The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The Radio Bench Repro Radios

I tried searching, though not super extensively, so I hope I'm not re-starting something that's already been adequately addressed...

I was wondering if anyone has bought one of the factory appearing reproduction radios that Jim Carter or Classic Parts carry, that appears to be from these guys:
http://www.radiosforoldcars.com/

Reason I ask is they're fairly expensive, but the 10% sale at Jim Carter's for the next few days will help a little.

Does anyone have any experience with these? If so, what's the quality like, ease of operation, etc? Worth the cost? I'm most interested in the factory appearance plus the iPod input. I know there are cheaper units to use, but I'm not a fan of the newer looking ones, and feel the digital displays on most will look wildly out of place in my truck.

EBC, I like mine, works, looks, and sounds good. They are expensive, but we all have wasted money on worst things. The other radios made to fit our trucks but don't have the original appearance, just look out of place in my opinion. If the price doesn't bother you, then go for it. Christmas is coming, buy yourself a nice present.

Brian

I stumbled onto an original in mint shape and stole it for $100. Its been in the truck a year but still not hooked up. I do not like driving with a radio or CD player as I am finding being really old I have to put all my attention onto the road. No radios in my Malibu or Buick.

Thanks, Brian for your input.

I have original radios in all my other cars, but got one of the Antique Automobile Radios for my 59 pickup. It never had a radio.

The unit fit perfectly inthe dash and looks very good, except there is no Bow Tie on the glass dial face. The sound is good, I can play FM and connect to my iPhone for music. I bought mine through a local vintage car parts shop and paid less than retail, but I think it is still a good value at retail cost. Reliable, great sound, almost original appearance.

I recently bought one from Jim Carter. They only sell them but the Company that makes them is Antique Auto Radios. Mine finally got to pick up 'some' AM stations but not many. My big issue is with the dial... The tuner needle jumps every time you turn it and when you do find a station it's not at the spot on the dial where the station should be so you can't just turn the dial to your favorite station... I have had several email exchanges with these bozos and this is the last one I received;

"Hello Mark – Unfortunately with this particular radio the center of the dial is 80 so when we produced the radio we decided to make the radio look original rather than try to match the numbers up. There is nothing we will be able to do about the dial not aligning.
If this is not something you want you can return the radio as long as it is still under warranty to the company that you bought it directly through.

Regards,

Daisy Schulz
Antique Automobile Radio, Inc."

Can you even believe this ? Radio costs $550 !!!

I understand what she is saying there and that is the price of looking authentic. What is the jumping you are referring to? Do you move a physical dial when you are tuning?

I would think it is fair that you can return it if you want to.

$650 with speaker, plus $50 for 6v-12v converter.

Some re-sellers do not discount this radio.

You move the dial in an erratic manner and it just does not seem to indicat where you actually are in the process. EG, you get a station that should be at 830 but the dial says 620 or so. So when you leave the area how do you find what station you want to listen to. How hard can it be to make the dial work right ???.. For the price they charge it should pour you a drink when you get in the truck... !!! Yes, it looks original, I'll grant them that but reception is only fair and the dial sucks...sorry

Dogface,
I don't own one of these so that is why I am asking questions about how it works. I am guessing that it has digital tuning and actually locks on to a station as you get near. In other words, in the old days you would adjust the dial to create the best sound for the station but these repros jump to a station near where you are tuning. Does it have presets or dial scanning?

Truckernix:
Actually I don't know if it's digital tuning or not. All I know is that to find a station you need to keep scrolling the tuner needed and then set a button. The needle has NO relation to where the station actually is on the dial so it's kinda worthless. I emailed them several times but just got a run around on how to fix this. I'd stay away from it but others seem happy so maybe you want to contact them..

Truckermix: You asked a question before that I missed. The needle does not operate smoothly like you would think. It moves in a kind of jerky way up/down the dial and somtimes does not move at all until you keep turning the tuner dial. You really have to be patient to find a station you like and then set a button. You will never know that station's call numbers until they say it on air... very strange

It's been a long while now since the OP inquired about his radio choice predicament, and don't know how he made out with his choices.

May I suggest an alternative: providing you already have an old radio that fits (working or not), why not rebuild your own? Gee, even if you don't currently have a radio, I'm confident there is still a good (dial assembly) workaround using just a simple basic '60's rig ..albeit a little more time consuming.

Anyway, for those interested I've posted just such a project in the Radio Bench section.

Good luck -- have fun!

I am the OP I believe. I did succumb to the temptation to buy one of those repos and am sad I did. What a totally over priced piece of crap they are. You simply cannot rely on dialing the needle to find a station..you just have to stumble on it and set a button. Then the needle is no where near where the station really is on the dial. You can't even know this until it's installed and working..sort of.... I guess you could test it on a bench but, silly me, I trusted that for $500 !! it was a good product...

Color me extremely sad for buying this...

Mark --
So sorry to read that. Are you able to share the name of the repro maker? Might help others to avoid the same pitfall.

For that amount of money (even more here in Canadian funds) one would think the so-called pros would provide an exceptional product with a great satisfaction guaranty.

