Contrary to any popular belief, there was no rear speaker box on the 1964 convertible. The rear seat backs of both hardtops and convertibles were equipped with the same rear speaker grill assembly that included a backing plate cut and tapped to receive a 6x9 speaker. In a convertible, when no rear speaker was installed in the factory, the back of the speaker grill assembly was covered in a flat piece of seat vinyl color keyed to the interior. The factory installed rear speaker in a convertible was bolted to the back of the grill assembly, then covered with specially sewn cover also made of seat vinyl and color keyed to the interior color. When a dealer installed a rear speaker in the convertible, they simply cut out the 6x9 hole in the back of the grill assembly and bolted the speaker in place, leaving it exposed.
On a side note, factory installed rear speakers in the hardtop were usually installed in the driver side 6x9 hole in the package shelf. The speaker grill in the rear seat was only used for rear speaker mounting by the dealer when a rear air conditioning unit was installed under the package shelf, as both package shelf speaker holes were used as return/supply air grills for the rear air conditioner. The passenger side 6x9 speaker hole in the package shelf of the hardtop was used as the return/supply air grill for the rear window defroster, when so equipped.
My "two cents" and experience for what it's worth.
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network
Archive Sitemap