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- - Home-Made Speaker Kick Panels (https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=230578)

Home-Made Speaker Kick Panels

I decided to take a stab at the fiberglass kick panel deal. I like these because they provide a nice enclosure volume for any set of decent mids. I’m running Infinity Kappa components with the tweets in the dash where the AC balls would go if equipped. That was not my first choice for location but the PO had installed some garbage 70’s map lights there so the tweets made a nice replacement for now.

I bought everything I needed to do this at Home Depot and Joann Fabrics.

I have to give credit to greasmonkey’s FAQ for the idea (at least that’s where I first saw it). I followed his basic idea, but made a few changes.

First, I used a dense ¼” fiberboard for the backing instead of fiberglass. Because of this there was no need for the ½ round edging. I just sand rounded the edges of the fiberboard. It also allowed me to cut a groove in the back of the panel at the depth of the speaker wire to run it from the hole to the top of the panel and still allow the panel to sit flush against the sheet metal (see pics).

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...g?t=1173296218
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...g?t=1173296272
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...g?t=1173296318

I placed the driver’s side speaker lower than the passenger side to clear the e-brake pedal. I decided to move the pedal itself over on the lever (drill welds, move right, re-weld) as can be seen in one of the pics. That’s not necessary, but I didn’t want to be kicking the kick panel all the time, or even close to it. I also removed the Highbeam/Lowbeam switch. I run brights all the time (because they’re not very bright) so I just tie-wrapped the harness up under the dash and made a nice jumper for the plug so I have full time brights. After I do the headlight relay mod I’ll come up with a better alternative for the switch.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...g?t=1173296427
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0880Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0883Medium.jpg
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http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0908Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0902Medium.jpg

Re: Home-Made Speaker Kick Panels

I used a hot glue gun for all the fastening of the materials. I also used spray adhesive as well as hot glue for the vinyl. I wasn’t able to get the vinyl to stretch completely over the entire structure, so I had to cut out some extra material (same with the t-shirt and the fiber cloth). The place I made those cuts is out of sight when they are installed.

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0914Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0915Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0913Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0916Medium.jpg

I did apply the resin to the t-shirt material (not shown) before adding a single layer of fiber cloth. Trust me with these two layers they are very rigid.

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0986Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0987Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0996Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0995Medium.jpg

Re: Home-Made Speaker Kick Panels

Another thing I did was figure out how to locate the factory air-vent puller bracket holes in the kick panel. I taped a piece of card-stock over the holes and tried to make the holes visible by rubbing over them with the side of a crayon (a relief). In my case they didn’t show up very well (at all) so I just eyeballed them and started poking around with a jeweler’s screwdriver until I found the two holes. With the card stock taped only on one edge I was able to flip it out of the way to put the kick panel in place under it. Mark the panel and viola. They are close enough if you oversize the holes in the panels (I used a ¼” bit).

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1166Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1167Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1169Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1205Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1204Medium.jpg

Re: Home-Made Speaker Kick Panels

The panels are held in place by the air-vent puller brackets, a tight fit around the floor and dash edges, and one sheet metal screw on each side. Those screws are located right behind the speakers as far down and back (toward the door) as I could reach. I considered using a hot glue gun to mount them, but decided one extra screw hole on each side was acceptable (the PO already put several on each side anyway…).

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1199Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1210Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1224Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...1211Medium.jpg
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...rakeMedium.jpg

Now I just need some carpet...