PG Astra Australia Demo Car - 2013 - 159.5dB @ 41Hz

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Well here's a few updates from the past week.

There was a show on Thursday night so we quickly put both boxes into the Astra, moved the amps to the rear wall, and wired up 2x 12's for fun.




Then this weekend we tore it all out again (Oh the joys of installing) and got back to work. We started putting onthe final baffles on the bottom box, stepping from 24mm on the front row, to 48mm on the middle row and finally 72mm on the rear row.

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

We also started all the bracing for the top box, and getting all the angles to fit was an absolute pain!!!



Got all the other cross pieces cut too but ran out of time to get them installed.

Our filthy little helper



Glenn also got the new battery tray for the engine bay done, so it's official that you CAN fit a SPV69 under the bonnet of an Astra!!!



Cheers,

Scott

[SilverGT]

nice man. so you are having subs on the floor and also from the roof? or am I looking at that wrong

[Damo95]

nice man. so you are having subs on the floor and also from the roof? or am I looking at that wrong

No, you aren't seeing it wrong..
There's 9 subs in the lower (floor) chamber and 9 subs in the upper (roof) chamber firing into the central chamber that'll port into the cabin..

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Damo is correct (and just a little bit excited with this build )

We will have 9 subs in the bottom enclosure and another 9 subs in the top enclosure. We will then wall off the back and sides of the box and put a BIG port on the front wall, turning the whole thing into a 4th Order Bandpass wall.

Still a lot of work to do, but hoping to have both the top and bottom boxes finished this weekend, then it's working on the centre section, and closing off the B-Pillars.

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

Here's this weekend's update:
- all bracing for top box completed
- 48mm and 72mm baffles installed
- box glued and screwed together for final time!!!

Here's some pics:







Glenn and Fab are supposed to be free next weekend so hoping for some BIG progress happening then!

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

OK so here's today's update:

We made a good start on fibreglassing both the top and bottom boxes. The bottom box got a couple layers of matting on all seams and a good coating on all panels. The top box received a light layer of resin over the grille cloth to harden it into shape, then we started building up the thickness, along with coveing all seales with a couple layers of matting. And yes we made sure to rip the matting, not cut it, so we get a stronger bonding of the layers where the fibres overlay each other. Still a bit more work to be done to bring things to their final thickness, but made a REALLY good start and man is it STRONG!!!

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

While Bec and I were glassing, Fab was out in the sunshine rewiring under the bonnet (hood for our American friends). We had to remove the stock 120a alternator just be able to get at the rear of the unit. We upgraded both the charge cable and the earth strap to 0ga. Fab also cleaned up all the wiring to the fuse box making sure there was enough room to stuff the new Stinger SPV69 battery in place. Just waiting for a few minor adjustments to our battery tray and then the wiring under the bonnet is complete!!!





Inside joke but we thought Fab's wiring was so WONDERFUL we had it printed right on the wire!!!



Glenn also shot through a quick progress picture from his garage, showing how the 50mm x 50mm bracing for the centre section of the box is coming along...Whoah!!!



Stay Tuned - More next week!!!

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Ooops fogot to post Saturday's pics first!!!

Hi All,

Here's what we got up to today...

Got both boxes back in the car with the new baffles in place. Drove down to Glenn's place to make a start on the metal bracing and after a few attempts and kicking a few ideas around we now have a SOLID gameplan for making sure that the centre section of the box is Super Strong. You'll have to stay tuned for future updates to see how this progresses.

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

more pics:

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

After we left Glenn to enjoy the Geelong Vs West Coast game, we headed home to pull the top box back out and get it prepped for fibreglass.

There are a few angles in the upper rear corners that were just plain too hard to box in, so we're going to glass them up with lotsa layers, but first had to get the shape. Bec stapled some speaker cloth in place to get the shape and we will resin it tomorrow. Once it's set we will begin strengthening it up with layers of chopped matting. Fromt here both boxes will also get a nice coating of resing and chopped mat to make sure everything is compeltely sealed up and also help give things even more strength!

Pics:










Sorry for getting things out of order LOL!!!

Cheers,

Scott

[MW3]

Nice work. Keep the pics coming.

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi Morgan,

Thanks for that! Hoping we can do your products justice and show just how stupidly insane the Ti amps and subs really are!!!

We just can't get this thing built and making noise fast enough!

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

This weekend we still got a bit of work done even though it was Grand Final Weekend and we had Daylight Savings!!

We tackled a bit more fibreglassing on the top box, and while that was going off we begain runing all the wires into the front doors...fun NOT!!!

For anyone that's tried getting speaker wires into the the door's they know that the Astra uses a pin based connector between the door and the A-Pillar. So what we had to do was dismantle both sides of the connector and drill out the non-used pins. From there we had to get the wires through the rubber grommets which is no easy task. The Astra has a grommet on the inner wall of the A-Pillar, another one on the outer wall of the A-Pillar and a third Grommet on the door itself!!!

