The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Hole in roof of cab of my 63?

What is the hole in the roof of the cab for in my 63? It is toward the rear of the cab in the center with a rubber plug in it and goes into the inner space og the roof.

I'm not sure , but I'm thinking that it was for an antenae or something. Someone probably did it years ago,I haven't seen any factory things like that. I very well could be wrong.

More than likely there was an antenna there.

Ivor,

It not stock what ever it was?

probally some PO thought an antanna would look good there, got any pictures?

thats where i have my xm antenna.

It could be for a spotlight also...

Thanks for all the input. I thought it was stock because it is a perfect hole with no chewed edges or anything. It is about 1" in diamerer. I'm not sure how you would feed a cable up into the space between the inner ceiling and outer roof. I';; try to get a pic tomarrow. I'm in the process of grinding all the paint off the cab so it is bare metal now. I ground the plug right out.

Thanks again
ivor

My high school job was installing and removing communication radios in police cars and commercial vehicles. In those days I put a lot of those rubber plugs in perfectly drilled holes in the tops of pickups. I also got good at sneak'n wires into small spaces.

Its almost certainly filling a hole where an antenna was once installed.

My 60 has the same. I just have never removed the plug. Interesting

I agree with the antennae....if it were a spotlight, it would have gone through the inner ceiling as well.

A roof spotlight was pretty common on farm trucks around here in the mid 60s. It was a pretty good way to check on irrigation, animals, etc, at night. Lots of fun for a kid, too. One could play spaceship, submarine, cops and robbers, almost anything while hanging on to the handle and rotating the beam up and down and aroound.

Don't guess the safety folks were too keen on having a metal handle hanging down in the middle of the truck...

Properly drilled antenna holes should look clean, and indistinguishable from the quality or look of a factory hole.

"jagged or "chewed" edges are usually a result of your 19 year old neighbor who is a "car radio expert" and uses spade bore/paddle bits or a hole saw intended for wood to punch all his holes.

A good communications installation tech can get a wire anywhere.. because ideal antenna placement isn't always where it's easiest to get a wire.. and unlike your local CATV or Satelite sub-contractor, just running the line down the side of the truck with romex staples isn't considered acceptable.