6x9 cab corner brackets! Tons of pichers

[Tonka]

Been a while since I posted anything on my truck but like many of you between the family, job and truck I am swamped. I appreciate all of the nice threads you guys post and use them constantly! Thank you!

Anyways I have completed the sound system in my '77 Stepside. I went with a Custom AutoSounds 300 watt chrome dual tuner knob head unit. Very nice product, simple to use and the 75Watts per channel is very handy.
I also have installed Custom Auto Sounds 6.5" kick panel speakers. They look very nice but 6.5's are just too tinny for my taste. Good for listening to talk radio but in a loud truck with a V-8 and headers you will need to step it up a notch.

I'm a bit of a car audio audiophile. On a budget. If you are like me and don't have tons of cash for the very high end stuff my first choice is always Rockford Fosgate. My jeep daily driver has a full RF system including 1200 watt amp, dual P3 10" subs, all component speakers are RF Punch line and wiring and battery terminals are all fosgate too. I dig the quality of the gear, its durable and they sound great.

That said this threads about speaker brackets...
The brackets 73-87 sells are of excellent quality. They include color directions and stainless mounting screws.  I was shocked at how nice they are. They will require some prep work on your part and here is what I did...

Because I chose RF Punch 4 way 6x9's, following 73-87's advice I had to use spacers on top of the brackets due to the large magnet size of the Fosgate Punch's. There were two available on Amazon and I chose the more expensive option  which were by "Metra". They were inch and a half thick and flat in shape. The Scosche models are angled and that had me thinking I may not want the speakers any more angled than they already would be.

TO help with sound quality I painted the inside and outside of the spacers with an awesome product from Duplicolor called UnderCoat Sound Eliminator

I used an entire can on the spacers and also on the inside of the cab corners. You want to optimize the "enclosure" as best you can. Why do a crappy job? I just can't.
Many coats until it was good and thick. Has a cool texture and rubberized feel. The can cost me 5 bucks at Advance. I'd use it again for sure but be warned it takes more than a few minutes to dry.


Here is what the 6x9's look mounted to the spacers after the rubber paint:


Waited a couple days for the brackets to get here. Total time from order to delivery was 5 days. He shipped them on wednesday and I had em on saturday. Good stuff for a small retailer. These babies are Made in the USA!! My man!
For prep I used Motzenbockers which is available at Home Depot. The brackets come with a light coat of some oily preservative (not cosmoline but similar). The stuff comes off easy with the motzenbockers and I didn't have a single fish eye in the paint. Here they are with their first coat of sound deadener applied to the inside of the brackets:


With that done it's time to prep and spray the exterior of the brackets. I used Rustoleum white metal primer followed by  gloss red enamel followed up by Rustoleum gloss clear coat. Many coats plus the heat gun (lightly)!

I let em hang dry for about 15 hours before mounting...


Next up was carefully mounting the 6x9's with the brackets and spacers. I chose to solder the wires to the speaker terminals. Speaker wire I used was JL Audio 14 gauge. I always use flux when soldering and heat shrink whenever possible.
The holes on the brackets had to be widened out a bit to accept the included button head stainless steel screws. After that I drilled the holes on the cab corners and mounted them.
Here you see the full system including 500watt Kicker amp (I had one brand new sitting around so in it went, very nice amp by the way), Rockford's 12" Prime R2 Shallow mount subwoofer and the brackets with 6x9's. The amp is held down with an old ruck sack strap I had. Wiring for the amp is 4 gauge JL audio with the ground wire ran through the floor to the chassis. Hole in chassis is lined with a rubber grommet from Lowes. Do the job right!



The verdict:
Yes it's a lot of work. Several times I had to walk away. But in the end to me it is worth it. The sound quality (even without the sub) is not even in the same league as the 6.5"s. Not even close. The 4 way RF 6x9's get plenty of power to do their job with the Custom Auto Sounds head unit. Bass is decent and mids and highs are excellent. Combine the 6x9's with the entry level RF Prime subwoofer and the sound quality is outstanding. The 6x9's add a tremendous amount of depth to the music. I have a feeling the Duplicolor rubberized coating helps a lot. I will get some more pics if you need em.

[LTZ C20]

I have to say I really dig this. I have the same 6×9's,  only an older version. Still work good, but one day I will have to upgrade the whole system.

[Tonka]

Thank you LTZ C20! I got em off Amazon for $70. Well worth it. Would buy again and again. Sub I also purchased off Amazon and it was $110 all of it on Prime.

[LTZ C20]

Sweet. I currently have 2 RF 6x9s and 2 RF 6s, all 4 are RF Prime 3-ways. The 6x9s are in the corners and 6s were in the doors but were removed when power doors were installed. Eventually I'm gonna re mount them back in the door panels when I build stock - custom door panels.

I also have a 300 watt Lighting audio amp, (cheap I know, but it works good), that powers the 2 kicker comp 10s behind the seat. And an Alpine speaker amp under the dash for the 4 RF's.

