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I've searched through old threads and only found one with a picture of where I think I want to put my rear speakers and it's in a 98 which is probably has more room than I do
Has anyone else with a 68-72 convertible put speaker here and, if so, what size did you use? There appears to be plenty of room behind the lower armrest and the hydraulic cylinder doesn't look like it will be a problem.
Last edited by allyolds68; April 24th, 2012 at 03:17 PM.
Both my '70 convertibles have a speaker mounting area right behind the rear bench seat on the passenger side. Granted it's for 1 speaker, though. I'm too chicken to cut into the armrest panels. But, the sounds reproduced might be decent.
Mike - Speakers will fit in your armrests but you do have to really nail the location so the roof piston doesn't hit as it articulates. The smaller the speaker, ie diameter, depth & magnet size, obviously the easier it is. The largest ones I have installed happen to be in my blue car, iirc they are Alpine 6 3/4" "R" type & are very substantial. I think I had about 8 hours into fitting & finally mounting them. I also painted the grilles pearl white to match the interior.
For layout I used rolls of 1 1/2" masking tape of various diameters to simulate the size of the speaker. In other words i stuck the flat sides of the rolls together - largest roll of 1 1/2" the diameter of the cone & web, a 3/4" roll sandwiched in the middle, then a slightly smaller roll of 1 1/2 the size of the magnet (these had very large magnets). Stick/tape them to back of armrest, remount the armrest, then look through the ashtray hole as the roof is articulated & watch what you have for interference or clearance. Dismount armrest, move things accordingly, remount, recheck. Once you are good there, recheck vs seat bottom & adjust accordingly if you have necessity or room. The bottoms of mine are slightly covered by the cushion but they are beefy 6" & it is inconsequential. Sound quality is excellent combined w/6" in lower doors & a bass tube in trunk (suspended from torsion springs), big Alpine 5 channel amp also in trunk. Clear as day on highway @ 70 w/ top down, REALLY good w/ top up.
I ended up w/ only about an 1/8" of clearance for the piston & had to make a small notch on one side in the gusset that ties the floor to the inner qtr. On other "A" bodies w/ smaller speakers it was a quicker process as there is more clearance.
If anybody wants a photo or two of the finished product, shoot me an email, you can post pics on here.
Last edited by bccan; April 24th, 2012 at 07:24 PM.
Both my '70 convertibles have a speaker mounting area right behind the rear bench seat on the passenger side. Granted it's for 1 speaker, though. I'm too chicken to cut into the armrest panels. But, the sounds reproduced might be decent.
There is actually a spot on the both sides for rear speakers, that I use. The olds only came with one speaker, but the chevelle came with two. The don't put out much sound with the top down, but I'm not willing to alter my stock interior.
There is actually a spot on the both sides for rear speakers, that I use. The olds only came with one speaker, but the chevelle came with two. The don't put out much sound with the top down, but I'm not willing to alter my stock interior.
I have a set of 6x9 speakers back there that are facing backward. I doubt I'll hear them with the top down. I have a spare set of armrests that I'm going to cut.
Some speakers are available in low depth models, which can work well in the side panels. I went this route with good success.
If you can paint the grilles to match the interior, they will not stand out as much...
Some speakers are available in low depth models, which can work well in the side panels. I went this route with good success.
If you can paint the grilles to match the interior, they will not stand out as much...
Rob
Those look nice. What diameter speakers are those? 6" ?
If anyone could tell me what their "top mount depth" is for the speakers they are using, it would help. Alpine Type R's range from 2 1/8" to 2 13/16. The most shallow 6 3/4" speakers I've found are 6 1/8" but they aren't coaxial.
I have holes in the front of the doors that a previous owner cut in the metal but I'm not cutting my brand new $300 door panels. I have two sets of rear convertible armrest panels and the ones in the car now are the originals. They still are in decent shape but I don't mind cutting them
Last edited by allyolds68; April 25th, 2012 at 05:00 AM.
Rob
Those look nice. What diameter speakers are those? 6" ?
They are Pyle low depth 6.5" coaxials. Sound is quite good for where they are mounted. I think the depth was like 1.5" or so and cleared the pistons easily. Unfortunately, they are discontinued.
Here is a backside view...
Keep in mind when I bought the car, the rear armrests were already cut for speakers – I would not have done that myself. The holes & grilles were there but the speakers were removed when the top cylinders were replaced. The cylinders had ran into the speakers and had caused some structural damage that the top-shop then repaired.
I never understood why Oldsmobile did their stereo and speakers centerline of car, and front to back for the two channels when other divisions did it left to right.
I will be quite happy in my 67 with the FM radio and the Bi Phonic Speaker option with a speaker in dash and one in the package tray, but stereo with that setup would be weird.
I never understood why Oldsmobile did their stereo and speakers centerline of car, and front to back for the two channels when other divisions did it left to right.
It was purely a cost consideration. Stereo wasn't that popular in the 1960s, as there were few FM stations playing popular music and AM didn't broadcast in stereo. The front/back implementation was cheap and easy to incorporate. Keep in mind that even the radio was configured this way. The factory "stereo adapter was actually a whole second amplifier for the rear channel. The basic head unit powered the dash speaker, as it did for mono applications. The add-on amp powered the rear speaker. It was purely a financial decision.
Ok, that makes sense. Something I noticed, air conditioning in the Chevy A bodies did things to the speakers, which I don't think happened in Olds's. The presence of AC in a Chevelle caused your base speaker option of one speaker mid dash to become a left and right mono speaker on each side of the pad due to the ducting taking out the center location's room. I am guessing the Olds dash permitted AC and central speaker to co-exist, thus making no need for left and right, and saving costs, like you said.
