Body finally back on project 59

[IH2LOSE]

Barry I never turn down advice that I can learn from.You really enlightened me on this.I was afraid if I go lower into the floor area I cant aim it correctly with out it getting lost under the dash.I normally have this work done by an high end stereo shop once the cars are complete but I have to make up my door panels and was going to do this myself. I may have to have hime come to the house to aim and place the speakers. Allthough its a convertable with a small cabin I do exspect concert quaility sounds from it.

Larry

I may not know much (if anything at all) about working on cars, but i DO know a fair bit about car audio systems. I've even designed and helped install systems worth $75,000 or more and that were winning systems in national car audio competitions. It's been a number of years now since I was in that industry and many things have changed but the basics of acoustics do not.
If I may make a suggestion or two regarding the stereo system I hope you won't be offended by the unsolicited advice.

Regarding the front speaker placement, your optimum placement would actually be the kick panel area with the speakers aimed up and towrds the opposite side of the car directed to the other person. This means the drivers side kick panel speaker would aim toward the passenger at ear level and the passenger side kick panel speaker would aim toward the driver at ear level.
The main reason for this is too try to equalize (as much as possible) the wavelength between the left and right speakers. If the speakers are in the doors, the speaker on the left side is only a few inches or maybe 12-18" from your ear but the right side speaker could be 3-4' away from you. this causes the entire "soundstage" to appear to be coming from the side of the car you are sitting on. By moving the speakers down to the kick panel area, there will still be a difference in distance between the left and right side speakers to you but the difference is reduced and therefore your soundstage and imaging is greatly improved.

If you feel that for whatever reason you can't go with the speakers in the kick panel and MUST go with them in your doors, than at least try to put them as low and as forward in the doors as possible and again cross-fire them to the opposite side aiming at the ears of the occupent in the other seat (direct the drivers side speaker to the passenger at ear level and vice versa). try to avoid aiming the speakers straight across and firing directly at each other as this will cause a loust soundstage, imaging, and even worst, phase cancelation.

If at all possible, wherever you mount the speakers, see if you can construct an enclosure of the speaker (fiberglass would be perfect) for much better sound quality and if it IS in the doors than sound dampening material such as dynamat is great to reduce resounce and vibrations that will detract from your sound quality.

If you have any questions regarding your system or anything I can do to help you in this area i'll be glad to. Maybe I can finally help someone else out on this forum for a change!

 

[BarryK]

Barry I never turn down advice that I can learn from.You really enlightened me on this.I was afraid if I go lower into the floor area I cant aim it correctly with out it getting lost under the dash.I normally have this work done by an high end stereo shop once the cars are complete but I have to make up my door panels and was going to do this myself. I may have to have hime come to the house to aim and place the speakers. Allthough its a convertable with a small cabin I do exspect concert quaility sounds from it.

Larry

yes, when you go with low placement such as the kick panel area you do have to watch out for obstacles such as the dash, your leg and feet postitions, etc but there is usually a way to make it work and it WILL sound better if you can get them placed down there.
If you have a stereo installer you have used before for high-end installs and trust him and can get him out to the car it would be great. It's pretty impossible for me to do that from here over this forum. :L

go with the largest size you can fit in the kick panel. since you are going custom and not worrying about a "stock" look so much you can make things fit and cut as needed. Try to go with a 6.5" componet speaker set for the front. You also want to keep the tweeter from the set as close as possible to the midrange driver in the set for best imaging. if you find that the imaging in the system is too low you can add another set of tweeters up in the very far corners of the dash by the windshield (again crossfired across the car) at a low level of output. These won't draw much attention to themselves but will serve to raise the sounstage up if needed because of the lower placement of the main speakers.
your tough challenge is getting an effective subwoofer to work in the car. a small custom box in the truck would be fine but you will need to find a way to get the sound into the cabin of the car. i'm not familiar enough with the interiors of the C1's to know the best way to do that - maybe you can do a ported box with the port running thru the trunk and exiting out flush thru the waterfall between the seats? By fiberglassing the port into the waterfall it could look almost stock - besides, the air rushing out the port from the subbox would help air circulation on hot days!

 

[John Mcgraw]

Hey Larry,

The guys at several of the Corvette suppliers also sell a molded kick panel for the C1 with the speaker placement already molded in. I believe that the kicks are made by custom autosounds, but they only sell them through Ecklers and Corvette Central. they are only about $130, and may be worth not having to mess with them. I decided to just use a dual cone replacement for my inexpensive replacement USA 3 radio, since I probably won't be listening to any sound but my exhaust while driving! The radio is just for listening to while parked at the cruise. Barry, don't worry about hijacking the thread, my threads tend to just kind of wander across the contryside as it is!

Regards, John McGraw

 

[IH2LOSE]

Soor y for the delay (again I hate it when business gets in the way of pleasure but its been a rough week at work)

This is a photo of my mock up door panel

This is a link to some close up photos
http://members19.clubphoto.com/lawrence748455/2755153/guest.phtml

What Barry has said above made alot of sence,As a matter of fact I knew this.But some how it got lost in my thoughts that the door panels were the best location because of all of the room I have on them.Anyways I scrapped what I had done with the door panels and have started over.this is where I am today. Thanks Barry!

John I am going to take the easey way out and purchase the sail panels you stated I found them in ecklers I have to call corvette central also.I would like to purchase them with OUT the speakers and I do plan on modifing them for a better angel then what they have but they will be a great start.

Thanks guys and sorry for the delay in posting the pictures

 

[richscorvettes]

"John I am going to take the easey way out and purchase the sail panels you stated I found them in ecklers I have to call corvette central also.I would like to purchase them with OUT the speakers and I do plan on modifing them for a better angel then what they have but they will be a great start."

Larry, just a comment on the aftermarket kick panels with speakers. I had purchased a set from Ecklers for the 67 and, after trying them out for fit, ended up sending them back. Just didn't like the fit or material they used. I'm not sure who actually makes them but they might be from Custom Autosound. Frankly, by the time you modify them as you want you might be better off just making your own panels especially since you may want to match your other upholstery. You could use your stock kick panels as a template. Seeing the job you are doing on the door panels there's no doubt you could do a nice job on them.

Rich

 

[IH2LOSE]

Larry, just a comment on the aftermarket kick panels with speakers. I had purchased a set from Ecklers for the 67 and, after trying them out for fit, ended up sending them back. Just didn't like the fit or material they used. I'm not sure who actually makes them but they might be from Custom Autosound. Frankly, by the time you modify them as you want you might be better off just making your own panels especially since you may want to match your other upholstery. You could use your stock kick panels as a template. Seeing the job you are doing on the door panels there's no doubt you could do a nice job on them.


Rich
[/QUOTE]
Rich

I had found them and ordered them allready, I was able to purchase them with out speakers installed so for the cost of them If I even just use the speaker pods grafted onto my sail panels it will be money well spent. The pods I made for my door panels were a PAIN in the butt to make out of wood( I wont even describe what I had to do to build them)

It seems I am running out of time to play with the car the body shop wants the car to go to the media blaster A.S.A.P. So The next few weeks I will be back to polishing my suspention and getting the running gear in order.