I am toying with the idea of putting some kick panels in my truck and have a few questions.

Are the pre made kick panels worth buying and if so, which ones? Is there a reason that custom made kicks have an advantage?

What is the concept behind the offset angles the speakers lay in the kicks? Which speakers point at what and why?

Thanks

 

from what i hear they are really worth buying and the only company i know of that makes them is q-logic.

i believe what other people have said that by placing the speakers in the kick panels u will get much better imaging than the stock placement. i am sure someone else can tell u more.

 

Ok, the main reason why people choose the kick panels for speaker placement. When the speakers are in the kick panels the path length of each speaker is closer to being the same. If speakers are located in the door panel the driver side is closer to the listener from that seat and the passenger side is closer to the passenger. What this causes is the sound to not stage very well and be bias to one side. In short you will hear more from the driver side speaker from the driver seat and vice versa. Moving them down to the kicks not only helps reduce this problem to great extent but also helps to allow the soundwave to develop better and in trun creates greater soundstage depth.

As far as angling drivers go. The higher the frequency the more direct and focused the sound is. Basically this means that a midrange has a much better off-axis response than a tweeter. This is more pronounced in drivers like those that I use (planars) since all frequencies are originating from the same speaker.

In my findings I have found that for our trucks in the extended cab version if I angled the speaker up and back (basically firing into the top of the rear pillars) the depth and stage are excellent and the center image is very well defined. The Q forms do not put the speakers at quite this angle and instead aim them more at the dome light. This is also a great angle for the speakers for staging but I don't feel that it created quite as much depth of image. When I say depth of image, imagine that if the musicians are on stage, the lead singer is out front and then the drums are located to the far rear of the stage. In my setup the drums appear to be coming from well out in front of the hood.

Anyway, I think that pretty much sums up kicks and why people use them.

If you are going to go the easy route and use Q-forms i suggest that you lay in at least one layer of fiberglass to the backside to make them more strudy and add in a layer of dynamat either between the plastic and the fiberglass or ontop of the fiberglass. Or you could do both.

 

Thaks for the info Chris!

When you say Are yours pointed straight back hitting the top of the rear pillars on the same side of the cab as the driver is mounted or are they hitting opposite sides?

I decided to give making my kicks a go since I have some experiance with glass and am always looking for something to tinker with, this will work out perfect. Went ahead and casted the oem pieces and am building off them. Here is where i'm at with the pass side and the drivers side is still just the oem shape. Wanted to do one all the way through so to not completly waste materials.





Which just leads me to more questions. I am putting CDT HD-62 into these. They are .2 cu. ft. enclosure which is what CDT recomends for these drivers. How thick does the glass need to be to get that mid-bass rockin? Right now they are at 4 layers and are feeling pretty stiff but don't want to finish em up to find out they needed to be thicker. Spent all weekend getting to this point.

 

Yes they fire at the opposite side rear pillars. Look at the pic in my gallery and you can kind of get an idea as to where they are pointing. As far as thickness well that just depends. The mat itself is very rigid even in one layer and would be enough to prevent flex if you deaden it as well. I suggest a minimum of 2 layers of non-directional mat. 3 layers even better but at two layers you are already about 1/8" thick which is more than adequate. a boat hull is usually only 1/4" thick in it's thinner areas so you can get an idea of just how strong it really is. I would also use the sound damping material inside either spray or self stick mat just to kill any resonance. You may also want to try with and without some poly fill. I recommend using some stuff called Acousti-stuff that you can pick up from www.partsexpress.com it is better than plain old poly fill but more expensive as well. Anyway here is the link to my gallery to look at the pics if you want.

The kicks are looking good so far

 

Oh, BTW. When your make the wood plates that your going to mount the speakers to make sure that you router out some exact duplicates for your grilles. Then once you have the positioned be sure you attach something around the outer edge for a press fit grill to go into (again look at the pics to see an example, the primered stage you can see the lip I am talking about). I actually used some 1/16" hardboard since it bends really easy then attached it to my speaker mounting plates to create a 1/2" lip to serve as the negative of the press fit grill. You can use just about any material your want so long as it is rigid yet bendable. They make tons of wood and processed wood sheeting products that will serve the purpose.

 

Good info, thanks! Where can I find the non-directional mat? What products can be sprayed on? Need some leads here Thinking the spray would make best use of space.

Update on progress. The second side fell together in a couple hours. Took 2 days for the first one but that was also both stock shaped pieces. Pretty much gotta wait on the drivers to go much further. Want to make sure they fit Come on brown truck!




More pics in my gallery

 

Looking good.

Check around for the spray in sound deadeners. Stinger makes some in aerosol cans as does Road Kill and would probably be just about perfect to do the kicks. As far as the fiberglass mat goes you can pick it up about anywhere auto parts store, hardware store, paint & body supply, etc. There are two kinds of mat the non-directional and the weave. Stay away from the weave because it will take 3-4 layers of that to equal 1 layer of the non-directional type.

 

Just looked at the pics again and you are using the non-directional mat on the kicks so keep on keeping on with what your using.

 

I have used the Q-forms in multiple F150's now and I have become very ANTI-kick panel over the years. The q-forms would image well when there wasn't a passenger, but the image fell apart when anyone sat in the passenger seat. The main problem is the tweeter in the q-forms can easily be obscured. Plus I've never heard Q-forms alone provide acceptable midbass. I've always done the Q-forms as part of a 3-way setup with a 6 or 8" in the doors.

In the next few months I'm going to do a CDT Audio setup using their braxial's in the doors and their super tweeters in the A-pilars. I have high hopes that this setup *might* sound better with a passenger in the vehicle then the Q-forms setup.

-Mark

 

stl lightning,

do u own/work a at a shop i o'fallon?

if so what is it called. because i am looking for some people around me that can help with my installation.

thanks

BTW i live in west county

 

I work downtown at A.G. Edwards - car audio is just a hobby. I'd be happy to talk about what you are trying to do and lend any advice I can. Shoot me your email address through this site.

-Mark

 

I finally got the kicks finished up yesterday and took it for a ride last night. I wound up 50 miles away before remembering I wasn't going anywhere.

They sound AWESOME! Can't wait for a road trip this weekend.

I'll get some pics together and get em up tonight.

 

Good deal! Can't way to see the finished product.

 

I also have a question about the q-logic kick panels. i havent seen one in person but i was curious does the driver side panel interfere with the E-break pedel? I have a 1997 f-150