I was thinking of getting something like this done:
http://www.wetworksgarage.com/featur...at/photo13.jpg

I already have my equipment, I just need it installed in such a way that I
don't loose all my trunk space. From the picture all I want would be the
sub-enclosure and an amp rack on one side of the trunk and that is it. How
much would something like this cost me if I would go to a custom installer?

Mike

Mike wrote:
I was thinking of getting something like this done:
http://www.wetworksgarage.com/featur...at/photo13.jpg

I already have my equipment, I just need it installed in such a way that I
don't loose all my trunk space. From the picture all I want would be the
sub-enclosure and an amp rack on one side of the trunk and that is it. How
much would something like this cost me if I would go to a custom installer?


Too much. I charged $40/hr for custom work, work like this would take 10
hours of "installer time" (4 hours of which are standing around staring
at the trunk drinking Mountain Dew and going "this is gonna ****ing rock").

You can probably to the same job yourself in the same time for less than
$100 in materials (4x8 3/4" MDF = $20, contact cement = $5, vinyl = $30,
$20 in bondo, $20 in fiberglass, $5 in grillcloth, and some
sandpaper...****, that's more than $100).

JL Audio has some decent tutorials on working with bondo and class to
make custom work. It'll give you a good idea of how to accomplish
results. Honestly, this stuff is not rocket science. It's patience,
attention to detail, and a willingness go get dirty.


--
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http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq. It contains over a decade and
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"It's about the music, stupid"

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other than usenet without the express written permission of the author
is forbidden.

I was thinking of getting something like this done:
http://www.wetworksgarage.com/featur...at/photo13.jpg

I already have my equipment, I just need it installed in such a way that
I
don't loose all my trunk space. From the picture all I want would be
the
sub-enclosure and an amp rack on one side of the trunk and that is it.
How
much would something like this cost me if I would go to a custom
installer?


Too much. I charged $40/hr for custom work, work like this would take 10
hours of "installer time" (4 hours of which are standing around staring
at the trunk drinking Mountain Dew and going "this is gonna ****ing
rock").

You can probably to the same job yourself in the same time for less than
$100 in materials (4x8 3/4" MDF = $20, contact cement = $5, vinyl = $30,
$20 in bondo, $20 in fiberglass, $5 in grillcloth, and some
sandpaper...****, that's more than $100).

JL Audio has some decent tutorials on working with bondo and class to
make custom work. It'll give you a good idea of how to accomplish
results. Honestly, this stuff is not rocket science. It's patience,
attention to detail, and a willingness go get dirty.

Actually, I bet most shops charge for two days on that one. My guess is
starting at $500 at most non-hack-job shops.

Mike, the amp rack is simple. If you have access to a garage or a place to
park where everyone won't see what you're doing, then go buy a jigsaw if you
don't have one already. If you have a circ saw, even better. Can you cut
rectangles? Can you screw them together? Can you spray 3M on them and
stick box carpet to it? Can you bolt the assembly up to the rear deck?
That's all there is to it. For a newbie, it could take up to a day to make
all the measurements, cuts, assemble, and install.

The fiberglass job will be a little more difficult. As Liz said, you can
find fiberglass tutorials all over the place. But if you insist on having
someone else do the fiberglassing, I still strongly suggest doing the amp
rack yourself. I would guess that many shops would cut the price
dramatically by doing "half" the work. I think it's conceivable you could
save yourself 200 bucks by doing a simple amp rack!

Thanks for the info guys I think I may be able to do it myself. However I
don't need the look of fiberglass, just the space saving of an enclosure
that is out of the way. The simpler the better, but it still has to sound
good. I would probably cover everything with carpet. With this in mind, if
I still want it done in the shop it should cost me less, no?


On a side note do you guys have any enclosure volume calculators that could
be useful?

Mike


"MZ" wrote in message
...
I was thinking of getting something like this done:
http://www.wetworksgarage.com/featur...at/photo13.jpg

I already have my equipment, I just need it installed in such a way
that
I
don't loose all my trunk space. From the picture all I want would be
the
sub-enclosure and an amp rack on one side of the trunk and that is it.
How
much would something like this cost me if I would go to a custom
installer?


Too much. I charged $40/hr for custom work, work like this would take 10
hours of "installer time" (4 hours of which are standing around staring
at the trunk drinking Mountain Dew and going "this is gonna ****ing
rock").

You can probably to the same job yourself in the same time for less than
$100 in materials (4x8 3/4" MDF = $20, contact cement = $5, vinyl = $30,
$20 in bondo, $20 in fiberglass, $5 in grillcloth, and some
sandpaper...****, that's more than $100).

JL Audio has some decent tutorials on working with bondo and class to
make custom work. It'll give you a good idea of how to accomplish
results. Honestly, this stuff is not rocket science. It's patience,
attention to detail, and a willingness go get dirty.

Actually, I bet most shops charge for two days on that one. My guess is
starting at $500 at most non-hack-job shops.

