hiding the wires in a fiberglass box?
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=28004
Printed Date: July 24, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Topic: hiding the wires in a fiberglass box?
Posted By: nyguy4u
Subject: hiding the wires in a fiberglass box?
Date Posted: March 08, 2004 at 6:43 PM
When you mount amps, crossovers, etc. to a fiberglass enclousure, where do the wires go?. Do you just simply drill a hole in the finished box where the wires will feed through into the box and the same as they leave the box?. How do you keep the wires from just sitting there inside the box??
Replies:
Posted By: 93accordSE
Date Posted: March 08, 2004 at 11:09 PM
My best guess would be there is some sort of fitting that you can put into the fiberglass that will hold the wires down to the fglass so they wont rattle around. You do drill the holes for the wires i know that. I haven't seen a good tutorial on wire feeding yet, good luck. Someone who knows please post the info, I would like to know aswell. Thanks
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Posted By: Hooveman
Date Posted: March 09, 2004 at 3:30 PM
On many of the boxes i have built i created a space between the back of the enclosure and where the amp is mounted. Essentially where the back of the encolsure is there is a 1 inch gap and then another board where the amp is mounted. You have to plan for this when constructing the box to make it look seamless. But for amps such as rockford when the side caps are placed on there are no visible wires and the finished look is awesome. If the amp you are using does not have the side caps to conceal the wires, you can simply mount the amp to the back of the box and then use the piece of wood in the front to flush mount it and still all the wires will be hidden in the space between the two boards. Hope this info hels you.
Posted By: nyguy4u
Date Posted: March 09, 2004 at 3:49 PM
That does help me alot, thanks. But what if building a space for wires isn't feasable?. For example, my audio control crossover will be flush mounted to a weird shape to the front of the enclosure that will be seen, so I need to hide the wires by going inside the box. Would the wires move around enough to be heard?. Or should I come up with some sort of pipe that starts by the crossover, then ends behind the box?
Posted By: Hooveman
Date Posted: March 09, 2004 at 10:17 PM
If the box is a sealed box nothing inside should move or rattle. The only way there will any noise from the wires being inside the box is if the box as a whole rattles around and/or the box vibrates. Questions. Is part of your box already built? What type of box is it? sealed/ported/bandpass and is the inside of you box going to be visible once it is finished? Explain in a little more detail what you are mounting where and the wires you are trying to conceal, any pics would be great!
Posted By: nyguy4u
Date Posted: March 09, 2004 at 10:29 PM
Thanks for the reply. The box hasn't been built yet, I have everything planned out tho. Basically.. 3 15"s going into the trunk area of a PT Cruiser. Box will be sealed. 3 chambers. I was going to build just one box, and not chamber it.. but other members are saying I should chamber it into 3. I hope smaller then recomended enclosure won't affect the sound of the sub in each chamber. I am going to build the bottom, back, and sides of the box with 3/4 MDF.. and heavely reinforced fiberglass for the front and top. The back of the box will not be seen at all, nor the sides, nor the inside. Just the front that is fiberglassed. Basically, the amps will be flush mounted to the floor, so those arent the problem. The problem, or concern is my crossover. I am going to have it look like it's bulging out of the box, it will be mounted on the fiberglassed portion of the box. So basically, the wires have only one way to go.. inside the box!. That's my problem. My RCAs, ground, power, etc need to be ran into the box, and back out the back (being the back isn't going to be visable) So, I didn't know if I should buy some PVC pipe maybe and run it from behind the crossover.. to the back. Or ideally, somehow attach the wires to the inside of the fiberglass box.
Posted By: 93accordSE
Date Posted: March 09, 2004 at 10:33 PM
I was just thinking here, and if you lay all your wires out and just spray some foam over them they wouldn't move around. But acessing them would be hard.
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Posted By: Hooveman
Date Posted: March 09, 2004 at 11:43 PM
If i remember my acoustical properties correctly there won't be a noticalble difference, which is 3db, between two and three subs. The only way to get that increse is to double the surface are that is being used, i.e. going from one to two or from two to four, or to double the power supplied by the amplifier. So something to consider. I built a box for three 12's that fit into a honda civic coupe and playing around with the install the difference between the two and three wasn't even noticable. If just depends if you are going for the look or for the sound. I would reccomend getting a bigger amp for two subs so that it would hit clean and hard. Are the subs to be placed in the back on the part that won't be seen or the front. You could condsider funning a channel on the sides or even running the wires under the bos rather than through the box. Just some more thoughts on what to do without actually seeing the project.
Posted By: trunkstare
Date Posted: March 12, 2004 at 1:38 PM
as far as the rattling wires go, duct tape sandwiching the wires seems to work for me, and I use rubber grommets, Lowes, to pretty up the holes into the side of the box.
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