So, who here has front speakers installed in a 68-72 GS/Skylark? I was previously thinking about those kickpanels that CAS MFG was selling but...why would I buy some crappy 6.5" coaxials mounted on a kick panel when I can get some serious quality speakers and mount it on the kick panel myself. My only concern is the amount of depth I have between my kick panels and the body to mount. The crappy speakers are usually less than 2 inches in mounting depth for the woofer. So who here has kickpanel speakers? What kind of speakers do you have and what's the mounting depth? Or if anyone just knows the mounting depth, that'd be great too. I want to install JL Audio TR650-CXi 6.5" speakers with a woofer mounting (that is everything behind the kick panel) of 2.44 in. / 61.9 mm. Or does anyone have another good mounting spot for front speakers?
I drive a 1970 Skylark. My audio setup (self-installed - total amateur) uses a Kenwood KDC-MP538U head unit. In the front, I used a Kenwood KFC-P508 5.25" component speaker set. The woofers (with a "top mount depth" of 2.375") just barely fit into the available space behind the kick panels after some trimming of the metal, as noted in post above. I don't think you could fit any bigger (or deeper) speakers in the stock kick panel, but I could be wrong. I put the 1 inch tweeters into some old Radio Shack housings I had left over from another project, and stuck them in the corners of the lower dash with hook & loop tape (no holes in dash). In the rear, I have two Kenwood 6 X 9" 3-way's in the cutouts in the parcel shelf, with home-made wooden enclosures under the speakers . Plus a 12" "free-air" sub-woofer driven by a separate dedicated amp. The sub is mounted in the divider panel between the trunk and the back seat - it fires right through the rear seat-back like it's not even there! Like I said, I'm a total amateur, but I'm very satisfied with my setup. Good luck with your project.
That's looks great man. My mounting depth is 2.44 inches so hopefully I van finagle it or I guess get to work with my angle grinder or something hahaha. The spot you mounted on on the kickpanel is pretty much exactly where I ws planning on mounting mine. I don't think there's much of a choice when that parking brake is in the way. Can you provide me a picture of the sub location? I'm curious to see what you mean. I have a JL 13tw5 which is 2.5 inches thin and I have some ideas about what I want to do with my trunk and I think the older guys (I'm 23 so older in this reference means all you 40-50+ no offense intended) would really like. My stuff actually serves today. I bought the retrosound classic radio with the gm truck 67-70 ( after a lot of coronation with retrosound apparently this fits best) and I also got an abs plastic sheet in case I need to better fit a faceplate myself. I also got JL TR-650 CSI 6.5" speakers and JL TR690 TXI 6x9 speakers. I got a 1 farad capacitor. I already have the JL tw5 sub plus jl HD 750 monowatt amp so I look forward to this all JL setup. But you say you put it in the divider. I assume you mean the metal part that simply is between the trunk space and the backseat. You don't have an enclosure behind the magnet or anytbing? I've been thinking about ways to hide the box, amp, af capacitor because I'm a huge fan of stealth or sleeper looks when it comes to My personal cars. I look Forward to These pictures if you're able To post them.
his sub is a "free air" or infinite baffle sub. The enclosure it requires is very large ( like the size of a trunk) it would benefit him to have the trunk completely sealed from the cabin of the car to eliminate cancelation that is caused by the interaction of the front and rear waves of the subwoofer. Your subwoofer is not an infinite baffle driver so it will require an enclosure. You can make a simple encolsure out of MDF, or a more complex one out of fiberglass and mold it to a corner of the trunk. Wrap it in a matching material to your trunk and it will not stand out too much. Another option would be to make a false floor in your trunk and it could be used to hide all your audio equipment.... subs , amp(s), wiring, fuses, ect. As far as your front speakers are concerned, one of the best mounting locations in a car for correct imaging and staging is the kick panels. If you need more depth you could mold a mounting ring for your mids and tweeters into your kick panels. Once again wrapping them in a matching material of finishing them and paint them to match your interior. Fiberglassing them in has a few advantages, it will allow you to angle mount them to "aim" the sound to the listener. You can also flush mount or reverse mount the mids to give them a cleaner finish, even build your own color matched grill and make them blend into your interior well.
