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View Full Version : Ported fiberglassed painted boxes for JL 13w7's



BadKachina
04-11-2007, 07:08 PM
Here's a little project I'm working on for my personal boat. I have four Alpine 12's now, but since I'm a JL dealer I thought I better put some bad ass JL speakers in.
The 13w7's are kind of a special breed. They need 1" mdf, supports, and specific size and port size and you need to break up the standing waves in the box to make them sound right.
You'll probably have to go to a wood workers supply place for the 1" board. I make plans so that I can maximize my cuts out of a sheet of wood. It's also easier to make as many pieces have at least one measurement the same, and draw out how your going to rip the board on your table saw. On the 1" stuff you can usually get one or two cuts for free when you purchase your wood and unless you have a huge table like they do it's easier if they make one or two cuts for you. For instance if you have two 12x12x24" boxes. you will need........
4 sides at 12 x 24
4 front and back at 10 x 24
4 top top and bottom at 10 x 12
Now when you figure out you cuts you can rip a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood at 24 inches and 12 inches.
The piece that you had them rip at 24 inches will make all your sides plus the front and back pieces in an 8' sheet.
The piece that you ripped at 12 inches will make all your tops and bottom.
This way you don't have to make the long difficult cuts by yourself. Now you set up your saw for 12" inches, cut your sides, then set up your saw for 10 inches and cut your front and back, top and bottoms and you have all the pieces ready to assemble.
I glue and clamp using lots of glue and I'll sink some screws in just so it doesn't slide around while the glue is drying. If glued and clamped properly the joints will be as strong as the rest of the wood.
Back to my project, I glued these together and filled all the screw holes with wood putty. I also made supports to break up the standing waves and strengthen the box.
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28499&d=1176347102

BadKachina
04-13-2007, 05:43 AM
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28500&d=1176347149
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28501&d=1176347207

BadKachina
04-13-2007, 06:00 AM
The boxes are together, the holes are cut, and the supports are inside. The supports are important in big power speaker boxes. Not only do they keep the sides from flexing and robbing you of power but they break up the standing waves speakers create inside enclosures. The will give you a cleaner and truer sound.
The next step was router the box and sand it as smooth as possible, it's easier to get it smooth now than after you resin coat it. If your just carpeting it you obviously don't have to make as much effort getting it perfect. I put two coats of resin over the entire box inside and out, I also used fiberglass mat on all the seams inside and reinforced the bottom where my lag bolts would be. The resin at home improvement stores is hard to work with, it either kicks to fast or never gets completely hard. If you have a marine shop in your area get something professional. I use Sticky Stuff in Glendale for my supplies. Take your time, it will take a couple of days to get them done. You will have to wait for them to kick before you can rotate them and do all the surfaces.
Next you'll have to start sanding again. I used 100 grit followed by 300 with a d/a sander until it was pretty smooth so that I could shoot it with primer. Once again, rattle can primer sucks, an automotive paint store will sell you some verithane(spelling?) primer that will fill all your sand marks and inconsistancies.
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28594&d=1176472738

AZJD
04-16-2007, 04:20 PM
Thats exactly where they were sitting when I saw them friday! See ya with the boat Wednesday Paul. And the boxes looked good enough to get my stereo business. ;)

soupersonic
04-18-2007, 12:35 PM
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28594&d=1176472738
I dont know if i would be posting pics of my handy work with that rust bucket of a trailer for a background. Some folks might get the wrong impression

Tom Brown
04-19-2007, 06:07 PM
I dont know if i would be posting pics of my handy work with that rust bucket of a trailer for a background. Some folks might get the wrong impression
I was thinking of having BadKachina install some JL subs on my trailer but he's just blown that business.
Nice work, BK. http://www.***boat.com/ubb/icons/icon6.gif

BadKachina
04-19-2007, 06:33 PM
You bunch of bastards...........I'll be here till midnight every night next weekend getting ready for Desert Storm. Jim's boat is getting a makeover too, not to mention I'm slammed with work. I guess it could be worse.
Here's the painted version of those boxes. Two stage paint after lots of primer, spot putty and sanding...........Hopefully next week I'll post some installed pics.
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=29013&d=1177036326
http://www.***boat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=29014&d=1177036363

Racey
04-19-2007, 07:55 PM
Looking good Paul, alot of work sanding those boxes down for paint i bet, definitely post some installed pics. I'm getting close to finishing my install I'll put some pics up when its done.

