Radio install options?

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Big Sexy

Big Sexy

10 Year
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Threads
49
Messages
199
Location
Hendersonville North Carolina
Gentlemen,

I've been able to do a fair amount of interior work this winter. I've swapped out the bench for the recommended Silverado buckets - an excellent choice; a CB radio install; and built a fine center console complete with lights and the all important cup/drink holders. The holes in the floor pans don’t bother me at this point as that is next winters project….

I'm now turning my attention to installing a radio. Presently, there is no radio in the dash and the dash is uncut. My preference is NOT to cut the dash and install a non-standard (custom) radio. There are at least two companies that sell modernized radios that fit into the dashes of older vehicles, but I’m looking at $200 without shipping which is much more than I’m willing to spend for a radio.

The obvious advantage of going with a standard radio is that they are sold anywhere and at reasonable prices. But, once the dash is cut, it’s cut…

While my rig is not original (SBC 350, pending axle swap, aforementioned seat upgrade, etc, etc) I seem to hesitate at cutting the dash.

Thoughts, opinions, pics and recommendations are welcomed.

Thanks in advanced.
 
I had trouble with the CD player hitting the defroast ducts even after I cut the dash... It sticks out like a 1/4 inch too much. :(

With my stock one, I'm going to have to do something creative with it. I need tunes in something as slow as a stock cruiser! I thought about just putting an amp under the seat and plugging in my ipood, but then I started thinking that I don't want to not have AM/FM. There are SOME times that I like to hear the news or talk radio instead of music.
 
I'm working on putting an updated radio in my '76 pig right now. Found that a Pioneer CD unit (and any other standard size CD player) is too deep and hits the windshield wiper linkage.

I ended up ordering a Clarion RG9451 which is shallower but includes a front AUX input instead of the CD player. They're meant for heavy machinery, so they're waterproof and vibration proof...perfect fit for an old cruiser. Very solid unit.

The biggest part of the project is building a sleeve to mount it in and trim the dash to fit. The seam on the left side of the defrost duct will need to be trimmed some, but a dremel and coarse file make quick work of that. The sleeve is just sheet metal bent in a brake and rivetted.

Here are a couple pics.


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The decision to cut my dash was a hard one, considering the dash panel is near perfect. But I wasn't having much luck finding radios that fit the original slot. If you do decide to cut, cut smaller than needed and use a fine file to finish the edges so it's a nice snug fit. No regrets here.
 
i know it would be a pain in the ass to run the wires but i always wanted to run a cd player unit off the roof fab a small mounting bracket and mount a small metal pod. i think it would be different, and get the player out of the way. just my 2 cents
 
You can mount it on your console. I have done that on a few vehicles. I like the roof idea , too.
 
The car I sold to get Megadoomer had a tape/CD combo and came with a tape in it. I only took it out once to see what it was and put it back in. It never left the deck and I sold it that way four years later.
 
I looked again, Dylan is the only one I know and never really understood him. :meh:, but I"m not a music guy. I was thinking about not even putting in a radio. I had a tape deck under the seat, of my old 40, but ruined it going in the river.
 
scrapdaddy said:
I looked again, Dylan is the only one I know and never really understood him. :meh:, but I"m not a music guy. I was thinking about not even putting in a radio. I had a tape deck under the seat, of my old 40, but ruined it going in the river.
Click to expand...

Highway 61 Revisited?!? Epic music to listen to in a Pig!

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_61_Revisited_(song)

Influence of Highway 61: Highway 61 runs from Duluth, Minnesota, where Bob Dylan grew up in the 1940s and 1950s down to New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a major transit route out of the Deep South particularly for African Americans traveling north to Chicago, St Louis and Memphis, following the Mississippi River valley for most of its 1,400 miles (2,300 km).

Meaning: The song has five stanzas. In each stanza, someone describes an unusual problem that is ultimately resolved on Highway 61. In Verse 1, God tells Abraham to "kill me a son". God wants the killing done on Highway 61. This stanza references Genesis 22, in which God commands Abraham to kill one of his two sons, Isaac. Abram, the original name of the biblical Abraham, is the name of Dylan's own father. Verse 2 describes a poor fellow, Georgia Sam, who is beyond the helping of the welfare department. He is told to go down Highway 61. Georgia Sam may be a reference to Piedmont blues musician Blind Willie McTell, who occasionally went by Georgia Sam when recording.

In the third verse, a "Mack the Finger" has this problem of getting rid of particular absurd things: "I got forty red white and blue shoe strings / And a thousand telephones that don't ring". "Louie the King" solves the problem with Highway 61. Verse 4 is about the "fifth daughter" who on the "twelfth night" told the "first father" that her complexion is too pale. Agreeing, the father seeks to tell the "second mother", but she is with the "seventh son", on Highway 61.

The fifth and last verse is the story of a bored gambler, trying "to create the next world war". His promoter tells him to "put some bleachers out in the sun / And have it on Highway 61". There is an evident political undertone in this absurd tale.

There is a pause in each verse while Dylan waits for some event in the story to finish; in the third verse, for example, the pause occurs while Louie the King attempts to resolve the shoestring-and-telephones problem. Between each verse Dylan is heard blowing an imitation police whistle, known as a "Siren Whistle" [1], brought in by Sam Lay who was drummer on the Highway 61 sessions as noted by Tony Glover in the liner notes to Live 1966. Other accounts say that the whistle was brought in by Al Kooper. It is said that he had originally brought in the "siren whistle" to police the sessions. Supposedly, if someone were to begin doing drugs he would go into a corner and blow on the whistle. He later suggested to Dylan that he use the whistle in this song instead of his harmonica.
 
I have used in the past on all my cruisers...

~A small amp that powers the speakers.
~My Iphone or Ipod to control music and volume

Who listens to the radio and cd's anymore?:p

With this setup you leave the dash OE and unmolested. Aftermarket head units always look terrible.

-Al:beer:
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www.retrosoundusa.com
I installed one of these in my piggy, they are awesome. Front aux input plus front and rear rca outputs.
Im always getting comments about how the car still has its original radio, little do they know...........
 
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