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I got my subwoofer setup finished a few months ago but writing all of it up was a daunting task so I put it off until now.
I have a 2104 F-Sport and there is no ready-made subwoofer enclosure for our car. I contacted a few car audio shops and most wanted $600-800 to make a fiberglass enclosure. For that price I debated doing it myself because all the videos made it look easy and fiberglass is relatively inexpensive. However, I know nothing about working with fiberglass, don’t have the tools to make the job quick, and don’t have the time needed to do well.
I wanted to add additional bass to my Mark Levinson factory stereo while having the option to listen to it without the additional bass. I had found songs and even podcasts that would make the door speakers sound distorted with too much bass (they may need to be resealed/repaired). I used to have 2 12s in college. I didn’t want that level of bass and I didn’t want to give up using my trunk. I wanted it to look as stock as possible. When I say stock, I mean look like Lexus made it; not make it look unbelievably custom. Lastly, I didn’t want to remove the left panel to accommodate the enclosure. I didn’t want the piece to get lost or damaged in the garage or attic.
I spoke with the installer and was pleased to hear he went to school/training for fiberglass fabrication. I showed him the picture below that I had found on another car forum and explained that I wanted to be no bigger than it needs to be, I wanted tight bass that a sealed enclosure delivers, and I wanted the enclosure to match the flow of the car’s trunk (not flat). I joked with him that I needed a “grown and sexy” enclosure and not the high school stuff I had before. Right off the bat he told me he will make it as small as he can, but he won’t make the enclosure smaller than what the manufacturer said the sub needed. Already I was impressed with the installer’s manner of working.
Below is the pic I loosely wanted him to see to get the idea of how I wanted mine to look.
He got to work and sent me updated pics along the way.
Taping off the car/prep work to get the mold.
MDF base of the enclosure.
The first picture I got sent where I could see it all coming together. If you have a dog, this resembles the world’s biggest pig eat treat.
He started to shape the part of the enclosure that will be visible. His phone was acting up so some of the pics are blurry.
I asked if I sent a LED emblem could he integrate it into it and make it not looked like it was just slapped on. He said it would be no problem, so I ordered one.
Sanding and Bondo.
He made a protrusion to handle the placement of the LED emblem.
He used neodymium magnets to secure the emblem in place. These two magnets are incredibly strong. (looks like a sad face)
I showed up for a test fitting to make sure everything was going to look natural and fit. I was blown away. The funny thing is he liked it but wanted to add more Bondo and sand some more. He said he wanted to make it look as good as possible.
He carpeted the box and wired up the emblem. By the way, this is not cheap carpet he used, and the color matched the black of the trunk perfectly. Pics with and without the subwoofer.
He painted the back of the box and used Tesa tape everywhere to make it look professional.
Here are some pics of it all done.
Initially we thought the weight of the box, the heavy sub, the nature of how it fit snug into the panel, and some heavy-duty Velcro would secure it. I found out after a week that wasn’t enough. He was able to bolt it down to metal beam behind the left panel. That was the only bummer. I wanted an enclosure I could remove easily. Now I need to remove the sub and undo one bolt to remove. It takes about 10 minutes. The good news is there no fooling with Velcro, zip ties, L-brackets, or worse, visible mounts.
To power the LED emblem, he tapped into the trunk lamp. The trunk lamp was originally powered by an incandescent bulb, so it has no problem powering the LED retrofit trunk light and the new emblem. I wanted the emblem to turn on when the trunk opened and off when the trunk closed. I also wanted to turn the LED emblem off at any time. He added a fuse and a push button LED switch to turn the light off. I have the switch under the rear deck, so it is not in plain sight.
To connect the power switch to the LED emblem and the speaker wire we used XT60 connectors. I had been looking for a clean way to connect and disconnect the speaker and lighting wires when I discovered a lot of people in car AV were using connectors designed for radio-controlled cars and planes. He had never done it before but loved the idea after we were done. There were two cable runs and you don’t want them to get mixed up, so he wired one of them with the female end and the other with the male end way so the speaker wire never got plugged into the emblem and the emblem wire never went to the speaker. He soldered and heat shrunk all the connections and used Tesa tape on all the wires.
The part you can’t see was done by a different installer. I had the amp and the LOC mounted behind the right panel. The installer worked some magic with the amp. Mine is kind of “suspended” on these metal brackets he made and secured to the inner frame. The LOC (only a few ounces) is secured using double sided Velcro. I thought he was going to find a way to mount it under the rear deck, but he said why cut into the deck cover when 20 minutes of metal work can solve this problem. I love smart people. The bass control **** currently sits in my glove box. I am still deciding if I want it in the center console, in the glove box, or somewhere else.
