Hello from Denver

[sudohawk]

Hello, I finally decided to create an account here since the audio section on the car specific forum isn't quite as extensive as a car audio specific forum. I'm currently working on improving the sound in my daily, a 2017 Chevy Colorado (with Bose) as I would like a bit more bass out of it and eventually I'm hoping to improve the SQ overall as I've been picking up more and more on how muddy things can sound in the truck.

Recently I've started to build my own under seat (rear) down fire sealed sub box in hopes of fitting 1 (maybe 2 if 1 turns out to be not enough) Kicker L7T102 sub (shallow mounts). These seem to be a perfect match for the carry over amp I have (Kenwood KAC-9106D which is collecting dust) since they're 2ohm dual voice coil and allows me to run 1 wired for 4 ohms at 500 watts or 2 wired for 2ohms at 1000 watts for the pair which seem to be the recommended levels for the subs. If my design/measurements are accurate i should be able to get within the recommended box volume for these subs. I can be a little OCD when it comes to how things look and none of the prefab boxes sit well with me. Mostly the corners of the boxes are 90 degrees and look like they stick out past the curved corners of the seats. For my DIY box I'm aiming for something that could pass as OEM in appearance while still accomplishing my goals.

I've never been an expert with car audio but have always tried to do my due diligence as a casual enthusiast. I'm looking forward to learning from you all long term and incorporating ideas/tips into my own build. I'll get a thread started for my specific build as I already have some questions lined up.

[DaveG]

I can be a little OCD when it comes to how things look and none of the prefab boxes sit well with me. Mostly the corners of the boxes are 90 degrees and look like they stick out past the curved corners of the seats. For my DIY box I'm aiming for something that could pass as OEM in appearance while still accomplishing my goals.

Welcome! I've learned to embrace my OCD! Doesn't have to be a bad thing. Makes us who we are. Look into kerfing or a kerf cut. That'll help making your box appear OEM and will get rid of those square corners. Dave

[sudohawk]

Kerfing did come up in my research. It looked like it would best be done with a table saw which I unfortunately do not have access to one. I might be able to do the same with my circular saw but I'm not sure if I could get the desired result using that. I ended up making corners with some router work though and a stacked setup. So far it matches the contours of the OEM rubber mats perfectly and lines up OEM like with the bottoms of the seats. I havent gotten too far with my box but so far here's what its looking like.


Eventually the bottoms will be cutout for the subs and the front face will have ports cut out to line up w/ the bottom cut out to direct the air forward. Thinking of maybe putting 1/4in mdf under the base cut out sections so the subs arent pushing air into the padded carpet below. Not sure how useful that would be but was something that I'm keeping in the back of my mind.

[SublimeZ]

done with circular saw

[sudohawk]

Nice!!! I imagine that was a trial in patience and very close measuring/tracking (not sure what the proper term is to use a straight edge clamped down so your saw tracks down the desired line). I will need to practice up because outside of my sub box I could use this technique for some other things i'd like to build but I think my statement still holds true in that I couldn't do that lol at least not without more practice. I'm still getting used to my circular saw and some of my cuts have proven that I'm not properly holding my saw to the track I've laid. I've had to redo 2 cuts on the front of my box already since there was a deviation of a mm or so by the end of my cut. Your kerf cut looks clean though man, can this be done with MDF or is that not a good medium for this technique?

[SublimeZ]

Saw guide. It can be done with mdf, but I try not to use it. It's heavy and the dust is nasty. That was actually first and only time I've done a kerf cut like that, but I've been using circ saws for many years.