door speakers

[NM Bronco]

Can you put speakers in the lower/front edge of the door panel without cutting the door itself? how big of speaker can you install? Any suggestions of speaker selection. I am building a daily driver so i do want good tunes. Thanks.

 

[blubuckaroo]

I don't think there is enough room in the access cover to mount even a very small speaker. I though long and hard about places to mount the front speakers and have them in a place where they would work well. I've seen enclosures fabed to mount the speakers on the hump under the dash but they are too close together for my ears. I ended up butchering the doors and installing 5" speakers toward the front. If you go that direction, be sure to use poly speakers and install the shields behind them since these doors do get water in them. Also it is a good idea to put poly insulation on the inside of the door skin to help keep the tunes in the car.

 

[MarsChariot]

Well, for what it is worth, I think the lower front sheet metal area is just fine. And I am seriously fastidious about preservation and such. I cut holes way back in the late seventies and have not regretted it. In fact, I recently had an opportunity while doing the off-the-frame thing, with the doors completed blasted down to metal, to put metal back in there and go back to smooth metal - and passed that opportunity up. I like speakers down there.

 

[NM Bronco]

thanks for the help. What do you feel is the biggest or maybe ideal size speaker to use?

 

[NM Bronco]

Hoping for some input from those that have been here before..thanks

 

[gtownky]

They have developed some great sounding small speakers. Thats what i would do with a kicker in the back for bass.

 

[TDubya]

I installed 5x7 speakers in the lower door panels quite a few years back and they fit and sound pretty good.

 

[Sac '68 sport]

I've had 6.5 and 5.25. The 5.25 fit much better. The 6.5's hit the weather striping. That said I would never do it again. They got a lot of reverb. and vibration in the doors. Not great sound, kind of boomy and muddled. I put in some dynamat knock off stuff in the doors and that did help a lot. But they also got lots of dirt and water on them from inside and out. Even with inner foam covers they were still subjected to lots of dirt and water through the tops of the doors and water seems to puddle up in my door frame splashing up on them when I close the door. I'm doing a body off right now and am considering welding up the holes and moving them to the kick panels. There are lots of videos on U-tube showing how to make kick panel pods and it looks pretty easy. I would give it a shot before cutting the doors if I had it to do over. Heck I'm probably going to weld up my holes and do the pods... Will probably have to cut the kick panels as well to clear the e-brake but I think it will be better in the long run.