And in light of that, have you contacted the supplier to see if they will make it right for you?

Some of my research included folks like yourself who were also dissatisfied with those (commercial) products. Some with the same complaint as yours.

I suspect that the original intent was to provide a quality product. But I guess a quick buck got in the way of integrity. From what I understand, those electronic card gizmos are available to most any 'commercial' shop who wants to repackage and sell it. Their mechanical assembly expertise might be lacking as a result.

Depending how choked you still are about this, perhaps by using the front end dial assembly of your unit (if they used the original stuff), the chassis could be swapped and more appropriately adapted to that of a '60's radio?
Hey, it might even come out prettier than mine

Hi Wayne,

I did talk directly with the gal that is the head of this company...small company..and she, quite frankly, was a bit terse with me. Essetially what she said was that all her repro radios are like the one I have in that the needle is basically there just for show ??? and that tuning is accomplish by trial and error then set a button. It does, if you care, pick up FM by switching of and back on quickly...I seldom if ever listen to FM though... They are sold thru Jim Carter's site and I think the maker is just down the street from them...Contact him for further info. I have my stations set now and will just let it be. I can't afford to pursue this anymore as I would just get more frustrated with this maker...

That was me that started the thread. I ended up buying a decent Sony Bluetooth speaker for use with my iPod to tide me over for a while, and have not actually bought a truck radio to permanently install in the truck. (The Bluetooth speaker has been used more outside of the truck than in, so it was a good buy.) Besides the price of the unit in question being an initial hold up, I haven't addressed some other issues with the truck that are more important at this time (weatherstripping, repairing door latches/lock), so the permanent radio will wait until the appropriate time. It turns out, I don't have a lot of time to do repairs and upgrades... Who'd have thunk it..?

Regarding Mark's issue with the dial needle not indicating where it's actually tuned: personally that wouldn't bother me as I would be using the iPod/phone input 99% of the time, but I can see how that would rub him the wrong way considering the price of the unit. I think the main selling point of the unit is the combination of the vintage LOOK (but not necessarily exactly-as-vintage operation) with the modern features, with the aux input probably being the main draw as it is with me.

Regarding rebuilding an old one: I don't have an old one to start with, and I don't have the know-how to rebuild one and implement the features I want, namely the iPod integration. An original AM-only box would be useless to me, and one with FM would be nearly as useless. I want basically what those guys are selling... There's an automotive radio repair shop very near my house- I wonder if anyone there would be open to discussing the idea of rebuilding an old rig with newer features. Maybe one day I'll make it by there.

This is really disheartening to read about the repro radios. I wish others on this site could share their experiences. I am under the understanding that the button selections will be lost if power is lost. Is that so?

There are some people in the business of replacing the electronics in these old radios with a new solid state board. They use the mechanical tuning system and the oscillator tuning coil. I am not sure if it is an FM only conversion.

Truckernix,
Here are the specs from their site that should answer your questions:



Small size, BIG features!

Looks original but
offers today's technology

3¼" case depth allows room
for electric wipers,
air conditioning

AM dial scale in foreground
looks original - FM dial scale
in background

Analog controls look and feel
like the original radio

All controls easily accessible. Volume, bass, treble, balance, fader and tuning from original-looking controls

LED dial lights will never need replacing

Digitally tuned AM/FM Stereo front end provides stable, high quality reception

11.5 - 16.0 Volts DC negative ground input only

Maximum power = 180 watts RMS (45 watts x 4 speakers 4Ω, 14.4V, 1kHz)

Do not use original speakers

Uses original antenna

Sensitivity (FM S/N 30dB) typ 5 dBµ, (AM S/N 20dB) typ 29 dBµ

10 presets (5 AM, 5FM)

Digitally tuned receiver with analog display

Dimensions: 9" W x 3.25" H x 4.6" D. Depth behind dash is 3.25" at shafts

Auxiliary inputs (RCA jacks). Standard (Motorola) antenna jack

½" D shafts on controls for mounting (same size and thread as original shafts)

Memory retention (presets and other user settings) more than 40 years with power disconnected

3 RCA jacks for left channel, right channel and sub-woofer line outs

3.5 mm phone jack for input from iPod, satellite radio or MP3 player

Switch selectable for 1,2,3 or 4 speakers

Switch selectable for North America or Europe mode

Includes a 6 foot 3.5mm male-to-male auxiliary cable with every radio

You can add our Bluetooth adapter kit option to this radio!

Thanks!

Well, that's essentially what I did after the same frustration. Only instead used a basic '60's solid state radio chassis for my basis.

Nope, no FM but it's only a noisy '50's truck so who can really appreciate the full effect of FM and stereo anyway?
Besides I'm confident there are inexpensive attachments somewhere out there that can be fitted to this unit for FM, etc. -- the 1970's had them.

Btw, here's an alternative you may ultimately be referring to.
It would then be fully up-to-date:

http://www.tech-retro.com/Aurora_Design/FMR_images.html

..although a friendly local auto stereo (repair) shop may have to supply the PO for you if they don't have the where-with-all to do it themselves.