Sub Project

[HerrTrigger]

Working on getting a sub into the back of my Yaris SE, but not wanting to go overboard or take up much space or lose my spare. A friend advised me that as long as I isolate the noise in front of the speaker from the noise in back, I can essentially make the entire space under the trunk floor the enclosed space of a sub box.

I ordered the wires and some of that roadkill sound deadening. I have a Kicker Comp CVT 10 (used) which is a shallow mount sub that can handle the "infinite baffle" install. An Alpine V-Power MRP-1000 amp (used). I just got to work on the mdf.








this last picture the plate is upside down from how it will be oriented in the car.

The top piece will be the new floor and hold a grate of some kind to let the sounds through but not my stuff. The bottom piece will be mostly for more rigidity and a greater thickness to make a better seal along the edge. I will take the old box the sub came with and cut out the current mounting board that works just fine and cut it out and glue it to the bottom. should be enough room for the 15mm of travel of the sub and not touch the spare tire at all.

next up is gluing it all together and working out how to seal off the front area with a vertical board that the new trunk floor can pivot and rest on and still seal up.

Let me know your thoughts or concerns as I kinda work all this out as I go.

[HerrTrigger]

Working out some weights I found that this would add around 120 lbs to the back of my car. I don't need the added weight of a dead body to the car so after telling myself enough times it would work I got to cutting some weight out of the bottom plate of this new floor.









I had to make the front of the enclosure out of 2 pieces since 1 piece would have been wider than anything else in the back and been impossible to put in place. I will make a bracket that will hold that together solid and work out some way to fill all those gaps. The new floor piece fits extremely snug for now, but some edges will be sanded down so insulations can be squeezed in the gaps. Some finishing work and a grate are all that's left for the construction phase, parts arrive Thursday for the hardware install phase.

[HerrTrigger]

2nd to last phase is complete, my Yaris lovingly nicknamed Yoda has some bass!






to help the rattles



wiring made a breeze thanks to the search function on these forums!




everything run and spare back in place



amp mounted up and connected (also tuned the gain waaaaay down like 1/3rd power)



insulations that performed well enough to make a difference in this set up, when you drop the sub snugly into place it gets more than twice as loud.



the end result of the days work left a nice clean floor with a sub in the middle. I will sort out a cover solution and add some kind of no slip mat to the trunk for a nice clean finished look, once more more funds come in.

[Chuck G]

Man, that's some great work!!

[TOLMACH]

similar project in my 2009 hb.. i did however build the full enclosure

http://photo.qip.ru/users/tolmach/96608749/127319603/

[TPA5]

Man that looks totally sick! Excellent use of space, once the grille and mat is on you will never know a sub is in there. I wish I had your skills, this a great way to mount a sub in a small car.

[HerrTrigger]

Thanks for the positive feedback! I am very pleased with how it worked out, enough bass to make my music sound great. I was kind of skeptical about this setup being able to make a good separation between the front and back of the speaker, but it works great. Only problem I have run into is some rattling coming from the covers over the strut tower bolts.

Tolmach, that is a good look and probably sounds better with that JL in a box! I'm out to make mine a bit more stealth tho.

[Greenbean]

Dude that's an awesome write-up, Thank You

Props to taking the time also to take pics and show us what your doin. Bet it sounds great!!!!

[HerrTrigger]

Finishing this project with the cover and the new floor surface. Aluminum sheet that is 3/16th inch and some black floor runner rubber mat that I found at Home Depot.




Toyota emblem cover which will hopefully not be big enough gaps for groceries to fall through.



Tools of the trade




Bent then frilled these tabs to gold it in place firmly




Test fit and it worked after some chiseling to make the tabs fit right.




Cutting the floor runner mat with a razor blade knife and the old floor as a template.




After some paint, trimming some imperfections and another 3 rolls of rubber foam weather stripping, the project is done! I decided to paint the aluminum and the MDF that is visible, just to make it all look more seamless at a quick glance. The more I look at it, the more imperfections I can see, but I can deal with it.

Overall, very impressed with how well it came out looking and sounding. The real trick was to seal up the floor and those little doors to the strut towers as best I could. Put in a piece of weather stripping and then turn it on and feel around for the next leak (it actually feels like a weak can of air blowing through the cracks). Now that it is all sealed up, putting the volume at 31 (half power) the bass sounds as loud as it did before at full. The truly amazing result of this project is the sound from outside the car. There are no rattles, no farting noises from the glass, no major distortion, it sounds like the inside sounds just lower volume.

Next up for this car is using the remaining 3 and half sheets of the roadkill noise reducer stuff on the front wheel wells, firewall, and floors to help lower the road noise. I will be adding an intake and cat back exhaust in the more distant future (about a year) at which point I will evaluate if changing that little 10 for a Fi Q 12 or a JL 13.5 shallow mount is something I want.

Hope this helps to inspire Yaris owners who want some bass in their car but want all their cargo room and spare in the back still. Feel free to ask questions or give suggestions.

[pennyracer]

how does it sound ? im running two 10" arc audio black line series and want to change to fours tens someday

[HerrTrigger]

It doesn't hit super hard, and plays low rumble bass a bit too loud, but songs like Wasted by Andy Duguid feat. Leah sound absolutely amazing!

[simon.briars@outlook.com]

I know this is an old thread, but which wires did you hook onto from the HU for the amp? iv had a look but I can't see any related threads! Many thanks