First thing I needed to do was determine what size I could fit in the trunk, how it was going to sit in the trunk, what type of bass box did I want and what volume did I need.

The first thing I did was remove all the molding in the trunk, especially that which divided the cabin interior from the trunk. I decided that my bass box would replace that divider completely and would give me maximum possible space to put it in. I measured various aspects of the trunk and paid special attention to angle the face of the bass box would have to be to ensure the convertible top could still close down into the rear area without contacting the bass box.

I then used stationary boards (from a local Target) and created a complete mock up of the box and placed that into the trunk to ensure fit and to make sure I could actually get it into the trunk in it's assembled form and to make sure the convertible top remained unhindered.

With a successful model, I calculated the volume. I decided on a sealed box design because it constrains the cone movement and reduces risk of cone damage and although it does not give as peaky bass response as a ported box and slightly less loudness, it does give a flatter response - more important to me than getting the most out of the design.

The infinity 10" subs required about 0.7cuft each, so I shaved some inches off the length of the bass box to end up with about 1.4cuft.

The backing plate for the bass box was going to be a piece of 1" thick transparent acrylic plate.

Start with a few sheets of 3/4" Medium Density Fiber board (MDF) - don't let it get wet otherwise it's ruined and take your time cutting it, it will break easily. Finally, when screwing it together, drill decent size pilot holes as screws will easily split the board.

After hours of sitting down and trying to remember my trig days, I finally got all the measurements done, bought a skill saw and a jigsaw and put it together with plenty of wood screws and lots of glue. I'm a software engineer, not a carpenter so it took me 5 times longer than someone else could have done it in but it worked out exactly as measured and needed.

I wanted to be able to see into the bass box - that meant an acrylic back plate and I wanted to hand etch the Mustang Pony onto that acrylic plate and then polish the sides of the plate and use it like a light guide and thus illuminate the pony - all big plans that cost big bucks (1" thick acrylic plate, minimal size or 2ft by 3ft cost me $176) and took a long time but the end result is as perfect as I envisioned. I needed 1" thick because you do not want the walls of the bass box to flex under the changing air pressure exerted by the subs.

The measuring of the plate was easy, the cutting was very hard. I bought a special blade for the skill saw and after a long fight, managed to cut the piece I wanted. The material heats up and jams the blade - it would have been much easier to just go out and buy a band saw - I missed the boat on scoring that tool.

The etching was the challenge. At first I had no idea how to do it. I finally settled on the fact I would have to use a dremmel tool and a small grinding stone and spend hours carefully drawing the picture on. First, however, I had to generate the picture.

Using a fender protector with a good sized and detailed pony image, I scanned it into the computer, manipulated it to the desired size, printed out a template, cut the template, laid the template on the plate then use a modeling knife to scribe the template onto the plate then finally colored within the lines to give me the end result - sounds simply enough, but it took a long time. Note that the original image was white on black so I simply inverted the image.

Drilling the plate was what drove me to go and purchase a drill press. The holes had to be perfect as the final seal had to be airtight. I used speaker foam to complete the seal and 12 2" large brass wood screws to attach the plate - but not until the box was almost complete of course - plenty of other stuff to do first.

I went with metallic blue as the overall desired color for the install because it goes well with Silver and I intended on using Blue LEDS and tube lighting. A couple of cans did the trick for the inside of the box (no need to complete the outside, it will not be visible when it's all complete).

Next the trunk to cabin interface (a sheet of vinyl) was removed from the car and two large holes cut out where the subs would sit, then the bass box was ready for the subs to be installed.

Using 8 2" by 1/4" cap bolts and lots of spring washers I bolted the subs in. I used 1/8th thick rubber weather stripping to provide the air tight seal then cranked those suckers in hard.

Next came the wiring. Using 8 gauge power wire left over from the main amplifier install - because it was blue and would look great inside the speaker - I wired the subs for 2 ohms each (parallel connection of the dual 4 ohm coils) with connections on each side of the box.

I purchased 2 10" Kicker speaker grills, mainly for looks not so much for protection, and painted them the same metallic blue.

Once everything was done, the final step was to screw the back plate onto the box and install the box (of course, this was only done after all the amps were installed and wired).

The only thing visible in this install (aside from new head units of course) are the fronts of the two subs that can be seen looking in through the rear window. With the top down and cover on, the subs are not visible and they are shielded from the sun - very important to ensure the rubber surrounds do not dry and decay. With the top up, the same cover is designed to slide in the rear window area and hence keeps the subs covered at all times.

Lighting involves 4 bright blue LEDS mounted on either end of the bass box and centered on the acrylic plate. When the trunk is opened, a relay, running off the trunk wiring, lights up the install. The polished surfaces of the plate cause the LED light to bounce around inside giving the pony a great glowing effect as well as lighting up the edges of the plate. Enough light leaks into the bass box itself to highlight the subs and the wiring. The overall effect is exactly what I was going for.

So how does it sound? Awesome. There are few rattles somewhere back there but they are not the bass box structure itself. Low end response is excellent giving me the bass I wanted for Drum & Bass while still providing a hell of a lot of punch for metal and techno.

Thanks to tons of Dynamat (the silver lining material in the last picture - used for damping and vibration suppression), the amount of bass inside the car is significant even when it is barely noticeable outside the car - this is good because it means energy is not being lost and other drivers aren't bothered by the huge thump...thump...thump prevalent in large bass installs.