Sealing off trunk from cabin

[Shogen 325]

I just used Great Stuff foam insulation from walmart and I had great results.

The great stuff gap filing will work fine, IIRC it is vulnerable to solvents such as gasoline... which means you can clean up any mistakes easily.

I take it you never used expanding foam in a can. That chit is far from easy to clean off of unwanted areas.

Rubbing gasoline around the interior of a car is a bad idea for numerous reasons.

The best method of removal is by friction.

Could also use denatured alcohol ... I've used many a can of Great Stuff in my shed, garage and some areas of the house and the best way to get it off something your don't want it on was the alcohol. Obviously if paint is involved you want to be careful about where your spray your Great Stuff.. I had a trick of using very thin plastics sheets and taping off the ends, then spraying the expanding foam into the "bag" I created to not make a permanent connection between the surfaces I was trying to seal. Doesn't always work well depending on the area or shape but it did good between window sills and door frames.

[Impious 1,476]

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If this is just for a daily system I wouldn't bother with the spray foam or caulking, personally. I would build some beauty panels and simply use those to create the "seal" between the cabin and trunk. It doesn't need to be 100% air tight.

I ran IB in my trunk and didn't use an ounce of foam or other sealant. Worked just fine.

I want to yield the best possible results. I will try with just beauty panels, if i'm not satisfied with that, I will just foam behind and around the seal.

I very seriously doubt you will hear a difference with and without foam as long as the beauty panels create satisfactory separation between the trunk and the cabin. Obviously if you leave significant gaps then the panels were poorly designed and results will suffer. But if you build them properly and create a good "wall" then it will work just fine without foam. Minor gaps are not going to matter in the grand scheme of things. To me it seems like using spray foam creates a whole lot of work for yourself later when you try to clean it off with no real acoustic benefit.

Like I said, I was running IB from my trunk without using spray foam or other sealant, and it worked just fine. If there were problems, they would have been much more readily apparent running IB compared to simply trying to fire an enclosure into the cabin since with IB the only separation between the frontwave and backwave is the baffle itself.

[Jason Witt 65]

If the subs fire forward, but the enclosure is ported through the top, what if any difference would there be as opposed to the port firing forward as well? Reason being is that I already have an enclosure built, and don't want to have to build another unless I have to, and space is limited.

Edited February 28, 2012 by BrutalBasser

[Impious 1,476]

What do you mean?  Do you have a picture or anything? It depends on how everything is laid out. If the port fired directly through the rear deck you could make it work. If it just fired "up" into the trunk then no it wouldn't be a good idea.

[swift 501]

Use a beauty panel made from 3/4 mdf (carpet it) and then use the thick rubber foam insulation (for truck campers, door seals, etc) and put all the way around to line edges, and on the inner side around box. You can buy it at Advanced Auto or other parts store. This will give it a good seal without any mess. then just use some brackets on inside to secure panel.

THIS

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_Front-Rail-Seal-AmeriSeal_10017537-P_N3456_T|GRP2050_____