Protege5 Fiberglass Subwoofer Box

+1...awesome work! that must have taken a lot o work to get it so smooth!

Great work Monkey! I love the paint job!

Looks great!

thanks guys, you just cant beat House of Kolor, I spent at least 10 hours after the final fiberglass mat was finished. The first step was to thin some bondo down with plastic honey and paint a layer of bondo over the mat, then shape with 40g paper. next I applied the bondo unthinned twice, primed it once, sanded and filled some small pinholes with glazing putty and then sealed, basecoat, and clear coated it. I just wish I had taken pictures along the way. I will with my next project and for the rest of this install.

for rigidity, did you consider using steel screen ?
if you add a couple of layers between your clothe layers, it will add a ton of rigidity to the enclosure. and its malleable enough if you use small enough pieces , or shape your cuts to match certain aspects, it will conform quite well, as long as you add them in when the glass is tacky only, not wet or almost dry

I will be building one of these in the next week or two to house an 8" (not looking for massive bass, just added kick) so the space should be close to perfect for a sealed box + 8" 200wrms sub with a 200/400 amp.
I'll try and get pics, but Im one of those people that once I start a project, I go full bore until its completed.

Fiberglass is strong enough to use without steel screen. Just do 4-6 layers. I am able to stand on my box with no issues.

I know this, I use fiberglass all the time for surfboards, but you wouldnt need to use that many layers
just a thought.

The glass fibers make fiberglass stiff, not the resin...adding steel mesh would do nothing to help make it rigid.

your sir, are wrong about the steel mesh not adding any strength
Ive used this method to repair boards that have been broken clean in 1/2 and it works great without adding any weight.

i think he was referring to adding more rigidity to the sub box and it not being necessary or not needed for this type of application. for a surf board, sure, that makes sense.

Fiberglass is stiffest over curved surfaces. If you had large flat portions, like those on a surf board, then it might help, but on curved surfaces the glass will be plenty stiff without using any steel. Check some of the expert audio fabrication forums to verify this if you want, but i have never seen it done.

Hi guys since I discover this post I immediately wanted to throw away my dirty/space eating MDF sub enclosure and started making my own fiberglass enclosure. Today, it's almost finished so I decided to post my results and give a few hints I discovered along the way to save a few bucks and a bit of pain. Take notes that this is my first time ever doing fiberglass, and also this is a 12" sub.

First off, get a gallon fiberglass kit you will need at least 3/4 if not all of it. I started with a quart kit from Canadian Tire believing it would go a long way but I managed only one layer of fiberglass with it. Also, I found out that two layers of resin with cloth on the back and two more in the front was plenty strong for my enclosure. I've seen how to's saying you should put 5-7 layers all around but I didn't want to spend on another 60$ fiberglass kit, so I guess time will tell if my enclosure is to flimsy but I doubt it.

Next, I found aligning the sub ring was very difficult and I didn't have a hot glue gun to quickly fix it in place. I use strings to hold it in place and then aligned the ring and the wood sticks. that helped a lot!

Then, don't forget to seal your wiring sticking out of the enclosure with fiberglass or use some sort of connector for easy removal like I did. I used a 1/4 mono jack cheap and easy to install just drill the right size hole for the female connector.

Finally, I had no good fleece for the front part so I grabbed an old t-shirt and it did the trick!



here is the almost finished product, just need to glue to carpet that I grabbed in the trunk of a car at scrap yard and put the rubber ring for the sub.

I had never done fiberglass or bondo, but decided to take it on. I had hoped for a painted finish to match interior panels, but I might cover with carpet. I must says this little 8" sounds tight and will rattle the glass.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...921.1073741827.1079852034&type=1&l=4213c70d18