Better kickpods in 60-66 Trucks

[par4tom]

If you are looking to build custom kickpods in your 60-66 truck, what follows is A way to do so while saving yourself a lot of time and money. Notice I did not say that this was THE way...just a way to get competition sound out of your 60-66 trucks. And...I hope the moderator will leave this up for a bit on the main forum before moving it somewhere else...

First, credit where credit is do. I learned to do kick panels from the Godfather of custom Fabrication, Steve Brown. Back in my sound competition circuit days in the late 90's (I was undefeated in my power class)...Steve's designs were light years ahead of the rest of us. He won the national competition and truthfully...I hated parking next to his car as it made me feel like an idiot.

He later went on to work for Alpine...building some of the amazing cars that Alpine would use at CES and Sema. However, he did take me aside at one of the shows and showed me exactly how to build kickpanels with fiberglass. This was revolutionary stuff back in the day...old school now!!!

Second...I always struggled with which way and what method was the best way to illicit amazing sound without numerous trial and error in speaker alignments. Much thought has developed from the early days when speakers were meant to be placed as close together as possible and aimed at the center of the vehicle.

However, in the last 7 to 8 years, science has blown up those earlier theories and Glass Wolf (I don't know who he is but here is a link to his webpage) has perhaps the best information on how to get better sound without guessing. He won 2 national sound competitions in a standard cab truck. So those of us with these older trucks...great sounds are possible.

http://www.glasswolf.net/papers/imaging.html

Here is my build thread with Steve Brown's influence and Glass Wolfs amazing secret to getting perfect imaging and sound quality without guessing...Pic of my drivers side pod

[par4tom]

Before getting started, you should know that I have the Vintage Air system and do not need my fresh air vents. If you need to retain your vents, then you will have to modify some of these steps...

First step is to thoroughly tape off the entire area you will be working on. I use 2" blue tape. Tape the kick panel from the bottom up, so that the next layer of tape will overlap the previous layer. This prevents resin from dripping down onto the sheet metal...

I also use two strips of about 4 to 5 layers of tape to pull everything up once I am done glassing everything. You can see the strips sticking out to the left...

[par4tom]

The first step here is to decide whether you want to use a wood backplate for the pod or make one out of fleececloth. (Notice - I did not say chop mat!) Chop mat is way old school and a mess to work with...fibers get in your clothing and skin and itch...

In my build, because the panel is virtually flat, I decided to use 3/8" fiberboard as my backplate. Here you can see me using a piece of cardboard to sketch up my backplate template. Once you get this to a shape you want, then transfer it to the 3/8" MDF and cut with a jigsaw. Here you can see the backplate as I am mocking everything up...

[par4tom]

As I was building this first pod, I thought the 3/8" MDF was a bit thin, so I made a surround piece with 3/4" MDF, used a flush-trim bit and the backplate outline as a template. Here you can see the surround piece. I glued and crown nailed to the 3/8" piece. I also rounded over the outside edge for a better look.

Note:
There are many different ways to do this. I suppose you could use 3/4" MDF for the backplate (Or plywood - use whatever you have). I don't feel one way is better then another.

[par4tom]

Here is where Old School starts to meet new technology. If you notice, I am using a 6 1/2" midbass driver and a 2" mid-range/tweeter combination down in the kick pods. I also have a 1" dome tweeter up in the A pillar, crossed over at an extremely high 8khz. This is done as a result of glass-wolfs input in the link on the first post, and also with the design help of Ken Pearson, the owner and chief designer of CDT Audio in Buellton CA.

NOTE ON DRIVERS IN KICKPODS

Both Glasswolf and Mr Pearson were saying the same thing regarding drivers in kickpods. You will not get stellar sound out of a driver larger than 4" or 5 1/4" in a sealed kickpod. So...if you are not going to use the open cowl vent as your backspace to a 6 1/2" driver, you either need to mount a 6 1/2" driver in the door or you need to go with a smaller driver. The reason being is that your hardest hitting mid-bass frequencies are around 80 to 120 hz (Like the tom-tom drum)...a 6 1/2" driver will not reproduce those sounds in a small, sealed enclosure. This is why in my previous system where I was using a 6 1/2" driver in my Acura...the midbass was always week. Study Glass wolfs other pages as he is way more qualified than I on this topic...here is the 2" mid-range tweeter CDT Audio speaker I am using.

[par4tom]

After cutting out my speaker rings for the 6 1/2" driver, I used a 1" wide of black upholstery board and an upholstery stapler to nail it to the surround of my midbass driver...there are other ways to do this but I just prefer this method as it saves me time from using a router for a surround ring...

For the 2" driver, Mr. Pearson was emphatic that the tweeter should NEVER share the enclosure space with a mid/bass driver. He suggested using a 2" PVC cap and gluing it to the back of my speaker's faceplate. You can see the PVC below...ignore the golfshaft sticking out of the speaker opening for a moment...

[Low Elco]

Hmm.... Beddy interesting. I've seen some of this on CAF, but I like the imaging stuff please continue!

[New_70'C10]

It's been a while since I've seen someone resin their own kickpods and you are doing an excellent job. All of the technical information is great as well.

Thanks for sharing it with us and I think it has inspired me to go this route with mine when it comes time.

Thanks again,
Charles.

[chad64chevy]

was planning on building my kick pods as well! yours came out great but what did you use to attach the kick pods to the sheet metal??

[par4tom]

I have a couple of flat 4 screw brackets from Orchard Supply that I attach to the metal through the 6 1/2 speaker opening...you can use plumbers tape too.