Our Kicker KS series, 1964-1967 442 Kick Panel Speaker & Amp Upgrade Kit includes the following:
- Kick Panel Speakers with Kicker KS Speakers Pre-Loaded
- Kicker KS Series 2-Way 6x9 Speakers
- Choice of Kicker 4 Ch. Amplifier
- 8 AWG Amp Wiring Kit
- 25 Feet of 16 AWG OFC Speaker Wire
Our 1964-1967 442 Kicker KS Series kick panel and speaker upgrade kit offers top of the line sound quality with the silk dome tweeters of the KS speakers and the 4 channel amplifier used to power them. Adding an amplifier to your classic car stereo system is somewhat like adding a supercharger or turbo to your engine. The amp increases the power to the speakers and in return your speakers will play louder, clearer and just overall so that much better. The highs will be higher, the lows lower and there is less distortion. With this kit you will have 6.5" speakers up front, mounted in the kick panels and 6x9 speakers in the rear. We feel that our 1964-1967 442 kick panel speaker upgrade kit offers better sound quality than the dash speaker option because you get 6.5" speakers up front instead of 3.5" or 4" speakers. Also, the location of the kick panel speaker provides better acoustic sound quality than the dash speaker. If you look at new cars today, they usually have a decent sized speaker in the door panel. In classic cars, we can't do that due to the door panel designs and overall design of the vehicle (less plastic in classic cars).
For the kick panels in this kit, we use the Custom Autosound ABS kick panels that are slightly modified, and bow out to accommodate a 6.5" speaker. The kick panels come in a textured black finish to match the texture of most vehicles' stock kick panels and they can be painted to match your interior if you choose. The speakers come pre-mounted in the kick panel, but if you do need to paint them, they can easily be removed by removing the 4 screws that hold them in. The Kicker KS series speakers are some of the best coaxial speakers on the market and they come with silk dome tweeters for smooth, rich, warm, and balanced sound. The KS speakers sound better than the CS series speakers and because the amp that comes in the kit offers plenty of power that is needed to drive them. Most 6.5" speakers are too deep and require spacer rings or custom fabrication to fit. The problem with spacer rings is that when you use them, you are pushing the front side of the speaker out to reduce the back side depth and in doing so, it will hit the e-brake pedal of most vehicles. It is somewhat of a catch-22 situation. Luckily, we are able to offer these Kicker KS series speakers that have shallow mounting depth, the grille does not protrude too far on the front side, and they sound really good!
The Kicker KS series, 2-way 6x9 speakers that are included with this kit have the same cone and tweeter material as the 6.5". These rear 6x9s are popular because they can be either top or bottom mounted. When the speakers are top mounted, the speaker grille is visible above the package tray as the speaker sits on top of the rear shelf. Many classic car owners want to bottom mount their rear 6x9s so that they can keep them hidden and keep the vehicle looking as original as possible. With bottom mounting 6x9 speakers, the speakers mount from below the rear package shelf in the trunk. Typically, the speaker grille is not seen as the rear package tray is perforated and sits over the top of the rear shelf for an OE, original appearance.
We offer two different amplifier options to power the four speakers. We offer the Kicker CX series 300 watt 4 channel amp or the Kicker KX series 400 watt 4 channel amp. The CX puts out 40 watts of constant power at 4 ohms while the KX steps it out to 50 watts. Although it may only be 10 watts of rated power, the KX will out power its rating by more watts than the CX will and the KX will have cleaner, better sounding power. Your radio may say that it is putting out 50 watts of power, but that is peak power. If you go based on peak power, this 300 watt amp would be a 1200 watt amp. The additional power allows your speaker to play louder, clearer, and cleaner. The extra power means you can turn your radio up loud enough to drive down the highway, have your windows down, and still hear your radio over the wind and engine/exhaust noise without distortion. Both the CX and the KX amps can run off either high level or low level inputs so you can run traditional RCA cables (included with amp wiring kit) from the pre-amp outputs of your radio or you can use the speaker wire outputs and plug those into the amp, but they require separate speaker wire to RCA adapters (P/N KISL). The amp is worth it. For a couple hundred dollars it will make driving your classic car that much more enjoyable especially considering how much money is likely invested in your vehicle
Our Kicker KS series, 1964-1967 442 kick panel speaker upgrade kit is perfect if you are looking for the unbeatable sound quality, but you do not want to add a subwoofer for the bottom end. This amp and speaker kit takes your speakers to the next level in terms of sound quality to give you a stereo that will sound better than the factory stereos in many "premium" sound systems in today's new cars.
Kick Panel Kit or Dash Speaker Kit?
When you look at all the options for your vehicle, you may have seen that we offer both a kick panel speaker upgrade kit and a standard upgrade kit that uses a dash speaker. There are advantages to both and that will change and depend on each customer. Here is a short guide of things to think about:
- Are you keeping your car as stock and original as possible? If your goal is to keep your car as original as possible but you still want good sound quality, go with the dash speaker kit.
- Is your car modified, are you building it to your likeness, and/or you want the best sound possible? The kick panel upgrade kit will sound better than the dash speaker kit because 6.5" speakers will sound better than 4" speakers and the speaker location is better.
- Somewhere in between? Just weigh the differences. Do you already have stock kick panels? If your interior is not black, do you want to paint the kick panels to match? What is going to be easier for you to install? All things to consider...