Sub ideas for foxbody mustang

Hello everyone, I've been reading the posts here for a while and I've worked up the courage to do some fiberglass work.

My project that I'm trying to design is a sub install for a 1980 mustang hatchback. This is your basic hatchback foxbody mustang. I've done quite a bit of searching online for clean installs that I've liked. So far I've been emptyhanded.

enclosure is for one mb quart pwd 304 and possibly encorporating the rear speakers aswell which will most likely be infinity reference 6X9's

- I'd like the enclosure to not use the sparetire wheel well
- I have to be able to get at the spare.
- I'd like it as non obtrusive as possible.
- Also being out of view is a plus but not necessary

I'm mostly looking for pictures if someone has come across anything that might fit this description. Original ideas are certainly welcome. Thanks - Grant

I'd go with Infinity Kappa 6x9's they're heaps cleaner

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WOW Sight and Sound
Maroochydore
Nothing is impossible!
Do it right the first time or don't do it at all.

Yea i've got kappa's in my dash right now, I'm not overly concerned with making the rears great in that it's mostly rear fill anyway but I'd probably just pick the references off of a buddy of mine.

regardless this post is about the enclosure.

any more ideas anyone?

U should post a pic of ur trunk and i could maybe draw u up some ideas

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ALEX

I cant at the moment. I'm at school and my car is sitting in my garage back home. I'll look around car domain or something and see if i can't find a picture of another foxbody hatch. If so I'll certainly post it otherwise it'll be a few weeks till I go home again. Thanks for showing some interest though i thought this one was just going ignored. thanks again.

I found a couple pictures of cars on ebay that should suffice. I dimensioned one of them to the information i had on a sketch i had drawn. sorry i don't have any more dimensions on there but i thought i'd give you all i've got.

Let me know what else I can do for you. Thanks for looking and helping me out with this

i would pop off the strut tower panels and see what kind of room you have back there too...unless they are part of the rear pillars..then you may want to cut/ incorporate them some how into your design..

i dont know what a MBquartz 304 is....is it a sub? a tube?

you may also want to consider removing the backing to your rear sear and insetting the amps in there, and then fiberglassing a nice new back to your seat...that will save some space and still could be very clean..

do you have a full size spare or a donut? if it a full size ( like a nice one that matches the four on the ground) you may want to conside putting it kinda on display to one side and using the spare well for your box...

what does the hatch cover look like? the panel directly attached to bottom side of your hatch...if it is possible mold the panel and then mold in your 6x9's there firing forward...then when you open the hatch they will be way above you firing down..

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Fiberglass Guru.

Those panels are one piece all the way up to the front door. I'm going to pass on the idea of destroying some of that plastic. I don't like to cut up old cars, and certainly not for sub install.

Removing the back of the seat isn't really an option either. Where the carpet stops and where that black piece is on the left. thats actually a pivoting piece of metal that covers the gap when the rear seats are folded down.
Also I have the amp under the passenger seat so it doesn't need to be displayed.

I believe it is a full size spare but it's just a steel wheel so it's not worth looking at.

Mb Quart PWD-304 is an older higher end 12" sub from MB-quart. It's really clean and gets decently loud, i love it.

The panel I think you're talking about is like a red cardboard, kind of cheap looking actually. I do like your idea of attaching them there, it was something i hadn't thought of. I used to drive my parents 94 plymouth voyager that had them mount there and it was really nice to listen to music with the hatch open.

Thanks for all the ideas. I'll try and do some photoshop/solidworks work and see if i can't come up with some decent ideas...and i'll see what you guys think. Thanks again.

are u wanting to fill the whole trunk or the least as possible

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ALEX

stupid question read ur prevouis post ill draw up some different ideas and post them in the next couple days

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ALEX

If you can afford to lose your back seat, I would fiberglass the seat pan, and put two subs with your amp in between.  that's whaat I did in my Mazda RX7.  It looks pretty sweet.

I like having my back seat in there..thanks though. I could probably afford to lose as it's very rarely used pretty much only when in a pinch and going less than a couple miles. But I think cars look better with it in there.
Also i'm only running one sub.

Here is a pic of my interrior. I just don't think it'd look as nice and clean if that were gone.



Has anyone ever seen this upholstery before? I've looked at many other foxbody mustangs and i've never seen it with that pattern and color.

Thanks for the ideas...keep 'em coming if you'd be so kind.

oh in the background you can see my current solution for a sub box...This is the 5th vehicle it's been in, and was originally designed for a friends adire audio shiva 12. The volume is close enough to sound pretty decent. It's just looks terrible and takes up a lot of space. also when centered and pushed up to the back seat there is only like a half inch of clearance from the back glass. I'm convinced one of these days i'm going to break my window.

take a look at the sticky in the top of this fiberglass section...you will see one for building a FB box...look at the design in there i would go with it...plus it gives you a pretty detailed walk through for it as well...

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Fiberglass Guru.

Hey man as former foxbody owner , I hate to break it to ya But if your wanting to keep the back seat , spare tire well .. and kinda keep your system out of the back window your not gonna have alot of luck ...

But if you put 2-10's or 12's back there in a ported box they will sound amazing !! With the right box/power/subs of course.. And the good thing about a ported box IF you ever need to get to your spare tire you can always take the box out and get to the tire ..

My First Fiberglass project was actually using the spare tire well for a box for a Pioneer IMPP 10" woofer .. The main reason I went fiber glass was because I used to goto the track alot and that save atleast 10-20lbs of a mdf box !


Ed

Yea I'm starting to agree with you that there aren't a whole lot of options for installs with that criteria. I've kind of given up on the out of sight thing. The only thing I was able to come up with that was somewhat out of sight would be to build toward the passenger's side of the spare wheel well and have it either side or frong firing.

The other idea i had pretty much from the beginning was to build it rear facing and build it up to the plastic and about as high as the back seat then just make an mdf base with a fiberglass top. I'll probably end up doing that. we'll see if i/you can come up with anything else.

Thanks for the input so far.

I spent some quality time with my calculator and mspaint and came up with a couple illustrations of the side firing design I mentioned in my last post.

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I'm looking strongly at using that "footprint" of the box. The top/sides I'll most likely do with fiberglass and do some nice contours in there, althoughy the boxey picture there is still a possibility. Would compliment the boxy foxbody fairly well.

These drawings should give just about the right volume for the sub I'm using. I'm shooting for 2 cubic feet+ the driver. So I figure about 2.5. When I calculated everything I got somthing like 2.8 which will be good for fine tuning later.

Any idea's here?

Also if I mold off of the plastic panels is it going to rattle pretty badly when installed or should it fit tight enough to avoid it? Maybe some cloth or dynamat between the two?

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Hopefully the 3rd time is a charm

In other news I'm in a manufacturing class called polymer and composite processes, one of the processes he showed was fiberglassing. I'm going to approach him on tuesday and see if I can use this enclosure as my semester project, and maybe I can even do it with the school's materials

I'll fill you guys in on how it goes. I don't know if I want my first shot at fiberglassing graded though. I'm doing really well in that class so far so maybe my grade can take it.

This is Amazing...I just spoke to my professor and he gave me the full go ahead on the project. So now I have access to free fiberglass, resin, sanders, wood tools, a small spray booth. And a friend in the class even offered to help. This just made my day.