Interior Panel Monkey Business

By David Belau

dartslantsix

I enjoy a good sound system like anyone else, but as someone who has restored a few cars, it makes me cringe to see original interior panels cut for the sake of sound. There’s nothing more infuriating than finally finding a perfect door panel only to discover that it has a 6×9 hole cut into it.

The previous owner of my 1992 Dodge Dakota Club Cab decided to replace the stock 5×7 rear speakers with 6x9s. The problem is that 6x9s do not fit. “No biggie,” said the monkeys at the car audio shop. “Just flush mount them and cut the interior panel with a sawzall! Be sure to reinforce everything with a couple of sheetrock screws!”

Continue reading after the jump!

It worked great until a 321 lb gorilla rode in the rear seat. His elbow was so comfortable it smashed into the speaker cone that he didn’t even notice the damage he caused. After this adventure, I bought the truck. I replaced the buzzing, deformed speakers with the factory size. This exposed the nasty cuts that the audio shop/sawzall monkeys did to the panel. A factory cover would not cover the mess, so it was up to me to make something.

I took some time with a CAD program and drew up a panel that would cover the hole. I had a guy at work cut it on a water jet out of .125 aluminum.

Now before I get too far, I know some of you will say, “This is great and all, but how does this help me?” I’m glad you asked. Send me a message with your email and I’ll send you the DXF file. (This is the file the CNC operator uses to program the machine.) That way you can take your pen drive down to your local fabricator and have a couple of these made. The panel measures: 13.00 x 6.00 and uses #10 screws to attach. The slats are sized for a 5×7 speaker. They could be cut out of a variety of materials; I just used the aluminum because it was laying around.

My original plan was to sand and polish the panel. After realizing that it would be a lot of work, I just painted them. Here they are installed:

I used #10 x .50 stainless sheet metal screws. Looks a bit better I think. Now I just have to remove the gorilla sweat stains from the seat.

Permalink:

Posted at 9:48 am in Dakota, Dodge, speaker

Comments

retroman
Mar 11, 2010 at 12:19 pm

Cadillactien, good point. I am often amazed at the ignorance of people, especially those who buy Blueray players and hook them up to an old TV or have an HD TV but use it for things like VHS. I work with electronics and computers for a living. Most people fail to realize that a part is only as good as the other parts that complement it. Sure you might have a high res TV capable of 1080p, but if you’re using an old dvd player or VHS, chances are you are only enjoying a resolution of 800 x 600. And tell me, you bought a flatscreen HD TV why?? My 13 year old Cathode Ray Tube Television gets 800 x 600. Same with stereos. There’s no need to upgrade speakers until you’ve upgraded the head unit and amplifier.

Cadillactien
Mar 11, 2010 at 3:58 am

That’s one way of doing it, or you could have just went to a wrecking yard and got new panels. (It’s only a 92′ Dakota) I really wondering what’s the point to the blog? Cutting to fit most of the time is the result of small wallet, high expectations. Ironically with the money spent on labor to cut, would have been better spent on installing a better amp or stereo. Most of the time it’s not the speakers that sound bad, it’s the stereo powering them. Bigger is not always better, and upgrading is not always an improvement. The CNC machine did a nice job cutting the panels though.

shilpaworld
Mar 10, 2010 at 12:32 am

The doors were deep enough that the windows had no interference, but I had to do some cutting to enlarge from the original speaker’s clearance. It is really good job. I really enjoyed this post.

Excercise

retroman
Mar 9, 2010 at 6:48 pm

Wow, I can hardly believe that the previous owner did that to your car, Rob. It makes me sick to think that someone would cut up vintage sheetmetal for a modern (albeit, crappy) stereo system. There are ways of having clear sound and Ipod interface without losing the classic look and feel of the car. Somebody needs to fill all the Autozone junkies in on that one…

66Mope
Mar 9, 2010 at 1:24 pm

I know what you mean by hacked up doors. Check out the doors on my 66 Satellite:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2242760/6

GTwildfire
Mar 9, 2010 at 1:20 pm

I put 6×9′s in the doors of my red Firebird, flush mounted them onto the diamondplate aluminum I used to replace the inner door panel’s fabric-covered cardboard. The doors were deep enough that the windows had no interference, but I had to do some cutting to enlarge from the original speaker’s clearance.
-
The finished product sounded great, having 6×9′s in the doors made a difference and the end product looked pretty kickass, IMO. see the red firebird ridepage if you’re curious.

TheMover
Mar 9, 2010 at 10:02 am

Those stains are gross.How did a fat guy get in the back?