Since this came back up to the top I figured I would answer what I ending up doing. Here's my response that I posted in another thread:
Originally Posted by allyolds68
I've seen a number of these threads pop up and since I just did this install this summer I thought I'd offer a few tips. This location is really the only option if you don't have air conditioning (aftermarket kick panels), don't want to cut holes in the doors, or don't want boxes cluttering up your back seat. The arm rest location doesn't give very good bass but it's better than the only other option which is mounted to the convertible framing behind the seat. As most have reported, with the top down you'll get hardly any sound from that location.
I began by removing the ashtray, taking a piece of 18" or so mechanics wire, bending it so I had about an inch hook on the end. Then, sticking in the wire end with the "L" on it, I ran the top up and down until I confirmed how much clearance I had between the vertical surface of the ash well and the side of the hydraulic cylinder. I re-bent the wire a few times until I figured that I had about 1 3/8" on one side and 1 1/2" on the other. The location will vary depending on how tight they installed the ash wells to the side of the car and also how much the convertible cylinder assembly is shimmed from the body.
1 3/8" isn't enough clearance to install most any speaker so you need to do a little tweaking to make it work. You have a couple options. I bought the speakers and a shim kit from Crutchfield. I've posted a pic of the shim below. Unfortunately the shim is about 1/2 or 3/4" which really shoves the speaker into the side of the seat and it didn't look very good. I ended up making a donut shaped shim from a piece of 7/32" luan plywood. I installed it behind the vinyl to push the speaker out. Because it's behind the vinyl, you can't see it. It turns out the 7/32" wasn't quite enough and the cylinder on the passenger side grazes the speaker as the top opens and closes but it's not enough to do any damage to the speaker.
To do all this and not make a hacked up mess you should mock up the location using your speaker grill as a template. Then remove the rear seat base and back. Remove the window crank and rear door panel, unscrew the whole ash-well assembly, and install the speaker on a bench where you can work on it without swearing a lot and having body parts fall asleep as you contort you body into the back seat. It's also a heck of a lot easier to run wires with the rear seat out too.
The speakers I chose (with Crutchfield's help) were the Pioneer TS-G1644R 6-1/2" 2-Ways. They were $49.99. The shim kit I didn't use was another $7.99. The speakers are about 1 5/8" deep. The sound isn't great, but I doubt any speaker in this location is going to push any bass. If you want more bass, and you don't want to see anything, you're going to have to mount a subwoofer in a box in the trunk. I've got a car seat on my passenger side so the sound is lost behind that too.
I should note that someone makes a double speaker that fits in the factory opening in the dash. It's like two 3 1/2" speaker next to each other. You won't get any base from those for sure.
When I bought my 71 convertible, someone had cut holes in the upper arm rest panels and put 6 1/2" round speakers in. They were blown, but I left them there (disconnected) because I did not want to leave an exposed hole in the panel. I have since replaced the speakers with 6 1/2" 3 ways and I must say that the sound, even with the top down at 70mph, is great. They also do not impede the top from being raised or lowered at all.
Personaly, I don't see why anyone would put speakers in the lower armrest panel. If there is anyone in the back seat, their body would block out the sound.
Last edited by chip-powell; May 12th, 2014 at 10:29 AM.
Personaly, I don't see why anyone would put speakers in the lower armrest panel. If there is anyone in the back seat, their body would block out the sound.
I usually do not have rear seat passengers so the sound is fine.
However I did take a family of 3 for a ride last year and the mom and dad sat in the back. The dad actually liked the classic rock i was playing and had me turn it up. They were normal height and weight and the sound still sounded fine, even at 70mph.
The daughter and I up front enjoyed it also and heard it clearly.
Now if you stuffed 3 people back there, then I would bet on some muffling.
Not many places for speakers in the verts, but these were some 'not-bad' places.
as there were few FM stations playing popular music
And not many FM stations broadcast in stereo. Remember how receivers of that vintage and later had a little "stereo" light that would light up when you were tuned to an FM station broadcasting in stereo? That light wouldn't have been needed if every FM station broadcast in stereo from the get-go. But while broadcasting in FM was one thing, broadcasting in FM stereo was something else, requiring an additional investment by the station. Early on, not many FM stations made that investment.
It was probably partly a chicken-and-egg thing, too. Stations didn't want to invest in stereo broadcasting equipment if consumers' radios were all mono, anyway, and consumers didn't want to invest in receivers capable of receiving stereo broadcasts if few stations broadcast in stereo.
I place a nice blue tooth capable bose speaker in the back floorboard when I wish to hear music in my 70-442 vert via my iPhone. When I return home I place it back on the shelf/recharge until the next cruise. Granted, my car is a high restoration, but I cannot imagine cutting holes into my rear armrests, door panels, etc for the sake of upgrading the speaker quality. If I were shopping for a new 442 and it already had cut holes for speakers in any location of the interior it would effect the value of the car to me. I realize each to his own though. I admit, when I was 18 yrs old I would have sawed away on my int for speakers.
I agree, there is no need to cut interior panels to install speakers. I have kick panel speakers up front and for the rear I have 6x9 boxes with quick disconnects. I can place the speaker boxes on the floor, on the rear seat, in the top well (when the top is up), or disconnect them and put them in the trunk if I have rear seat passengers.
My 69 442 had the holes already cut. I replaced the old pioneer 6" with pyle marine low profile speakers. No idea how they will sound, but will know by this weekend.
April 24th, 2012, 02:47 PM
