Abob89's 1991 Ford Escort

Very small update...


Working on mocking up a face.


Cutting up the face.


This is where I get into some uncharted territory, I haven't messed around with compound loading much. the pseudo horned port is the only way I can reliably align the woofers and still get a good load on the subs. Alas I do not have the algorithms for tapped horn set-ups. So this is going to remain VERY serviceable. I will undoubtedly need to re build the port to nail down tuning and loading. But that will come with time and lots of hot seat time.




On the fun side. Heads in port = good air movement

None of it is set in stone yet, this is all mock up currently. I would appreciate any insight from those who have messed with compound loading or horn loading too. Since this portion of the build is partially experimental any words of wisdom are very welcome.

More to come in a few days, thanks again.

my 2cent...is you got some testing ahead of you...

Oh yeah, I know that for sure lol. Gonna be a lot of trial and error but I think I will be able to get something that will make this worth the effort

Morning fellas. Got a lot done yesterday, alas I must go to work so I shall have to save the details for later. I will also be working on the Escort tonight so this update will be a big one

Teaser pic:

aww man cant wait !

Diggin' this build! Keep at it with the updates and clean work.

Well last night didn't go quite as planned. I got some bracing on the back wall done and got my M2b mounted up and partially wired then had to go... but I still have the previous night to show off

PICS...


Time to start building my port. Again this port is experimental, I'm interested to see how the angled face is going to affect the port load.


Second piece on, this is the angle of the back wall.


Third piece on and mounted. Now I'm leaving the 3rd side skinny, I will have to thicken it up later to make the port throat even with the mouth, you'll see.


Then I got the face routered out. 14" on the nose. Thank you DD for making a sub with a regular basket size.


So got it all glued and screwed together


Those subs barely fit on the face hahaha.




Test fitting the port and enclosure face together. There will be a gap where my enclosure jogs out. So I will have to build a little filler plate.


Better view


Filler plate made


Test fitting it in the enclosure. it is TIGHT... have to hammer it in. This test fitting takes about an hour...


But I do finally get it into place.


Looks nice too


So onto the actual mounting. Aluminum to the rescue. Since this will have to be serviceable I want the port to be removable.


Aluminum cut into 4" sections.


Holes


Silicon the port in and mount up my first aluminum mount. This is where the little filler plate gets mounted. This will be the biggest pain in the ass to unmount but at least I can if need be.


Also mounted all the edges of the port.


Sweet


Here's that brace/port equalizer I mentioned. This will take the port from 8.5" down to 6.75" and brace the sidewalls


Face with the 2 woofer holes routered out.


Test fit. Looks a-ok to me.

So I enlisted the help of my girlfriend, Emma, to help me get the face mounted up. Glued the whole face surface, spread it evenly and fit the face on and in place.


So I held on the face while Emma tacked it into place.


Then the whole face was pre-drilled, countersunk, and screwed into place.


Tada


Much better.


And just for funsies. This was the end of the first night.


This was the next morning. Bracing the back wall. and creating an amp rack that can allow the amp to breathe from the back.


Both 2x4"s in place


Digital Designs M2b mounted up. It looks so small and lonely.


All the battery wiring done for the M2b


And thats where I had to stop for the night.

Alas no music yet... soon though... soon

Until next time fellas. Thanks for readin'

diggin it

This will be nuts! what are you going to cover it with?

When it is completely built I may opt to just carpet or vinyl it. I don't really wanna mess with paint. I'll end up putting far too much effort into it. Lol I know I'd never get it done then hahaha

man this is sick, keep up the good work dude !

Well let's start it up shall we? To the pics!


So I ran my 4 runs of silver 8ga and 4 runs of red 8ga into the enclosure and sealed up the excess space around the wire to keep the enclosure leak free.


I ran my new speaker wires to the amplifier.


So I don't have any 8ga summing distro blocks so I had to do it the old fashion way.


I'm still trying to keep the wiring as clean as possible.


So if any of you are familiar with Digital Designs they ask their users to twist wiring on their subs together and tape it together. this is a better connection than a butt connector or what have you because the connector can be made of some inferior metal and will result in signal loss. So I employed the same approach to wiring the remaining sub wires. I opted against solder for the sake of ease if I change anything or upgrade anytime soon.


Nice and pretty


I also added a Stinger Voltage Gauge


Stock alternator so meh, 12.7 will work.


Blamo. Thats right voltage monitoring from outside the vehicle.


Mmm... well lets get these subs loaded up shall we?


First one in.


Oh so nice.


cool shot.


I love how DD goes down to the little details.


2 subs loaded.


3 subs loaded.

Alas I forgot my 4th sub... so this is where it has to stay for the night. Lame...


But I think it looks pretty cool

Until next time...

damn this looks great ! i like how you added a volt meter in the back, will be helpful for comps!

dammit, i knew i was supposed to hit up someone.
I was in Vanc/Portland over the weekend.

nice work!

