The Tang-Band upgrade for the factory subwoofer has been covered here very well, so I can't really add much to the basic concept. However, I noticed a lot of folks having trouble with the mounting. I've done speakers boxes over the years and know how to predrill MDF, but when it gets that thin it's tricky even with experience and tools.

Also, I wanted to put a grille over the speaker so that passengers didn't inadvertently kick the thing in. Being the nerd I am, I thought, I oughta be able to address both of these needs with the 3D printer. I mean,



Actually, compared to many of my projects, it's wasn't bad at all.

I got one of the factory enclosures from a member here. The radiused corners are easy enough to deal with, but after 30+ years the plastic is a warped (and prolly wasn't all that straight to begin with!)



See the top and bottom center, and upper right and bottom left corners, where there's gaps between the mount and the enclosure. I'd apologize for the crappy quality of these pix, but it's hard to get good ones of a black plastic box with a black plastic insert with a black speaker inside =))

Bit ahead of myself there showing the adapter, more to come later. The Parts Express web page has a very nice PDF with dimensions (with tolerances even!) for the speaker, so I was able to model the thing before it even arrived. Here's the basic idea, drawn up in OpenSCAD



Cut the thing down the middle for better viewing and to make sure the woofer won't hit the inside of the grille.



I find it handy to do up not just the piece(s) to be printed, but the piece(s) that they interact with, so I can check for fitment virtually. Obviously the enclosure is a ridiculously complicated shape, but we don't actually need to model the whole thing, just the bottom coupla inches where the woofer goes. That's the pink-purplish outer box.

Inside that, the blue part, goes the mounting plate or adapter, which is the bit you'd usually make out of MDF. The magic of printing means we can do some clever tricks like make hexes on top for captive nuts:



The nuts are a press fit into the hexes, you draw them in with the bolt, but I also put a coupla dabs of CA glue in there to keep the little boogers in place for assembly.

Hard to see, but the center bore is actually slightly conical to give a bit more thickness at the centers. The outer set of little holes around the edge match the original mounting holes, and the inner set gives extra mounting strength, #6 sheetmetal screws.

The woofer mounts to the adapter with #8x2" bolts:



and then the nuts go into those hexes underneath (err, on top, since the woofer mounts upside down.)



I'm prolly explaining the obvious, but I hope that stuff like this makes people go "Huh, this 3D printing this is pretty handy, and it's not so hard..."

Finally, the grille is pretty basic



Bolts onto the woofer (the bolts go through grille-woofer-adapter to the nuts) and hopefully keeps marauding feet out of the cone.

Again, suboptimal pix, but the finish product looks like this:





(that's Faith, my trusty Maine Coon, giving it a cat scan. Anything I do in the house gets a lot of cat scans.)



And finally installed. It looks, well, like all the other factory boxes. I may paint the hardware black, might not bother.



In the interest of sealing the thing I ended up using a bit butyl rubber around the adapter and around the speaker as I didn't trust the foam weatherstripping that came on it to seal against the odd shape. Coulda used caulking or something, but I had the butyl on hand and it's removable later if things go awry.

Stuck a little Ebay Chinesium amp in the factory pocket and dropped wires to it, and yeah, it sounds surprisingly good. Obviously it makes bad noises if you turn it up loud on crazy subsonic organ music, but I can play ZZ Top "Sleeping Bag" or Van Halen "Jump" or my fave, Kenny Loggins "Danger Zone", all the way to eleven, which is damn good for such a little speaker. (I'm a purist: my Fiero playlist is period-correct for the car, even if the audio system isn't )

For y'all that are into printers, this project is on Thingiverse.

-- A

[This message has been edited by dremu (edited 08-26-2020).]

Excellent work!

Because the Tang Band sub has such a thick rubber surround and so much excursion,
getting a grill that's deep enough to keep from being hit by the speaker has been problematic.

Yours should fit the bill for many who've installed a Tang Band speaker.

------------------
My World of Wheels Winners (Click on links below)

3.4L Supercharged 87 GT and Super Duty 4 Indy #163

quote Originally posted by fierosound: Excellent work! Because the Tang Band sub has such a thick rubber surround and so much excursion, getting a grill that's deep enough to keep from being hit by the speaker has been problematic. Yours should fit the bill for many who've installed a Tang Band speaker.

Thanks!

I was chatting with the guy who sent me the enclosure, and he was ... surprised ... by its dimensions and looks, but as you say, it's gotta clear the woofer. I could done it a bit more hemispherical like the traditional aftermarket grilles, but it woulda been a pain to print. Much easier to print this way with the flat face.

-- A

[This message has been edited by dremu (edited 08-22-2020).]