The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The Radio Bench Lets talk a stereo

I have begun looking at stereo's and speakers. I have looked at the following:

1. Retro radios which have all the modern goodies in them. 400 ish in price.
2. A single din touch screen that connects to phone. Can do turn x turn, music etc from phone as well as FM AM etc. 90 ish in price
3. Stereo speaker in dash
4. Kick panel speakers and enclosure. These seem to have fitment issues with the vent lever
5. Cab corner speakers and enclosure.
6. Recently saw a custom speaker set up below shoulder belt attachment

Anyone have success or failure with any of these.

Why? Use your phone and blue tooth speakers. Better sound, no messy installation. The portable , palm-sized blue tooth speakers have better sound than top end home stereos used to have. You could easily rig up something for blue tooth speakers in your cab corners. Your phone can sit on the seat or in a console.

I have an older retro. I like it. It could use more watts as I don't want to add amps. I also wish it was more up to date with blue tooth or a front face plug-in. I have this in the Suburban. So I have unlimited locations for speakers.

Have you looked at completely hidden stereos?

Otto has a good option. Especially since a lot of your local stations broadcast from a phone app. I can listen to my favorite station wherever I go.

I have the holes in dash for a radio so I need something there. I think the dash speaker is a no brainer, but not sure what else to do.

I'm kinda leaning towards this one

Very soon this is going to be available along with a twin speaker plate which sits behind the original speaker grille. The speakers will be top shelf Visatons and it will come with installation buttons/bolts/nuts and will be more or less paint to match, plug and play with standard antenna connection. The speaker mount is all that I'm still working on at this point. It won't have touch screen but it will allow the user FM stereo, MP3 file ability using either USB drive or micro SD card, bluetooth reception from cell phone (either podcast or phone answering) and it will operate on 6, 8 or 12 volts.

OK. Back to the drawing board. I had to return the 6x9 speakers and enclosures for the cab corners because the fuel tank will not allow for use on drivers side.

Had to return the head unit because the face place will not fit into the recessed area of the dash. I though I could get a 3d printed spacer to make it work but it would have looked terrible.

I had hoped I could have mounted the 6.5s in the kick panel, but I will be into the A pillar. I am ordering the kicks with speaker housing tomorrow.

I may be shoe horned into a retro radio? What are people using in their 60 to 66 cabs for a stereo?

Does anyone even use radios anymore? Everybody I know uses their phone with blue tooth speakers.

I have holes in the dash. I hate playing around with phones while driving and I am not even old yet.

Believe it or not Otto, not everyone is you. A lot of people want modern brakes, and modern gears, and functional radios.

Ferris: for speaker mounts, maybe take a look at Vintage Air. They sell kick panels with hvac vents and speaker mounts in them. Even if you don't like their setup/price, the image might give you some ideas.

I have 2 retro systems I like. The kick panel speakers work well. The radio look is good and vintage and they have a radio.
I think if I moved to something else, I`d look into Jon G`s. system.
I`ve yet to get a cell phone and things are fine. I fight tech advancements. So all I need is a radio and my music put on USB drives.

I believe I'll wait for Jon G to finish his radio replacement. I like the USB application. I was going to just going to block it all off. Is an external antenna necessary for it? If not, that is another hole I won't need.

It is finished...finally. The hangup has been the speaker mount and I believe I have that sorted now. The thing with something like this is balancing what folks are using v what is economically feasible to create...and today's technology has changed a lot of things. Attached are two pdf files...documents I've written about installing the radio and some insights into using the radio. Hopefully you'll find them interesting. Please tell me if you have any questions. Yes...the circuit has been altered to allow the user to plug in a common antenna plug.

I have found a blankout plate for 1955-1959 and soon I hope to make a fiberglass or epoxy piece for those years (into which the fm/mp3/bluetooth device could be mounted). I don't have a blankout plate for other (newer) pickups but if I could find one that would be a possibility.

Finally the situation with China must be seen. I've worked with people there on the development of this for around 4 years. We'll have to see what sort of demand exists plus what prices we're dealing with...more of the old balancing act. Plus...a big plus...this isn't being done for profit. The radios are being sold for less than it cost me to make them...by design. That is a different story and a benefit to Stovebolt.com participants.

Jon: Just an FYI. 55.2-59 GMC blankout plate is different shape than Chevy.

Ah, thanks very much, Bill. I don't see those often and forgot but you are correct.

I'm pretty sure the Chevy and GMC radios of the late 50s are schematically the same, but the GMC is mechanically "upside down" from the Chevy radio. The tuning knobs and dial are at the bottom of the GMC radio and stick through the roll at the bottom of the GMC dash.

If you have any interest, I have a .PDF file of the Sams PhotoFact for the GMC radio that I could send you.