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Thanks guys. I'm getting a bit quicker lately but I'm still far to slow considering the back up of projects I need to complete. I would've had more pics tonight but my router bit broke while cutting the openings in the grill panel I was working on.

I plan on bonding some MDF to the inside of the panel and also doing some type of damper material sheet. I'll just play with it to see what works best. Probably between 90hz-120hz. I don't really want them playing into the mid bass region. ------------------------------------------------------------ Made some good progress this afternoon. Made the backer piece that fills the void on the side and bottom. Tacked it to the baffle for test fittment. Just needs a little sanding and it should fit like a glove. Tacked the trim panel on and sanded all the edges for a good fit of all the pieces. I'm going to cut the opening around the subs where it's marked to get rid of the pointed pieces.

It would have to be pretty open for it to work ib, otherwise it'd sound like a leaky sealed box? I'm looking at this as kind of a hybrid sealed/IB set up. These subs can play in IB,sealed, and ported configuration so at least I don't have to worry about them if the "enclosure" unloads do to any leaks. May main concern is to just make sure the baffle is air tight to the door panel to prevent cancellation. I can always modify the door later if I want as far as sealing it or even adding more openings to get it to behave more like a true IB set up. Thanks. I'm trying to do this as quickly as possible. I have lots of other work I need to get done on other projects as well. They are too power hungry and the mounting depth required is more than I have to spare. Plus these Kickers were buy one get one free w/free shipping. Ahh I see, didn't think of depth and you're right about a good deal. Good luck man! Still looking forward to how this turns out! These will be more than enough for this ride anyways. This is my daily and I don't need any thing insane since my duaghters in the car a lot with me.

It gets the job done. I finally broke down and ordered a proper circle jig tonight since I was ordering some stuff for this build anyways. I got a bit more done tonight. Made the top filler piece. What a pain in the ass this was to get a good flush fit. lots of small cuts and sanding. I also added an extra strip of MDF for a stronger joint.

I'm not an average guy so I guess that explains it. There is more than enough average stuff being done. I like a challenge and try to be creative when I build stuff. Thanks.

I may even cut the rest of the bracing out and remove the rear wiper motor just to have less sheetmetal to worry about resonating. I think the MDF will more than make up for the bracing anyways. I got the subs from Crutchfield. Here is the link to them. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_20610C88/Kicker-10C88.html?tp=111 They also have the 4 ohm versions on sale as well, I went with the 8 ohms for my build.

It should be. I haven't build anything for my own ride in a long time so I'm excited about it. I'm not too concerned about sealing the gate since these subs can play free air anyways. I'll be sure to seal the baffle to the gate though to prevent any canellation. They are too power hungry and the mounting depth required is more than I have to spare. Plus these Kickers were buy one get one free w/free shipping. Well here you go. I finished trimming the baffle and cut the opening s for the subs. I used my trusty home made circle jig and router to make the cuts. I also cut the top piece of the baffle for flushing the subs. Then I transfered the openings to the rear gate and removed any sheet metal that was in the way. Propped the baffle in place. There will be plenty of room for the magnets. I need to start on the filler pieces now for sealing off the lift gate and sort out how I want to attach it.

Didn't get much done. Just took some time to assemble the front suspension joints that came the other day. All the joints being used are from Ballistic Fabrication and are 100% rebuildable and can be adjusted for wear by tightening the threaded end cap. My favorite feature is they don't use the dam snap rings that other joints on the market do.These are far nicer than the super pivots that Suicide Doors sell. This shows all the pieces. I'll be using these for the lower control arms in the front suspension. They accept a 3/4" dia. bolt. These will be used for the upper A arms. These are a slightly smaller joint than I'm using out back for better packaging. These accept a 5/8" dia bolt. and have a 1&1/4" shank. I may enlarge the opening to 3/4" though for added shear strength. Next to the joint thats being used out back.

I prepped the side frame rails for the press broke sections. There was a hump in the outer rail for body mount clearance that needed to be removed for the plate to sit properly on it. So I chopped it out. It's hard to tell but you can see the straight edge doesn't sit flush. Problem solved. Sides tacked on. Now I need to get the holes cut in the bottom plate so I can flip it back over and bolt it to the jig and get busy. While it was upside down I finished trimming the other frame horn flat. Then I laid out my cut line for the lower edge of the press broke piece. Clamped a guide in place for the plasma to get a perfect cut. Opposite side trimmed and test fit. The ends are at a 45 for better strength at the joint. I also have the back end running across the seam from the 1/8" plate I added to tie into all 3 plates in one pass. I'm also doing some plug welds down the side to tie into the stock frame. Since I haven't sand blasted this I've been cleaning any area I need to weld to with a grinder before putting the plates on. Now for the fun task of boring out all the body mount openings. I made the new bottom plates to finish smoothing/reshaping the front frame horns. It will now be boxed all the way to the bumper to get rid of the ugly factory bumper brackets. They will be nice a flat, no more ugly ass humps.