So long story short, it took us the better part of the day to get all 7 wires run into each door (3pr of 16ga speaker wire plus one 16ga power wire for the LED's)

So now -- The PICS!!!










More during the week!

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

Quick Mid-Week update. While I've been at work Bec and Finn have been out in the garage working away on the Astra - Gotta Love It!!!

So the top and bottom boxes are now officially fibreglassed! All screw holes have also been bogged (bondo-ed) and just need a quick sand before the laminate goes on.

Bec and Finn also got out the 'Thicky Tape' and started masking up the B-Pillars getting the ready for glass once to box in sitting in it's final position.

Pics:








More this weekend!

Cheers,

Scott

[ttocs]

hate to bring this up now, but you probably should have ran a ground through for the leds as well. There traditionally is not alot of good grounding points on a door(as far as tapping a screw) hopefully there is a factory ground wire there.

Be very carefull to make sure those hrns's in the doors are seated completely. I did something similar in a neon years ago and later the hrns popped out and it dented the door when it was opened next time. not good..........

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

hate to bring this up now, but you probably should have ran a ground through for the leds as well. There traditionally is not alot of good grounding points on a door(as far as tapping a screw) hopefully there is a factory ground wire there.

Be very carefull to make sure those hrns's in the doors are seated completely. I did something similar in a neon years ago and later the hrns popped out and it dented the door when it was opened next time. not good..........

Good point about the earth point, thankfully there is already a good earth coming into the door through the factory loom for the factory in door lighting. So we will just tap into that for our LED's

As for the Harnesses we have made sure they were fully seated into position before closing the doors and everythign is working A-OK!

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

Here's how our family and friends spend a CARAZY Friday night!

Went over to Glenn's and got stuck into welding up the metal bracing for the middle section. You all saw the uprights earlier in the build, but now it's all starting to come together. The plan was to put 4 uprights down each side wall. These are meant to support the weight of the top box, and by tying each upright together with a crossbrace we make a nice strong framework that we can bolt the side walls onto, hopefully making them a lot stronger too. The goal was to have nice strong side walls without obstructing the view into the centre section of the box. It's looking promising, but we just don't know how much flex we are going to get from running 18x 12's??? Worst case scenario we may need to run some more cross supports from side-to-side between each side wall.

OK pics!

Here's a couple of quick pics of the bondoing and sanding of the boxes. Gotta love when you come home from work and this is already done!!! Big thanks to Bec and Finn, talk about a family project!




Now Friday Night:

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Our foreman approves!






Our foreman decided he wanted to take some pictures of the work crew...

Me (all around bass addict)


Glenn (welder and metal worker extrodinaire...)


OK enough posting, it's Saturday morning so time to get back into the garage! More Pics tonight...

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

Ok so today was all about getting the middle section of the box roughed out and fitting into the car. While we were waiting for Fab to arrive we sanded smooth the sides and rear of the top box getting them ready for the side and rear walls. We also cut the grooves for the recessed LED lighting into the baffles on the top box, then sanded everything perfectly smooth, ready for the laminate.

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Once Fab arrived we started making up the template for the side walls. Lots of fiddling around with these, especially with the stepped baffles and trying to allow for the thickness of the laminate and a bit o-fudge-factor!

Can someone explain to me why we can't get a car that is the same on the left side as the right? Pain in the Butt!!!

Anyway we got everythign mocked up outside of the car, then did the test fit in car. We knew we would have trouble getting the side walls into the car because the box is so long. So we opted to make an overlapping join that lines up in the middle of one of the metal cross braces. This way we can not only screw the two halves together, but we can also sanddich them against the metal cross brace once the wall and brace are bolted together!

And last but not least we also got the rear wall to fit and butt up against the two side walls properly, so we can easily screw them together once in the car.

Pics:

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Best part of the day was that the damn thing fit into the car without any major problems!!!

Enough for now, time for bed - more tomorrow...

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

Sorry for not getting pics up yesterday but by the time we called it a night, ate pizza and had a shower we were KNACKERED!!!

Not a lot of pictures to show you as most of Sunday was a repeat of Saturday. We cut out the grooves for the LED lights into the bottom box. We did a final fill and sand of both boxes so they are completely ready for laminate. We glued and screwed all the side panels and rear wall together following the dry fit placement we did Saturday.

The only NEW thing we did was mark and drill the holes into the metal bracing. We marked and drilled each side individually and 'hoped' that they would line up to pass the bolts through to brace the side wall. Great thing is, they all lined up!!!

So now Glenn just needs to do the final welding/grinding of the bracing and their ready for primer and paint. The top and bottom boxes are now ready for laminate and lighting. We just need to build the front wall and port(s) and the perspex (plexiglass) signage for the rear wall.

So here's the few 'exciting' pics from Sunday:





More throughout the week!

Cheers,

Scott

[stipud]

That doesn't look heavy at all!

Installing truck springs in the back?

[ttocs]

with all the holes drilled into the metal brace I bet it isn't that bad...