One day I'm gonna redo the whole system, new most everything and going with components.  Only thing I won't change is my deck. It's about a year old maybe little more and is awesome. It's a Pioneer something or rather, but very adjustable with all the options, audio, function, lighting etc.

[bake74]

     Tonka, I gotta say that is one nice looking truck and I am a little jealous that mine is still in pieces, but it will get done some day.

[Tonka]

Sweet. I currently have 2 RF 6x9s and 2 RF 6s, all 4 are RF Prime 3-ways. The 6x9s are in the corners and 6s were in the doors but were removed when power doors were installed. Eventually I'm gonna re mount them back in the door panels when I build stock - custom door panels.

I also have a 300 watt Lighting audio amp, (cheap I know, but it works good), that powers the 2 kicker comp 10s behind the seat. And an Alpine speaker amp under the dash for the 4 RF's.

One day I'm gonna redo the whole system, new most everything and going with components.  Only thing I won't change is my deck. It's about a year old maybe little more and is awesome. It's a Pioneer something or rather, but very adjustable with all the options, audio, function, lighting etc.

I bet those Kicker 10's rock. I had one kicker comp 12 in my jeep with a 500 watt fosgate amp (I regretted selling that) and it used to beat the jeep hard. People could not believe how much bass a cheap walmart speaker could put out. And it was durable. I beat that speaker to death and it took it like a champ. So much of car audio has to do with the install. You can have the best stuff but if your wiring is poor and your grounds are terrible etc... It will not perform. Post up some pics man!


Bake74 I wish I lived nearby I'd gladly give you a hand bro. Keep the faith. I thought mine was a lost cause used to break my heart. Now I'm ripping it down my street taking it to work at least once a week. Hang in there!!

[LTZ C20]

Well feel free to come over and wire up everything for me haha. I can post a few pics but I don't know if you will like them, it's kinda ugly and my 6x9 mounts are old and breaking apart,(there fiberboard). My subs came brand new from my gf's brother. He had them in his truck brand new never used, he got a new system so I bought them off him. They do pretty good, but my amp is old and not as efficient as it used to be. I would really like to put in and equalizer but I'm not gonna mess with it until I'm ready for a new system all together.

[jetmech]

Beautiful truck and great write up. Very easy to understand exactly what you did and where you got the parts and pieces. I am thinking of doing the exact same thing to my build. I already purchased the 6X9 mounts from this site, very nice. Which head unit did you use?  Can you use the stock radio knobs on the head unit? I really don't want to mount speakers in the door or door panels but thinking of 3 1/2" speakers in stock location and trying to hide some speakers under the dash pointing toward the floor or maybe kick panel speakers. Any thoughts on the front?

[Tonka]

Hey jetmech sorry I didn't get back to you sooner man. I have a CustomAutoSounds dual knob 300 watt head unit. I really like it. Very simple, easy to use and mounts in stock dual knob location. Its era correct in look and feel but has serious power and auxiliary/ipod connectivity. It beats those Fosgate 6x9's to death! They have a recommended power range of 75 watts with a max of 150. That makes the custom auto sounds  head unit absolutely perfect and negates the need for a separate amp to truly power the 6x9's correctly.

For front speakers I also used Custom Auto Sounds 6.5" kick panel speakers. The speakers sound terrible by themselves but add a lot of staging when used in conjunction with the sub and 6x9's I have. The kick panels do look perfect once installed but are.. once again.. a pain during install. The Chevy aftermarket is not as user friendly in my experience compared to my daily driver Jeep. All the jeep stuff is very easy to install and do. The jeep forums and online world is a lot more active and I get the feeling that the aftermarket companies pay a lot more attention to delivering on their goods as promised. I could cite a half dozen instances that have left my head scratching. In the end however the chevy world has a lot more mechanical aptitude. This has a lot to do with all the weak instructions and poor fitment. We make do!

 Like I said, though the kick panels look awesome, I would not rely on them in any capacity other than listening to talk radio. If you have any experience with car audio systems you are going to want a sub, amp and more mid bass so the 6x9 mod and a sub is something you should definitely consider. I was really on the fence when purchasing the sub as to whether I should go with a smaller more compact 10" box or the much larger 12" box. I am glad I went with the 12. It is not nearly as powerful as I assumed it to be. This leads me to believe the shallow mount 10 would have been next to worthless. The 12 does NOT pound, but for rock and roll, heavy metal, that sort of thing it sounds really really good. No complaints. No rap music or techno in the lifted truck. We rollin with Iron Maiden and Whitesnake son!

As for 3.5" speakers I would not go there. I have, in my jeep, 6.5" fosgate Punch series speakers mounted in the jeeps dash. It was a custom mod with some chopping and grinding to make work. Factory it came with 4x6's. The upgrade to 6.5's is an improvement there. But aone they sound really bland (no different from Custom auto sounds kick panels). This leads me to reasonably assume that 3.5" speakers, regardless of brand or quality would just sound awful. Bigger is better my friend!