BIG is kind of the theme for this car. More progress.... Cut the rest of the funky shaped shit out of the inside frame rail and boxed it with 1/4"x4" flat bar. Not much but it's something. I'm waiting on parts to get here for the front suspension and also the axels for the rearend. Once it all gets here I'll be working on getting that all figured out. I got started on the outer arches. I'm using up some old stock so I had the joy of grinded rust scale off before welding. I'm doing 1/8" first then I'll do a pice of 3/16" after I get the press broke piece welded on the mid section. One ready for tomorrow. Welded on the other plate. Then trimmed the top edge flush on both. The other reason for doing the 1/8" first was to smooth out the step from the factory seam.

I'm doing a pair of old school JL 12W3s mainly because they have been sitting in my basement for 10 years and I'm sick of looking at them. 2 cubes each tuned to about 31hz or so. I will be using 4" areo ports also. Got started on them tonight.

Almost done with these. I just need to pick up the parts for the terminals tomorrow and they will be ready to go. I changed the port location on the second enclosure to move the port opening further from the side panel. I'm pretty sure I'm only going to use one of these so I'm not worried about them not matching.

I ended up having to put a 90 in the port to get the clearance needed between the port and the bottom of the enclosure. Just need to get some parts for making the terminal posts and wire it up for a test run.

Ports came today so I put some more time in on them tonight. I silicon sealed the corners then put the last panels on and went through the sub opening to seal those panels. Trimmed the port to length and glued it all together. One enclosure almost done. I'm going to do a spacer for the port since it's only about an inch from the bottom. I also need to put the terminal posts in it still.

Counting the audio build I already have hundreds of hours just to get it to this point. By the end it will be 2000+ hours easily. Most guys that build these cars are hacks and they pump them out pretty quick but they don't last when built that way. I can get a car lifted with a small set up that will lift and lower the car in a few weekends.

We had 3 of these in my brothers car way back. They were pretty loud and that was with a sealed box. I'm putting them in a PT Cruiser. My plan is to try a single enclosure first and see how well it does. I'm trying to cut down on the amount of watts needed to get adequate sub bass. I had a 10" Fi SSD in there but the charging system can't hang with the draw of the 800 watts it needed. Probably just going to clean up the edges and roll on some rustoleum flat black. It's not a car that ever gets displayed so I'm going for quick and easy, I have bigger fish to fry than this project. Thanks. Well I've gone about as far as I can without having the ports. Hopefully they will get here before the weekend. Just need to put the top on one and the bottom on the other.

Got a little more done tonight. Just have the top panel to install on this one. I use lots of screws and wood glue. I also do a very shallow counter bore on the back side of the panels to clean up the hole after drilling it and to prevent wood shavings from keeping the boards from drawing tight to each other.

Everything about this ride is going to be serious. This will be my best work so far. This will be far beyond your average lowrider, not every car needs this much done to it. Well this thing will weigh in at around 6,500lbs with over 1000lbs of gear in the trunk alone so better safe than sorry.

Thats an understatement. I'm a single father just to add to my work load. Luckily I'm a workoholic though.

Getting the ears jigged for removal. Removed. I also section the crossmember and flattened the top out some to gain clearance for the oil pan. Pinched, welded, and polished. Pulled the frame off the table to flip it over to finish welding the crossmember back together. Then I turned my attention to removing some more ugly shit from the frame. Not running a sway bar so theres no need for this ugly hump here. Did the same thing on the other side. I'll box them in with 1/8" before doing the full plating. Next on the chopping block were the side frame rails. I'm using a press broke piece of 3/16" down the sides and don't want it hanging down 3" under the rocker. These frames have a raised section that runs on an angle which would cause the frame to look lower up front. Front edge. Rear edge. So I cut it down to make it even front to rear and also removed the lip the trans crossmember sits on. This what will go back on. I even drew it out for those that don't understand whats going on. Details, details, details. This thing will be smoother than Bill D. Williams when I'm done. Trimmed the other side frame rail down. Then removed the steering stabilizer bracket since it's not going back on. Did chop some more ugly off the other day. I still didn't like the shape even after cutting the sway bar mount off. So I took another cut out to straighten the lines out more.

