30 replies to this topic

[sigmfsk]

Bagman and I were talking here:
http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/bluesmobiles/8279-bagmans-bluesmobile-3.html#post113463
about the possibility of different "instrument panel upper covers".

It seemed a good time to start a new thread to shed some light on this question.
The front interior framework of a Monaco has holes for three speakers (pic 1).

The "instrument panel upper cover" (IPUC) is the flat piece of metal that fits horizontally between the padded dash and the windshield. Mine has holes for vents, and has a drilled area for the sound from the middle speaker (pic 2).

According to the operator's manual, the car could come with AM (it had no left/right balance control, and was presumably mono, presumably using only the front center speaker location), or AM/FM stereo (which had left/right balance control, and presumably used the two front outside speaker locations).

The question:
Did all Monaco's have the same IPUC? With holes for the center speaker only, even if they were AM/FM equipped? Or is there an AM/mono/center-speaker IPUC, and an AM/FM/stereo/outside-speakers IPUC?

The shop manual doesn't seem to be of help. It shows an IPUC with large holes for all three speaker locations (pic 3).

The bluesmobile had a center hole IPUC, at least in one shot (pic 4).

But in other shots its really hard to tell. Some shots don't look like there are speaker holes either in the middle or sides (pic 5).

your friend in pics of double-holed IPUCs,
arthur

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[Bismo]

Great idea for a thread, Arthur. My car has the same IPUC as yours, and indeed when I got her had only the original single mono center speaker (hooked up to a very crappy old CD player by the previous owner). The center speaker blew up on me over the winter when we had to at one point jump the car and the whole battery went! So got new rear speakers and put in a new mp3 stereo head unit, but for the moment also just left the front alone for the time being. Eventually we'll want to put a full 4-speaker system in there (and hopefully an external PA some day!) so this topic will be of interest, haven't heard it brought up before.

Keep the Faith,

- Bis

[TI4438]

My '74 Monaco 2 door only has one speaker on the IPUC for the AM radio.

mY '76 Monaco Blumo has the same along with two speakers on the rear deck.The car was originally equipped with an AM/FM 8-track.

[Bismo]

My rear deck had foam under the grill locations for the speaker cutouts but it was perforated and very easy to remove.

[sigmfsk]

TI4438 said:

My '74 Monaco 2 door only has one speaker on the IPUC for the AM radio.

mY '76 Monaco Blumo has the same along with two speakers on the rear deck.The car was originally equipped with an AM/FM 8-track.

Interesting TI!
So you have a 1976 Monaco, originally equipped with an AM/FM 8-track (which I think necessarily brought along "stereo" with it), with a single-center hole IPUC. Do you have two side-speakers up front? Do they sound fine, even though they don't have IPUC holes over them?

I guess my question is: do they sound fine enough that you would recommend installing two side-speakers over a single center-speaker?

If a two-holed IPUC doesn't exist, I won't worry about looking for one. And if the side-speakers sound fine with a single-holed IPUC, which I expect they will, I'll get two side-speakers instead of a dual voice coil center speaker.

thanks,
arthur

[TI4438]

The only speakers the cars have are the ones mentioned above.I did have a local shop install a new CD played and three new speakers in the BluMo.Those three are more than enough for me.LOUD and clear.

[sigmfsk]

TI4438 said:

...I did have a local shop install a new CD played and three new speakers in the BluMo...

Oh, I think I get it now. Your 1976 BluMo originally came with AM/FM/8-track, and it now has a center front speaker that was installed by a local shop.

When you had the front center speaker installed, do you know if it replaced the original front center speaker, or if the car had side-speakers with the AM/FM/8-track?

This opens up the possibility that maybe Monacos have holes for 5.25" front side-speakers but there were never used, and even FM stereo used the center speaker.

thanks for talking me through it,
arthur

[Bagman]

I can't really imagine even mediocre results from the speakers without perforations above them (created manually or through a magic IPUC we don't know about).

Since sound travels through the air, the sound would have to come out the center perforations (thereby making the exercise pointless), or vibrate the upper cover which would then vibrate the air. Obviously the latter doesn't give good sound quality or volume and probably would make the IPUC rattle.

[sigmfsk]

Bagman said:

I can't really imagine even mediocre results from the speakers without perforations above them...

Well, that does sound persuasive. Get it, "sound", he heh ehe. I'll operate under the assumption that if the factory installed a front speaker, the IPUC had perforations over it.

So we're still working on:
Did the factory AM/FM/Stereo have a balance control that only operated the rear, and the front still had the single center speaker and all IPUCs were center-hole only?
or, was there a mysterious multi-holed IPUC available.

Is it just me, or does this pic of king-of-the-hill look like the IPUC has a rectangular-shaped center perforation area, and a starburst shaped driver-side perforation area? Maybe it had three front speakers connected!

thanks,
arthur

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[TI4438]

sigmfsk said:

Oh, I think I get it now. Your 1976 BluMo originally came with AM/FM/8-track, and it now has a center front speaker that was installed by a local shop.

When you had the front center speaker installed, do you know if it replaced the original front center speaker, or if the car had side-speakers with the AM/FM/8-track?