Mike, the amp rack is simple. If you have access to a garage or a place
to
park where everyone won't see what you're doing, then go buy a jigsaw if
you
don't have one already. If you have a circ saw, even better. Can you cut
rectangles? Can you screw them together? Can you spray 3M on them and
stick box carpet to it? Can you bolt the assembly up to the rear deck?
That's all there is to it. For a newbie, it could take up to a day to
make
all the measurements, cuts, assemble, and install.

The fiberglass job will be a little more difficult. As Liz said, you can
find fiberglass tutorials all over the place. But if you insist on having
someone else do the fiberglassing, I still strongly suggest doing the amp
rack yourself. I would guess that many shops would cut the price
dramatically by doing "half" the work. I think it's conceivable you could
save yourself 200 bucks by doing a simple amp rack!

MZ wrote:

Actually, I bet most shops charge for two days on that one. My guess is
starting at $500 at most non-hack-job shops.

Inflation my man. And math - $40 in 1995 dollars times 10 hours = $400.
Then you add the $100 in materials. By installer time, I man time
actually spent working on the project. The four hours you wait for the
plaster to cure is not installer time, neither is the 20 minutes for the
resin to set. Still, I could pull a job like this over a weekend,
starting friday night and wrapping up sunday afternoon. That's how I
made my side money while working for the Evil Empire(TM) (except that I
paid for the materials myself, and usually took payment in cash plus
trade, so I still managed to stay poor - the sign of a true installer).

The fiberglass job will be a little more difficult. As Liz said, you can
find fiberglass tutorials all over the place. But if you insist on having
someone else do the fiberglassing, I still strongly suggest doing the amp
rack yourself. I would guess that many shops would cut the price
dramatically by doing "half" the work. I think it's conceivable you could
save yourself 200 bucks by doing a simple amp rack!

I don't know. Even for a noob fiberglassing work isn't too hard when all
you're doing is makeing a form to be covered in vinyl or carpet. The
hard work comes in sanding it smooth, filling, priming, resanding, and
making a liquid smooth surface for painting. Even then it's not rocket
science, just patience and attention to detail.

--
thelizman "I didn't steal the FAQ either"

Before you ask a question, check the FAQs for this newsgroup at
http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq. It contains over a decade and
a half of knowledge.

teamROCS Car Audio Forums http://www.teamrocs.com/caraudio/
teamROCS Car Audio News http://www.teamrocs.com/news/
"It's about the music, stupid"

This post is Copyright (C) 2004. Reproduction of its content anywhere
other than usenet without the express written permission of the author
is forbidden.

Mike wrote:

On a side note do you guys have any enclosure volume calculators that could
be useful?

No. I feel like picking on you for even asking, but luckily I'm able to
get my rocks off on the doofuses from caraudioforum.com who are spamming
this newsgroup.

The calculations for volume are really easy. For a 6 sided euclidean
solid (cube shaped boxes, and elongated cube shaped boxes), the
calculation for volume is simply height times width times depth (V=h * w
* d). To be accurate, make sure you subtract the width of your wood from
the measurements to get the internal volume.

If you have a wedge shaped box, it does get slighly more complicated.
The volume of a prism (the wedge shape) is 1/2 of width at the base
times the height times the width of the enclosure. (V=1/2b * h * w)

If you have a box which is basically square, but has a slanted front,
then you might have to strain your brain a little. Just realize that all
this is is a square box with a wedge on the front, and then you can
use the two formulas above to calculate volume.

If you have an irregularly shaped box, then it gets complicated. Rather
than teaching calculus (integrals), I usually just use a plastic liner
in the box and fill it with water to get the displacement in liters (1
mL = 1 cc) but I've only ever had to do that once.


--
thelizman "I didn't steal the FAQ either"

Before you ask a question, check the FAQs for this newsgroup at
http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq. It contains over a decade and
a half of knowledge.

teamROCS Car Audio Forums http://www.teamrocs.com/caraudio/
teamROCS Car Audio News http://www.teamrocs.com/news/
"It's about the music, stupid"

This post is Copyright (C) 2004. Reproduction of its content anywhere
other than usenet without the express written permission of the author
is forbidden.

I think you misunderstood my question or I may of worded it incorrectly. I
was looking for a piece of software to calculate the ideal volume for a
sealed or ported enclosure. Calculating the volume is not a problem for me,
just split up the enclosure in simple to calculate volumes and add them up.

Mike


"thelizman" wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:

On a side note do you guys have any enclosure volume calculators that
could
be useful?

No. I feel like picking on you for even asking, but luckily I'm able to
get my rocks off on the doofuses from caraudioforum.com who are spamming
this newsgroup.

The calculations for volume are really easy. For a 6 sided euclidean
solid (cube shaped boxes, and elongated cube shaped boxes), the
calculation for volume is simply height times width times depth (V=h * w
* d). To be accurate, make sure you subtract the width of your wood from
the measurements to get the internal volume.

