VW Lupo - Sold it to the DD distributor - now a democar! 2x18" ++

[Haakon]

Hey!

Starting a little build log for my tiny little car, a VW Lupo:

Modified with coilover suspension and some old OEM Porsche 928 wheels. Pretty much stock outside other than that

System overview:

Pioneer DEX-P99RS head unit with 4-way XO, 31band eq, time alignment and more

Tang Band W3-1878 3" fullrange drivers on dash playing 200hz and up

Digital Designs DDW6.5 midbass drivers in doors, playing 60-200hz

FI BTL N218 (fully loaded) D1 subwoofer

Phoenix Gold Outlaw 1845 amp for front stage speakers

SPL Dynamics ICE-3500D for N2 sub

Kimber Kable 4PR speaker wires for front stage

4x Supra Dual interconnects

1/0 gauge power wires

120A stock alternator

XS Power D1200 battery up front

Second Skin Damplifier mats, 2x in roof, 3x in doors and quarter panels, 1x under carpet and in boot.

1/2 inch closed cell foam on top of damplifier

Some pics, starting with wiring:

Amp/subwoofer rack/mounting frame:

(only tackwelded in these pics, will be fully TIG-welded when finalized with all braces)

Making pods for fullrange speakers:

I wanted fullrange speakers on the dash, but there is just some small tweeters there originally, so I had to modify the dash a bit

Since I wanted these neodymium long-throw wideband drivers I had to come up with something:

I want the 3" fullrange drivers close to where the stock tweeters are/were located in the dash, close to the corners. So I found my Bosch "dashboard muncher" and got to work:

does this;

They fit pretty well:

considering their mounting depth/magnet assembly:

Other side:

Routered some speaker rings

Took a few pics while making the base for the speaker mounts:

Step one; ducttaping where the base is going to sit

Step two: masking everywhere you are going to make a mess and spill resin: (done this before )

Cut some fiberglass fabric to form the base:

Coating it with polyester resin and waiting for it to harden:

[Haakon]

This morning it was ready to be cut approx to size:

Superglue and pieces of cardboard are key components for angling speakers

Filled out with fiberglass putty for strength:

Some more fiberglass putty:

Testfitting of fullrange speaker:

Angling pretty much straight up at windshield.

After a good few rounds with body filler and sanding, trying out some high rise spray filler here. Starting to take shape:

And some pics of the finished pods:

Only blue because that was the only colour gloss spraypaint I had around, needed to spot them for defects in the finish. But looked good, so they were wrapped in carbonfiber vinyl to match the rest of the dash inserts:

and the passenger side looks like this finished:

Speaker adapters/spacers

Triple layers of 19mm mdf, bonded together and sealed with three thick layers of VPA, this time they shall not swell up like the first ones that were sealed with a layer of polyester.

They are bonded to the doors with Sicaflex for a perfect seal. And seeing how much work it was getting the old ones off, I think they will hold up just fine being bonded only to the door metal.

The lower parts of the doora has a really big opening behind the doorpanel:

so I made a cardboard template that filled this out:

and transferred the template to a 8mm thick plastic sheet:

This is fastened with industrial 3M VHB doublesided tape around the edges, and then a layer of Second Skin Damplifier Pro over the panel and its edges to seal it properly up.

Looks like this all sealed and dampened:

[shogen]

your build is too sick man... You have it over on SSA right???

[Haakon]

Custom ordered plexiglass wall for subwoofer box, with laserengraved FI logo, cnc-routered holes for screws and edgelit with LEDs:

Box is just under 8 cubic feet before port/woofer displacement, so a bit over 7 net.

Using dual 6" aeroport, just checking if it all will fit on the baffle Making the baffle dual later on after box is installed. Have to make it at the same time as the beauty panels to integrate it into the interior.

Back wall will be a curved piece of 10mm acrylic, so marking up the curve to cut with a jigsaw:

Made templates in adobe illustrator, and cut them in vinyl, ready to be placed on top and bottom of box:

Spraypainted over the vinyl and removed it, making a permanent line to cut by:

Painted the inside of the box in metallic silver, like the car. And added some custom FI graphics in vinyl on the bottom

Ports not cut to size yet, so don't worry about that

Dropped in the N2 to see how it looked, it actually looks tiny in this box

Top view (looks like mickey mouse)

Ports cut to size for a 32hz tuning (or 21hz if I block one of them )

[tigers9304]

Wow! that looks really good. Nice craftsmanship on everything

[berniebp87]

Awesome build! always nice to see some Norwegian ingenuity Where did you order the plexi glass? price?

[C-Fizzy]

holy shit. nice work! and those full range speakers are SEXY.

[Haakon]

Thanks for the comments!

Awesome build! always nice to see some Norwegian ingenuity Where did you order the plexi glass? price?

The plexi cost me 1750 KROONS (or about 350USD), its 10mm thick and 50x90cm. Costly, but it was worth it. How can you hide a beautifully engineered sub like the N2?

I have RGB LEDs to light it, so I can choose pretty much any color. Here are some examples:

The rear wall of the box is curved for strength, it took a good amount of force to push the plexi down to the box walls to be screwed in place:

When lit:

A few pics of the box in the car, trying it with a single baffle for now, but will maybe add a second one while I'm building panels to extend out to the sides of the trunk and to the side windows. Should look okay when finished

[mrtopnotch561]

wow the build is looking sick man. really like the enclosure 1 of a kind for sure. more pics!

[Haakon]

I have some pics of what I did to the car today, just started wrapping it in matte army green vinyl

But first I had to wash it:

Looks like this with my new black headlights and yellow indicators, also painted the VW emblem matte black:

Wrapping with 3M 1080 series car wrap vinyl:

Came out like this finished:

Now its just to do the rest of the car