How I dream the conversation went at Ford concerning the rear speakers in a 1989 Mustang Convertible.
Car Designer (CD): You know what would be great? If we had premium sound in our Mustang convertibles.
Audio Engineer (AE): That sounds good … what does that involve?
CD: Well instead of four speakers we will put 6 speakers in them.
AE: I like that. Of course, we have to make a few design changes to make room for the additional speakers.
CD: Oh no we can’t do that. I like the design a lot. Let’s just put the speakers under the side panels.
AE: That could work if we put a grill in the carpet of the side panels.
CD: No that would mess up the aesthetic of the interior.
AE: But if we keep the carpet there it will muffle the sound and thus it won’t be premium sound.
CD: Yes it will premium sound because they will still have 6 speakers.
AE: Yes, but if we put the rear speakers under the carpet you basically won’t hear anything out of them. They’ll be muffled by the carpet that covers them.
CD: But they will have 6 speakers and that equals premium sound.
AE: I guess if the owner ever decided they wanted better sound quality they could always change those rear speakers out for better speakers.
CD: No, we don’t want that to happen. They could mess up the premium sound. We should make the speakers very difficult to get to and then make sure that the speakers are even more difficult to remove by attaching them with rivets rather than screws.
AE: Seems like we aren’t making the car sound very good for the owners.
CD: What do you mean? They’ll have premium sound with 6 speakers. What more could they want?
Anyhow, after a good bit of work over the past week (when not roofing a friend’s house) I have been able to remove the rear speakers and will replace them with Kicker DS 6.5 speakers once they arrive. Then the sound in Buddy will be closer to actual premium sound … and still have 6 speakers.