AHHHHH yes. I've seen plenty of them, but never made one myself. I thought he literally somehow was able to mount his sub in the back of his seat and in between the trunk divider. I have a 13TW5 which is 2.5" thin and I don't even think I could do that hahaha. I've actually never made anything out of fiberglass before but that is a very good idea about making rings to mount on for the front speakers. The false floor I have done, I don't know about this trunk though it's not very deep.. What I did think about though was making more of a false floor in the front of the trunk (closest to the engine) so I could lay my subwoofer box (woofer facing up) and that false floor would go over the bump where the gas tank is. And then making a fake wall in front of the sub box so that when you open the trunk it looks like nothing is there, while the sub, amp, and capacitor are all behind that wall. Since it is a sealed subwoofer box I don't really see TOO much of a problem with the woofer being so close to the magnets of my 6x9's, does anyone else?
it wouldnt hurt to enclose your 6x9's then you wouldnt have to worry about the pressure from your sub deflecting the cones of the 6x9 and causing distortion.... I'm not sure that it would really be a problem though with a small subwoofer like that jl though.
I'm going to be 65 in January, so I guess I qualify as one of those "older guys", no offense taken. Also, let me stress that my Skylark is my hobby - it is not a show car, and it is not a restoration...it's just a nice old driver. I make mods to it just for fun, and I am a total rookie at most of this stuff. That said, here are some pics of my rear speakers. Tony made some good points about my setup in his comments, and and you will see that I totally agree with everything he said. If you pull the rear seat out of your car, and then remove whatever kind of cardboard divider board you find behind your seat, you will see a metal frame with lots of holes that open to the trunk area. Same with the package shelf - remove the cardboard and there is a metal frame underneath. I used 3/4" high density pressed board material to completely seal the trunk from the passenger area. There is a big piece that fits on the trunk side behind the seat, and another piece under the parcel shelf, plus several smaller pieces laboriously cut and fitted by hand to fill in all the other gaps. These pieces are all bolted to the metal framework of the car, and glued and bolted to each other. What I ended up with was a rigid and pretty much air-tight "wall" between the trunk and the passenger compartment. Then I cut a 12" hole for the sub-woofer, and two holes for the speakers under the parcel shelf. The speaker mounting bolts go through the wood panels and the metal frames, making for a very rigid mount. Then I built boxes below the parcel shelf speakers, so they are kept isolated from the sub-woofer's "box" (the trunk). The bottoms of the boxes are removable, so I can service the speakers, if necessary. The amp is simply mounted to another board that bolts to the trunk floor. You might also notice the holes in the trunk lid are filled with foam. I injected that expandable foam stuff into all the cavities in the trunk lid to make it more rigid and cut down on resonance. Also installed new trunk lid weather striping. The whole setup sounds good to me, but like I keep saying, I'm just an amateur having fun. Good luck with your project.
Chuck- your setup is very similar to wha I want to do. I bought the car stripped so I threw away the cardboard divider already so it is bare metal. I also plan on using 3/4 board to separate the trunk from the rest of the car. But what I also plan on doing is building a miniature false floor where the gas tank raises up. That way I can lay my sub box down over where the gas tank is and it will lay completely flat. Then I plan on mounting my amp and sub on that false floor. Then I plan kn getting 3/4 interior grade sanded plywood and staining it to match the wood vinyl door panels in my car. That will completely hide the sound system and I will carpet the rest of the trunk. I think the stained wood board would give it a very classic look and hide the sound system as well. Rich- those Kick panels with the speakers are not worth it in my opinion. The 160 watt ones are pioneer. They decent speakers at best and not worth the price of the product. I'd much rather make my own with better speakers. I also don't need 160 watt speakers. I eik not be using a separate amp to power my coaxial speakers. My head unit can put out 200 watts which is more than enough, especially when they are speakers such as JL.
