My Ghetto-ish Subaru Sherpa Stereo Build

[garbo41610]

Finally some more work has been done for the Sherpa. My first day off yesterday gave me the perfect opportunity to utilise the spare sheets of 16mm mdf I had laying around. Have had a bit of a drama getting the carpet to adhere properly so will get it done in the next few days hopefully. Looking forward to hooking it up to see how it performs. I loosly based the dimensions around similar spec'd aftermarket 8" subs like the JL audio 8w1's and a couple of other entry level 8" subs. Had to make some assumptions around a few specs on the actual Mc driver but I think I got it pretty close. I was thinknig about just leaving the sub mounted flush to the enclosure but I had a sheet of 6mm mdf laying around so I made up a baffle for it so the sub doesn't stick out as much. Will try and get some internal pics tomorrow, I have to take the front baffle off to paint the inside edges of the baffle as well as the face of the box black so the exposed wood doesn't show up as much when I finally get around to carpetting the box.

[Gambit]

woo hoo... looks awesome ! well done on doing this all yourself.

[garbo41610]

Thanks bud, it's been a while coming hahaha!!! The box is veeeeery solid and there doesn't appear to be any air leaks, have sealed all the inner corners to help minimise. Thinking I might glue in a piece of carpet to the back face inside the box. Square boxes like these have a tendency for back waves effecting the drivers performance, the carpet should allow the soundwaves to dissipate throughout the box a bit better.

[garbo41610]

[Dropz]

Looks like a solid box, Should give a good sound.

[garbo41610]

Thanks bud, it feels very solid, probably weighs around 11kgs (inc driver) so it looks like its going to mess up my quarter mile times from around a week to around to 10 days

I didn't want to make a square enclosure but I didn't want to put more effort into it to make a ported box LOL. I hooked it up for some testing earlier, sounded suprisingly good considering I didn't adjust the gains on my 4 channel Alpine amp and only had a quick play around with the crossover points. Looking forward to hooking up my JVC 2x150wRMS amp.

[mihai]

Well done Phil.

16mm is quite a solid box. Especially for an 8" McIntoss driver. LOL

Eitherway, leaves room for expansion to a better driver in future. But yea, looks very solid and well built.

What glue are you using in adhering the carpet to the box? When I build my first box (sealed wedge), I used Selleys spray on glue. Worked really well for the big flat areas, however after a while the carpet started to peel where the carpet had to be folded over edges. Still turned out ok though.

[garbo41610]

The smack-n-toss sub has been officially installed albeit missing some carpet. I just couldn't contain myself waiting to do the carpet, I just had to get it in. Tbh, I think I got the box spot on, if I do say so myself LOL. It still needs some fine tuning with crossover points etc but at this stage with the little amount of tuning I had time to do it is running really well. I'm not sure if I am completely happy with where I have installed it (right between the now defunct 6 x 9's facing the front dash) so I might have a fiddle around repositioning it over the coming weeks. I have a feeling there is a bit more SQ'z to be had by moving it somewhere, I am thinking probably to the back of the "boot" facing backwards but time will tell. Will have to take it for a night drive to get an idea on what sort of load its putting on the electrical system in the car, I have a feeling my headlights are gunna be really BRIGHT, then REALLY DIM, then really BRIGHT again. Ah well, just something else to fix I suppose. 300wRMS is a lot of fun to feed to a crappy little sub like these haha!!!

The only downside is I realised today that the Alpine 4 channel amp I bought has dropped the left rear channel, I'll have to hook up the 6 x 9's off the head unit in the interim while I search for another bargain basement ghetto blasting 4 channel amp.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement, and a big thanks to Gambit for allowing me to rape his McIntosh sub

Will get some pics up tomorrow and get a sound clip.

[Gambit]

Awesome I am glad your getting the most out of it if only I could hear it

[<GB>]

Ha ha ha what a beast!!! U got an exhaust on it?

[garbo41610]

No exhaust... ... ... ... Yet

[garbo41610]

If anyone cares, here's the link to the photobucket album for my Sherpa pics.

http://s1178.photobucket.com/albums/x36 ... by%20Rose/

[andy85]

Its close to a yr since you've started this project. Time surely flies!!!
Great job Phil. Looks so much fun!!!!

[garbo41610]

Damn photobucket!!! Turns out, if you move pics around after posting their links, the linky no worky anymore. Whodathunkit.

Anyways, I had to replace my headlights ONCE AGAIN (what is it with me and f*cking headlights!?!?) and while I was at AutoOne (man they have been great at sourcing stuff for me) I saw they had some mesh with the price tag mislabelled. Instead of about $43 it had a $22 sticker on it and they were good enough to honour it. I've needed to do something about the grille for a while. From the factory the Sherpa had a solid piece of metal behind the grille to protect the exhaust manifold and only a thin piece of flimsy steel mesh (think the kind you use in the kitchen sink just slightly larger). With the Sherpa not being the most efficient car at dissipating heat I decided to forgo the manifold shield for the sake of helping the engine run a little cooler.

Anyways, back on topic. I got the mesh home cut it to size then got to working on a way to mount the mesh on the back of the grille. It was pretty basic in all, but I think it has come up looking pretty darn good and now my radiator and (thank gooodddd) my exhaust manifold are protected once more.

The grille has had a pretty ordinary coat of paint on it since I bought it (sorry Aek, it has to be said ) so I am thinking in the coming weeks I might remove it, sand it back and give it a nice gloss black paintjob.

Cheers.
P.

[garbo41610]

I also had to install a new iPhone/iPod cable as the one that I bought off eBay fell to pieces literally the first time I plugged my phone in. GRRR!!! Ah well, they were only $18 delivered.

After that was installed, I did a little cable tidy up, which is still a little bit in progress. Notice on the dash I have wrapped the old radio fascia in some carbon wrap and it came up looking pretty good I reckon.