E30 Vert Luke Box Installed

[clayparkley]

Before I say anything I want to let everyone know that this was really a hard work, specially for me being a first time installer without all the necessary tools. When I was almost finished, I asked myself if I would do this again and my answer was NO!!! ...... that's untill I roughly tuned the amp and got a chance to listen to some of my favorite songs. I'm amazed at how those tiny little 8" woofers could sound so loud. And it's hard to describe, but it's like the first time experiencing the bass sound this way in any of the subs installed car I had before. It feels as if the bass are coming out of the front woofers. Most cars I had before felt like all the bass is in the trunk. Anyways it's absolutely worth it and yes, I would do this again if I have to. And I'm willing to help anyone in OC or LA county who's willing to get this done. Yet I'm trying to learn how to fine tune my amp, and it's not easy.
I didn't take many pictures but here they are.






I changed my antenna to one from Z3 cars including the cable all the way from the mast to the HU. The reception is above my expectation.

For me, these recommended hole saws were not an option, it's a MUST.

I invested a little on this tool and it did an incredible job. Easily held in one hand.

It was my first time to cut metals and I learned to let the tool do the cutting instead of using force of my arm. It was really hard to change the direction of a cut, so it's better to start off in alignment with the line you drew in those triangles.

My car is converted from power top to manual top.
I'm not sure if that was the reason but I couldn't fit the Luke box.
I called him and he was even willing to exchange it for me.
I barely got it in there by removing my floor carpet, which I hated to do.
But at this point, I'm just a happy guy to have an amazing sound in my car.

[clayparkley]

Thanks to Luke~ for the great sounding box and all the support.

[MoreMayhem]

So you did all the sound deadening material on the outside? Did you use any on the inside of the empty cavity?
I will have everything together for my setup within the next few weeks & can't wait to have decent sound in my car.
Too bad I'm so far from Cypress (Ventura County) or I would take you up on your offer!

[clayparkley]

So you did all the sound deadening material on the outside? Did you use any on the inside of the empty cavity?
I will have everything together for my setup within the next few weeks & can't wait to have decent sound in my car.
Too bad I'm so far from Cypress (Ventura County) or I would take you up on your offer!

Oh, I wanted to take my kids to the strawberry festival in Oxnard past saturday...but I ended up working on my car....bad daddy:(

I applied some of those mats inside too. I put alot of those 3M caulk thingy. I ended using almost the whole box of it. There are more holes in there than stars in the sky. IMO covering every inch of inside with sound deadening mat is impossible. So I managed to apply it on the places where I thought is most needed, then covered all of the outside.

Let me know if you want to buy the hole saw from me.

[Ninz30]

Good shit man

[MoreMayhem]

Is it the 4 1/2" hole saw for the port tubes? How did it work for you? I saw one at the hardware store but the blades looked more suitable for wood than steel.
I am interested though. Cutting circles is a pain!

[dougsic]

Thanks for the write up. Looks great.

Anxiously awaiting a box from Luke so I can enjoy what you already have!

[clayparkley]

Is it the 4 1/2" hole saw for the port tubes? How did it work for you? I saw one at the hardware store but the blades looked more suitable for wood than steel.
I am interested though. Cutting circles is a pain!

I can't even imagine how I could've got the port tube circle cut without the hole saw. It was really easy cut with the hole saw. And the hole size is just perfectect for the tube. But I guess your gonna have to have a decent powered drill.

[nrubenstein]

Did Luke tell you to install that sound deadening on the floor and top? His boxes are made to fit VERY tightly, and if he didn't spec that, it will impact figment.

[clayparkley]

Did Luke tell you to install that sound deadening on the floor and top? His boxes are made to fit VERY tightly, and if he didn't spec that, it will impact figment.

I agree with you. But even if I did not apply the sound deadening material on the floor, I don't think it would've fit without removing the floor carpet.
That sound deadening material is very thin and cheap one and even with just that I had one more person kicking and pushing the box with me for about an hour to finally get it in there. The floor carpet must be 5, 6 times thicker than fatmat I used.

