Vintage Thunderbird Club International

What are the options for speakers? Size and placement???

You might want to do some searches in this "1955-57 Modified/Custom" forum. There are lots of solutions but each with a compromise. Space for speakers is at a premium.

The reality is that having a great sound in a convertible is difficult. My Miata even had speakers in the headrests. That really did not help much at highway speeds, top up or down.

It depends on how radical you want to get. Some have put a panel in place of the drop curtain if there is no soft top and installed speakers in that. Some have put box speakers in the flat open space above the axle. Others have just replaced the speaker in the dash to keep it close to original and a look alike head unit in the dash for the same reason but they run $500 or more.

You can replace the original dash speaker with a single 6x9. You can also get a 6x9 that contains two 4-inch speakers. The single 6x9 will provide more bass, but the two 4-inch will have a more 2-channel (stereo) effect, if you have a stereo receiver. I also have two 6x9 speakers that will be mounted in the original 55 trunk divider.

My original 55 radio has the Aurora AM/FM stereo conversion/w an auxiliary jack for my MP3 player; it's rated 60w x 4. The cost of the conversion was about $400. Optional Bluetooth costs about $200 more. The external appearance of the radio has not been altered. The aftermarket radios sold by Tbird suppliers are about $750. I've tested the radio in my bedroom by hooking it up to an ac-to-12v converter (not a battery charger). I don't know how it will sound inside the car, but it should be a considerable improvement over the original AM radio and dash speaker.

There are regular 6x9 speakers, there are dual 4" speakers mounted on the same sized frame as the 6x9, and there are 6x9 speakers which say they are "dual voice coil". I had the dual 4" in a 69 firebird dash and wasn't particularly impressed. I have a dual voice coil 6x9 in my 57 tbird and it's not bad.
I also have cube speakers behind the seat and behind the folded convertible top and behind the drop curtain. As you can imagine they have a lot of stuff they have to project thru. You can hear them though. When you listen to the radio when parked it sounds pretty good, when you are going 70 on the freeway you have to turn it up quite a bit and it's still listenable but not great. Photo shows one of the cubes as mounted behind the opening.

No doubt size and location are important considerations, but don't rule out quality.

I ordered the dual cone 6X9 to install in the dash. I also ordered the reproduction Town and Country radio. I plan to put a sub woofer behind the seat and soft top curtain (since bass frequencies are not very "directional"). I would like to put a pair of 5 1/4" speakers in the kick panels, under the dash, or last resort in the doors.

How do you remove the speaker grill in the center of the dash? I tried to pry it up with a plastic trim tool but I don’t want to damage anything. I was able to pry up a small section but it wouldn’t release. Before I try a little more muscle I wanted to ask………. I’m real good at breaking stuff lol

If it's like the 55-56 grille, you should have no trouble removing it once the four nuts have been removed from the underside of the dash. If the nuts have been removed, it's possible that a previous owner might have glued the grille to the dash. Dumber things have been known to happen.