Belak5555
04-19-2007, 07:59 PM
Now when you say "fill the holes with putty" do you mean the set of holes you will put in the bottom of the boat if I have you install it? or a diffrent set of holes?
Also you say you need to reinforce the bottom of the speaker box for the lag screws your going to use it install it, Now is that because when you attach the box though the bottom of the boat to the trailer you dont want to hurt the bottom of the box? or am I just confused about something?
Now because this is on your boat does that mean you wont have to poorly disguise all you mishaps and just not talk about it?
Is makeover a performance term Im unaware of for "finding new and creative ways to sink a boat in a timely matter?" Have I been in the dark about that?....maybe not...
well let me know how getting your boat off the trailer goes, if at all.
OH! I almost forgot to remind you; dont forget to take the screw off from on top of your battery before you clamp that top on; dont want to almost destroy another perfectly good battery overthere.

soupersonic
04-19-2007, 08:08 PM
[QUOTE=BadKachina;2512065]You bunch of bastards...........I'll be here till midnight every night next weekend getting ready for Desert Storm. Jim's boat is getting a makeover too, not to mention I'm slammed with work. I guess it could be worse.
QUOTE]
I could come by and help out next weekend.You can even watch me drink your beer. I might even return the 2 pairs of chanel locks that made the trek to my house by hitching a ride on the swim step.

BadKachina
04-19-2007, 09:08 PM
Now when you say "fill the holes with putty" do you mean the set of holes you will put in the bottom of the boat if I have you install it? or a diffrent set of holes?
Also you say you need to reinforce the bottom of the speaker box for the lag screws your going to use it install it, Now is that because when you attach the box though the bottom of the boat to the trailer you dont want to hurt the bottom of the box? or am I just confused about something?
Now because this is on your boat does that mean you wont have to poorly disguise all you mishaps and just not talk about it?
Is makeover a performance term Im unaware of for "finding new and creative ways to sink a boat in a timely matter?" Have I been in the dark about that?....maybe not...
well let me know how getting your boat off the trailer goes, if at all.
OH! I almost forgot to remind you; dont forget to take the screw off from on top of your battery before you clamp that top on; dont want to almost destroy another perfectly good battery overthere.
Oh this should be good.
Come out out in the open, names and who you are and we'll sling the mud Timmy. Yes we installed battery boxes and screwed them through the floor of a cat. That was my mistake and I fixed it. Big deal, what matters is that you own up to your mistakes and make them right.
You wouldn't be the guy that took 6 months to rebuild a motor that lasted 3 hours would you? If not I'm refering to Tim at Tuff-Enuf. 6 months of lies and excuses for a pos that didn't even make one trip to the lake? Oh wait, the vibration and noise must be in the flywheel or balancer. Too bad it's "supposed" be an internally balanced motor with an externally balanced flywheel.........(oops, good thing we had a real motor builder figure this out for us)
Oh and how about that little valve adjustment you did or didn't do? Since the header gaskets tore off when we went to check your work, I wonder how you got them off???? When you tell someone your adjusting thier valves you should at least pull the valve covers. I guess you knew that would be a waste of time since the motor had a obvious rod knock in the front cylinders.....Why adjust them if you know the customer won't make it out of the no wake zone and you can wash your hands of the whole mess? We checked your adjustments that you wrote on your invoice, some valves were double the clearance of what you said you just adjusted. Oh and we had another engine builder there to witness your fine work, in fact we had about 15 people there to see what you had done. That way when you came up with some bs or lame ass excuses there would be plenty of witnesses to take your crooked ass to court. It didn't matter anyways since the oil pan was full of metal and sludge. Oh, and I had two other engine builders check out your handy work so that when you lied or came up with more excuses we'd all know what you were up to, that would include inspecting the motor while running and not, as well as checking the balance on the flywheel and coupler for you (they were almost perfect BTW, so you'll have to make new excuses).
Funny thing is, almost everybody in the industry warned me not to use you, not to mention every customer that had dealings with you or heard of you had nothing but negative things to say. Maybe I should have learned my lesson when you ripped us off on the first set of heads that you "magnafluxed" and did a valve job for me. Good thing I wasted my time and money on that one. They leaked immediately, but you had excuses as to why it was missed..........So not only did I over pay you for work you didn't do, I had to eat the labor of rebuilding a motor twice and ended up buying new heads in the end. Thanks Tim.
How about charging to "port" brand new AFR heads? Does porting consist of having a 19 year old kid go town with a air grinder on them and then charging him thousands for the shotty work? I guess your 19 year kid knows flow patterns better than AFR.
Oh and how about that the AFR heads in question had the wrong valves in the brand new heads? Yes I followed up on those. See, you said you called AFR and gave them some part numbers that they had no idea what the part numbers were. You should have known I would call them myself to find out that they were in fact inconel valves. Good thing is that you were able to up charge for something that was already there. I planned on returning them for the correct valves but they were already the correct valves. Just another lie from the Lie-inator.
How about the circle track motor that lasted five seasons, came in for re-fresh and made it one night on the re-fresh? Oh never mind, you blamed it on using the wrong oil. What a joke. Wonder why we didn't use you for circle track motor sitting in the car in our shop? Because your untrust-worthy, a lier and a thief.
Tim your reputation is well known for shotty work, no wonder you don't offer any warranties. Tailight warranty only at good old tuf-crap engines. Good thing you didn't build the motor in your own boat. I feel sorry for anyone that gets involved with you.
I don't usually bad mouth people, it's bad karma. But people should be warned not to deal with you. I'll make sure I spread the word.

