Loud & Low 8th Gen Civic - UBL #3 - The Final Chapter - Up to date

[scooter99]

So yesterday I decided to completely commit to getting some serious work done. So I parked the ride in the back yard and decided to take the truck to work all week. This will allow me to put in work daily when I get home, and not have to put things back together when i'm done so I can drive to work the next day.

Now before I put the sub baffle in, because it's not going to get a trim piece for a while, I decided I didn't want to just look at raw wood until that happens. SO I decided to paint it black. It'll be much easier on the eyes.

Next it was time to address this empty trunk!

First the amp rack. This thing is HEAVY now. When it was just a couple layers of wood and fiberglass, it wasn't so bad.

Next comes the floor. I'm wishing now I'd have brought the back parts out to the other part, but I'm not going back now. I'll still be doing a false floor, so that should cover most of it.

Next comes the enclosure. Body first.

Ohhh that looks so nice to me.

Port time. I bought some lock washers to space out the screw heads. Recall they were too sunk in. The washers fixed that right up.

View from the back window under the trunk lid. I need to get the back window re tinted. But I decided to wait until this was done because I have no doubt I'd have gotten it done, and then scratched it up. So I waited.

[scooter99]

Closer view.

From the front seats.

Then I put the floor in. So how this works, floor in, sealed up enclosure functional.

A few screws, and BAM, amp access!! WOOT!

Ok next step was to get the battery racks worked on. Before I had some drywall screws I put in and then cut off the ends outside. Well that wasn't good enough for me.

So I put some 10-32 inserts in there

And used some flush mount 10-32 screws to mount the brackets with. Much better looking IMO. No they're not going to be seen, but that doesn't really matter does it.

Ok one side done. This is the driver side.

Any questions!!

Both done.

Next is to get them installed in the trunk. Need to make a few brackets to keep them in place, and also a couple of brackets to keep the batteries in when they're installed. I'll work on that tomorrow.

So that's what I've done the last two days. Hopefully much more can get done tomorrow. Still planning on it playing by the weekend. I'm hoping anyway, unless something special happens, and then it may be a few more days than that. But I'm ok with all that. It'l be well worth it for me.

MORE SOON!!!!!

[scooter99]

So all is very well tonight. Great progress this weekend. At least I think so.

Let's check out what happened. I jumped back and forth so I'll try to keep it straight.

Let's get started.

I'm going to start with the doors. I decided to start working on the doors, becase they are going to be time consuming and some of the other stuff in the trunk is about done. I'm going to get the battery racks done, and then it's wiring and getting the subs loaded and some other stuff. But I felt the doors needed to be addressed. So I started there.

So the front doors are going to consist of 2 sets of these Mezzo comps. 2 6.5" mids and 2 tweets per door.

The goods

I got out the 1/4" mdf and started to measure out and get some templating going.

Once I got it all cut out and measured up, it was time to cut the holes out and the ends.

Got the router out and the circle jig that Borris sent to me. Thanks buddy!

Got the outside rounded off

Then got the inner holes cut out.

Flush reverse mount ftw!!

[scooter99]

Now it was time for another little surprise!

Used some construction paper for templating on the doors.

Then got it measured out and added the speaker template to it.

and cut it out.

This is the look.

After looking at it and measuring, I decided it needed about another half inch added to it.

CA glued the insert on.

And then measured out

and cut the center piece out.

lining it up

and CA gluing it together to make one big template.

[scooter99]

Time to transfer it onto some 3/4" ply

now I used some two sided tape to stick the template on, so I could router out with the flush trim bit on the router table. One of the best investments I've ever made btw, thanks Kyle as always for hooking it up!

Finished pieces.

Little roundover on the rectangle piece

[scooter99]

and next to round over the speaker holes.

LOVE that look!!

Now for the backside. needed to router out a groove.

and then another on top for the fleece to staple to.

Let's get the doors off.

[scooter99]

On the back side of the doors, there are spots where you can drill them out and the top and bottom halves will separate. I decided to do this so I didn't have to deal with possibly getting anything on the top piece.

Old alarm led wire.

Now that I have those out, let's get cutting.

set the panels on there, to draw out where I needed to cut.

And then put my air saw to work!

CA Glued the panels in, which was a bit of a pain, because the CA glue just didn't hold. Kept coming off the panels

Now I'm ready for some fleece.

ORANGE FTMFW!!

[scooter99]

Next time I decide to do something like this, I need to invest in an air staple gun. Doing this by hand SUCKED HAIRY DONKEY BALLS!! I have blisters today from it.

BUT I got the driver side done.

After looking at this for a moment I decided that the spot right above the mids would be perfect for the tweets to go. I was going to put them in the A-pillars originally, but I didn't like how they were going to fit up there and how far out they were going to stick. So I decided this was good.

Made a template.

And put it to some 1/2" ply .

Routered out the edges again for the fleece to staple to.

Now the driver side is really done.

And passenger side too.

Next it was time for some resin, and some black pigment. Never used US Composites before, and never used pigment before. So I had some issues.

[scooter99]

Got the doors resined up, but I didn't use enough MEKP. It was cold, but I knew I didn't use enough. Why didn't I add more? I don't know.

So, after that, I decided to do a little other work too. So that being said,

Let's get some buss bars hooked up.

Got my stock here. Gonna get it cut up into the sizes I need.

Started taping the tops so I could make my drill points and measurements.

Ready to start drilling.

Started drilling the mounting holes for the battery posts.

Get them mounted.

[scooter99]

Then I decided to check out the voltage while they were all hooked up. 12.64v is not a bad resting voltage no?

So next I got all the cable mounts drilled out.

Remounted them, and then threw the charger on it.

Second set drilled out.

Then it was time to tap them. There was 64 holes to tap, I counted. I did 3 by hand and said EFF THAT CRAP!! SO I got on Youtube and found a video that showed doing it with a drill. That'll be tomorrow.

So today, after sitting all night, I came out and the resin still wasn't hard. SO I decided to get the fiberglass chop out, and mix a hotter batch and fiberglass over the fleece and kill two birds with one stone.

And it worked. Used some workshop lights, and a space heater, and it hardened up nicely. Next step will be to get it sanded a bit to knock down some high stuff, and then get the filler on it.