Astro Build - 12 Cerwin-Vega 12"s in a Clamshell C-Pillar Wall

[Omega5002]

Vintage audio ftw!

By the looks of things, are you gonna redo your entire front stage?

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Pulled out the 2 tweeters that were in each side in the factory dash 6x9 location and made a new plate. Then put in one 4" JBL GTI and 1 Silk Dome McIntosh Tweeter:

Then readied the doors for the 8" MTX Road Thunders. I went easy / lazy and re-used the old door boxes. Just made a new baffle.

The cardboard template:

Old box with speakers removed. Used to have 2 4"s and 1 5.25- getting ready for 1 8":

3/4" baffle

Cut the carpet back and used the Roto-Zip to cut out enough room for the magnet. *Helpful Tip* - Make sure you don't get the rotozip bit close to loose fabric. EVER. lol

Cleaned up:

Yeah, I know it doesn't match and looks like I put one piece on top of an existing box... because I did. But it is sealed off.

Stuffed with Poly-Fill, wired, and ready to go in. These are pretty beefy speakers. They are meant to be subs, but I am running them as woofers. @120 watts RMS Each.

The driver's side has the bass knob for the 12 12"s, so I had to cut the end and rewire and recrimp it:

Viola!!

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Vintage audio ftw!

By the looks of things, are you gonna redo your entire front stage?

Yessir- more pics coming up. In short, the van now has the same speakers on all 4 corners, save the extra 8"s in the doors up front.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Ok... on to the pics for the speaker pods for the back. I decided that I was ready for this "rear fill" again. I figured out where I was going to put everything, laid out all the speakers, and made templates, then cut baffles, then made my depth with dowel rods (used a hot glue gun to old them in place). Then wrapped them with fleece, soaked them in resin (on the outside and let cure, then filled the inside), smoothed them in bondo, marked the holes, drilled, wrapped the speakers in carpet, installed the speakers and wired everything up.

Baffles cut

Dowel rods for depth.

Stapling down the fleece. (Sorry, no crazy colors- white was CHEEEEEEP!)

Got Staples?

Getting ready for Resin!

Solid.

Cut holes for the 4"s and filled the inside with resin too. Double solid. Then Bondo.

I LOVE You Sander.

[Socky]

Looks good man. Love watching the progess on this thing.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

You know the whole measure twice, cut once deal? Yeah, I measured 10x, marked twice, and cut Once.

I love you hole drill. These tiny speaker holes would nearly be impossible without it.

Find the seams. I HATE SEAMS!!!

I put the cutout carpet material behind the speakers. The whole theory is that it will help break up any reflections or other such nastiness in the box.

Not yet mounted:

I used these to join the runs from the Amps to the pods. That way if / when I remove them for whatever reason, I don't have to Cut the wires and work on top of myself.

Sorry- dark photo. Yeah the stick out, but oh well.

So, that is it until I get all together photos and / or vid. Although it doesn't look like much, this kind of sucked. LOL. It has been a while since I have had proper rear fill though. As ever, It needs to be tuned again starting with the O-Scoping. But- I like it. -Especially the 8"s in the doors in spite of what they look like.

I believe the rear fill is doing just what I hoped it would.... when the rear speakers are playing, they sound good (other than coming from the back). When I use the fader to bring the front speakers back in- the rear speakers disappear- but when the fader is set to front only, you can tell that a certain something is missing. Back to front and rear and the Image clears up.

I need to get happy with the EQs though- Tomorrow though, I am tired.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Looks good man. Love watching the progess on this thing.

Thanks brother.

After I catch my breath from this and get some spare ca$h, I mean to go with 2 AGM battieres. One under the hood and a secondary by the box.

[Kevin M]

Damn bro. I see you have been doing work. The new door setup and rear fill is way cool. I was never a fan of rear speakers until I put them in my car. Totally changed my mind. It adds a lot of depth and width to my frontstage.You have to tell me where you found those McIntosh tweets though. Are they silk domes?

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Thanks much! Yeah, that is where my head is at mostly with rear fill. I'm like- Why do I need speakers back there? The sound comes from in front! But you said it exactly right- the rear speakers do seem to add a good bit of depth and width. In the van, width has never been much of a problem, but the depth has never been to my liking. It is much better now with the rear fill than it was before.

Yeah, the McIntosh tweeters are silk domes. I have had them for a hot minute. Maybe 10 years now. I got them off of eBay, but I haven't seen any in a very long time. I like them a lot. They are very detailed and clean- they just don't have very high sensitivity. But, they are McIntosh tweets- not bullet tweets. They blend in very well and are very hard to localize or pin point.- which is the whole idea. All that said, I can't say that these tweeters are any better or that much better than a proper silk dome you would get from Parts Express (a vifa or something comparable).

Thanks for checking the build! I love what you have going on in yours. Your unconventional choice of equipment is just my speed. In my old age, Soundstage and SQ is becoming more fun that the bass. ...but I still gotta have my subs!!!

[Kevin M]

Thanks much! Yeah, that is where my head is at mostly with rear fill. I'm like- Why do I need speakers back there? The sound comes from in front! But you said it exactly right- the rear speakers do seem to add a good bit of depth and width. In the van, width has never been much of a problem, but the depth has never been to my liking. It is much better now with the rear fill than it was before.

Yeah, the McIntosh tweeters are silk domes. I have had them for a hot minute. Maybe 10 years now. I got them off of eBay, but I haven't seen any in a very long time. I like them a lot. They are very detailed and clean- they just don't have very high sensitivity. But, they are McIntosh tweets- not bullet tweets. They blend in very well and are very hard to localize or pin point.- which is the whole idea. All that said, I can't say that these tweeters are any better or that much better than a proper silk dome you would get from Parts Express (a vifa or something comparable).

Thanks for checking the build! I love what you have going on in yours. Your unconventional choice of equipment is just my speed. In my old age, Soundstage and SQ is becoming more fun that the bass. ...but I still gotta have my subs!!!

Thx bro. I am going to be rebuilding soon too. Now that I can build a system that is reasonably loud I would like to tighten it up and focus more on sq too.