The setup sounds awesome, however, there is one thing I would change. The JL amp I got was rated at 500 watts RMS. That is an insane amount of bass when the amplifier is a high-quality brand and only pushing one sub. I believe the 12W6 requires at least 250 watts and has issues if underpowered. That made me paranoid, so I ended up overbuying on the amp to be safe. I got the amplifier used for $100 so money really wasn’t wasted. If I was buying it new, I would go for a lower powered one. I currently have the gain turned all the way down and it still thumps.
I read hundreds of different threads trying to find a solution to my subwoofer woes. I didn’t find an existing perfect solution, so I had to come up with my own. This CL community has helped me a ton the three years I have owned my car and I really wanted to give as much detail as possible in case anyone else wanted to replicate what I did.
If you live in or around the greater Houston area and want a box like mine DM and I will send you the fabrictor’s contact info. He said he can do a basic enclosure like mine without any lights for about $400. I think he said it is $450 with you providing the lighting.
He was one of the nicest guys I have ever worked with, communicated often, and you can tell he looks at each project as a piece of art that he wants you to be happy with. If you have a normal prefab box and want a beauty plate made to make it look integrated he does that as well and can use all sorts of material from alcantara, leather, plexiglass, etc.
Actually Lexus makes it. The only LS mats that say FSport on them are from the Crafted Line and that is what these are. A number of eBay sellers will pair the trunk and the 4 interior mats (what I wanted) for 150-200. Mine were pretty much new when purchased.
Just know the trunk mat is dark grey and the interior mats are jet black with red trim.
Originally Posted by R Z
Great work. Looks OEM. Love the trunk mat. I'm guessing that's aftermarket. I don't recall my 14 F sport having that.
I got my subwoofer setup finished a few months ago but writing all of it up was a daunting task so I put it off until now.
I have a 2104 F-Sport and there is no ready-made subwoofer enclosure for our car. I contacted a few car audio shops and most wanted $600-800 to make a fiberglass enclosure. For that price I debated doing it myself because all the videos made it look easy and fiberglass is relatively inexpensive. However, I know nothing about working with fiberglass, don’t have the tools to make the job quick, and don’t have the time needed to do well.
I wanted to add additional bass to my Mark Levinson factory stereo while having the option to listen to it without the additional bass. I had found songs and even podcasts that would make the door speakers sound distorted with too much bass (they may need to be resealed/repaired). I used to have 2 12s in college. I didn’t want that level of bass and I didn’t want to give up using my trunk. I wanted it to look as stock as possible. When I say stock, I mean look like Lexus made it; not make it look unbelievably custom. Lastly, I didn’t want to remove the left panel to accommodate the enclosure. I didn’t want the piece to get lost or damaged in the garage or attic.
I spoke with the installer and was pleased to hear he went to school/training for fiberglass fabrication. I showed him the picture below that I had found on another car forum and explained that I wanted to be no bigger than it needs to be, I wanted tight bass that a sealed enclosure delivers, and I wanted the enclosure to match the flow of the car’s trunk (not flat). I joked with him that I needed a “grown and sexy” enclosure and not the high school stuff I had before. Right off the bat he told me he will make it as small as he can, but he won’t make the enclosure smaller than what the manufacturer said the sub needed. Already I was impressed with the installer’s manner of working.
Below is the pic I loosely wanted him to see to get the idea of how I wanted mine to look.
He got to work and sent me updated pics along the way.
Taping off the car/prep work to get the mold.
MDF base of the enclosure.
The first picture I got sent where I could see it all coming together. If you have a dog, this resembles the world’s biggest pig eat treat.
He started to shape the part of the enclosure that will be visible. His phone was acting up so some of the pics are blurry.
I asked if I sent a LED emblem could he integrate it into it and make it not looked like it was just slapped on. He said it would be no problem, so I ordered one.
Sanding and Bondo.
He made a protrusion to handle the placement of the LED emblem.
He used neodymium magnets to secure the emblem in place. These two magnets are incredibly strong. (looks like a sad face)
I showed up for a test fitting to make sure everything was going to look natural and fit. I was blown away. The funny thing is he liked it but wanted to add more Bondo and sand some more. He said he wanted to make it look as good as possible.
He carpeted the box and wired up the emblem. By the way, this is not cheap carpet he used, and the color matched the black of the trunk perfectly. Pics with and without the subwoofer.
He painted the back of the box and used Tesa tape everywhere to make it look professional.
Here are some pics of it all done.
Initially we thought the weight of the box, the heavy sub, the nature of how it fit snug into the panel, and some heavy-duty Velcro would secure it. I found out after a week that wasn’t enough. He was able to bolt it down to metal beam behind the left panel. That was the only bummer. I wanted an enclosure I could remove easily. Now I need to remove the sub and undo one bolt to remove. It takes about 10 minutes. The good news is there no fooling with Velcro, zip ties, L-brackets, or worse, visible mounts.