AZJD
04-19-2007, 09:17 PM
Paul, don't you have a certain Warlock to be working on? LMAO

Tom Brown
04-19-2007, 10:42 PM
BK, are you having problems with the joints printing through?
I've had terrible problems with print through on MDF joints. The only thing that seems to work is leaving the enclosures under a heat lamp for a few days before filling and painting.

BadKachina
04-20-2007, 05:09 AM
BK, are you having problems with the joints printing through?
I've had terrible problems with print through on MDF joints. The only thing that seems to work is leaving the enclosures under a heat lamp for a few days before filling and painting.
Not yet, but I think the warmer weather here and resin coating them prior to primering them may help. The reason they were in the sun is to help the paint pull down. They seemed a little soft after sitting in an air conditioned office overnight. Some one actually put a slight impression of their hand in one of them but it almost completely went away after a day outside.
I hope they don't show, if they do I have this new spray on suede I've been wanting to try. It comes in a bunch of colors and looks and feels just like the real deal. I've been looking for an excuse to try it. A friend of mine that does factory sponsered stereos was showing me some fiberglass he did in the stuff and it's amazing.

BadKachina
04-20-2007, 05:14 AM
Paul, don't you have a certain Warlock to be working on? LMAO
I made some really good progress on your ride. Your box is drying (resin) and hopefully I can get it painted this morning early enough to let it dry and pop it in this afternoon. Your mids are in, I had to cut every single hole to make them fit. They look really nice though. I hope to have it done tonight. If not it will be ready in the morning. I have a ton of clean up from all the cutting. I was going in early just to get head start on the paint.

AZJD
04-20-2007, 12:03 PM
I made some really good progress on your ride. Your box is drying (resin) and hopefully I can get it painted this morning early enough to let it dry and pop it in this afternoon. Your mids are in, I had to cut every single hole to make them fit. They look really nice though. I hope to have it done tonight. If not it will be ready in the morning. I have a ton of clean up from all the cutting. I was going in early just to get head start on the paint.
Very cool. Don't be so concerned with the clean up, as I have to clean the interior anyways from all the cutting compound from buffing. Give me a call later today and let me know if I can help ya out with anything.