300SDL:

I am doing a similar thing in my 400E, but I have planned from the beginning to port into the first aid kit area. After much research on this site and others, I figured that porting into the cabin somehow was the only way to go. I don't think just cutting holes in the rear deck will sound nearly as good as porting the subs energy directly into the cabin. The other choice I was considering was to mount 2 8" free air subs in the rear deck, which I have done before in a 300E, and sounded really good. I didn't want to do that much cutting, and the variety among free air subs is very limited.

I have 2 10" subs, each in their own 1 cubic foot sub-enclosure. You mentioned you have 2 10" subs - Are they in a ported, vented (Generally the only difference between port and vent is that a port is round, and a vent is rectangular.) or sealed box? It they are ported or vented, you have to check to see if the ports will line up properly under the FA Kit area. I checked this VERY carefully before cutting holes in either the back deck, OR in the sub box enclosure. "Measure twice, cut once" kept going through my mind. I found that a lot of pre-built boxes didn't have the port in the right location - usually facing the same direction as the subs. I also found that most of them took up more trunk space than I was willing to give up. My enclosure is only 9" deep.

As far as port material, I have used black PVC drain pipe in the past to good effect, and that is what I'm using this time as well. It is very stiff, cheap and easy to get at the hardware store, and easy to cut with a hack saw. It isn't very pretty, and the wall thickness is more than required. The specs on the subs I am using require a port 3" across by about 7" long for each sub, so I have cut two holes. I also used a black PVC drain cap to finish off the top of the port where is pokes into the FA kit area. It doesn't look too bad, and you don't really see it anyhow. Getting cloth to match, or trying to retain the original cloth is difficult or impossible. I am not done with my project yet, so I can't tell you how it sounds, but I have gone pretty cheap on the whole deal, building the enclosure myself, and using 2 Jensen subs with a 300 Watt Jensen amp. (Peak output, bridged into 2 ohms, downhill with a tail wind - I hate how they rate these things! This is really about a 75 watt amp in stereo into 4 ohms which is how I have to run it.) Less than $200 in electronics, plus maybe another $50 in other material. (And some of my own cheap labor!) I will probably have the most trouble with the wiring - the box has been easy.

Cutting a hole was pretty tough as the rear deck material is actually four layers. There is carpet on top, with sound deadening material underneath. Then there is a layer of what looks like rubber, and then the metal itself. It was actually easier to cut from underneath, in the trunk, with a small power jigsaw and a metal cutting blade. I removed the carpet and sound material first, although I'm not sure I needed to.

Lemme know how it goes!

__________________
Mike in Denver
'93 400E Now DEAD - Rear ended and totalled.
Replaced by '02 C32 AMG - FAST!