Has anyone heard of a Z-Box speaker enclosure?

[kamikazepilot]

Hey all,

Well one of my purchases at the swap was a "Z-Box" speaker enclosure.

It replaces the entire rear panel and speaker deck.

Made of fiberglass.

This thing is realy cool, but it does not fit into my car, I guess this one is for a targa or cab.

I still would like to get one of these, but I can't seem to find much info on the web about them.

Any info would be great...

Randy

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Friends don't let friends drive RICE!

1978 911 SC

[AMG Hammer]

Z-Box went out of business a long time ago. They made a really nice product, it's a shame.

[RoninLB]

I checked out a Z-Box for my 911. I went with Car Audio Innovations[Excellence] sub enclousure. It fits on floor behind seats. It's carpeted and is a class act.
Ron

[StuttgartNut]

Well ive seen the boxes your talking about.. personally i took a long piece of cardboard like 2'x7' and just slowly cut little piece at a time until i got a prefect contour around the hump and to fit into the roundish corners... worked very well..took the final piece that fit nice and drew it onto a piece of wood and cutout... had some leftover carpet and glued on.. i put 8" kicker comp woofers and made the stereo have a lil punch to it.. Really it was easy and i attachedit with 3 screws into the wall behind the seats.. let me look for pics. turned out well and cost maybe 5 bux for the carpet and spray adhesive.

[85 Coupe]

Somebody still makes a "z-box" like product. I now froget the name of the maker, but I got mine from Peter's Audio in San Francisco. Made of fiberglass and holds two 10 inch's. Not cheap, nor perfect fit and finish but sounds awsome....

Let me know if you want any more info,
Jean-Paul

No buisness connection and all that.....

[Seven-Seven]

Randy--

The timing of your question leaves me wondering if you're my next door neighbor! (I just spent the day pulling by Zbox out of my Targa for its annual inspection, cleaning and maintenance.) The fiberglass enclosure, which houses 2 10" subs, and a pair of small mids/high separates, comes wrapped in optional fabrications and colors. My Zbox is wrapped in a palomino colored leatherette. Anyway, because the subs face upward, I like to pull enclosure out at least once a year to check the condition of the speakers and to give everything a GOOD cleaning.

I purchased my Zbox in 1986 for about $400 w/o speakers. After I installed the ADS subs, mids and highs, the final price tag was rather obnoxious, but the sound is WELL worth it. The Zbox replaces the stock back dash and allows GREAT low end without sacrificing aesthetics, leg room, or the integrity of side panels. It's a sweet look that looks customized but apropos of the overall car design. I love it because it doesn't take up what little leg room there is for (unlucky) passengers.

I've tried many times to find a stateside source for the product but have been unsuccessful. I have a hunch that the company that reps or makes them is long gone. I believe that the product was manufactured in Germany, but I haven't been able to find any signs of that company on the Internet.

If I come across anyone selling theirs I'll let you know!

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Carlton
'77 911S Targa w/3.0

[Serge]

I've been looking for a zbox enclosure for about three years, and I finally built my own, out of a water heater box, four gallons of resin, and 64 square feet of fiberglas mat/mesh. It weighs 65 pounds with the speakers, but is 100% removable. It is a bit on the overkill side as far as thickness is concerned, but rigidity equals bass. As you can see in the pictures, It ain't pretty, but it is mostly invisible with the seats forward. I just finished it last week!

The box has an internal volume of about .8 cubic feet per side, and houses two Audiobahn AW1000x ten inch subwoofers. The sound is unbelievable, and it is not visible to thieves. I would not build it again if I had the choice, the fiberglassing took me about 40 hours! To anyone contemplating the same I have the folowing advice- Build the box first out of cardboard, cutting and fitting by trial and error. This will be a "male" mold, meaning you will cover the outside in fiberglass. Be sure to make all end corners rounded, not pointy, because it is hard to fiberglass a pointy corner without a "female" mold. The cardboard remains a part of the box, the resin saturates it and adds to the strength of the box. Make sure to make the cardboard mold a loose fit in the car, it will get bigger when you add the fiberglass. It took me about ten applications of fiberglass to finish, I'm sure it could be done more quickly and efficiently than I did it. I then painted the sides and back black, and covered the top and front with carpet. Email me with specific questions, if you wish

Roger Shadel
78 911SC

[kamikazepilot]

Found this, looks pretty good, does not take up floor space...

http://www.moch-1.com/911woofer.html

This is an option...

