Stereo in a 72 Chevy 1/2 ton?

[muddpile]

Greetings. I'm new to posting here, but have been a lurker for some time. I recently purchased a 1972 Chevrolet Custom deluxe (I think that's it, not too sure). I haven't even picked it up yet, The guy is still collecting a few pieces for it (he's moving and finding parts for me while packing). I pick the truck up on the 17th and begin disassembly to start my project. I have it mostly planned out, but I'm not sure about sound. I'm an audio enthusiast and have installed a few elaborate sound quality systems over the years, but looking at the cab of my newest purchase has me stumped. There's a gas tank where the sub box goes and no stock speaker holes. There are also a lot of reflective surfaces. What has everyone here done in terms of stereos? It looks like I can just remove the factory radio, modify the dash opening slightly and install the new CD deck correct? What about kick panel speakers, anyone tried them and had great success? I see the dash has a speaker hole in the middle in some of these trucks (I never looked on mine) Is a dual 4" setup in there worth doing? I have done a few searches and seen a few pics, but there wasn't too terribly much on stereo systems in these trucks. For a sub, I noticed someone used a Bazooka 6" bass tube on the passenger side of the gas tank. That looked like a good idea, and I believe the 8's have the same size tube. Road noise is not a factor here as I have a full roll of sound deadening just waiting to be stuck on something. Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[dyingdeadman]

you could put a blazer tank under the bed and remove the in cab tank. then you would have room for subs. also some ppl have put a single sub under the seat.

[Brainchild]

Welcome to the place.Glad to have ya

A few of us have 10's under the seat,CD player will fit in the dash,no problems.I have 6x9's in the floor in enclosures,and it sounds pretty good.I am going to build some kickpanels and mount speakers there also,but haven't had the time.
You can buy the kickpanels from places like ChevyDuty,and I think LMC has them too,but they are kinda pricey.

Here is a thread with a lot of info,have a look there.

[dtlilly]

Welcome to the board.

Most purests frown on cutting the dash for a radio. An option is to mount the radio and cd changer in the glove box. That will preserve the dash and theives won't be tempted to break a wing window to get at it. When you get your truck, you can see if the dash was already cut at one time. While on cutting. Don't cut your lower doors for speakers either. Good clean doors are getting harder to find every year.

Relocating a Blazer tank to under the rear frame rails serves several purposes. The fire hazard is out of the cab, and it allows you to put a custom built sub box where the in cab tank used to be.

Good luck, and post some pics of the truck when it's at it's new home.

[muddpile]

Thanks for the advice guys! I had not planned on cutting the doors (I'm not a fan of hacking up a vehicle just for music when there are alternatives). I know the doors are not cut yet, but I'm not sure about the dash. When I pick the truck up if the dash is cut I'll put the CD deck in there but if it's not I may build a custom console and put it in there.

That thread Brainchild posted is a good read. It looks like I can narrow my options down to 6.5's in the kicks or dual 4's in the dash. Or both depending on the situation. Can a 4" of decent quality fit in the dash without modifictation?

Also, how hard is the blazer tank mod? Is there a lot of customization involved or is it fairly straightforward?

Thanks for all your help so far. I can't wait to pick this truck up and begin to restore/modify it.

[longnlow72]

i have infinity 6x9's in the doors, an alpine cd player in the dash, two infinity 4" speakers under the dash, and two 10's and an amp under the seat if you look at the link posted above i have pics on there

[muddpile]

Looks good longnlow! How does it sound? I was thinking about doing something similar, except with 5.25" in the kicks vs. 6x9's in the doors. I think I may leave the gas tank and try an under the seat thing. Looks easy enough, and I have to take the seat out anyways.

[Hooter]

My pics are down, currently, but what I ended up doing is building two ported enclosures for some AVI 6.5 inch subs, ya 6.5's I have a 4 channel amp running thjem and I have the same amp running my 5/14 MBquart components, the midbasses are in the doors and i mounted my tweeters near the knob for the the kick vents, used to have the tweeters on top of the dash, but they were soo far from the midbass that they were out of phase and would image at all, doing the dual 4's in the dash are a terrible place to have any stereo imaging, if I were to redo my system I would build kick panels for the truck but since there were already holes in the doors I went that route. System doesnt rattle your brains out, but Im an Sq'er and the system sounds damn good and is very musical

[muddpile]

Hmm. I kinda wondered with both channels (left/right) in the center of the dash if that wouldn't narrow the sound stage and set everything out of whack. I guess kicks are my only alternative. Oh well, I like working with fibreglass, almost as much as I like a killer SQ system. A couple small subs and I should have a nice setup (hopefully). I'm kinda new to the whole truck scene. I've done systems in sedans, sports cars and muscle cars, but this is my first truck. Should be an interesting project. I'll likely go with MB Quart or JL Audio all around. Alpine head unit. Those are the brands I've come to enjoy and trust over the years.