One of the first questions I am ever asked when I take the Bluesmobile out is, “Where’s the speaker?”
My answer in the beginning was I am not building a speaker. Then it went to I’m thinking about building the speaker, I haven’t decided. My answer has now changed to “I’m in the process of building the speaker, it’s not finished yet.”
I never wanted to build the speaker. As a huge fan of the movie I thought of the speaker as a small, insignificant piece of the overall movie. It was in only two or three scenes!
I always wondered what was it about the speaker that stands out for everybody? After revisiting the movie many times during the build I have to admit that although the number of scenes it was present in were small, they were some of the most memorable scenes in the movie.
You two girls! You on the motorcycle! Tell your friends!
And tonight is ladies night at the Palace Hotel Ball Room
Alright, alright. Fine you got me. I’ll build the speaker.
Now, Civil Defense sirens were all over the place during this era. Although not as noticeable nowadays, they’re still around. Usually much smaller though.
If the siren in the movie looks unfamiliar to most U.S. citizens, it’s with good reason. The speaker in the film is a representation of the Civil Defense sirens built by CLM Industries in Ontario, Canada. It has been said Dan Aykroyd specifically asked for this type of speaker to pay homage to his hometown.
Last November (2017!!!) I contacted a sheet metal company in a small suburb west of Chicago to build my speaker shell. The dimensions I used were provided to me by fellow Bluesmobile enthusiast Chris Koles.
Chris told me that he picked out the Atlas Sound DR-72 speaker first, then created the dimensions of the outer shell to go around it. Thinking I would do the same setup, I had mine built to the same size.
Built out of 20 gauge steel and held together with a combination of rivets and welds, it’s surprisingly strong, yet lightweight. I can easily carry it around by myself.
Since being built, I have decided against making it a functional speaker. I will be installing marine speakers underneath the car in order to have a functional PA system and the ability to play music with or without the speaker on top.
I will be building the inner cone to resemble the movie cone as close as possible.
The Roof Rack
The roof rack in the movie was cobbled together with whatever wood Elwood could find and tied down with rope to hold the speaker in place.
In keeping with the spirit of knowing Elwood would never ever ever buy new wood, I am using reclaimed wood for my build.
A buddy of mine that recently built a deck gave me a lot of left over 2×2, and 2×3’s, as well as some plywood.
And I found for 6×6’s and some miscellaneous scraps by my sister in laws house that someone threw in the alley when they tore down their deck.
I’ve been ripping them into usable sizes, standard 2x4s, 2x6s, etc. They’ll definitely have the right character to them when I am done!
Look for an update real soon showing me build the roof rack and the center speaker cone!
