I've tried 3 different kick-panel speaker set-ups and I still find the footwell intrusion to be too much (stick-shift) so I thought it may be better to mount my components a little differently. I located the tweeters in the base of the a-pillar trim and will be mounting the mids behind the kick panels, only the grill will show. The mid-mount will require metal removal but it's not structural and shouldn't cause any issues. Here are the tweeter mounts, I'll post mid install photos tomorrow.

 

Here is the finished part, not installed...

 

that's sharp, i know i need that extra leg room for my manual transmission. What about putting the mids in the doors instead of cutting into the metal behind the fender? Otherwise you'll have to build something there to keep them from getting wet

 

The metal behind the kick panels is only a mounting panel to hold the dash and kick panels and has about 3-4" of depth between them and the door mounting panels. The area that needs to be opened up is already open and only needs some minor trimming. The doors are out of the question as I have power windows and the doors are full of the mechanisms, and I don't want to build-out from my new door panels.

 

Looks great! What'd you use to bond the tweeter pod to the a-pillar? Is the tweeter housing plastic?

 

I set the a-pillar in the installed position, played with the dispertion angles, then notched the trim where I wanted the tweeters. I then took the Infinity surface mount cups (plastic) and epoxied them into the position, filling in the back part with some sheet plastic I had, and blended them with plastic boldy filler.

 

Here is how I started the mid-speaker mounting, by using a fresh set of OEM kick panels. I outlined the opening being careful to retain the attachment screw holes when possible. It couldn't be done on the drivers side but I kept the passenger side holes intact.

 

On the drivers side I cut the mounting hole off of the cut-out piece and repositioned it toward the firewall using epoxy for the cup. This may sound a bit silly to do but the whole point of doing this is to limit the footwell intrusion and keeping this panel in it's original position will help quite a bit...

 

Interesting idea, but without cutting the metal away, you're going to have very limited depth for speakers.

Another thought was that while retaining the stock mounting points has its merit, repositioning the mounting point for the passenger side like you've done on the driver side could have given good results without creating an imbalanced appearance between left and right that you're going to have.

 

I am cutting away the metal, that'll give an extra 3" for depth.

Both a-pillar covers have the tweeter mounts and after measuring I found the distance from my headrest to the tweeters in the base of the a-pillars is within 4" of mounting them in the kick panels, and my leg won't be blocking them! With the time correction set-up properly I don't expect an serious imaging issues and I'll gain a lot of foot room...

 

why not try making new door cards found this much easer than the kick panels and u can can let the speaker into the door a little too

 

I just put in new door panels and wasn't really interested in modifying them, and I feel putting the speakers a little further away will make for better image dispersment. I had door-mounted tweeters on my '80 Camaro and the front-left tweeter just overwhelmed the others.
----------
I would have wrapped-up the install today but it started pouring rain. The kick-panel cut-outs match the perimeter of the speaker surrounds which will locate the areas to cut into the metal...

 

you really need to finish this. I am batteling where to mount my 6.5 components and I love your idea, but I want finished pics!

Im not being to selfish am I?

 

That's not what I was referring to. Your driver side woofer is right on the floor, and your passenger side woofer sits up a few inches. It reminds me of when my friend cut holes in his celica doors to install speakers, and put one 6" higher up than the other because he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing.

In other words, having the woofers both at the same position would look better.

But as long as you're mentioning the a-pillar locations & imaging issues, I can't help but wonder why you didn't put those in the kicks too? It's the woofers that take up all the foot room, and you've already eliminated that issue by cutting out the metal kick panel area to gain extra clearance.

 

I agree, but I don't think it'll look to bad when it's done and I wanted to cut as little metal as possible. The darn hood release dictated the d/s position.

I brought the tweeters up to the pillars to eliminate my leg blocking the sound, and I thought it would look cool!

 

are you going to relocate the power lock relays? They're bolted in right there I believe.

 

I had already relocated them when I did the last kick-panel swap...