Hey all,

Thanks for all the pix of speakers set into the door on your w124 but I would really hate to cut my baby apart... Hell, I've broken up with girlfriends who slammed my door!
Anyone know where I could get something similar to a qlogic pod ( not the kick panels, the universal pods) but in a 6.5 inch? I'd appreciate it alot and hope I dont have to go custom fab. Thanks Again

Jason M.

86 300E 88k miles
99 Crew Cab Chevy Dualie 7.4L (REEEAL TORQUE)
ASE Parts Specialist

Jason,

Unfortunately, QLogic does not make kick panels for MB, except for the C-class. Having a W201, I am also in a similar situation as you are. Drilling your doors isn't for the faint of the heart. ( I've tried that)

Upon research, I found out that building kick panels is probably the best way to go for guys like us. It also depends on how serious you are about sound. Kick panels will greatly enhance your sounds, but they are a little more trickier than stock locations. Building them sounds bad, but it isn't really. Do some research on this topic, and you shall see that building kick panels will actually give you great rewards, and at the same time, save you lots of money, compared to having them built by somebody else.
I am building my kick panels this weekend to house some 6.5 components. I'm sick and tired of the " radio talk show" speaker set up that MB's come with. I will try to post some pictures during this process.

vutown

Vutown,

Are you going to put the kick panels in the footwells or on the door?

Jason,

Ideally, the speaker should be positioned as closest to the ear as possible. However with the kick panels, the speaker will be pointing to the driver/passenger, so thus I will make the kick panel on the footwell. It's tough to make the speakers sit on the door without messing up the door panels.

Vutown

Jason,

The reason that most "Autophiles" use kick panels is because they want both their left and right speakers to be the same distance apart to give the best imaging. If the speakers are in the door, Woofer low and tweeter high, the left speaker is very close to the ear and the right is far away. By moving the speakers further away, the distance begins to be equalized as they move away. Also, by having the tweeter and mid/woofer close to one another, the sound will arrive at approximately the correct time.

Here is a pretty good explanation on how to build kicks.

http://www.elitecaraudio.com/install_clinic/Kick_Panels/images/index.php

Give it a try. Working with fiberglass is messy and smelly but not to difficult. Just take your time.

Good luck!