Bluetooth Amplifier System Success!

[General Mopars]

I'm posting the link to my Facebbok post since it's set to public and you can see the photos. I'll also copy the links and text here for those not on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/AxlRosenberg/posts/pfbid0Jrbzi6nyNbgJxkjts9cKzXksWRbeC1KLzHGsPb9LwvNvAc8NcDew5D5ecBFZBkwBl

This is for the car geeks and audiophiles.
As a collector of vintage cars, there’s always been a struggle when it comes to car audio. If you’re into stock-appearing cars, that typically applies to the interior as well. The last thing you want is to be surrounded by a beautiful time capsule interior and have a modern head unit glaring at you from the middle of your dashboard, or to have giant 6” round speakers cut into your door panels. They sound amazing, but look horrible.
Conversely, having the original sound system typically consists of a 2 Watt radio, that depending on the era, is an AM (maybe AM/FM) mono tuner connected to a single in dash speaker that’s great for nostalgia, but is lightyears behind anything in a modern vehicle.
Typically the fix around this is a compromise. A second head unit hidden in the glove compartment, which is hardly convenient, or hung under the dash, which is ugly, or worse, cut into the dashboard in place of the original radio.
With the development of Bluetooth car amplifiers, I started thinking it may be possible to have the best of all possible worlds, and I used my ‘79 Z28 as a guinea pig. Partly because it’s a cool car deserving of a great system, and partly because there’s the additional challenge here of fitting a subwoofer in the trunk that still allows for a spare tire, and stowage of the giant glass T-top panels when they’re not in place. As any ‘78-81 F body owners know, those basically take up most of your trunk.
So here’s the final result. There’s no cutting, the factory speaker grilles on the rear deck are still in place, the factory AM/FM/8-track is still in place and still powers up. There’s a pair of Infinity Kappa 6x9”s under the rear deck, Infinity Kappa 4x6”s in the custom kick panels, and a 12” sealed subwoofer in the trunk, along with the original spare and both T-tops in their storage bags. The entire system is controlled by my phone; Think of an album, search it on Spotifify, and it’s playing in the car.
I’ll list all the part numbers if anyone is interested in duplicating the system, but really the amplifier is the heart of the system, and it would probably sound 80% as good with just a Bluetooth amplifier and a properly matched pair of 6x9s.
To be blunt, this sounds amazing. This is a 780W system you’re looking at.
https://www.amazon.com/.../ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08...
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20648.../Kicker-48TRTP122.html
https://www.ebay.com/itm/153377793155
https://www.ebay.com/itm/154564746632
https://www.retromanufacturing.com/.../blank-kick-panels...
https://www.amazon.com/.../ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05...

[5th T/A]

Nice job, I like what you have done and agree it’s good to leave the interior as stock looking as possible. FYI your links work through facebook but many of the ones posted on TAC do not.

I am almost finished with a sound system upgrade to my 1980:TA. I sent my stock AM/FM stereo out to be repaired as it wouldn’t go into stereo mode. Once repaired it still sounded bad by today’s standards. So like you I kept the original radio in place but installed a 15 year old Kenwood unit I had lying around into the console under the dash. It has HD FM, a built in CD player and a USB interface for my phone or iPod. My car came with four speakers so I didn’t need to go the kick panel route. I upgrade the to dash mounted 3 1/2” speakers and the deck mounted 6X9’s keeping the original grill’s. The unit in the console has a snap off face plate if  I don’t want it to be seen. The front dash speakers were really tight, I had to re drill the mounting brackets and rotate the speakers 180 degrees to clear the spade lugs. The right rear speaker was really close to the Jack mount under the package shelf and had to be bent slightly to clear the much larger magnet. Was this an issue for you? Where did you mount the power amp?

[b_hill_86]

I did this to my car a few years ago and am pretty happy with it. I can (and do) listen to the radio, 8 tracks or stream from my phone.

[General Mopars]

The right rear speaker was really close to the Jack mount under the package shelf and had to be bent slightly to clear the much larger magnet. Was this an issue for you? Where did you mount the power amp?

I was going to ask what kind of 3.5" speakers you used because depth always seems to be a problem. I don't recall having that issue with the rears. The amp is just behind the rear seat in the trunk

[5th T/A]

My front speakers were Pioneer TS-A879, purchased from Crutchfield. Depth fit was not an issue, but larger magnets made it tight. The spade lug connections hit the back of the instrument cluster on the left side, so I rotated the speaker 180 degrees so the spade lugs would point to the front of the car.

My rear speakers were Kenwoood Exceleron KFC-X694, also purchased from Crutchfield. They came with grills and mounting hardware. I wanted to use my factory flush mount grills, so I had to trim the plastic on top of the tweeters. This was a decorative piece that did not affect function. I could have used spacers but that would have dropped the right speaker closer to the spare tire and caused interference issues with the jack mounting bracket.