Homemade Kick Panel Speakers

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bucket

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I started a project that I think is going to turn out pretty well. My '84 had crappy blown speakers up in the dash. I wanted better sound, but didn't feel like spending money. I had front door speaker pods from a '98 Lumina and also some kick panels that already had speaker holes cut into them.

The Lumina speaker pods are useful for two reasons. They give the speakers a good angle, plus it spaces the speaker far enough away from the cab's interior sheet metal that no cutting was required. The metal did need to be knocked in a bit though, with just a light body hammer.

Here's what I have so far:

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I wanted to install them before doing anymore work, to see how I like them. It turns out, I love them. The sound is great, especially for stock speakers, and my boots don't seem to hit them.

Next is to finish them off and blend them into the kick panels. I plan to do the shaping with expanding foam. If that's not strong enough, I'll apply a coat of fiberglass body filler and sand that smooth. Finally, I will spray the entire panel with spray-on bedliner from a spray can. The texture will be a close match to the texture of the stock plastic kick panel.

I've also got my eye out for a pair of speaker grilles, or a decent pair of aftermarket speakers that include grilles.
 

oneluckypops

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could I get some closer pictures?
 

bucket

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Yeah, I meant to get some when it's light out, but I keep forgetting. I'll try tomorrow.
 

bucket

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MEAN_SBC

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Trust me.. Next time, just buy qform kick panels for your truck.. They're $140, easy to install, look awesome, and will house 6.5" components. I have them in my truck and they sound amazing with kicker ds65.2 components.
 

buRRp

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Cool project. Do you have a update if you have finished them?
 

bucket

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Trust me.. Next time, just buy qform kick panels for your truck.. They're $140, easy to install, look awesome, and will house 6.5" components. I have them in my truck and they sound amazing with kicker ds65.2 components.

$140 is why I didn't buy them. This setup is almost free and sounds MUCH better than stock, which is plenty good enough for me. I *might* spend money on some decent speakers. These will also have a factory appearance when done.

Cool project. Do you have a update if you have finished them?

No updates yet, haven't had the time to finish them. Although, grilles are definitely needed... I nearly killed the right side speaker when I tossed the ice scraper in the truck one morning.
 

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