Randy

By the way, I just posted the Z-Box that I bought at the swap, it is for a Targa, not a coupe (Damn!).

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Friends don't let friends drive RICE!

1978 911 SC

[This message has been edited by kamikazepilot (edited 06-13-2001).]

[82SC]

www.caraudioinnovations.com

the advertise in the back of Excellence

I think Jack's car has this installed.

Pretty pricey...I am sure you can build one yourslef on a lazy weekend and less then 100 bucks without sperakers...

All you would need is some of that dense particle board boom boxes are made of...a scroll saw, leather/carpet...and a friggin pencil...and all the connectors you can buy at Radio shack...lift the crumbling carpet and drag wires to the front attach to your stero voila...saved $400

Serge's preocedure is perfect...

[kamikazepilot]

The Caraudio solution is great if you don't mind giving up what little rear seat leg room you have.

I do not want to do this. If I did not care about the back seats, I think I would build a box for back on the seat deck.

This is not an option for me.

Thanks though...

Randy

[Serge]

I have heard of two other options that do not involve losing back seat legroom, but they both have their drawbacks.

One involves building a box that goes over the floorboards on the passenger side in front. I have never seen this and can't visualize how it would work, but a stereo shop near me claims to have done this and they swear by it. It would involve losing a minimum of six inches of front legroom, since most ten inch subs have a mounting depth of 5 1/2 inches.

The other involves putting a subwoofer in the trunk, firing down into the air conditioning well, with the bass coming out the A/C ducts. Of course you have to trash the A/C to do this.

Since I don't have kids and don't know anyone who fits back there, all I cared about was building a box that retained the parcel shelf.

Another option is the new Bazooka tube series, the 8 inch model with 400 watts of power handling. They just came out with these higher watt unpowered tubes, and a Bazooka getting 400 watts would produce enough bass for anyone. This would still go on the floor behind the seat, but only on one side. The Crutchfield catalog/website has these.

Eight inch subs are so small and shallow that I bet you could build new rear interior quarter panels that would have sufficient volume for them while still allowing the seats to fold up and down. A stereo shop could build these out of fiberglass, but that labor bill would probably be very expensive. Like at least 20 hours at $40/hour.

I bet it would also be possible to build a variation on the JL Audio microsub enclosure, a completely flat version that fits under the seat. Fiberglass would be the only way to go here, since it is so thin. If I had made my box from MDF fiberboard, I would have lost about .3 cubic feet of internal volume just to wood (MDF is 3/4 inch thick, fiberglass boxes typically 1/8 to 5/8)

The Z-Box enclosure was a sweet piece, but they were $600, which is another reason I built my own, although I spent about $150 on materials! I would have loved to have found a used Z-box.

Roger Shadel
78 911SC

[Gary Peters]

I had a shop custom install one behind my seat. I figure noone will sit behind me so the seat was wasted space anyhow. It could probably be a little lower but this will give you another option. It was molded down into the seat bottom with fiberglass and bondo. It was very heavy so I took it out since the picture and am getting by with just door speakers.





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'76 911S

'80 924 M471

[ldangelo]

take a look at http://www.subsolutions.com They have a unit that fits the 911.... I have never tried this just thought you might want to see it...

-LeoD

[Serge]

That subsolution box is pretty slick! If I didn't already have a box for my car, I'd probably go that route. Thanks for the post, I am going to keep it bookmarked in case one of my local 911 friends is interested.

Roger Shadel
78 911SC