07 access cab 12" custom box

Hello everyone, I'm fairly new to Tacoma world, although I've been lurking around looking at ideas for my own 'custom' system. i have been looking around for the past few weeks, and have not found a solution to that i wanted to accomplish. I also had a week off of work to play around with some ideas...

Goal: Add a 12" sub in Tacoma access cab(have not found any solutions with my requirements.), new head unit install, and install an amp for the sub in a hidden place.

Requirements:

1. 2+2 cabin requirement.
2. Sliding drivers/ passengers seats all the way back!
3. Keep the under-the-seat storage usable/ accessible.
4. Be able to return to stock, without any defects left in truck.
5. Keep the truck looking stock(down firing sub, hidden amp)


The build:

I had a sub laying around (pretty cheap from high school, but it works) and thats what i designed my box around, i needed at least 1.25 cb/ft of air. The sub is a Infinity Reference 1252w This is actually hard to accomplish with the little space in the truck. For the box, i wanted a down firing sub, so it would not be visible from outside the truck. To make the box i decided to use 3/4" MDF.

i managed to "upholster" it myself, using 1/2" foam underneath, then wrapping the box with a vinyl material i found at a fabric store by my house. I know it does not look the best but it works for now.. And installed into the truck for a test fit, adding the 1/2" foam made the box grow taller than i expected so as you can see in the picture its 1/2" above the rear wall of the truck.






I also mentioned i wanted to be able to access the storage below the rear seats, and i can open the seat and access the storage



So following that i needed to mount my amp, and install my headunit, after searing for a place for the amp i found that under the seat would be my best option, here is a pic of that while the install was still in progress ( i was running out of daylight and it was about 39 degrees outside).



My headunit with dash kit from Crutchfield, is actually a nice kit, one complaint is that during shipping, the plastic tab that holds the head-unit in place broke off on the right side, on both of the dash kits i received, but it doesnt affect the install really, it is held in place by the cover plate that looks EXACTLY like the stock head unit surrounding. This kit has built in bluetooth, which is the selling feature for me, but this had me thinking where do i put the mic? I actually found the perfect place for it, since i do not have an automatic garage door opener, i used a stock hole in the compartment and mounted it there. Even with with the compartment closed the mic works well.






Thats basically all i have done to the truck so far, but i plan on building another box to fit the curved contour of the rear of the center console.

Overall
Total cost out of my pocket was about $200. (did not pay for head unit, or subwoofer.) I will most likely replace the old sub that i have with something better but it will work for now.

 

ok, i dont know if this box has the full 1.25 cubes, i started playing alot more rock music today and it seems like the sub is bottoming out, bass boost is barely on. When i play rap, with low, deep tones it doesn't bottom out....hmmm i need help!!!

 

it could be the shape of the box, the air at the bottom isn't helping because it is too far from the sub. Long narrow boxes don't work very well. I would suggest angling the bottom of the box and mounting the sub as close to the bend as possible.
Just an idea

 

Banned Lentsnh and I built this sub box in a week. 7-10 in the mornings and then some late nights. It took ALOT of sanding, silicone sealant, and bondo.

It held 2 10" on either side. It would have been better if it were a little wider,It tended to want to subwoofer "fart", but it was our first run at the design. Kept the lines the same as the center console.

I'll get some other pictures from Lents later if you want to see more of the design...





Great concept on your box though. As stated above make sure your getting the most out of the air space in your box.

 

i agree the shape of my box is probably messing with the sq...i guess a 12 in this truck really isnt gonna be feasible without giving up some space...bummer

thats a cool box, but i really want the sub to not be visible...but i would like to see more pics...do the seats still fold up?

 

Here is a good box but only fits a 10"
http://www.supercrewsound.com/commerce/product.jsp?prodId=308&catId=69

 

That box only fits 1 - 10 and still wont allow you to use the under seat storage for the jump seat. I'm building a custom box this weekend to fit between the jump seat and front buckets, that will fit 2 - 10s with 1.2 cubic feet for each sub. It will be downfire with the top flush with the jump seat. I'll post a how to this weekend as I finish some more of it.

 

will you still be able to use alll 4 seats in the truck? access the storage compartments below the seats??

 

Yep, I've finished most of it today. All that's left is to do some sanding and paint it. I took some pics today and will try to post everything up tomorrow. You won't be able to use the seats for people, but they work great for dogs. No one sits in the back of an access cab anyway. You will be able to use the storage compartments under the seats.

 

pics????

 

I've been trying to get them up here, but they are large files that TW doesn't seem to like. I'll try photobucketing them this afternoon. I've got a few issues with the radio to button up this morning while i'm "sick".

 

Ok, I guess the trick is to upload 1 pic at a time instead of 4.

All in all i'm happy with the box, but there are things i don't like about it (namely the shitty rattle can paint job). Anyway here is a pic of the final install.

 

it doesnt look too bad with the rattle can...i actually have small people who sit in the rear of my truck pretty often, but im thinking about giving up one seat and building a box for one side. hopefully it turns out good.

 

ive got one 12 in my access cab and i use all four seats everyday almost. yet i cant get into under the seats its used as a good arm rest. Plenty of airsapce also, its alot like your idea just the sub is at the top and alot shorter so it uses all of the airspace. i wanted to figure out how to put 2 12s and still use both back seats but couldnt figure it out, my sister has my truck right now but i will take a picture of it later and post it

 

some better pictures added, not from a cell phone camera...and i snuck in two new ones, one of the boost control knob, and one of the slick placement of my +12V wire, and my ground, i thought it was pretty slick, especially since i had only 2.5' total length to ground my amp, i just thought it was easily used, i know its easy for thieves to spot but it will have to do till i get more cable.

 

Thanks for being polite, but the rattle can looks terrible. It just doesn't work well with MDF and my truck smells like spray paint even 3 days later. It works for me, but i will be redoing the finish (sand and carpet) when i get my new subs and amp in. Also, I have a speaker terminal that doesn't work so only one of the subs is hooked up. It makes the truck sound lopsided. Before you build a new box, i would move the current one to one side and see if that bothers you.

I like the vinyl on your box (good color match), i would look into redoing it with contact cement so you have less noticeable seams. I saw some good vids on youtube from rtti that will walk you through the carpeting process. How to build a speaker box 3 is the vid on carpeting the box.

 

yeah i watched quite a few videos on upholstery after building this box, then when i went to upholster i realized that all the angles i cut was a bad idea if i wanted to upholster it with the vinyl but didn't know how to use one continuous piece and make it look good, i did my best but now doing it once i think i could do better.

i also saw someone use that paint on bed liner for there boxes, i wonder how that would work?

I will see if moving the box to one side or the other makes it sound lopsided.

i also saw someone stuff there box with cotton or some type of filler, I've head that filling it can help recover sq from the box by "faking" more airspace for the sub. I don't know just a thought for any audio guys looking at this thread.

 

I would test it first to see if there will be any odor left in your truck. Stuffing will trick your sub into thinking there is about 10% more volume in the box

 

my buddy used spray on bedliner on his box, worked great because the spray covers real easy, we got it at kragen and it was like 10 bucks a can

 

how was the sound quality on this? dimensions and all? I have a 10" MTX sub that I got from a friend that I am about to build a box for similar to this, but no leather.