Rear speakers in 69 Convertible

[bnz84]

Don't freak out - the PO cut the valuable armrest covers not me. But saddled with this I decided to to embrace the sacrilege and put better 6x9 speakers in the holes. With a relatively deep 6X9 there are only a few ways they will fit. I found after I mounted the speaker to the armrest that the problem child is the window gear that hits the speaker ONLY when the window is in the fully up location. After a few trial and errors - all errors I guess - I changed my strategy to use old fuel line to make standoffs for 3" metal screws. They held everything tight but I added wood shims to further support the weight. Yes it all fits behind the armrest and yes, with the seat in almost 1/2 of the speaker is covered by the seat. But not the center tweet and mid so I think it will be good enough. I really couldn't get the speaker any higher unless I went with a much more shallow one. We will see. And while I did put up some plastic to keep the moisture out I had to cut it some to fit the speaker magnet as the combo of magnet and loose plastic would cause the gear to grab the plastic. To protect the speaker I used gift basket shrink wrap to cover the back and I cut strategic holes in it to allow the air to escape as it wasn't designed to be sealed like that. Probably the shrink wrap would tear.

 

[CBODY67]

Remember, the factory speakers back then were quite shallow with small magnets, but they still sounded pretty good. They were fine with the output capabilities of the radios driving them.

Some people would mount the rear speakers behind the seat, with them firing upward, rather than use the (normally) center location in the rear seat back. Just had to ensure that the speakers didn't get damaged by the top going down and storing in the well.

Congrats on the engineering work. Hope they continue to perform as desired.

CBODY67