If you have a wedge shaped box, it does get slighly more complicated.
The volume of a prism (the wedge shape) is 1/2 of width at the base
times the height times the width of the enclosure. (V=1/2b * h * w)

If you have a box which is basically square, but has a slanted front,
then you might have to strain your brain a little. Just realize that all
this is is a square box with a wedge on the front, and then you can
use the two formulas above to calculate volume.

If you have an irregularly shaped box, then it gets complicated. Rather
than teaching calculus (integrals), I usually just use a plastic liner
in the box and fill it with water to get the displacement in liters (1
mL = 1 cc) but I've only ever had to do that once.


--
thelizman "I didn't steal the FAQ either"

Before you ask a question, check the FAQs for this newsgroup at
http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq. It contains over a decade and
a half of knowledge.

teamROCS Car Audio Forums http://www.teamrocs.com/caraudio/
teamROCS Car Audio News http://www.teamrocs.com/news/
"It's about the music, stupid"

This post is Copyright (C) 2004. Reproduction of its content anywhere
other than usenet without the express written permission of the author
is forbidden.

Mike wrote:
I think you misunderstood my question or I may of worded it incorrectly. I
was looking for a piece of software to calculate the ideal volume for a
sealed or ported enclosure. Calculating the volume is not a problem for me,
just split up the enclosure in simple to calculate volumes and add them up.

Oh, so you're just lazy. Why didn't you say so.

Most software will automatically spit out the volume like rainman
counting change. Here's a site that'll help.

http://diyaudiocorner.tripod.com/software.htm



--
thelizman "I didn't steal the FAQ either"

Before you ask a question, check the FAQs for this newsgroup at
http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq. It contains over a decade and
a half of knowledge.

teamROCS Car Audio Forums http://www.teamrocs.com/caraudio/
teamROCS Car Audio News http://www.teamrocs.com/news/
"It's about the music, stupid"

This post is Copyright (C) 2004. Reproduction of its content anywhere
other than usenet without the express written permission of the author
is forbidden.

Thanks for the link, I think it will help a lot.

Mike


"thelizman" wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:
I think you misunderstood my question or I may of worded it incorrectly.
I
was looking for a piece of software to calculate the ideal volume for a
sealed or ported enclosure. Calculating the volume is not a problem for
me,
just split up the enclosure in simple to calculate volumes and add them
up.

Oh, so you're just lazy. Why didn't you say so.

Most software will automatically spit out the volume like rainman
counting change. Here's a site that'll help.

http://diyaudiocorner.tripod.com/software.htm



--
thelizman "I didn't steal the FAQ either"

Before you ask a question, check the FAQs for this newsgroup at
http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq. It contains over a decade and
a half of knowledge.

teamROCS Car Audio Forums http://www.teamrocs.com/caraudio/
teamROCS Car Audio News http://www.teamrocs.com/news/
"It's about the music, stupid"

This post is Copyright (C) 2004. Reproduction of its content anywhere
other than usenet without the express written permission of the author
is forbidden.

Check out WinISD

Brandonb


Mike wrote:
I think you misunderstood my question or I may of worded it incorrectly. I
was looking for a piece of software to calculate the ideal volume for a
sealed or ported enclosure. Calculating the volume is not a problem for me,
just split up the enclosure in simple to calculate volumes and add them up.

Mike


"thelizman" wrote in message
...

Mike wrote:

On a side note do you guys have any enclosure volume calculators that

could

be useful?

No. I feel like picking on you for even asking, but luckily I'm able to
get my rocks off on the doofuses from caraudioforum.com who are spamming
this newsgroup.

The calculations for volume are really easy. For a 6 sided euclidean
solid (cube shaped boxes, and elongated cube shaped boxes), the
calculation for volume is simply height times width times depth (V=h * w
* d). To be accurate, make sure you subtract the width of your wood from
the measurements to get the internal volume.

If you have a wedge shaped box, it does get slighly more complicated.
The volume of a prism (the wedge shape) is 1/2 of width at the base
times the height times the width of the enclosure. (V=1/2b * h * w)

If you have a box which is basically square, but has a slanted front,
then you might have to strain your brain a little. Just realize that all
this is is a square box with a wedge on the front, and then you can
use the two formulas above to calculate volume.

If you have an irregularly shaped box, then it gets complicated. Rather
than teaching calculus (integrals), I usually just use a plastic liner
in the box and fill it with water to get the displacement in liters (1
mL = 1 cc) but I've only ever had to do that once.


--
thelizman "I didn't steal the FAQ either"

Before you ask a question, check the FAQs for this newsgroup at
http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq. It contains over a decade and
a half of knowledge.

teamROCS Car Audio Forums http://www.teamrocs.com/caraudio/
teamROCS Car Audio News http://www.teamrocs.com/news/
"It's about the music, stupid"

This post is Copyright (C) 2004. Reproduction of its content anywhere
other than usenet without the express written permission of the author
is forbidden.