Looks great dude... Should be pretty loud

Well, I got the 4th sub loaded up and put in my Kenwood KDCBT952HD and hit the go button.

Initial impressions: I'm very impressed at the level of performance I'm getting on unworked subs, on an untuned amp with a wall that hasn't been properly sealed off from the cargo area yet. If I had to guess based on feel, I'd say 142ish. Now of course that doesn't mean squat till I prove it but I feel fairly confident about that.

Some of you may have noticed a lack of deadening materials going into the Escort. This has not been overlooked. My intent is to create a very fun car to watch. I want the car to shake to pieces for the time being. Makes for a good show IMHO. I will of course make the vehicle less 1990 ford-esque as time goes on.

I'll try and give you guys a video soon. Or you can just wait and see this on its maiden voyage through the lanes at the Streamline Audio show this weekend.

Rest assured you'll see more pics, and hopefully some videos, very soon.

Until next time...

Cool looking box....

As I mentioned previously I have sound!!! Hooray!

But I haven't been able to post any pics of everything assembled so I figured now would be just as appropriate as any. I did a little more work as well. I got to work on some paneling to seal off the cargo area from the cabin to reduce my cancellation I've been receiving since the subs started moving.


This was the scene on on Tuesday. I got the last woofer all loaded up and actually got to play with the subs (gasp)

I was very happy with them even then. It got loud enough to do a little damage to me and shake the hell outta the car. Massive roof flex. A definite contender for noise against Mr. Rattles (for those of you who are familiar with Greg Dixon's car).

But, obviously, just having the wall back there isn't being used to anywhere near its full potential because of the massive cancellation from the cargo area. So it was off to the wood shop to start fabbing up some trim that could be used to seal off the cargo area.


Here's my first template. Now I will scream my flaw out now... I just jigsawed the woofer edges. So they're a little uneven (hangs head in shame).


No trim.


Yay, trim!


Screwed into place


And the passenger side template.


New trim panel.


And screwed in also.


The top of the wall has a huge gap! So this panel will be doubly effective, it will seal the car and act as a brace quite nicely for the roof.


Blam-o! Looks fairly nice. Nothing sexy but it will be effective. Alas there are gaps where the trim couldn't reach so I'll be using long hair fibreglass to fill the voids.


So I started pulling off the trim panels and masked off the car. The long hair will be placed in between the gaps to fix the cancellation issues.


Zesty no?


Then I got the other panels glassed.


New trim after a little sanding.


I'd say that creates a nice solid line, wouldn't you?


I'm fairly happy with this part. I will need to gasket these panels or perhaps silicon them into place. The bottom of the wall is also still open so I still have more work to do.


It looks nice for tonight though. Upon another listen... OH MY GAWD!!! So much better!!! I can really ruin myself now hahahaha. The roof flex is a little better too. I feel much higher than the 142 I felt like before hand. We'll see though.

Hopefully I'll get to finish the trim tomorrow evening. Thanks for checkin' out the build once again guys.

As always...

Until next time!!!

man youre puttin in work!

I have to. I dont wanna come to the show all janky with some scabbed in install. I wanna be able to open my hatch and not have to say "oh don't mind the wiring.". Same goes for the front. I want my build to look methodical and logical from front to back.

I feel like the wall guys are under extra scrutiny. This is also my first wall build ever and I wanna make sure I don't have to redo it .

Def should be louder than 142. Should be near a 50 at least

So small update before the Streamline Audio SPE starts tomorrow. I just finished the primary trim around the subs. I'll be fully sealing under the enclosure at a later time.


Bottom just looks unfinished compared to the sides and top.


Got the first bottom trim in.


And second side.

I can't wait to show it off on the show this weekend. Hope to see all of you there. I wanna see what you guys think.

oh hell ya that you will be at the show ! cant wait to get a demo of this !
time to get some good footage of it too

@ CNut420

We'll see man. I'ma be happy to see a 145dB score. These are just Digital Designs 500 series woofers and I'm running about 2300 watts. So it's a pretty low power system. I bet if I had gone straight for some 2500's and an M4a I could've gotten a drop in 150 but we'll see.

The 500's are the absolute entry level woofer. Bottom rank. So it would be way cool to see a near 150 outta woofers that cost less than $170 a pop.

@ Basshead92

That'd be great to pop some footage.

Yehah!!!

Advanced 2 Class - IASCA
I scored a 145.3 @ 33Hz.

Not bad at all. I get to compete against Mr. Akins hahaha. 12 12"s against 4 15"s... meh. I can take him

Just gimme some time. I'll tell people I got 2nd place today... and neglect to mention it was out of 2 lol

Oh and Luke,
Thanks for takin' a little footage of the Escort.