I am planning to upgrade the sound system in my 69 XR7, and would like to add door speakers. Does anyone have a template or photo for the inner door (not the door panel) cutout ?
Be careful with your speaker choice for the doors. There is very little room behind the inner sheet metal. What I did was open up the factory area in the door panel and trimmed the vinyl to factory look by glueing and stapling on the rear side. I next mounted the door panel and then mounted the factory speaker grills. Once I had their screw locations, I free handed the cutout to match the speakers I bought. I think there are some aftermarket speakers that are supposed to fit the ‘stock’ openings, but I’m not sure if they are any good. The factory cutout is an unusual size and I’m not sure I’ve seen one that not already butchered.
Just my two cents …if you want the look screw just the covers on to the doors and use a blue tooth speaker …removable to other vehicles …I had door speakers they sucked then and doubt they’d be much better now…I have the covers on my car with no speaker behind …the front ones barely go loud enough to hear …especially in the back
I just had a system put in my 68 and they used front kick panels rather than in the door.
1 Like
Lots of existing threads on that subject you can search for. Here is a recent one:
1 Like
1967-1968 front speakers are located in the kick panels. 1969-1973 front speakers are in the doors. The 1969-1970 cars have a fresh air vent in the kick panel so unless you are willing to loss this vent there is no space for a speaker in those kick panels.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
1 Like
How about you wait a month, I am in the midst of it now. My car will be getting a new top on it in a few weeks. Then it’s off to the audio shop for a stereo initially. I was originally going to do it myself, then saw some installations recently at a show and shine. Considering all the work on the rest of car I figured I should get it done high end. My XR7 had door speakers in it from factory, I will give you an update if you like when it’s done and what was used.
Thanks for the advice everyone. Since I wanted a retro look, I ended up installing a period-correct AM/FM 8-track (not factory) to replace the AM radio along with Kenwood speakers in the dash (replacing the factory AM speaker), and a pair of Kicker 4x10s under a new package shelf behind the rear seat. I added a 2 to 4 channel converter and a small amp behind the rear seat. The biggest pain was with the package shelf - It needs to be tucked under the bottom of the rear glass seal, which is tedious without removing the glass. Also, since I did not want to use surface-mount speakers I had to punch 240 holes in the fiberboard and then find the right mesh to cover it with. After all the effort it came out pretty sano, and sounds good too. I can now untangle 8-track tapes just like in the old days!
1 Like