The GM A-Body vehicles are among the most popular applications for kick panel speakers. The GM A-Body includes the following Vehicles:

• Buick Skylark
• Buick GS
• Buick Special
• Chevrolet Chevelle
• Chevrolet El Camino
• Chevrolet Malibu
• Oldsmobile Cutlass
• Oldsmobile 442
• Oldsmobile F-85
• Pontiac GTO
• Pontiac Le Mans
• Pontiac Tempest

Our kick panel speakers are made of ABS plastic, come with a black textured finish, and they are designed to install just like the originals, to the stock mounts. If your interior is not black, they can be painted so that you can match them to your vehicle's interior color.

Why Kick Panel Speakers

There are two main advantages to adding kick panel speakers. The first advantage is pretty obvious and that is speaker size. Our kick panels accommodate 6.5" or 4"x6" speakers, depending on the application. These speakers are going to outperform a pair 3.5" or 4" speakers in your dash. The other advantage of 6.5" speakers especially is that it allows for a lot more speaker options since virtually every speaker company makes a 6.5".

The second advantage of adding kick panel speakers is due to the acoustics in your vehicle. When you add kick panel speakers to your vehicle, the speakers are firing at each other, and the location is very similar to where you see speakers mounted in cars today.

No A/C vs. With A/C

We offer the GM A-body kick panels speakers for vehicles with and without air conditioning. We often get asked questions about which model you should choose, especially if someone has added vintage air or another brand of aftermarket air conditioning. The determining factor is whether or not your vehicle came with air conditioning from the factory. Usually, the easiest way to tell is by looking at the passenger side quarter panel. if you see it bulge out, you have a factory A/C car.

Custom Autosound vs. Q-Logic

Custom Autosound

We offer A-Body kick panels from both Custom Autosound and Q-Logic. The Custom Autosound kick panels are designed to give your vehicle a close-to-stock appearance while adding the provision for the speakers. The Custom Autosound kick panels allow you to keep the fresh air vents if your car did not come with air-conditioning. The kick panels come with the speakers loaded, or pre-installed, or if you order them empty, the hole is already cut. The disadvantage is that the speaker options are somewhat limited. There are very few speaker models that will fit with the shallow mounting depth. We have done a bunch of research, which is why we are able to offer them with Kicker, Infinity, and JBL speakers and offer better sound for roughly the same price as the Custom Autosound Pioneer upgrade. You can use spacers to install a deeper speaker, but you will likely run into issues with the parking brake pedal. If you don't use your parking brake or you aren't worried about it, then have at it.

Q-Logic

The Q-Logic kick panel speaker pods are designed for component speakers, where the tweeter separate from the mid-range driver. The Q Logic kick panels are going to allow for deeper speakers than the Custom Autosound models. Also, many of the higher-end speakers only come in component form, and they just sound better. The components allow for off-axis listening so that you can point the tweeters toward the driver and passenger, while the mid-bass woofers can bounce off each other than the other surfaces below your dash. The Q-Logic enclosures do not allow you to use the levers for your fresh air vents and will interfere with your e-brake pedal. They are designed to mount on top of your factory kick panels. If you don't actually adjust your fresh air vents and you don't use your e-brake, the Q-Logic enclosures are going to allow you to install better speakers for the best sound possible.

Speaker Options

We offer several speaker options for both the Custom Autosound and Q-Logic kick panel speakers. We offer them with Custom Autosound (standard), Pioneer, Kicker CS Series, Kicker KS Series, Infinity Reference, and JBL speakers. There are some limitations due to the shallow mounting depth the kick panels accommodate. We have done the research and looked to find high-quality speakers that will actually fit, without bottoming out against the quarter panel. The other issue is the top side mounting depth. If we just add spacers, the speaker will be pushed out further and definitely interfere with the e-brake. The spacers also do not have the same appearance as a standard installation.

For the Q Logic kick panels, we have more speaker options as they can accommodate a deeper speaker. We are able to offer component speakers from Kicker, Rockford Fosgate, JL Audio, Infinity, JBL, Hertz, and more. With these speaker options, we are able to offer different tweeter options so that you can find a set of speakers to match the type of music you enjoy most.

What Do I Do About the E-Brake

So yes, there is a chance that your e-brake pedal will hit the speaker grille when you install kick panel speakers. There are several factors that may or may not lead to it happening and a couple of things that you can do in order to have kick panel speakers (even the Q-Logic ones) and a working e-brake. Why does it hit? Most of these cars are 50 years old or will be soon. After 50 years of being stepped on, the e-brake pedal mounts will just eventually loosen or bend. When this happens, the chances of the pedal hitting the speakers increase. The other aspect is the profile of the speaker grille. Many speakers have a grille that protrudes 1/2" from the speaker. Depending on the speaker model, and your e-brake, the pedal may or may not hit the speaker.

If it Does Hit, What Are My Options?

If your e-brake does in fact hit your speaker grille, there are a couple of fixes.

1. Remove the E-brake Entirely
2. Release the E-brake so that it is not engaged, then install the kick panels and don't use your e-brake
3. Modify and relocated your e-brake mounting points toward the center of the vehicle so that the e-brake pedal then fits
4. Convert your mechanical, e-brake pedal to an electronic, push-button e-brake