Kick Panel Speakers

[jsera]

Hey guys, I'm preparing to pass electrical into the doors for windows, locks and tweeters and it looks like ill have to cut an access hole in the kick panel to make it possible to install the wiring and my steel braid door looms. I intend to cover this with one of those plastic kick panel speaker assemblies but have heard that the mounting depth is too shallow for quality speakers.


My Questions:

Can I resolve this by making my access hole bigger?

Does anyone have mounting depth or model# for speakers used in these kick panels?

[weq92f]

I found a similar 'access hole' on my passenger kick panel. It's about a 3x5 inch rectangle cut about 2 inches from the door jamb and about 2 inches below the top of the kick panel.

It's obvious that it was for wiring windows/locks.

FYI, unless you seal up a bunch of other things, that 'access hole' is going to create a LOT of wind noise. I'm currently trying to figure how best to seal it up and yet allow future access to proceed if required.

Epoxy?

-klb

[jsera]

Originally Posted by weq92f

I found a similar 'access hole' on my passenger kick panel. It's about a 3x5 inch rectangle cut about 2 inches from the door jamb and about 2 inches below the top of the kick panel.

It's obvious that it was for wiring windows/locks.

FYI, unless you seal up a bunch of other things, that 'access hole' is going to create a LOT of wind noise. I'm currently trying to figure how best to seal it up and yet allow future access to proceed if required.

Epoxy?

-klb

You'll never get the epoxy off if you need access... A sheet metal plate with a small home type window/door seal from home depot around the perimeter and a couple self tapping screws to hold it in place would make a decent removable cover I think... or is this bordering on bubba's work?

[weq92f]

Originally Posted by jsera

... or is this bordering on bubba's work?

LOL, yes, I think it is. But... the sheet metal is covered with vinyl/leather apholstery so whatever cover will be hidden.

-klb

[jsera]

Originally Posted by weq92f

LOL, yes, I think it is. But... the sheet metal is covered with vinyl/leather apholstery so whatever cover will be hidden.

-klb

If its hidden it doesn't count...just like bondo over rust lol Everybody knows that

[diggerbob]

I have the cheapo plastic kick panels in mine and they were too shallow to use a decent speaker. I ended up cutting out wood rings that I installed between the speaker mounting flange and the kick panel mounting surface. This gave me about 1/2-3/4" more depth. This allowed me to use a higher quality pioneer speaker. I also cut out a 2 pieces of 1/4" thick plywood to seal up the kick panel enclosure at the back and sealed it in place with silicone adhesive. Lastly, I filled the enclosure with a bit of fiberglass insulation before installing the speakers in the kick panels. This made a big improvement over the plain-jane plastic kick panels with the cheapo speakers that came with them.

Originally Posted by jsera

Hey guys, I'm preparing to pass electrical into the doors for windows, locks and tweeters and it looks like ill have to cut an access hole in the kick panel to make it possible to install the wiring and my steel braid door looms. I intend to cover this with one of those plastic kick panel speaker assemblies but have heard that the mounting depth is too shallow for quality speakers.


My Questions:

Can I resolve this by making my access hole bigger?

Does anyone have mounting depth or model# for speakers used in these kick panels?

[jsera]

Originally Posted by diggerbob

I have the cheapo plastic kick panels in mine and they were too shallow to use a decent speaker. I ended up cutting out wood rings that I installed between the speaker mounting flange and the kick panel mounting surface. This gave me about 1/2-3/4" more depth. This allowed me to use a higher quality pioneer speaker. I also cut out a 2 pieces of 1/4" thick plywood to seal up the kick panel enclosure at the back and sealed it in place with silicone adhesive. Lastly, I filled the enclosure with a bit of fiberglass insulation before installing the speakers in the kick panels. This made a big improvement over the plain-jane plastic kick panels with the cheapo speakers that came with them.

any idea what your mounting depth was before doing all that?

[weq92f]

I cut a rectangle of rigid, transparent plastic and gorilla taped over the access hole...

As soon as I'm able to get it out on the road, we'll see if this is the source of my wind noise.

-klb

[diggerbob]

Originally Posted by jsera

any idea what your mounting depth was before doing all that?

I dont remember the mounting depth but I'd cut my doors before I would cut the kick panels in my cab to accommodate speakers <cringe-thank me later>. You can cut out your plywood rings and fit test them to your cab before mounting them-no big deal. Some guys on here have made custom fiberglass kick panels to give them the extra depth they wanted. If you were inclined this way, the more rigid fiberglass enclosure would be very beneficial from the standpoint of sound quality. For me, the cheapo plastic kick panels with a spacer ring worked pretty well. I would try to get at least 1/4 inch between the speaker magnet and the steel kick panel though.