I had to pull my rear seat out yesterday so I could install some new carpet. This is what the area behind my seat looks like. I replaced the cardboard divider panel with a piece of 1/8" high-density industrial rubber sheet material (got it where I worked at the time). Sealed it around the edges with black trim adhesive. On top of that is the silver stuff you see in the pic. It is that heat reflector stuff they sell at home improvement stores - metallic foil on both sides, with "plastic bubble wrap" in the middle. I thought it might cut down the heat transfer between the trunk and the passenger compartment. Keeping the heat out is the name of the game in West Texas!
That's a really good job. Where would you find the rubber sheet material to purchase? And what did you use to cut the kick panels to fit your speakers in?
Chuck, I would like to commend you on the quality of your work.It makes me proud to be a geezer too(64 in December)!!! I just have a pretty basic setup in my car.It includes a well insulated divider between the trunk and the passenger compartment-more for exhaust noise in my case.I liked the look of the wooden speaker boxes below your rear package shelf.Could you tell me what you actually used for material and how you have affixed the boxes to the underside of the metal package shelf? Again -great work! Cheers, Rod
Ricky: The rubber layer is just there to back up the silver foil insulation. I used the rubber material because I had it laying around the shop. You could really use almost anything that was the right size. Perhaps one of those thin rubber-backed shop mats, or even heavy cardboard or the original trunk divider board if it's still intact. It's hard to see in the photo, but there are bolts coming through the silver foil, with big fender washers and nuts on them. These are the bolts that attach the board in the trunk. My "trunk divider" is actually a "sandwich" construction, with the 3/4" pressed board in the trunk, then the original metal framework, then the rubber material, and finally the foil insulation. All bolted tightly together into a rigid, more-or-less airtight "wall" between the trunk and the passenger compartment. Rigidity and a tight seal are what you're after - materials not critical. As for cutting the kick panels - I just used a very sharp knife on the plastic, and a saber saw, hand saw, and various files on the metal. If you do any metal cutting, be SURE to clean up all the metal filings and dust. If you don't, the first time you stick your speaker in the hole, the magnet will pick them up for you! (Don't ask how I know...) Rod: Thanks for the compliment. I wish I had as much motor as you obviously do - I can only dream of quarter mile times like yours! Being retired means I have the luxury of being able to take my time and do stuff over and over until I get it the way I want it. It's a slow process, but I eventually get it done. If you refer to my (long-winded) post above, you'll see that I bolted a 3/4" board to the metal frame below the parcel shelf. It is part of the structure that completely separates the trunk from the passenger area. The boxes are just attached to the board under the parcel shelf with glue and wood screws. I used a high density particle board I got at the builder-supply store. It is very rigid, and very heavy! Same kind of stuff is used to construct most home audio speakers. It is good for this type of work, as long as it doesn't get wet! Shouldn't be a problem unless your rear window leaks.
Man...I don't really want to cut into the metal like that. My shelf has a circular hole between my 6x9 cuttings that would fit one 6.5" speaker for sure. I think I may just have 3 speakers in the back instead of two in the front and two in the rear. Or maybe cut the "L" type shape ones I have to fit two (since the metal is much thinner) I don't know. We will see. Hey by the way, do you think you could tell me which wires you tapped into for your BAT +12 wire and your ACC +12 wire? I apparently used the wrong ones. I connected my red BAT wire into the top "ACC BAT" wire that is orange and black that plugs into the fuse box, and I plugged the yellow 12+ ACC wire into the grey wire that goes into the fuse box and says "ACC" on the fuse box. Thanks!
Now I really feel like my car is all rigged up, my speakers are held in with zip ties...:ball: Awesome set ups, hopefully one day I can get around to having a quality sound system. Anyone on here do speakers in the front doors? I like the whole kick panel set up but I don't want to lose my vents.
as for speakers on my 66 my door panels where already cut and my package tray so im just putting speakers in there im probably gonna build a pod out of mdf for my comps in the front doors i know its not the same year but trying to help
The plywood used for the false wall? Or the wood used as a false floor to level out the bump on the gas tank?
well if the sub is in direct contact with it. im not sure if it is. anything that a sub is direct contact with should be mdf
