[Lumpymayo]

Here is a small writeup for a homemade sound bar.

In my honest opinion, making a homemade sound bar out of stuff you have laying around is much smarter than purchasing one. Homemade sound bars can be customized depending on your skill to add features that you want. You can add sound padding on the inside, different setup of speakers, lights, storage, and many other possibilities. But overall is the fact that you have a small investment made into your sound bar, if it gets stolen or destroyed you will not be out much and can probably make another one in a couple of hours.

The method I used to make my sound bar, uses the idea of allowing it to be removed or put back onto your Jeep in less than 15 seconds. This is a great idea because it helps prevent theft by not leaving it in your Jeep. This method also serves a great benefit to you because if you are like me, and almost always have your top off/or just a bikini, your exposed speakers and speaker boxes will endure a lot of wear and tear, if you know the inside of your Jeep is going to get wet, just leave the sound bar at home.

Total cost of parts needed for me was 0$, I had everything around my house. Looking at the pricing of current sound bars, http://www.4wd.com/jeep-parts.aspx?cid=0&jeep-sid=360&plID=1190 0$ is a lot better than 200$+ that requires drilling.
If you don't it is still very very cheap compared to the pricing,

Get a sheet of plywood, width is at your preference. (treated is recommended, I used a thick piece of wood that is treated, it weights a lot more, about 20 lbs total, but I can stand on it without it breaking, try doing that with the 200$+ plastic ones) 10$

Light http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_Interior-Light-Large-With-Switch-Night-Blaster_6251331-P_N3154_A|GRP2044____ 7$ Almost all advanced auto parts stores have this, I think even places like Walmart auto section has it too.

Screws, like 2$

4pin Computer power cables, every computer has these on the inside, they can handle a lot of power going through them and they are cheap/sturdy. You don't have to use these if you don't want to, I recommend it but basically any type of plug that you can improvise will work. Virtually all computer stores have these, like Bestbuy, Circuit city, Radioshack etc... http://www.bestcableforless.com/prodimages/CC2121P_LR.jpg about 2$.
Spray paint cheapest Walmart brand 1$
Speaker wires, like 2 feet worth, that's like 25 cents?
Speakers, put in what you want really, small/big, cheap/expensive it's up to you.

So excluding the speakers, this is only about 15$ worth of materials.



Here are the basic dimensions of the sound bar. Now take these measurements with a grain of salt, they aren't perfect nor did the sound bar fit perfectly into the cage. My method somewhat requires the use of your roll bar padding to allow it to fit snugly on the roll cage. I recommend you test the measurements for your self before making the first cut.





It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to piece them together, or how to assemble the speakers. My method for cutting holes for the speakers was to trace an outline of where the speaker went on the sound bar, drilling a couple of pilot holes and using a Sawzall to cut out the shape. I also recommend when screwing this together that you drill a small hole first where the screw will go then place in the screw, this prevents the wood from splitting.

Use your roll bar padding to hide the wires that run up to the sound bar to conceal them.

The one I posted with measurements is the second version I made, I originally had a different method of connecting the speakers, but it was annoying having to re plug it back in. It had to basically thread the needle and get the wire to go into the socket, this is why I recommend the plug method, its simple and much easier. See the second measurement picture above with the wires exposed to get a better idea of what I'm talking about. This changed it from 3 connections to 2 connections needed.

Other recommendations I have to make are, seal the wood on the inside with some form of caulk to help keep moisture, dirt and insects out. If you have some sort of coating paint like Herculiner, or other undercoating paint you will definitely want to cover your sound bar with it.

I know this thread/writeup has been butchered up by edits, scroll down to see more pictures and how I installed the light. Feel free to ask any questions.

[NJeepyj91]

Go to the main page, scroll down to the Audio Forum. SirGCal will fix you right up.

[Lumpymayo]

My previous owner added speakers in the rear which is connected to an amplifier under the passenger seat. These speakers were fine, but now that it's summer and they have been getting very wet while I have my Safari Bikini Top on, I decided to replace them with a sound bar. Now, to save money, I choose to make my own sound bar instead of buying a 150$+ one, especially since I had everything I needed to make one.





Because I am so tall (6'3"), having the sound bar above my head would have not worked, so I designed the sound bar to work on the rear section of my roll cage. I measured the distance of the rear bars, and cut out 2 parallelogram shapes. One one of them, I cut out 2 holes the size of my speakers and screwed my speakers in. I then measured how far apart these 2 pieces of wood had to be, and I spaced them with 2 wooden blocks. With the speakers set into place, I did all the internal wiring and sealed it up. I made sure the make the size of the sound bar to fit tightly over my roll cage to prevent it from slipping off. The way I have it set up makes it so that I can easily remove it if it rains. I ran the speaker wired up the rear roll cage bars inside the padding to conceal them.


It's 4 am now, Ill have more pictures tomorrow.




But I need to know where can I find the electrical outputs are for the hardtop interior lighting, or if there isn't I need suggestions on where to get a powersource from on the wiring harness to power a small interior light that I plan on attaching to the sound bar. I have a 95 2.5L Sports Edition YJ.

EDIT:

I added some finishing touches to my homemade sound bar. I still need to figure out how to provide power to the light I purchased.

[RoverJeep90]

Well done, always love owner inspired projects.

[Blitanicle99]

Thats badass.

How did you go about mounting it? Did you secure it in anyway?

[Lumpymayo]

See how I left the indentation on the side of it? Where the wood sticks out, it slides right into the roll bar. The rear roll cage is not parallel, so by sliding something into it, it gets tighter and tighter. using this concept I made it tight enough so that it requires a lot of force to slide in, the roll bar padding provides plenty of friction to keep it into place, I drove for 2 hours reached 70 mph (OMG 4-BANGER THAT GOES 70, WOW THAT'S FAST) with no doors/top, it didn't budge. It fits very snugly, and I am very confident it will not come loose from driving. The speaker cables run along the rear right roll bar, I unzipped the padding (with a little help from some grease) and tucked the wire into it to conceal it. I also used the speaker connectors so if it rains, I can easily remove the sound bar to keep it from getting damaged (or stolen - but a thief will be disappointed if they steal it.)

I think I found a solution to the dome light, I'll just wire it from the stock interior light located above the e-brake and ground it to the door switch to make it into a courtesy light but with the option to turn it on/off while driving. I am also thinking about rigging a sunglasses holder into it.

[smthill]

Looks great!

[94WorknProgress]

looks great, man. i just posted on here the past week trying to see if anyone had in fact tried this. i'm going to start mine once i get home. i think i'm going to fiberglass mine, though. my first fiberglass project, it should be interesting.

[yellow2kgt]

That's awesome. You have inspired me to do the same. Would you mind telling what size you used for the frame? I have been measuring mine.

Never mind.. I got my calipers out. It looks like ripping the frame down to 2.5" makes a perfectly snug fit. Add that to the thickness of the plywood and it has just enough depth for the speakers to fit.

I did get the frame work and the plywood cut and assembled today. Now I just need to find some material to cover it with. I am trying to find some black vinyl.

[Lumpymayo]

Okay, I got to adding the light today.



I used a computer powersupply connectors, this way I can easily attach/remove power to the light when taking off the sound bar

[Kool_Aid_Kid]

Way to go it looks really nice.


Later,

Brew

[Pyrate_7]

LMAO I have the same light zip-tied to my roll bar. We call it the "god light" because it's brighter than the sun at night. Great build, man! I might have to try something similar.

[Tj's Yj]

Well done

[BumbleBee90]

Nice job. What type of speakers did you use?

[YJames90]

Where did you get that light?

Im building my own version today

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