The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors where to mount speakers in an art deco?

heres the thing. i enjoy listening to tunes when i drive and im coming up on installing a radio in my 41 1/2 ton. the cab is so small in this thing and i refuse to do any chopping of metal what so ever to fit the speakers in (trying to keep her clean and origial you know). im just wondering what the art deco era guys have done to mount speakers in their truck without chopping the old gals up.

I just made kick panels out of 1/4" plywood and cut holes for 6" speakers in those. One thought I had was somewhere under or behind seats, depending on your seat/tank situation. My tank's out back under the bed so that was an option, if you're still stock that won't be an option. Last option was to mount facing downwards under the dash, out of sight.

Like Green farmer said. Kickpanels, and under dash. I thought about the rear cab corners but then they are blasting in your ears ! Might be able to squeeze a few into the gas tank / seat box area. Not sure I like the thought of electricty in that closed space tho *g*

i really like the kick panel idea. i bought cardboard replacement ones but i may reinforce those with some 1/4 or 3/16 plywood and cut holes for some 6" speakers. thanks guys

I had the same dilemma but opted to cut the lower sheet metal at the corners to install mine. They're not so high that they would blast in your ear or so low they would be muffled.

I had the same issue, didnt want to cut up the dash or have a modern look. So for the radio and front speakers I built them into an old ford 3 door heater box. I also have the a/c vents built into the box. It will bolt onto the center of the firewall I had to tear apart the heater and modifed it quite a bit.

For my rear speakers I had to replace the sheetmetal on the back of the cab from the belt line down. When I did that I added some extra vertical stiffeners back there. I was able to use those to with added horizontal brackets to mount some narrow speaker boxes behind the seat.

I added pics of these things in my photo album
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff392/thirtyniner39/

i got abs kick panels and speaker pods from this place
http://www.roddoors.com/ for my 40. but as i see they went out of business. they are pretty slick and make for a nice clean looking job.

There is also the option of under-the-seat speakers. Apparently they are woofer/tweeters. Woofers you feel in the seat of your pants and the tweeters face out below your legs. Have not heard them yet, but I've been told they sound good.

This is where I mounted mine.

Speakers