Next up was the audio system, which by the end of it really had me wishing I just went with an under seat subwoofer because of how long it took. Granted final fit and finish as well as audio quality I am extremely happy with.
Ripped off the door cards, discovered the speaker adapters I had bought two years ago were the wrong ones, figures. Looked into getting more, they weren't readily available, weren't super cheap but were super trash. Screw it, made my own out of mdf using the stock speakers as templates, sealed it with rubberized undercoating so it doesn't melt if water touches it, and put a ring of closed cell foam on the back for good measure to seal in the speaker better and prevent vibrations.
Applied sound deadener to the front doors, both the inner and outer skins. Mounting the crossovers for the speakers was a bit of a challenge to find the perfect position that didn't interfere with the door card or the window. Getting the new speaker wire through the door grommet was also tricky, lots of lube and persuasion required.
The amp fit perfectly under the drivers seat. Running the wiring to it, having it all be perfectly straight, color coded, and braided sleeveing was a full on exercise in OCD. I was very impressed with just the front speakers and amp even without the sub.
Constructing the sub box in the factory location was a very long and tedious process of trial and error. I really wish I could have just paid for the SeaScooby kit and saved all those hours of shaping the inner panel sections. But RIP SeaScooby I guess, though no one really seems to know for sure what happened to the guy. Pulled out every trick I had to get it to fit as snugly as I could with as much hardware as I could.
The face panel compared to the inner sections was quite simple to do as I used the oem subwoofer panel as a template and just referenced the bolt points in the interior to ensure that the sub would be centered in the oem grill. The sub I was worried was slightly too deep, so I decided to surface mount it to the faceplate instead of flush mounting it. I made a nice trim ring to go around it to protect the cone by using the jigsaw at its outer limit of its angle adjustment. And the same as the door speaker adapters I hit it with rubberized undercoating to seal it, and also so that it wouldn't stand out if it was visible through the grill.
Got the sections damn close to perfect, started off with the pieces that I had solid mounting points to the inner panels, then tied them into the others with 90 degree brackets that I bent to match their angles. Then I siliconed all the joints for a solid airtight seal. And after that cured I layered on the sound deadener. Very skookum with it all tied together.
To mount and seal the front panel to the enclosure unfortunately theres no perfect way to do it as there are too many changes in the gap for it to be feasible to build something that would only need a gasket or a bead of caulking, which is the same conclusion SeaScooby came to. I settled with using titefoam as its significantly denser and more durable than most other sprayfoams. If it ain't tight it ain't right afterall. Got all the hardware in place mounted the panel loosely so there was a 1/4" or so left to tighten, shot in the titefoam around the perimeter the whole way around, then tightened up the hardware before it started to cure so it got a nice solid seal. Trimmed away the excess, good to go.
It pounds pretty damn good, plenty of volume and super tight and its only an 8". I don't get why so many knuckle draggers feel the need to have two 12" subs in a big assay box sliding around in their trunk, only restrained by the power and rca cords acting as a leash being run to the sony xplod amp thats slapped onto the side of the box with drywall screws. Pointless.
