Busy winter so far…Here are some updates.
Tired of boring audio, I decided to give my tunes an upgrade. I currently have the Retrosound Model 2 radio…and while it is OK in the audio department, it is not anything to write home about. They made this thing with detent style rotary controls and they are a little noisy and quirky sometimes. However, it works, fills the hole in the dash and looks OK. Just wish someone made a better product for these older cars without having to carve up a nice dash.
Being a convertible, it came with a single 4 X 10 center mounted dash speaker. I replaced that several years back with a pair of Rockford Fosgate 2-way 4.5” drivers and they sound pretty good. Being small drivers, the bass is lacking and have limited power handling capability. I recently decided to can the kick panel vents and fit the openings with new speakers. I bought a pair of JL Audio C2-650 component speakers from Amazon and set out on coming up with a way to mount them.
I made a bracket for the bass drivers out of a piece of 16 gauge steel and bought a boom mat speaker pod to protect the back side from getting wet.
Given that the factory kick panel covers are geared to vents and not speakers, I decided to modify the kick panels to make them functional and attractive.
Using a piece of MDF, I made a template for cutting out the vent louvers in the kick panels. The template will ensure both sides are identical.
I measured and clamped the template to the plastic and used my router with a guide bushing to cut the holes in the kick panels. Given that the kick panels are not very thick, I wanted to stiffen them up to accept a speaker grill. I bought a piece of ¼” ABS from Grainger and used the template to cut out the hole in the ABS to match the kick panel. Using 3M super trim adhesive, I roughened up both pieces of plastic and bonded the ABS to the back side of the kick panel.
With the 2-way system, I needed a spot to put the tweeter where there is at least ¾” of clearance on the back side. The 66 GTO has a very convenient indentation in the sheet metal structure kick panel that made the placement of the tweeter a no brainer.
With the cut outs completed in the kick panels for the tweeters and the woofers, I needed to dress them up so it looked somewhat professional. My go to guy for interior work is United Auto Trim in Fond du Lac WI. I have been going to them for years and had them re-cover the panels in madrid black vinyl. They did an awesome job…
I made a set of grills out of ¼” MDF and covered them in cloth that I got from United. I cut the grills to be a press fit and secured them to the kick panels from the back with 20 gauge steel brackets and some small screws
Turned out very nice IMO and sounds pretty good with a 60/40 bias - kick panels/dash speakers. The JL tweeters are a bit harsh, but better than what I had before. Mounted the cross over under the dash.
Here is the final product installed.
Bought an older Rockford Fosgate 45W X 4 amp from a friend of mine for $25. Threw it in the trunk next to the top pump and it sounds pretty decent with the added power.
The parking brake pedal was too close to the new speaker panel so I decided to modify to give it some more room. A few cuts, bend here, bend there and some welding and viola…not too bad.
