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kick panel speakers.. 1st attempt


kc8oye

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well.. here's my start on kickpanel speakers. and yes, I expect them to project backward into that hollow space behind the kickpanel.. I might have to remove a bit of sheetmetal. but that should be no problem smile

 

The Speaker is a new for '08 Kenwood Excelon 6-3/4" round 2-way

 

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i've been having so much trouble with the club website just lately... hit post.. and it just sits there for 20 minutes doing nothing.

 

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i'm not going to add any more material between the ring and the kick panel. I do not want the speakers projecting out into the car any more. I'll setttle for a trade-off in sound to avoid them being in the way.

 

they are going to be basicly in 'free air' because they are going to be hanging out the back of the kickpanel and into the cavity behind the kick panel.. so i guess if all else fails.. stuff it full of fiberglass stuffing smile

 

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i'm not going to fuss over an extra 20 or 30 lbs in a car that's in full street trim anyway. it's a street first, strip 2nd car.

 

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i decided to stretch the glass out to the top of the vent controls to make for a smoother transition.. otherwise I'd be trying to pack fiberglas down into a tight area that just wouldn't loook right.

 

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no, this will be the front. this is just the first layer.. that establishes the general 'form'.. once I get this done, i'll add a couple layers of mesh and resin.. and then a thin coat of bondo, sand it smooth, paint it.. should look great smile

 

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it is sort of the backside in a way alan.. it's the bottom most layer first.

 

allan.. I didn't re-position the speaker any.. it is angled towards the cabin yes.. they won't just point straight in..

 

i've got just one awkward angle to deal with.. right in the corner by that vent knob.. once I get that taken care of I should be in business.

 

as for the wooden ring, it's exactly the same size as the speaker grill.. I was afraid fhat if I round the corners off too much it will create a gap under the grille and look tacky.

 

when this round of resin drys I'll post a pic with the grille in place.

 

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i don't have pics yet, but I've started applying the bondo top coat :> WOOOO

 

ok I lied.. here are some pics smile (the speaker isn't attached yet, so it's not quite centered correctly)

 

click on the pic to see the full res version

kps.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, the fist kickpanel is finnally _done_

it didn't come out that nice.. at least, I'm not real happy with it. .the 2nd one for the driver's side came out a lot better since I had a better idea of what I was doing wink

 

i took the pic. w/o the grill because the chrome trim ring was causing me all kinds of headaches with the camera smile

 

the edges of the fiberglass show because I accidently bent the panel too far and broke the fiberglass loose from the plastic in a few places.

next batch of resin I make up i'll glue the edges back down wink

 

and let me tell you... these Kenwood eXcelon speakers are worth their weight in gold. OMG do they sound great!!! in that pic the speaker is hooked up and playing with just the kickpanel baffling it and it still sounds amazing.. cant' wait to get it in the car and really let 'em rip :>

 

kickpaneldone.jpg

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hrrm i didn't think about that allan.. I'll have to remember that.

 

will have picturs this afternoon of at least hte passenger side.. the driver's side is gonna be a huge undertaking as I'm going to have to pull the fender off to get at the bolts holding the ebrake pedal in place so I can remove that, and get hte kick panel in place!

 

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He we go allan.. this is the passenger side. I dropped my digital camera right after taking this one.. had to come inside and un-fork it.. decided it was too cold to go back out and take any more!! which is also why there is a lot of unfinished details (kick panel not screwed down, that wire &hose hanging down, the Eq only hanging by one screw, kick panel grill missing etc)

i'll clean all that up tomorrow when it's a littel warmer smile

 

This is the passenger side from about seat level.

frontsinstalled.jpg

 

i thawed out indoors so I went back out for a few more pics.

 

 

This is the driver's side with the camera peeking thru the steering wheel.. the spacing is just perfect that I can still get my toe over behind it to hit the high-beam switch :>

 

 

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This is the passenger side from the driver's position..

frontsinstalled3.jpg

 

and this is the driver's side from outside the car at the 'back' edge of the door opening.

