My fingers have rubbed off

[pgarner]

Ok my amp went bang a few weeks ago so had no bass since them. mate happen to say he was selling alot of stuff that he had as hes now going to be a dad. quick offer on his amp ad its mine.

plan is find another floor carpet and fill the spare wheel well with expanding foam.
cut out the shape for the amp in the foam and add channels for wires. and airflow, 2 8cm fans- one drawing and one pushing, should move enough. this will then be soaked in resin and if it works then i will have a solid enclosure housing the amp. cover with persex.

the floor carpet would then be cut to show the amp.


1st up im not a fan of the rough alloy look so this had to go

amp was stripped down and plastics removed - forgot to take proper start pics

start pic


this was then treated to 80grit flap disc on the grinder.
then done by 120 grit by hand for around 30mins (didnt have a flap disc of this grit)


cover was washed then started with the 600grit and im up to here




fingers dont really feel like they belong to me now.
going to have a go with the 1500 later and hopefully ill get some polish to use a felt wheel on it tomorrow (didnt realise i had finished it)

the plastic cover was masked up along the xplode logo and cut out with a stanley.
scoured with a scotchbrite pad to key the surface.
couple of coats of primer
couple of coats of satin black and waiting to see what it looks like, thinking it might need a couple more before wet flatting it and polish


should look good the black against the mirror finish

[Loz]

I like it Expanding foam plan sounds interesting, I look forward seeing how this comes out.
I remember when I had to make a spirit level from aluminium at college, we machined the body then had to hand polish the ally & brass cover plate to a mirror finish took us a week to polish & we had no finger prints left at the end!

[pgarner]

expanding foam - ve heard of it being used to make sub enclosures so thought it might work. better than spending a day fibre glassing the boot then having to make a support for the amp.

ive got fingerprints but fingertips are pretty much numb still. hopefully the felt will bring it up with a coarse cutting past then fine without having to go through the 1000 and 1500 grits.

just need a dry day now to fill the boot lol

[Loz]

Does sound like a giggle, how many cans of foam do you think you'll need?

[MasterAuron]

Lol make sure you take loads of pics of the expanding foam, for some reason thinking about it just makes me grin Channels for the wires and everything, sounds top notch!

[waynne]

Good work. Last time I did some sanding I couldn't use my laptops finger print recognition logon for weeks!

[Reubiedoo]

Cracking idea! If I didn't have a family that would be straight on the list for when I get my audio decided. Ingenious!

[Reubiedoo]

Though having said that, do you think perspex or acrylic or something could be used as a cover? would need to be scratch resistant/proof as it would look shat real quick. that way the pram and all can still go in etc.

[pgarner]

Originally Posted by Loz

Does sound like a giggle, how many cans of foam do you think you'll need?

hopefully should get away with one if im lucky, at a guess im only going to need 20-30ltrs of it (size of the spare wheel)

Originally Posted by MasterAuron

Lol make sure you take loads of pics of the expanding foam, for some reason thinking about it just makes me grin Channels for the wires and everything, sounds top notch!

yeah im expecting it to go everywhere. channels may be to good a word, holes might have been a better one . might leave them till after it gets coated in resin so its a bit harder not that they will be seen hopefullly

Originally Posted by Reubiedoo

Though having said that, do you think perspex or acrylic or something could be used as a cover? would need to be scratch resistant/proof as it would look shat real quick. that way the pram and all can still go in etc.

i dont use the boot that often it sits empty or with webbing in it most of the year. when i am going to actually need it chances are ill be going far so will have it out so i can have the spare wheel back in, just in case or i will have the original carpet to through over the top

[Loz]

Just a thought, but if you line the wheel well with cling film, it will stop any leaks & it might make removing the foam easier when it's set. Of course you've probably already thought about that.

[pgarner]

no i hadnt. i thought of masking tape as itll stick to the well with some wax on it to make removing easier and misting the vax prior to spraying for 2 reasons.

one it makes the wax more slippy
two it helps the foam cure better with smaller bubble rather than big ones

[Loz]

I like your idea better!

[pgarner]

some of todays work



polished with a green compoud and RTD spray (cutting lubricant)





one side down, just the other and then the sides.ohh and the whole thing with the red finishing compound
hoping monday is a nice day so can look at the foam idea

[MasterAuron]

Awesome! A lot of work is going into this. I'll see what I can find and send you something to polish for me

[pgarner]

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can see why some bits charge so much.


you can still see fine scratches which im not happy about but hoping these will come out with the finishing stuff.

forgot that it would get hot, blonde moment, and burnt my finger so not doing any more today

[Loz]

Great work PG, the amp looks superb.

Ps. I've already popped my cam cover in the post, can I expect back in a week or so?

[pgarner]

no worrys £300 was what we agreed on wasnt it ?

[Loz]

[pgarner]

ohh well itll be coming back scratched and with honda on the rocker cover then lol