Am I waisting my time???

[chadvicki]

I am really wanting to get some good component speakers and a sub for my 72 Chevy truck.

I am wondering if I am just waisting my time on a high end set of speakers that will be going into a very hollow non sealed truck. My truck is nice but not like todays newer trucks where the door panels are more sealed and have the needed enclosure for speakers.

I just dont want to buy really nice speakers and have them sound bad due to the type of vehicle I have.

I cant make a box behind since I have a tank there.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Chad

[lilpup69chevy]

it would sound good with a box behind the seat if you could relocate your tank, another thing i've seen is ppl build a console with a single sub in it and thats pretty nice too and i've also seen ppl but subs underneath the seat, seems to me like if a spring ever broke on the seat there goes your sub but it has been done

[chadvicki]

I can find a spot for the sub no problem. I am just worried about the component speakers.

The tweeter should be ok I guess since it will be surface mounted in it's own case. However the mid in the door will need some sort of better insulation or something I guess????

I just want to avoid a tin box kinda sound. New cars are soooo sealed compared to our older trucks.

Chad

[72armyswbtruck]

OK, I did this same mistake, super nice 500 dollar speakers in the door, sounded like crap, what most people do is make custom speaker boxes and put them on the air vents under the dash on the sides of the truck. They make these already that you can buy for around 150 bucks with speakers, then just replace them with some nicer high end speakers. They also make pillar post speakers and tweeters that make the truck sound nice.

[truckdude239]

i got ym speakers in my door they sound good i am running a pioneer cd player with pioneer speaker sounds good

[chadvicki]

I have seen the kick panel speakers. How do they mount by the way?

I have not seen the pillar post speakers. Who sells them?

If you make a box for components does it have to meet any requirements like a subwoofer does?

Thanks,

Chad

[jimmydean]

Speakers mounted in the door will take some work. I won't cut my doors, but I am building kick panels for a 6.5" mid and 1" tweet. I am using FatMat sound deadner on the metal kick panel, then I will make sure the surounding metal is secure so it doesn't rattle.

The key is to make sure the air behind the speaker and in front of the speaker is seperate. Make sure the speaker is sealed to the door and use about a foot square (at least) of some sort of sound deadner behind it. Then make sure your doors are tight. I got new weather striping for the doors because rattles will make anything sound like crap.

I am using Infinity Kappa seperates. MB Quart is also a solid choice. Don't spend more than $150 or so on a pair of seperates unless you've spent a bunch of money rebuilding your cab.

These will sound wicked sweet when I'm done:

[lilpup69chevy]

well i'm thinking they would screw into place over the original kickpanel i've seen them in newer trucks but nothing like our trucks, why couldn't you stuff some poly or insulation inside of the door at the bottom where the speaker will be located? it works on boxes i'm not sure about metal doors, i'm sure someone on this page has a serious stereo system in one of these trucks and could give us some advice

[chadvicki]

It seems they are going with a box in back housing just about everything and the kick panels. There is a pic here on the board of what looks like a Polk Audio truck that has been completely redone and has kick panels with their speakers in them.

So if I have the kick panels installed do they have to be ported for air to get behind them? It seems the kick panels are just a shell that pushes up against the side panel and screws in, thus having very minimal air behind except for maybe air between screw mounts.

They make inserts for door speakers that look like covers for weather purposes. I doubt that is going to act as a good sound insulator though.

Chad

[jimmydean]

Seperates are designed to work without an enclosure. You don't want to port a seperate, you want to keep the air in front and the air in back seperated.

Some subs work best ported, some work best sealed, you need to look at the specs of the speaker. Mids and tweets are designed as sealed speakers only.

Dony us poly fill or anything, just make sure there is something like Dynomat, tar paper, ruber sealant, or anything behind the speaker. At the very least, use a 1 foot square and paste it to the inside of the door skin behind where the speaker mounts.

If you want to go through the trouble of building a fiberglass enclosure for your speakers to sit in, that would sound the best, but it would need to be as big as you can make it. For me it would be a lot easier to just use some dynomat on the inside of the door, then make sure the speaker makes a seal on the mounting surface. Use RTV, or a foam gasket, 3M tape, anything as long as the front and rear are seperated.

[1BadSS]

Take the vents out in the kickpanels, seal the back, put two 6x9's in there. I guarantee it'll sound damn good and bassy.

Think about it, you have a bass box behind hte 6x9's in the vent.s

[72freak]

You can fit everything you need UNDER the seat. You might have to relocate the seat adjuster cable/bar. Put the subs facing up and the tweets and mids facing out toward the front of the truck.....and there is still room for an amp or two under there. If you still need a little more sound , put some spot tweets up where the ball AC vents are or should be. It willl sound GREAT!!!!!!!!

The easiest thing to do is a couple of truck KICKER style boxes under there with an amp in the middle.

[chadvicki]

What vents are talking about in the kick panels?? I have the big open hole with the sliding door on it on both sides of the cab.

I saw this box here and thought that would probably fit. A little on the expensive side though. Do you think you could add the mids to the faces of this box and then put the tweeters where the ac balls go?


Also I will have to use these 6x9 to 61/2 adapters.

Chad

[chevyboy55]

What about something like these? http://www.crutchfield.com/S-x3Iz2b5...=762&I=237XT69

[chadvicki]

Do you think those will work??


Also was checking around the searches and saw that someone made a kick panel template out of what appears to be wood dowls. They cam out really nice. Does anyone know if someone on the groups sells those kick panels??

Chad

[matthufham]

that box a couple posts up is supposed to go under the rear seat of an extended cab, it won't work because those seats are higher off the floor than our seats. you need to ditch the gastank, and put a box there, or get bucket seats and put a sub between them. i have a pioneer premier series 12 inch with their box too. with the stock bench and no gas tank, it fits nice. i have 6 1/2"s in the doors, and 5X7's in the rear cab corners. the rear cab corners are open, but i welded them shut with sheet metal and cut a hole for a speaker on each side, a 5X7 is the biggest that fits, at least if you're using the grill over the speaker. i have a 1500 watt (overkill) amp under the seat and a jvc headunit in the dash.

also i put sound deadener/heat insulation on the floor, back wall, and firewall. i should of put it in the doors too because my window regulators make noise. i need to upgrade them one day anyways because they're stiff, but i'm going to one piece power windows ($700+)

my system kicks ass, with the sub on or off. the sub is more punch than sound, but i like it like that.

pics?








this shows the room behind the seat with the sub

[chadvicki]

My post was wrong when I said I needed the adapters. I missed the pic. I will post it here.

How do you like those Pioneers? I heard an 8" one and was very disappointed.

Maybe the tens would be better. There were some on Ebay just recently. Two brand new ones for $150 or so.

That enclosure above will fit under my bench. I removed the rod for adjusting the seat.

Maybe I can use the front of them for 6 1/2" speakers.

That sound proofing stuff looks a lot like this insulation from Lowes. Is it?

Chad

[matthufham]

it's the insulation from home depot yea.. the 12 inch like i said is alot of punch meaning you won't hear it from the outside that much. i really don't think you'll get that other box under the seat, i can't even stick a large jack in the box cup under mine. the seat adjustment "rod" on mine is a wire cable, it's not a problem.

[Lippyp]

I'm putting an RE8 8" sub in a small box under the seat, powered by an alpine mono amp and a second amp to run the fronts. At the moment these are a set of JBL GTO 3 way 6x9's set in the doors as the PO had already cut them but in the future I will upgrade to some decent comps and will probably make some kind of door build for the mids and put the tweets up on the pillars.