Low Power Walled/Bagged/Stanced Civic

[TravisFoster]

OK, so I don't think I've ever ever made a post on SMD, so I'm gonna try to throw up a decent build log for my 95 Honda Civic Sedan.

The current system consists of:
Pioneer DEH-P4200UB head unit
2 Crescendo FT1 Super Tweets in pillars
FIberglass doors with 4 10" GRS Paper Cone Mids (Looking to upgrade to Sundown Neos, Crescendo if they fit, etc.)
Fosgate 75.2 on Tweets and Kenwood 500x2 on mids (upgrading to Crescendo 1100.4)
2 Sundown Audio SA-15's Dual 4 (Upgrading to AA Mayhems soon!)
Crescendo BC2000D on subs 1 Ohm Nominal (Not sure with box rise)
B-pillar wall 7.6 cubes tuned to 36 HZ
Big 3 and single run of 0 gauge all KnuKonceptz

KnuKonceptz Twisted RCAs
Dual alternators (both Ebay HO alts, one was free from a buddy)
stock bat up front and Optima Blue Top in the back (need to upgrade to some XS Power)

Here's the car pretty much up to date:



Nothing special, just my daily beater, I put about 30 miles a day of this rig lol


Well I'm pretty terrible at remembering to take pictures, I'm kinda new at this whole thing (forums, build logs, posting, etc)
Plus I change things so often it's hard to keep track, but I'll do my best. Who knows maybe I will enter SOTM once I have some more progress. I want this thing to be the best looking daily on the road (shoot for the stars, right lol)
I'm going to end up painting the car a nice Pearl White with this awesome fluorescent Purple (tow hook is powdercoated this color) as the accent color (wheels, engine bay, etc)
So before I get too off topic, I guess I should just start from the beginning (for the most part lol)

My wife and I picked up a 2002 Honda Civic with only 60,000 miles on it and it was a steal!! So the 95 being her car, I took it over and it all went downhill from there lol

It started out with a few "simple" mods: Stock Forest Green, Some 16" tuner wheels, cheap drop kit, shaved rear door handles (hehe, I'm a minitrucker at heart)


Might as well shaved the gate as well hehehe


Then I started with the stereo upgrades.
My first project I decided to tackle with no fiberglassing experience yet was the rear deck lid (the factory rear speaker cover doo-dad)
I started by making a mold and then wrapping it in some cheap fabric from Hancook Fabrics, didn't turn our too bad


Then the sub stage:
2 12" Fosgate HX2's dual 4
5 cube box tuned to low 30's (I really felt like I was raping the car trying to cram this this in the opening lol)


The subs started falling apart (surround on one and the dust cap on the other) so I decided to have Ken (owner of Faultline Customs) recone them with high roll surrounds, crazy stiff spiders, big ole dust cap, they frickin pounded


Then of course it still wansn't loud enough for me, so I decided to tackle the next fiberglass project, flipping the box around and doing a sealed forward setup


Some beauty panels then some chop matt (I did this so nasty IMO now lol)



The seats still folded normal and looked all stock with the seat up so I was happy at the time.
Then...one sub separated, dammint!!! I loved these, oh well, lets recone, oh wait genius idea (not) I then decided to have the motors thrown on RF Power HX2 15" Baskets, and then reconed as 15's. These one's sucked if you ask me, they only sounded good at 40Hz+ (even in the right sized box with lower tuning) the box ended up being way to small and basically turned my entire car into a 6th order


Yes, I know they look like PA speakers....they sounded like it too lol, whatever it'll have to do for now ugggghhhh
Hey, why don't I try my hand at glassing some doors!!
So I hopped on Parts-Express and order 8 GRS 6 1/2" Mids and two Selenium Supwer tweets (my current temp tweets until the Crescendos arrive) deck lid was re-glassed (couldn't find any pics) with 4 of the mids, and the doors had the rest


Pretty nasty, never really finished them, this is about as far as I got, wrapped the inner pieces with black tweed, just experimenting with stuff I had never did before.

Decided to get some new kicks for the whip: 16 x 8.25 XXR 527 Concaves on 205/40R16, light stetch


Dual alternator mod for some extra juice (went in factory AC spot)


The Audiobahn garbage "2300 watt" amp I was running gobbled up power but didnt really dish that much out (surprising, I know)
I thought I was done for the moment, then another brilliant idea.

I had never built a wall, obviously, and after looking over a TON of build logs I wanted to start, but not do something crazy like 4 18s or 6 15s using the entire cabin/ trunk area. I wanted to build a fairly large enclosure, mount it and then build the wall around it, I called it a "mini wall" even though its at the b-pillar. I had an idea and went with it. Lets do a 2 15 wall and then down the road I upgrade, hell I could do 2 SMD 15s on a 7.5k or something!! Even that seemed crazy. So I started with the box and mounted it on a 2x4/2x6 platform


Sounded pretty good with the trunk open for venting purposes , didn't get low for shit lol
Then I started on the MDF roof and side panels to cap everything off and to make sure every db was extracted from the enclosure, everything sealed off with expanding foam




The top part of the wall had the 4 mids from the back but I didn't like the sound (hence the glue and router marks for the magnets)

Front shot:

[Polish]

Nice build man, looks good so far. I like your wheels too, good choice.

