K10 Stealth Shelf

misterBaz

Ex. Club Member
I love music, love it, and when I'm on my own in the car I enjoy listening to great music loudly whilst blasting down the lanes. However I do not want to everyone else to hear my 'pumping bass' and spending a lot of money on anything other than performance gains just upsets me! However the stereo that came with my car doesn't work, the tuner on it is knackered, it plays tapes, but I only have one tape and there is only one speaker in my car...which is really bad. So I decided to rectify this problem. I haven't the first clue about car stereos, but after looking about and reading up a bit I bought a new Kenwood CD/MP3 HU including facia case for £50, I have just gotten back from Manchester where I bought a good set of JBL 6x9s for £25 (bargain). A mate of mine who has done several installs reckons this is all I will need and won't need front speakers....I'm still not entirely sure I will like my system with no front speakers, but I'll just stick the 6x9s in to start with and if I don't like it I can always change it. I don't think I will want a sub as the 6x9s I have are pretty bassy apparently...but again, if I do need one I can get one at a later date.

My issue now is where to install the 6x9s. I was advised to stick them in the parcel shelf or in the housing to the sides of the parcel shelf. Parcel Shelf was cheaper and easier though. But I don't want them on display because I think it will look gay and I don't want some scumbag stealing my speakers. So now I am going to build a stealth shelf. I have never done one before, and have always hated the ones I've seen as they have been way too heavy and ill fitting when made from MDF (unless they have been made with someone with some good skills when working with MDF...which is not me!) So my idea was this:

I found a very good condition parcel shelf in a breakers yard, and I want to use that rather than custom making one from MDF as I feel it will be a lot lighter. I want to cut the holes, then use thin bits of baton or other light bits of wood, then put a sheet of lightweight but stiff metal mesh over the whole lot, then cover all that with accoustic carpet. The reason for the mesh is so the carpet doesn't sag into the speakers so people won't realise it's a stealth shelf, and the reason for the wood is to stop the mesh from sagging also. here is my idea below:

Red = holes I will cut
Blue = wooden batons
Green = mesh
Then I will cover the whole lot in acoustic carpet.

shelf-idea.jpg


I'm just really wondering if anyone has done it this way before (I would guess so) and if so what was the outcome? Did it work? Did the parcel shelf hold the speakers without breaking? Was it heavy? etc.
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
Instead of having 4 battons going across, make the whole thing out of solid MDF. I have on mine and aswell as being alot stronger, it improves the sound.

Also, over time, the carpet will begin to sag (as acustic carpet stretches), so would fall into the shelf where it's not supported under neath.

I've got a custom stealth shelf in mine, here's the results!

Stealth.jpg
 
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misterBaz

misterBaz

Ex. Club Member
Instead of having 4 battons going across, make the whole thing out of solid MDF. I have on mine and aswell as being alot stronger, it improves the sound.

Also, over time, the carpet will begin to sag (as acustic carpet stretches), so would fall into the shelf where it's not supported under neath.
Thanks for the tips Arnold. Not sure if you missed the bit where I said I was going to use a sheet of mesh to put over the batons. The batons are purely there to support the mesh so that the mesh doesn't bow in the middle. The carpet will then go over the mesh so that there was no way it would sag. (I don't think??)

I am trying not to use MDF to save on weight you see...not for any performance related reasons, just I want to have it light enough so my boot lifters will still keep the boot open.

Your shelf looks great though...I want mine to look very similar...although perhaps I'm gonna try and keep the height of it down so it is flush with the trim on the sides.
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
Yeah i know what you mean about keeping it flush. unfortunatly if your sticking a carpet on top, that's not really easy to achieve! Yeah missed the mesh bit, sorry about that, as long as it's strong, i cant see that being a problem, but i still think you should go for enhanced sound over weight. Mine's too heavy to keep the boot up, but i'd rather that, than going through all the effort of covering them up when they don't sound that great as a result
 
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misterBaz

misterBaz

Ex. Club Member
Cheers arnold, appreciate your thoughts. Not had a proper look at it yet, but basically I was thinking about deepening the grooves that the normal parcel shelf has to sit on the pegs that hold it in place....hopefully that will lower it enough to make it flush. If I have to deepen them so much that it goes very near or through the top of the parcel shelf I'll make some custom brackets out of steel or aluminium which should hopefully hold it at the right level.

I've taken what you've said onboard, and basically I think what I'm gonna do is do it without mdf, (as I'm not a big ICE man) and if the quality is THAT poor then I'm thinking maybe mounting the 6x9s on custom rings of mdf attatched to the parcel shelf. Not sure if it will work, but I reckon it's worth experimeting with...I think it may give it the reverb and solidity that it may need.(??) If that doesn't work then I think I will be going with your idea of a solid mdf parcel shelf. You may have noticed I'm the sort of person that likes to try things out lol. Basically I enjoy working on cars and if I can come up with a lighter alternative to the MDF stealth shelves then I will be a happy man. If I don't then I will still be happy as I won't have the niggling feeling that I could of done it differently! I've always said that I don't want to spend a lot of money on my K10, but I don't mind doing anything to my K10 as long as it only costs my time and effort, even if it ends in nothing lol And yes...I AM that kid that had to stick his hand in the fire to find out it was hot lol
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
Lol well good luck with it! Just remember to use acustic carpet, normal stuff muffles the sound (sub box carpet etc). Another thing, the shelf is flimsey and will vibrate alot. I still don't think the MDF rings would be good enough because of this, but i never personally tried it. I just did MDF all over :)
 
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misterBaz

misterBaz

Ex. Club Member
Cheers. I ordered the acoustic carpet yesterday afternoon, I have the wood and parcel shelf, gonna nip to town later to get the mesh. Head Unit SHOULD of arrived today but it didn't (grrrrrr) and unfortunately the speakers are unlikely to be in my posession until the weekend as the guy i bought them off had to uninstall them first, and it's a 100 mile round trip to his and I'm short on cash lol
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
What are you using to hold the carpet down? I used a combination of spray glue (awesome stuff) for the visible bits, and screws underneath.
 
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misterBaz

misterBaz

Ex. Club Member
Yeah I've got some spray glue in the garage that I was planning to use for the top side, then for the underside I wasn't sure whether to use staples or screws. Think screws would be neater though, but obviously I'd have to screw them thru the wood batons rather than just the parcel shelf. The other alternative, if I go for the non-mdf approach, is stitching the carpet in. This I think would look very neat....but I'm crap at sewing stuff lol. Might give it a go tho
 
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