This opens up the possibility that maybe Monacos have holes for 5.25" front side-speakers but there were never used, and even FM stereo used the center speaker.

thanks for talking me through it,
arthur

The '76 originally had three speakers to go along with the 8 track.I had the shop replace all three.They sound great.

[TK826]

Mine is much like TI 's.

AM/ FM
3 speakers
(1 in front... 2 in back)


* edit:

Axl_Rosenberg's Monaco has a nice set-up with aftermarket speakers in each
of the front kick panels.

Shown here:
http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/bluesmobiles/7601-1974-monaco-bluesmobile-hire-new-york.html

[scatpack01]

I still got the original one from my car. I'll have to look see what it has.

[sigmfsk]

This post
http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/bluesmobiles-sale/9153-canada-1974-monaco-2-door-b-c.html#post101263
has this pic

which seems to show a rectangular perforation area for the left speaker.

This contrasts with the starburst perforation area that I thought that king-of-the-hill had. Maybe there were more than two different IPUCs! Or maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me.

[TK826]

Just a guess, but maybe that rectangle is the vin number (?)


edit:
Then again, maybe not.
After a cross reference, it looks like the vin is smaller and closer to the windshield.

[sigmfsk]

I think Steam is holding out on us. I'm sure this pic definitely shows a rectangular left speaker perforation area:


from
http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/bluesmobiles-sale/9038-usa-1977-royal-monaco-oklahoma.html#post102304

Why would they derby the one known left-speaker IPUC Monaco? WHY!

[sigmfsk]

How about this!
A left & right, and no middle IPUC:


from
http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/bluesmobiles-sale/7578-usa-1977-royal-monaco-pennsylvania.html#post87473

[TK826]

Here is a 74 Brougham Hardtop that was purchased by a member here, not too long ago.

A nice shot of :
Front Left - Front Right... No middle.

The left side is easy to see, and the reflection in the windshield shows
the right side.

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[sigmfsk]

TK826 said:

The left side is easy to see, and the reflection in the windshield shows the right side.

Ahhh, great thinking on the reflection, and thanks for the pic!

Here's my summary of facts and assumptions. Anyone, please comment me if I got something wrong.

1) we have examples of center 1-hole IPUCs, and side-speaker 2-hole IPUCs.
2) we do not have examples of a 0-hole IPUC, or a 3-hole IPUC*.
3) wherever a front speaker was installed, it had an IPUC perforation directly above it.
4) if one side-speaker was installed, the other side speaker was also installed.
5) an AM radio (which did not have balance control) always had just a single center speaker
6) an AM/FM/8-track (which did have balance control) at least sometimes came with just a center speaker (see TI's post)
7) an AM/FM radio (which did have balance control) at least sometimes came with just a center speaker (see TK's post)
according to these criteria, a radio-delete car could come with a 1-hole or 2-hole IPUC, but it seems that the 2-hole IPUC is rare, even more rare than one would expect being that FM radios at least sometimes came with a 1-hole IPUC, so I'm guessing a radio-delete care came with a 1-hole IPUC.
9) we don't know what drove the decision for a 2-hole IPUC (and corresponding two side speakers), but we've seen it on a 1974 Brougham (the small blue pic below), another 1974 Brougham (the last pic by TK), and two 1977 Royals. So maybe it was part of a super-duper luxury sound package?

*without more information I'm happy to assess king-of-the-hill as a middle-hole IPUC, and say the starburst artifact is not a speaker perforation

[Steam McQueen]

sigmfsk said:

I think Steam is holding out on us.

Haha, it's not true. I'm gettin' some learning in like the rest of us. :D

When you mentioned the '77 Royals and "super-duper luxury sound package" it did make me think of the optional factory installed AM/FM/CB available in the 1977 Royal Brougham. I believe the option code on it was R36. I don't know if it has any relevance here but that's what came to mind.

[sigmfsk]

The '74 Monaco brochure
http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/bluesmobiles/10114-brochures-1974-monaco-custom-brougham.html
has some tidbits of information:

You could get:
Music Master AM radio
AM/FM monaural radio
AM radio with stereo 8-track
AM/FM multiplex stereo radio
AM/FM multiplex stereo radio with 8-track
Single rear seat speaker (NA stereo)
Dual rear seat speakers (stereo only)

Thoughts:
So not all AM/FM radios were stereo, but if an 8-track was involved, the radio was always stereo, so TI's car seems to nail home that some stereo cars came with a single front speaker.

A single rear seat speaker? My metal rear deck only has three holes - two for outside 6x9s, and another to mount the blower motor for the rear defrost. I don't know where a single rear seat speaker would mount.

I just remembered, and verified in my pile of parts, that the thick cardboard sound insulation that was sandwiched between the metal rear deck and the nice color matched rear dash, did not have holes for speakers. The two 6x9 areas were punched for speaker holes, but the ovals had not been removed. So this seems strong evidence that there were no rear speakers, and therefore my car was factory radio-delete. And so radio-delete cars (or at least one of them) were one-hole IPUCs.

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