When I was stripping the interior out of my 70 I noticed something odd. Behind the rear seat in the support for the seat it had a speaker facing the trunk area. It looked like a factory installation. I asked a friend of mine who has seen a lot of these cars and he had never seen a speaker mounted like that. Does anybody else have speaker mounted in their convertible in this fashion? Was it some funky option? thanks
Rob, My 70 Chevelle convertible has a factory rear speaker that is mounted exactly like the one you described in your car. My 70 442 convertible has another weird option, a factory rear window defogger. Duane
I have 2 spots for speakers (6x9) in my convertible....I think I remember seeing a couple 72 Cutlass convertibles with the 4x10 factory speaker mounted behind the seat....I could be wrong on the size. Duane, what does your rear defogger look like? I have one mounted UNDER the top well on my car. I have heard from the previous owner that it had heated glass in the top window....but I see this big ol' motor in the trunk. How can that possibly do the job if it's under the top well?
Rob, my convertible has the under dash 8 track and the rear speaker option. It's a neat option, but you really can't hear it when the top is down, because of the way it's mounted. Does your car still have the original radio. If so, it probably has the fader control on the right side. Jeff
Rob - I just finished stripping my 70 GS convertible undergoing a frame off. I also had one speaker, facing the trunk, mounted on the left side. It looks like there is a hole on the right side where a speaker could go, but I think that one like we both had is factory correct. I think I'll be replacing that one!:laugh:
I have the same option as Jeff in my 69 convert. I think that is the only option the thing has, other than PS & PB!
Unfortunately my original radio is long gone. Our convertibles dont have many choices for speakers so I might put 2 pioneer 6 x9s back there.
Adam, My rear window defogger consists of a blower motor, plastic tube, and a plastic face plate. I haven't seen it in years because it is boxed, and waiting for the car to be restored, but it reminds me of the 69/early 70 coupe units with the long thin plastic face plates. I can't imagine the thing working too well, but it is an oddball option. Duane
My 73 Centurion also has rear speakers there. Still work, but sound crappy. I haven't changed them yet, but it's on the list
I haven't made up my mind whether it's worth anything to mount new speakers back there, they are facing the wrong direction and covered by the top well, maybe a couple drivers, then put some modular tweeters up fronto No: I'm going to get the CAS kickpanel set up and a dual dash speaker, still need a location for a pair of full ranges somewhere.
Yeah, stereos is one area where the hardtops definetily have the advantage over convts. There is nothing like a big car with a good set of 6x9s in the rear speaker deck.
VERY true.. My LeSabre could make a $20 pair os speakers sound as good as a $200 pair. Too bad they didn't last half as long.
My 72 also had the rear speaker (8track as well) mounted on the LH side. It has a cover on it that looks srectangular and flat with a bunch of holes punched in it. I thought it was odd too but when the top is up the sound would bounce off the rear window...well thats great but i don't plan on ever having my top up...hell, I'm sure I'll drive the car before the top mechanism even gets installed!!!LOL think how light he car would be with no top, just the boot..... Looking for advice on stereo install in this 72 ragtop. I don't want to cut anything up. I will do my front speaker mod and possibly use a/c dahs with tweeters in center vent but I need something for the back. Don't laugh, but was seriously considering putting speakers inside the rear seat support and then having them ducted out somehow so the sound went forward.....car is apart so hard to visualize but somehting to think about. I won't cut up my panels. Thoughts?? later Tim
Tim, I have also been thinking about stereo and the only thing I can think of is run a couple of stereo leads under the carpet and bring them out of the base of the rear seat and use a couple of speaker boxes when nobody is riding in the back seat.
I'm working out my stereo details now, just bought the Custom Auto Sound USA-6 Stereo and 10 disc changer, the kenwood dual dash speaker and the kickpanels (so I don't have to cut my originals), will probably install Infinity Kappas in the kickpanels (6.5") and Kappa 6x9's in the original rear mount areas as above. Still looking at getting another pair of 5" to 6.5" speakers around the rear arm rest area, I may build some custom enclosures and cover them in vinyl so that they look like part of the original seat arm structure.
Somebody on ebay sells kick panels with speakers mounted in them. The speakers are probably junk but the kick panels would be ok.
Those are the Custom Auto Sound kickpanels, just one of the distributors selling them on ebay. I got mine without speakers so I could put some nice ones in there.
Len, that was kind of what I was thinking...if you could mount speakers in the rear quarter interior panels but just have perforated vinyl over the area (instead of a speaker grille sticking out) it would look stock. Could put some kind of wire mesh underneath to give it some support or....??? Let us know how it goes. later Tim
rear speakers Wish I had pictures to explain this better--I put my rears in the side panels below the arm rest. They are half hidden by the seat right at the point where the back goes up. Lucky for me year one makes replacements for this part or I could just weld up the hole and recover. My interior is not original so this didn't bother me (Can you say purple crushed velvet?) For the Dash I had a plate made that sits under the glove box that the deck mounts into, thus not cutting up a good dash and I have the glove box to keep papers such as insurance and tickets and suchp :grin: The next step is to build a cool box to put the 10's in.
The stereo I'm getting is a twin post, like the stock but has modern internals, all the controls for the disc changer and rca outs for an amp, when its turned off the digital L.E.D displays a veiw that looks like the old analog frequency number scale. Here's a link to the USA-6 page, they don't show a chrome faced buick specific one but you get the idea. http://www.customautosound.com/prodList.php?FamID=9