[MoreMayhem]

Clay,
I'm PMing you about the large hole saw

[reelizmpro]

Nice pics. So it is a sealed box but since the vert has that void in between the trunk and cabin, it's sort of like a bandpass enclosure then? Also, instead of cutting the triangles out couldn't you just use that large hole saw and cut a big circle in the middle of the triangles? You could then cut out the remaining pieces with the hand held saw pretty easily. I need to hear this someday.

[clayparkley]

Nice pics. So it is a sealed box but since the vert has that void in between the trunk and cabin, it's sort of like a bandpass enclosure then? Also, instead of cutting the triangles out couldn't you just use that large hole saw and cut a big circle in the middle of the triangles? You could then cut out the remaining pieces with the hand held saw pretty easily. I need to hear this someday.

Cutting straight line with hand held saw is piece of cake, but changing direction is very hard to do. So like Luke recommended, I cut out small circles on every corner of the triangle and then did a straight cut between the circles. I guess your method could've also worked, but probably left more sharper angles in the corner.

I'm still trying tune this right, because on certain songs it feels like the subwoofer is just sleeping back there.

[StereoInstaller1]

Nice pics. So it is a sealed box but since the vert has that void in between the trunk and cabin, it's sort of like a bandpass enclosure then?

It IS a proper bandpass, Barry. The box seals into that chamber. I wish that chamber were a bit larger so I could tune a bit lower, but the thing rocks.

Great job on the install and the pics! Was it all I said, a wimpy little 300 watts on 2 cheap 8" woofers get you clean solid bass on the freeway with the top down? Plenty of boom for anything? Nice clean bass, better than any normal "Car Stereo Shop" subwoofer, right?

BTW, for anyone reading this: ALL of that "sound deadning" crap in the trunk that Clay added here is a total waste. Only do the chamber itself, and only do the inside. Our tolerances are WAY too tight to mess with, and generally, things won't fit right when you are done.

Un-needed sound deadning is a complete waste of time, money and hassle.

Besides, the car will NOT rattle, that is part of the design, one of the reasons I design things the way I do. Believe me, no one ever believes it at first, but once you see how it works, you will understand.

I know, I know, everyone says whatever bullshit they say about "gotta have Dynamat"...well, fuck that. Do the inside of the chamber ONLY, please.

Listen to the old fucker that has been doing this FOR A LIVING since 1980...quit with the stupid Dynamat, do it how I told you to.


Thanks,
Luke

[clayparkley]

BTW, for anyone reading this: ALL of that "sound deadning" crap in the trunk that Clay added here is a total waste. Only do the chamber itself, and only do the inside. Our tolerances are WAY too tight to mess with, and generally, things won't fit right when you are done.

Un-needed sound deadning is a complete waste of time, money and hassle.

Besides, the car will NOT rattle, that is part of the design, one of the reasons I design things the way I do. Believe me, no one ever believes it at first, but once you see how it works, you will understand.

Surprisingly, like Luke said, nothing really rattles. Super clean bass.
I applied the sound deadening material out side, because I had left overs and didn't know what to do with it.

BAD NEWS: I messed up something again while I was tunning the amp.
I either blew up the front speakers or the front channel of the amp.
I haven't tested it yet, so I'm not sure which.
This is my second time f'ing it up while tunning.
It's because I'm lacking so much of info on how to tune.
I think I know what I did wrong, tell me if I'm right.
When I tune, I wanted to listen to one set(front, rear, sub) of speakers at a time, so I unplugged rear and the sub rca cables going in to the amp.
I did this because my faders on the HU seemed like it's bleeding into other channels. When I was done with the front speakers I "paused" the music and unplugged the front rca, then plugged in the rear. I did the same thing up to sub. When I was done as I was plugging in all the rca cables(music is paused not turned off at this time) front speaker started making really loud high pitch hauling typ of noise, so I immediately unplugged the front rca, then lowered the gain of front ch.(thinking that it was set too high) then plugged back in........hauling was gone, but no sound coming out of the fronts at all.

I think I should have turned off the HU everytime I plugged or unplugged the RCA cables instead of pausing it.
Well.... I'm learning it the hard way, but no more of those mistakes from now on.