Had to section/pinch the frame rails to get the edges to line back up. Here some pics of the batery racks that I started on while doing the sound system since the batteries and amps for that will share the rack with the set up. It all starts with a pile of steel. I used 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" X 3/16" tube for the sub frame and 2" X 2" X 1/8" angle for the battery trays. I like to do my corners like this. Makes them strong and easy to polish the welds smooth. One tray bottom done. I also bevell the edge of the tube for the same reasons. Bottom side. Trays bolt to the subframe. Added some battery tie down points and made so tabs for mounting the breakers for the amps. This doubles as the audio battery tie down and amp rack. Used 1" X 2" X 1/8" tube and 2" X 2" X 3/16" angle. Doing some test fitting. The MDF is there to set the gap the rack will need. I still need to do the tie downs, pump mount, and solenoid mounts Got started with cutting the rear crossmember out. I won't be needing any of that wack stock crap. I spent a couple hours laying out my reference marks and taking notes of measurements for later use before I cut it all out. Then I started to shave the frame down to smooth the lines out for a cleaner look. Removed the circle piece that was raised up. Then the lower T/A mount was next on the chopping block. Here is the results. Before. After. I will weld an 1/8" plate in the hole where the T/A mount was before plating the frame to insure there is no weak spot there. These couple mods will make a big difference in how the frame will look after plating it. I also pulled out all the suspension joints and new rearend housing to start formulating a plan for the new lay out. It will be getting a Fab 9 housing that was purchased from Ballistic Fabrication. The center section is formed from 1/4" plate and the axle tubes are 3 1/2" dia. 1/4" wall(actually looks closer to 5/16") DOM. Like I said, I'm raising the bar with this build. Using all Ballistic Fabrication suspension joints. I'll be using their poly mounts for the custom engine and trans mounts as well. This should give you an idea of how strong these things are. They have a 1 1/4" shank on the threaded joints. They are also rebuildable and can be adjusted for wear of the race if needed. All the rear suspension links will be made from thick walled DOM tube. I'm still debating the size though.

Sorry I've been slacking on the chassis pics guys. I forgot about this thread. This chassis is going to get the works. Pinched belly, custom A arms, one off rear suspension, one off 9" rearend w/ disc brakes, spindle swap.... It will be a slow start but should pick up speed soon. I started by making a complete chassis jig to locate and hold all body mount locations. Here is a few of the parts for the jig. This sits in the body mount hole. Like this. Then gets another washer on top that sandwiches the frame down to the jig post. All the posts are bolted to the table but I still need to tie them together from one side to the other with more tubing. Almost finished with the jig. I made the cross supports today and welded them in. Notching the tube. Test fitting. All welded in. Every upright and cross bar was checked for square and level to insure the jig is accurate. This is what the level reads as it sits in the previous pic. Stared on pinching the belly today. I added a couple legs and crossbrace to keep the front frame horns from tipping or pulling. Then I laid out my cut line and started cutting. Crossmember removed. Ready for some modifications. As for the cutting of the crossmember it's the only way to know whats moving and how much it moves. This is why I cut it out. I can find center and mark it, pie cut the bottom the desired amount, and seperate it in the center. This prevents having to use a ram or clamp to bend it together. I can tack it together check all my dimensions and then weld it up. I use the chassis table and set final dimensions to insure everything is square. I used these bolts and a level to make sure the lower A arm mounts are level. Also made sure the upper ears were all touching the table to make sure it wasn't twisted. Crossmember is back in. I did corner to corner measurements from the upper A arm bolts to the front body mount jig bolt to get it centered in the frame. I used the threaded rod again to set level on the lower A arm pivot points. Rear pivot points.

Chassis work is my favorite stuff. Thanks. Man this thing is brutal on the lows. I have done lots of different systems over the years and none of them even come close to the way this plays the lows. I had a 15hz tone playing in the video when it looked like the subs were going to come undone and it didn't even faze the subs. It's not flawless but considering it was sprayed in my dirty ass garage I'm pleased with it. Looks like I'll start posting more of the chassis build since there seems to some interest in it.

Well I'm happy to report that the sanding is over (for now at least). I managed to get it painted today though. Thats going to be it for a while on updates. I won't finish putting it all back together until spring. I got started on building the frame for this car so once I swap the body over then I'll button everything up. Here is a link to that build if anybody is interested. http://www.layitlow.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=561767 I'll post the rest of the build up of the car on here if you guys are interested.

Thanks. Laid down some high build primer tonight, 5 coats so I'm going to let it bake in the sun tomorrow. Then comes..........thats right more block sanding.