This part of the project was fun, but a bit of a b*tch. Although the amp rack was carefully cut to size such that it would wedge into place and would utilize gravity to bear the weight of the components, I needed to come up with a solution that would keep it from falling over. In other words, I just needed to stabilize it, not support its weight.

So the gas tank is right there, and unless I have a death wish, it's not smart to go drilling into it. The tank has grooves on it (which you can see in the 3rd pic of this post). So I made some 1/4" thick slats that will fit inside the recessed parts of this groove. I used some closed-cell foam on the parts of the grooves that stick out so that the amp rack wouldn't vibrate against the gas tank.

I took some more T-nuts and affixed them to the back of the slats. And I carefully measured and lined up the holes on the amp rack so that I could bolt into the slats.

Then I used 2-part epoxy and glued the slats onto the gas tank. In order to make sure they were precisely in the right place, I had to screw the slats onto the back of the amp rack, spread the epoxy on the slats (and only the slats so that the amp rack could be removed after the epoxy cured), and wedged it into place. I let it dry for a couple of hours, carefully unscrewed the amp rack, and prayed that it worked. I was very happy when it did! Here are some pics:

The slats screwed into the back of the amp rack, before epoxy:



Taped up the back of the amp rack and the backs of the t-nuts so that the epoxy didn't get on anything it shouldn't:



I then spread the epoxy, carefully pressed the amp rack into place, making sure everything lined up perfectly, and used some scrap to wedge the assembly into place for curing. I didn't feel like sitting in my trunk for 2 hours holding it in place. I crossed my fingers and hoped it would work (and it did, thank God):



Pic of the slats attached to the gas tank after the epoxy somewhat dried:



And that's all the pics I have for you. I still need to spend some time finishing up the amp rack so that I can mount the omnifi harddrive and the Audiocontrol 6ch EQ. there isn't enough space for the EQ to be on the rack next to the amps, so I will have to "stack" the small rear channel amp and the EQ on top of each other.

Then I need to make this look a little more presentable. But I will probably wait until I get the system up and running before I do anything like that. Chances are, I will conclude that it's just the trunk and I don't care how it looks.

Oh, and one last thing. When I shut the trunk, the sub jumps up and down considerably. I did a few fist pumps when I saw that, because it was a good sign that I had done at least a decent job of sealing the trunk from the cabin. The same goes for when I shut one of the car doors with the windows closed.

Things are finally taking shape!