Rep Power: 365

I just got some 'pre-owned' 15" Kicker Solo Barics (the circular models, not square.) They belonged to a guy who was gonna install them in his Civic in '98, but it got stolen, he got married, and had no use for them. So they're technically not 'used.' My original plan was to get 12w3s, which would be quite smaller, but this is what I've got. As far as installation goes, I ran into a problem... trunk space. I don't really wanna have a permenant box in my trunk coz I play guitar and will have no room for my guitar case(s.) So I was thinking that since I never have more than one passenger in the car, I never use my back seat. My plan is to take out the upper part of the back seats and make a fiberglass enclosure to have the subs facing into the cabin from the trunk being even with the curve of the rest of the backseat. I'd make sure they looked nice enough and kept that line that goes through. So do you guys think this would look good and be worth the money?

 
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Did you get them for free or did you just pay really cheap for them? I would just resell them on like ebay or something as never used and get some money...

 
Rep Power: 365

My brother's friend bought them new in '98 for $450 each and was going to put six in his '98 Civic hatchback. After the car got stolen, he sold two, then I bought two for $125 each, and he's keeping two. I'm keeping them because I know I won't get this good of a product for that little money again. The ones I got were still in the little plastic sealed covering Kicker sent them in.

 
Rep Power: 329

I think doing something like that would cost around $1,000 in labor.....and you want to have the subs facing into the trunk...not into the passenger cabin.

Why dont you just have a false floor built with one of the 15's in the spare tire well? That way you save all your trunk space, and you still have room for all your other stuff...


-Mystic

 
Rep Power: 0

Install one 15" ...... and sell the other. At least then you will still have some trunk room left.

 
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Build a baffle board so the cages will show when you open the trunk. I did it in my last car with kicker xpl's and it rocked. Seal up the trunk from the rest of the car with a double 3/4" mdf plate and seal the rear dear and your set. I was hitting 151.9 dB with the 2 15's and you dont need alot of power either.

 
Rep Power: 365

custom2k1 - I'm not super familiar with car audio, so could you explain to me the whole baffle board thing?

 
Rep Power: 338

to run infinite baffle is a bitch in our cars because of those supports in teh back. make a seal nearly impossible. for any semblance of a good sound its ideal to completely seal the trunk, too. not easy up on that rear deck.

if your willing to lose the back seat, i gotta ask, why not run the box in teh trunk and put teh GUITAR in teh back seat?

idea #2: isobaric box. equal in EVERY way to a single woofer in a single box, but takes up half the space. consider the difference between the space 2 15's take up, it would be 1/4th the airspace! half the output is yoru sacrifice for 1/4th the box size tho.

but yes, i dont believe SQcivic has a backseat, and neither do i. it can be done.

 
Rep Power: 365

WhiteRabbit - ok, so if it'd be more than I want to get into now to fully seal off the trunk, and it'd probably be too expensive to do a full fiberglass enclosure right now, and if I don't want to sacrifice half of the output... should I just go with something standard?

I was looking on cardomain.com and I found something that is along the lines of what I want to to do. This Cavalier http://www.cardomain.com/id/glowincav has the subs facing inward along the rear seat. But to have a balance between SQ and SPL, which is a better way to go? I've heard arguments for both, all of which made sense. I've been told that to gear towards SQ you face the subs towards you, and to gear towards SPL you face them away.

Also, how much do you think it would cost to do an instal similar to the one on that Cavalier?

 
Rep Power: 338

nearly impossible, you have barely 15 inches of space from top to bottom. this is teh exact install i was going with before i decided to throw in a third tempest.

lets say, for teh sake of argument, that you can easily fit 2 15's on a baffle (the board you screw the woofers into) so that you can push teh box up against teh rear seats and the woofers are just... there. perfect

it would be pretty easy then to build your box so the baffle is angled to teh rear seats, then all you would need is another board carpeted, 1/4 inch will do to cover teh gaps between teh box and the trunk. think of it this way:

imagine that cavalier install. imagine its JUST a box with 2 12's in it, painted TOTALLY white. THEN take a 1/4 inch board, cut it out in teh shape of your trunk/cabin boundary, carpet it black, then cut an oval hole in teh center, and bolt it to your car. then simply push your white box with 2 jl 12's all teh way back, and bolt that down to the frame as well. boom! you have an install identical to that cavalier.

however, this doesnt solve your problem. its still a big box, and its still quite permament. even if you didnt bolt it in, it would be a b i t c h to pull it out and put it back every time you wanted to put your guitar back there.

but if you wanted that cavalier install, tahts how i would go about doing it

 
Rep Power: 338

forgot one part, the back:

looking at teh pic, its the same as the front. you cut out 2 pieces of 1/4 inch and carpet tehm to match teh trunk, left and right, then bolt them in place. then you get 1x3's or 2x3's and bolt them to the floor, and bolt 2 more carpeted pieces of 1/4 inch board on those, cut out to conform to your trunk floor at that height. then you cut two more square holes in those, and bolt plexi to that, and sink your amps below.

now you have the cavaliers full trunk setup.

 
Rep Power: 365

Thanks a whole bunch for all the info. Unfortunately, because of the size of the subs and how much space they would require to have two, I am only going to use one. I went to a local shop to listen to a few things, and I think that one 15 will do well enough for what I want. I might sell the other Solo Baric and put the money towards the other equipment I'm going to buy.

However, I might use that set-up (the Cavalier) in my Dad's Jetta with two JL 10s. Thanks!

 
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Can't you just put the 2 "15's in the trunk and then put the guitar in the backseat when you take it? =P