Sub and amp fixing...

[Shady Pioneer]

So I was thinking, by the end of the month I'll have a sub and a 4 channel amp in the boot, but what's the best way to keep them secure? How do you guys do it in your MK3s?

[Chris 'N' Jen]

best way is to make a false floor and bolt them to that.

only other method i can think of is to screw your amp to the rear of the back seats and hope for the best with the sub.

 

[Shady Pioneer]

Don't really want to be making more holes than necessary really though, so false floor it is. Is it best to make the false floor to the exact size of the boot or just the width and depth I actually need? I assume people carpet over it as well?

[Chris 'N' Jen]

most people get a sheet of MDF or choice wood, take the carpet out of the boot and draw round it and cut. Then cut the said piece of wood at an appropriate place to fit hinges on it so you can still access your spare. Jobs a gud un.

Yes, you can buy accoustic carpet from halfords or similar audio places or you can just get some very shallow pile carpet from "somwhere" and use that.

 

[Shady Pioneer]

Do I need to have the spare in the car to pass an MOT? LOL! Because I may just not bother with the spare and try doing a decent floor that covers the whole boot and recarpet it.

[Chris 'N' Jen]

to my knowledge you dont need a spare for a mot.

However, you can practically guarantee next time you are 100 miles from anywhere with no signal at midnight you will get a flat. 

[Len]

Could always carry one of those spray can puncture repair things!


My sub is in the nearside behind the wheelarch. I put the 4 ch amp in the other side hung on a metal frame I made from steel angle.
There is a write up of this  in a link off my Project pages, but I note recently that the photos have been lost from that!

[Shady Pioneer]

Well the sub I'm gong for is going to come with a box to put it in, could I not just screw the amp into the top or side of that box?

[Chris 'N' Jen]

you could but then they both have a chance of being thrown around. best off securing them both independantly imo. 

[Mooby]

Because the box my sub came in was too large really (needed to be able to fit a buggy in the boot) I just custom-built a smaller one, which is shaped like a pyramid with the top chopped off, and the sub sits in the bottom pointing downwards...

I just made some little round 'feet' out of MDF for the bottom, and put screws through the centre of these before screwing them to the box, so it has 1/4" spikes sticking out the bottom.  The feet ensure the sub isn't actually touching the carpet, and the spikes stop it from sliding around in the boot.  The design (sub in the bottom, and narrowing towards the top) keeps the centre of gravity easily low enough to stop the whole thing falling over.

I stuffed it full of Cotton wool as that allegedly makes it sound like a larger box (and it does seem to work, sounds better than it did empty)

Some people get really stressed out about making sure the box is exactly the right shape and size... but I find this box doesn't sound a whole lot different to the box the sub came in.  The important thing is that the sub is boxed (unboxed it sounds cack)  The footprint of this little box is only around 14"x14", and that's with a 12" sub, and with the Amp screwed to the top it takes up hardly any space in the boot, plus the 'pyramid' sides mean it sits up against the back seats nicely, and I can easily remove it and stick it in another car without leaving any unsightly holes anywhere.

It looks a bit gash, but thats just cos I can't be arsed to carpet it at all 

king of the bodge, me.