To power the LED emblem, he tapped into the trunk lamp. The trunk lamp was originally powered by an incandescent bulb, so it has no problem powering the LED retrofit trunk light and the new emblem. I wanted the emblem to turn on when the trunk opened and off when the trunk closed. I also wanted to turn the LED emblem off at any time. He added a fuse and a push button LED switch to turn the light off. I have the switch under the rear deck, so it is not in plain sight.
To connect the power switch to the LED emblem and the speaker wire we used XT60 connectors. I had been looking for a clean way to connect and disconnect the speaker and lighting wires when I discovered a lot of people in car AV were using connectors designed for radio-controlled cars and planes. He had never done it before but loved the idea after we were done. There were two cable runs and you don’t want them to get mixed up, so he wired one of them with the female end and the other with the male end way so the speaker wire never got plugged into the emblem and the emblem wire never went to the speaker. He soldered and heat shrunk all the connections and used Tesa tape on all the wires.
The part you can’t see was done by a different installer. I had the amp and the LOC mounted behind the right panel. The installer worked some magic with the amp. Mine is kind of “suspended” on these metal brackets he made and secured to the inner frame. The LOC (only a few ounces) is secured using double sided Velcro. I thought he was going to find a way to mount it under the rear deck, but he said why cut into the deck cover when 20 minutes of metal work can solve this problem. I love smart people. The bass control **** currently sits in my glove box. I am still deciding if I want it in the center console, in the glove box, or somewhere else.
The setup sounds awesome, however, there is one thing I would change. The JL amp I got was rated at 500 watts RMS. That is an insane amount of bass when the amplifier is a high-quality brand and only pushing one sub. I believe the 12W6 requires at least 250 watts and has issues if underpowered. That made me paranoid, so I ended up overbuying on the amp to be safe. I got the amplifier used for $100 so money really wasn’t wasted. If I was buying it new, I would go for a lower powered one. I currently have the gain turned all the way down and it still thumps.
I read hundreds of different threads trying to find a solution to my subwoofer woes. I didn’t find an existing perfect solution, so I had to come up with my own. This CL community has helped me a ton the three years I have owned my car and I really wanted to give as much detail as possible in case anyone else wanted to replicate what I did.
If you live in or around the greater Houston area and want a box like mine DM and I will send you the fabrictor’s contact info. He said he can do a basic enclosure like mine without any lights for about $400. I think he said it is $450 with you providing the lighting.
He was one of the nicest guys I have ever worked with, communicated often, and you can tell he looks at each project as a piece of art that he wants you to be happy with. If you have a normal prefab box and want a beauty plate made to make it look integrated he does that as well and can use all sorts of material from alcantara, leather, plexiglass, etc.
I got my subwoofer setup finished a few months ago but writing all of it up was a daunting task so I put it off until now.
I have a 2104 F-Sport and there is no ready-made subwoofer enclosure for our car. I contacted a few car audio shops and most wanted $600-800 to make a fiberglass enclosure. For that price I debated doing it myself because all the videos made it look easy and fiberglass is relatively inexpensive. However, I know nothing about working with fiberglass, don’t have the tools to make the job quick, and don’t have the time needed to do well.
I wanted to add additional bass to my Mark Levinson factory stereo while having the option to listen to it without the additional bass. I had found songs and even podcasts that would make the door speakers sound distorted with too much bass (they may need to be resealed/repaired). I used to have 2 12s in college. I didn’t want that level of bass and I didn’t want to give up using my trunk. I wanted it to look as stock as possible. When I say stock, I mean look like Lexus made it; not make it look unbelievably custom. Lastly, I didn’t want to remove the left panel to accommodate the enclosure. I didn’t want the piece to get lost or damaged in the garage or attic.
I spoke with the installer and was pleased to hear he went to school/training for fiberglass fabrication. I showed him the picture below that I had found on another car forum and explained that I wanted to be no bigger than it needs to be, I wanted tight bass that a sealed enclosure delivers, and I wanted the enclosure to match the flow of the car’s trunk (not flat). I joked with him that I needed a “grown and sexy” enclosure and not the high school stuff I had before. Right off the bat he told me he will make it as small as he can, but he won’t make the enclosure smaller than what the manufacturer said the sub needed. Already I was impressed with the installer’s manner of working.
Below is the pic I loosely wanted him to see to get the idea of how I wanted mine to look.
He got to work and sent me updated pics along the way.
Taping off the car/prep work to get the mold.
MDF base of the enclosure.
