I'm back with my dual 3.5" speaker brackets

There's nothing quite like having your son jump in for your defense. Thanks, Aaron, I'll take it from here.

First, let me say to those who are getting "anxious" about this - my apologies for being remiss in replying. For some odd reason (I'll need to investigate a bit more), I was not subscribed to my own thread as I had thought, so I never saw any of your posts on here, mostly because I have not been routinely checking FABO. I do have my user CP set to notify me by e-mail of any private messages I receive, and I did see those. As stated in my original post, I was currently "negotiating with a shop that can cut a run of brackets for me, but I need to get an idea of the number of each type." It was my intent to get a feel for the quantity of brackets to cut by the number of PMs I received. Perhaps it was a bit short-sighted on my part, but I anticipated that questions would be asked in the requested PMs, rather than become a dialog here in the thread. As you young 'uns are frequently prone to say, "My bad."

Second, as Aaron said, I have had plenty of other things on my plate since originally posting this thread. Not to be playing on anyone's sympathy, but for the second time in less than a year, the economy has taken it's toll on me and I lost my job two weeks ago. Resumes, online job searches, interviews, Texas Workforce Commission paperwork, COBRA health insurance paperwork, and other various and sundry little pesky details that make for a rather unpleasant day have been consuming most of my free time. Again, I apologize for not keeping pace with the incoming flow of inquiries about my brackets, but other things have been monopolizing my thoughts.

Third, as Aaron mentioned, these brackets were a solution to a problem we encountered when we first started trimming out his '74 Dart Sport. A new AM-FM stereo and CD changer were sitting there begging for two modern speakers up front, rather than the old, busted 4"x10" single speaker. We knew that cutting the kick panels was out of the question for us, so there weren't many options. A bracket like you see here was a perfect solution for us, but maybe it isn't for everyone. Neither of us are audiophiles, and neither of us had any experience with or knowledge about sound imaging, wave reflection, or other "quality" issues that some of you may have. When I first described what we had done with Aaron's car, I began to receive interest from other members here and on other MOPAR-related websites. Others agreed that these brackets suited their needs and I made a few more over the years (thanks for your post BrianT).

Fourth, yes, anyone with a little inclination towards all things mechanical could easily whip one of these brackets out for themselves in short order. However, some of our members here do not have a shop equipped with the necessary tools to cut one out. Let's see... there's a band saw with bi-metal blade for cutting aluminum. I suppose those of you with a steady hand could use your jigsaw. However, have you tried holding down a flopping sheet of thin aluminum and still get a smooth edge? Oh, yes, the edge... even a band saw leaves some jagged teeth marks that were not appealing to me, so I used the second necessary tool, a belt/disc sander, to smooth out and true-up the edges. Now, for the holes... how many of you out there have a drill press where you can clamp the bracket down tightly? Trust me, you don't want to do this with a hand drill. OK, how about a 3-1/2" metal-cutting hole saw? Have you priced one lately? This isn't a tool you will use very often in your lifetime, and to buy one just for your single bracket is not going to be very cost effective. I also bought a 4" one (ouch $$$) to look at adding some other speaker options. Wait, I didn't mention the belt sander, did I? As Aaron said, our first few brackets were cut from some old street signs that were not in the best condition on their surface. After cutting, sanding, and drilling the brackets, I then cleaned up the two flat surfaces with a belt sander to give them a satin finish. I hope you can see from the effort I put into preparing these brackets that I wanted to offer a quality product, not just something quickly whipped out for a fast buck.

Fifth, I make and sell brackets for '64-'66 A-bodies to replace their 6"x9" speaker, '67-'76 A-bodies with the 4"x10" speaker, early B-bodies with the 6"x9" speaker, and later B-bodies or E-bodies with the football-shaped speaker that drops in from the top of the dash grill. Over the years, I have had no one express concerns about conflicts with other under-dash components or hardware, magnets included. All I have sold has been the brackets, although, I have asked my buyers to provide me with the name and model of the speakers they eventually chose for their application. I do have a list around here somewhere that I could provide. Since perception of sound quality is such a personal thing, I am reluctant to make recommendations. I will leave that subject for you folks to begin your own threads to discuss.

Sixth, to-date I have sold my brackets, regardless of style, for $26 to be shipped anywhere in the lower 48 (an extra $1 to Canada.) I have not sent any overseas, so I couldn't tell you what that would cost until I have to actually figure it out. Some buyers paid with money orders, some by personal check (yes, I trust you), and some by Paypal. I did not want to get into figuring shipping costs or Paypal fees for each individual sale, so I fixed the price at what I thought was reasonable for the quality and time I was spending on them (you old-timers know you never can get paid enough for your time.) Apparently, the cost was not too unreasonable, because I have sold a few of them over the past four years (thanks again to those of you who bought them.)

Finally, I hope that I have addressed all of your questions and concerns. If not, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and I promise I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can. I appreciate your interest, and my plan is to be able to pick up some brand new, high quality brackets later this week, cut with a water jet (so I don't have to spend hours making them myself.) I will definitely keep you posted on the progress. In the meanwhile, if you would like to buy one, please send a PM, because it is easier to keep track of them, rather than picking through pages of this thread. If you are determined to post questions or comments to this thread, then I will reply as soon as I can. I aim to please.

Thanks for all the interest, and especially to FABO to make this possible,
Jerry