Finishing up -LOL- my 69 converible project- I cant bring myself to cut speaker holes in my new door panels- so i am going to add speakers in the kick panels. It is a non A/c car, and the aftermarket kick panels with speakers only have a vent for the floor- no hol/**** for the upper vent- Anyone cobble a way to keep the upper vent control ****?

 

You can add 4x6 speakers using chevy style Multiplex stereo speaker grills. You can find them reproduction from many chevy vendors. Factory 4-speaker stereo systems in chevys (Impala, Nova, Chevelle, Corvair) used kick panel speakers from 65-69 before the they were moved to the dash in 70. You can see the grills on my 66 convertible at the top rear corner of the kick panels.

 

 

intersting- I like how thry are up high away from kickers. here i thought i was modernizing my ride, i guess I'm actually going back.

 

I would recommend against these kick panel speakers for two reasons. First, the driver side speaker frequently interferes with the emergency brake pedal. Second, those cowl cavities are intended to get water in them. Even if you think you are never going to drive the car in the rain, if you ever wash it the speaker cones will get wet.

 

The mutiplex speakers do not sit in the vent area, they are not exposed to water. Most of the aftermarket kick panel speakers are also not in the vent area, but you are correct that the vent area should be blocked off with a plate or a box if the speaker goes in the that area. Some of the more expesnive set-ups come with a bolt-in speaker box that goes in the vent hole. Then you lose the vent though and the OP is trying to keep the vents in his car. I used these in my Vista Cruiser, and had to modify the parking brake pedal to get enough clearance for the speaker.