The first picture I got sent where I could see it all coming together. If you have a dog, this resembles the world’s biggest pig eat treat.
He started to shape the part of the enclosure that will be visible. His phone was acting up so some of the pics are blurry.
I asked if I sent a LED emblem could he integrate it into it and make it not looked like it was just slapped on. He said it would be no problem, so I ordered one.
Sanding and Bondo.
He made a protrusion to handle the placement of the LED emblem.
He used neodymium magnets to secure the emblem in place. These two magnets are incredibly strong. (looks like a sad face)
I showed up for a test fitting to make sure everything was going to look natural and fit. I was blown away. The funny thing is he liked it but wanted to add more Bondo and sand some more. He said he wanted to make it look as good as possible.
He carpeted the box and wired up the emblem. By the way, this is not cheap carpet he used, and the color matched the black of the trunk perfectly. Pics with and without the subwoofer.
He painted the back of the box and used Tesa tape everywhere to make it look professional.
Here are some pics of it all done.
Initially we thought the weight of the box, the heavy sub, the nature of how it fit snug into the panel, and some heavy-duty Velcro would secure it. I found out after a week that wasn’t enough. He was able to bolt it down to metal beam behind the left panel. That was the only bummer. I wanted an enclosure I could remove easily. Now I need to remove the sub and undo one bolt to remove. It takes about 10 minutes. The good news is there no fooling with Velcro, zip ties, L-brackets, or worse, visible mounts.
To power the LED emblem, he tapped into the trunk lamp. The trunk lamp was originally powered by an incandescent bulb, so it has no problem powering the LED retrofit trunk light and the new emblem. I wanted the emblem to turn on when the trunk opened and off when the trunk closed. I also wanted to turn the LED emblem off at any time. He added a fuse and a push button LED switch to turn the light off. I have the switch under the rear deck, so it is not in plain sight.
To connect the power switch to the LED emblem and the speaker wire we used XT60 connectors. I had been looking for a clean way to connect and disconnect the speaker and lighting wires when I discovered a lot of people in car AV were using connectors designed for radio-controlled cars and planes. He had never done it before but loved the idea after we were done. There were two cable runs and you don’t want them to get mixed up, so he wired one of them with the female end and the other with the male end way so the speaker wire never got plugged into the emblem and the emblem wire never went to the speaker. He soldered and heat shrunk all the connections and used Tesa tape on all the wires.
The part you can’t see was done by a different installer. I had the amp and the LOC mounted behind the right panel. The installer worked some magic with the amp. Mine is kind of “suspended” on these metal brackets he made and secured to the inner frame. The LOC (only a few ounces) is secured using double sided Velcro. I thought he was going to find a way to mount it under the rear deck, but he said why cut into the deck cover when 20 minutes of metal work can solve this problem. I love smart people. The bass control **** currently sits in my glove box. I am still deciding if I want it in the center console, in the glove box, or somewhere else.
The setup sounds awesome, however, there is one thing I would change. The JL amp I got was rated at 500 watts RMS. That is an insane amount of bass when the amplifier is a high-quality brand and only pushing one sub. I believe the 12W6 requires at least 250 watts and has issues if underpowered. That made me paranoid, so I ended up overbuying on the amp to be safe. I got the amplifier used for $100 so money really wasn’t wasted. If I was buying it new, I would go for a lower powered one. I currently have the gain turned all the way down and it still thumps.
I read hundreds of different threads trying to find a solution to my subwoofer woes. I didn’t find an existing perfect solution, so I had to come up with my own. This CL community has helped me a ton the three years I have owned my car and I really wanted to give as much detail as possible in case anyone else wanted to replicate what I did.
If you live in or around the greater Houston area and want a box like mine DM and I will send you the fabrictor’s contact info. He said he can do a basic enclosure like mine without any lights for about $400. I think he said it is $450 with you providing the lighting.
He was one of the nicest guys I have ever worked with, communicated often, and you can tell he looks at each project as a piece of art that he wants you to be happy with. If you have a normal prefab box and want a beauty plate made to make it look integrated he does that as well and can use all sorts of material from alcantara, leather, plexiglass, etc.
I realize this is an old thread, which is probably dead, but I'm trying to get an idea where your installer got his black carpet for your stealth box. All the fabric ive found looks nothing like OEM. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I am not sure. He said he keeps a number of grays and black to best match the interior. I am also no sure if he used typical "carpet" because it wasn't rough like my boxes from back in the day. It was actually pretty soft and smooth.
I know he has used vinyl for some boxes as well as alcantara for others.
Sorry I don't have an exact answer. Truth is you can use pretty much anything these days.
11-27-19, 04:38 PM
My custom fiberglass subwoofer install