 

frontsinstalled4.jpg

 

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btw.. the speakers ended up being VERY bass heavy.. very very muddy.. but right now they're running 'full range' which I'm not crazy about.. but until I get a new sub-amp, I'm using the other side of my 4-channel amp for the sub wink and using an old alpine with no crossover... i might throw some poly fill in there in the mean time.

 

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the ebrake pedal will not be going back in. it's gone forever.

(never worked anyway)

i'm going to mount a hand brake almost under the front seat up against the trans tunnel.

 

if all else fails, I can put a baffle behind the speakers.. i've foudn so far that the two-way kenwoods with the soft-dome tweeter sound rather 'dull'.. but maybe I'm just used to the harshness of the 3-ways in the back with their piezeo tweeters.

 

these are the baffles I'm thinking about:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=DEI%2D050340&N=700+%2D222067+115&autoview=sku

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  • 4 months later...

couple good tricks for finishing the kick panels that save me a hell of a lot of time are just covering them with black amp rack speaker carpet, its strecthy conforms to everything and doesnt need a heck of a lot of finishing underneath of it. Or get some SEM texture spray, works great for a top coat and is thick enough to hide a lot of the blemeshes. Covering them in vinyl would almost be next to impossible due to the recess where the vent pulls are

 

Now with the muddy Bass issue, if you are running a subwoofer cross em over at a higher frequency (around 80 hz) I sell those Excelon speakers and I find that they where designed to be used in conjuction with a subwoofer, the fs on the material that the cone was made out of is a bit high so they don't really play that deep, I know it might be a silly question but could your speakers possibly be out of phase?

 

This winter will be my turn to do my kicks, the challenge will be to get a set of Hertz Mille 6/5 inch Mids down there and a set of Mille serial number matching tweets up on the A pillars then tons of time correction

 

 

Finally found a set of Speakers that sound better then my Focal 165k2p's in my truck

 

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heh.. sounds like you are into it a little deeper then I am hooter!

 

i don't have any crossovers available for those kickpanel speakers right now.. the amp they are on doesn't have one built in. gotta get a new sub amp and move all 4 main speakers back to the Legacy 4 channel amp.

 

i'm pretty sure they are in phase. I found when I listen them by themselves they are muddy.. they sound a lot better with the rears and the sub filling in :>

 

right now, I'm using a Kenwood CD player (with mp3 capabilty) I'm not sure of the model off hand.

my OLD OLD OLD 10-band Rockwood graphic e.q I rarely use the e.q part of it.. mostly I just use it for the built in subwoofer crossover and level control. ocassionly I'll kick the eq in for some heavy duty bass boost wink

if I run bass boost, I like way down in the basement.. around the 60hz slider.

 

the e.q also gives me front/rear fader. so 3 sets of RCA's to the amps.

 

I have a Legacy LA-1024 Series-II "1000w" (yeah I know) two channels run the rear 6x9's crossed at 150hz, and the other two are bridged to run my Sony Xplod 12" in a sealed box.

 

the front speakers are run by an old alpine amp I was given cuz it didnt work and I patched it up :>

 

front speakers are Kenwood eXcelon 6-3/4 rounds. rears are OLD kenwood 3-way 6x9's.

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personally Id run the fronts off the Alpine, run the 6x9's off the deck, and get a decent amp for the subs, you probably have an older Alpine amp the "DUO B" circuit and the square green light, they were a decent amp in their day, keep the bass low on the deck and boost it on the sub amp you can kind of fake a crossover that way

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the rear 6x9's are cut 150hz and up.

the sub is switchable between 80 and 150 and down at the EQ

 

the alpine unfornately does not have a built in crossover (it is powering the fronts)

 

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well you should be running the 6x9s lower then 150 hz, they will play down to at least 40 hz, putting up the frequency that high is eliminating all your midbass, Im just trying to set up the system so the rears are not over powering the fronts. If you are just using the 6x9s for rear fill then 150hz would be alright but let em play lower,

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i don't have a choice. my crossover frequencies are 80hz and down, flat, and 150hz and up.

one of these days I'm gonna pick up a multichannel crossover.

i have found tho with the 150+ crossover, I can really push the power into those speakers and let 'em scream :>

 

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