you think just fleece or add a layer of fg (like one 6 oz. layer)?
Oh I wouldnt just use fleece/resin on an enclosure no matter what. You will still need some reinforcement like FG mat. If you find that to be a pain, try the Resin & Aerosil or Cabosil expander mix as opposed to FG mat. The results are incredible. Just make sure you get at least 1/4" thick inside the box, this stuff dries hard and solid! ------------- Im a fiberglass whore!!
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