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From: Daven Anderson
Email: [email protected]
Remote Name: 65.58.61.84
Date: May 13, 2002
You can remove the original plastic kickpanels and save them. The new inserts are cut from fiberboard to fit the panel area and speakers. Speakers up to 8" can fit, BUT 6½" diameter or less are easier to get "flush". (Important unless you want to relocate the parking brake lever!) The best way to get a 'flat' effect is to surround the speaker grille with foam of the same depth and cover it all with speaker-grille type cloth (dyed to match the interior,if you can't find cloth in that color). If you have separate tweeters,they can be angled towards your driving position and this will not be visible under the cloth. I have uniaxial speakers (tweeter inside woofer) so I chose not to angle them and ruin the 'invisible' flat aesthetic. It still sounds pretty good though, as the kickpanels ARE a good acoustic location for stereo imaging (ask any MECP car stereo installer!). Many 'competition" stereo installations in fact replace factory door mounted speakers in newer car with kickpanel speakers to improve stereo imaging! Our cars' doors are mostly all-vinyl panels and even pro-made vinyl/cloth hybrid door panels in the same pattern won't look 100% right to those of us who KNOW these cars (OK,'59 Plymouth Sport Furys have cloth inserts,for example,but I refer to MOST '55-61 Mopar cars). Hot tip: On many of the 1960-61 cars,the whole left side of the glovebox door covers a blank area big enough to have a modern head unit behind it. This area was reserved for a dash vent for factory Airtemp A/C cars. If your car has no factory A/C, you can make a new glovebox area insert and put the modern stereo head unit behind the glovebox door. The original glovebox insert is only cardboard,a custom insert will be more durable as well.