[TravisFoster]

So at this point its decently loud for 2 15's, the highs were actually pretty damn loud, but still didn't get low for shit.

I then wanted to make the doors a little bigger and better, I was doing some side projects and was advancing in the trade.

I decicded to go with 2 10's in each door, and do tweets in the pillars

Yay speakers!!

The tweets were 8 1/2 Mylar tweets, they all blew in like 3 weeks lol 2$ a piece!!

Heres what the pillars look like for those 3 whole weeks lol

Didn't even have time to finish those either lol

Here's the doors mocked up and rings for the 10s built

Then wrapped in some sweet hunting/duck scenery fleece FTW

Speakers in:

Nice layer of filler

Here's what the doors look like currently, they still need another coat of filler then glaze coat, prime, paint, etc. I just threw some primer on them for a show that I went to. It was my first competition ever! Went up against Nyman in the 139.9 Bass Race and lost by .2. He scored a perfect 139.9 the first try (of course) and I scored 139.7. I was having trouble not making the meter go over 139.9 during practicing.

Then I got a chunk of money to devote to the stereo (about $800) so I pickup up 2 15" Sundown Audio SA-15s and a Crescendo BC2000D

Amp mounted and Fully bolt-on Cantilever air suspension started (thats what the bridge bar square tube mocked up)

My amps mounted on the floor for the speakers were practically falling apart from the floor vibrations, poor man's deadener FTW, shit worked great

Couldn't see shit behind me so a threw together a little fiberglass monitor action with backup camera mounted in the rear

Everything is straight pounding at this point, doing close to 150db, but I'm still hearing these crazy ratting/buzzing/ just insane noises

It turned out the box was flexing like crazy on the face and back of the box. The 1/2" threaded rod going through didn't cut it, then I added a 2x4 right next to it, that didn't work either, still flexing like crazy.

So I added 2x4s on the back and remounted the amp (more progress on the Cantilever bar)

Then I made a new brace from 1/8" wall 1 1/2" D Pipe on 3/16" Plate and added 45s and glass

All nasty and unsanded lol bolts directly to another 3/16" face plate

It goes from the bottom of the port to almost the bottom as shown. Go ahead and make fun of the nasty looking plasma cuts. I Freehand cut those by hand with no measurements whatsoever, just grabbed some scrap plate and cut what I thought was a 15" circle lol. Everything held down by 2" lag screws

Now I'm pretty much up to date so I will be updating more frequently, (I hope lol)

Please if anyone has any comments/questions I would be so happy to hear them.

[FosgateLife]

Thats actually a pretty good looking wall and everything. I saw the first picture and thought to my self "oh god its another shit box ricer with some Kicker L7's and a sony explode amp......

Lol anyways, nice build! Im following this just to see what the final product is! I like it so far!

[OrangeJuiced]

Bolt in cantilever in the civic? Will you have to cut holes for the bars and dog bones to connect to the arms. How does it work? Never seen it done. Great looking build man. Love the shaved handles and rear box and the wall of course.

[dbs]

like your stance

[TravisFoster]

Nice build man, looks good so far. I like your wheels too, good choice.

Thanks, means a lot, i love them too!

Thats actually a pretty good looking wall and everything. I saw the first picture and thought to my self "oh god its another shit box ricer with some Kicker L7's and a sony explode amp......

Lol anyways, nice build! Im following this just to see what the final product is! I like it so far!

LMAO!! This reply about killed me. I dont like to stick to a single theme. I'm a mini trucker at heart, but I love the stanced look, and I'm a stereo junkie, I like to mix it up and make something cool and fun. Thinkin bout gettin some xplodes now

Bolt in cantilever in the civic? Will you have to cut holes for the bars and dog bones to connect to the arms. How does it work? Never seen it done. Great looking build man. Love the shaved handles and rear box and the wall of course.

Thanks for the comments. On a side note....Your build is freeking awesome!! Sat down and went through the whole thing one rainy day. Anyways the way it will work is there will be pivot points on the bridge bar, some 1:1 levers, and bushings on link bars going through the factory strut holes. Should be interesting. Got the idea from someone who did this (not bolt on) in a civic hatch with CBR shocks for track use. I'll post some pics to clarify. Doing as much as I can right now, finally building a backyard 10 x 12 workshop as well so I got my hands full for now.

[2loudisjustright]

Looks good so far!! I started with xl 18s in my wall on only 1 1800 watt amp and it was pretty loud for the power it was on.

[TravisFoster]

This is the civic I got the cantilever idea from, wont look the same, but similar concept.

This is a neat little paint picture I threw together to give you an idea of where everything will go. I already have pretty much everything to finish, its just the design part I'm taking my time with.

[Katt]

You already know i'm following this!

And i thought that rear brace was for, you cutting out the rear deck, and using it as a brace, Guess not though!! But hell yeah!