Surfer J

Oops. Wrong thread.

Thanks for the advice. I am now just worried about how the vinyl wrap will turn out.

Cool. Thanks for the reply.

Forgot to ask in my last post, do I really need the second baffle if I am going to glue the beauty plate to the baffle? Can I get away with a single baffle and the beauty plate?

Here are some almost action shots of the baffles getting the sub hole cut. I was about to cut out the beauty panel that will trim out the speaker, but as I was finishing the second baffle the router started to cut weird. Well when I lifted the router up the bit had snapped. This was the first and only time I used this bit. WTF? Thankfully when I took the bit back to Home Depot for an exchange, there was no hassle. Bring the new bit, show the broken one and the receipt. Bingo all good have a nice day.

Here are some more non-action shots of the box doing nothing in particular with the last side added. Well except looking good. Almost a box. They grow up so fast don't they?

Now that the paint is dry, I added the other side and bottom. Nothing really to show. Holes predrilled, glue applied, clamped, and screwed together. Love that blue.

Let's address the inside of the port opening shall we? I wanted to do something a little different with the color, not the same old boring black port. Not to mention I plan to wrap the box in black vinyl. My interior is tan, the truck is dark green. Both colors were considered. Tan? No too close to the color of the wood and ...........boring. Dark green? No not enough contrast with black. So I went with the color of my favorite college basketball team. Carolina Blue. Go Tar Heels!! Should look cool. First I prepped the panels with tape where they would be glued to ensure a great bond. And painted. Looking Good!

Now to add the front panel. Glue all set. At this point I started to add the screws to all panels before attaching them. That way I could have the screws poke out a little to help line up the walls much easier. Through out the whole build I have been using a heat gun to help start the drying process for the glue. Also I made sure there was a nice bead of glue on all seams. This was then smoothed out to help ensure a good strong bond and a good seal on all seams.

Time to start adding the outside walls. First I got the side all lined up and then drew where the port sides were. All the screw holes were then drilled. Time for the glue. Then all clamped up for the screws.

Next up I added the small braces that will be inside the port itself. They are only three inches wide so they won't effect the port. I did the same thing in my current box and they seem to really help make to box much more solid. Time for some creative clamping to get them attached. In this picture you can see how I rounded over the end of the port. There are two braces on the long port wall and one each on the bottom and third port wall. The bottom two corners of the port were rounded over. I had to remove the screws in order to use the router. Using some saw dust and wood glue to make some filler I filled the up screw holes. After some dry time and more sanding it is like the holes were never there.

Then it was on to attaching the port brace to the port. When I screwed the brace in there was a small split, even though I was predrilling all the screw holes. From this point on I used my next larger drill bit to avoid splitting any more wood. Well I pushed some glue in the crack and clamped it. Whew. Disaster averted. Lol.

Once the port was assembled I began to get the port brace cut out. After drawing it out on the wood I drilled holes for the jig saw. Then did some cutting. Now that all the cuts are done it's time for a quick test fit. Since I was happy with the test fit I switched over to the router so I could round over all the edges. Then it was time to do a bunch of sanding for smoother air flow. The router left a small bump in the middle of the round over that needed some elbow grease to smooth over. Nice and smooth.

I then started glueing and screwing the port pieces together. I used that small piece of wood to help keep the port pieces square.

I won't bore you all with the pics of the wood being cut or the pile of cut pieces. I know that is something we have all seen and it's nothing special. I started the assembly by adding a piece to the inside end of the port to later be rounded over.

I forgot to mention the box is made of 3/4" MDF.

There will not be a build log for the Tundra. I will do on for the Jeep. I will post a build log for the new box build with my HST-15.

Thanks everyone.