The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors aftermarket radio

guys, any of you install a modern radio in your glovebox ?

im curious if i go that route, will the remote control work through the glove box sheet metal door, alowing me to change channels and adjust volume ?

i hate the think about cutting up the original dash, but dont want to open the glove box every time i want to adjust the volume.

thanks.

leonard

I have never tried it, but I would really doubt would work through metal. My cell phone gets no signal in the glove box of my old cars. I live with out a radio an all my old GMCs, but I bought some after market radios for my 56 Ford cars. They aren't exactly original looking, but they do fit the holes and work about like a new factory radio in a pickup. Back in the 60's when transistor radios became of age, I used to hang a radio under the dash. They didn't show that much, and a few extra holes under the dash didn't hurt anything.

Why not just install one of those reproduction radios?

I was looking at your picture album and since you don’t have an original radio in the hole can’t you find one with the same spacing as the original?? I suppose not, seems like all of the new ones that I looked at were narrower.
Anyway, I have the factory tube AM radio in my AD but wanted something other than talk radio. So I opted for a Sony CDX-GT420U Solid State unit that I have mounted under my dash. It only adds a face that’s 3x8 when installed. It ran about $150 plus a couple of speakers. I’m trying to keep my truck as original appearing as possible so I set it up so I could slide the unit out and disconnect the plug and antenna from the back in about 20 or 30 seconds if I ever show it. I tuck the wires up under the dash and you hardly know it was ever in there except for a little strip left by the quick mount. I used existing holes in the bottom of the dash for the quick mount so by removing those two screws it would leave everything absolutely original with no holes that weren’t there from the factory.
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2829042080098611668CRCqYP
The speakers are oval and mounted behind the lower door inspection plates. Of course your ’57 would be somewhat different in the installation but this setup really works out nice and in the end I stuck to my code of “first, do no harm” to the originality of the truck..
Now all of this is wasted wind if your intent was strictly to hide the radio completely by using up the glove box space. And I just went out to the garage and put a spare glove box door in front of the radio. The remote doesn’t work with it there. I would imagine that it is a IR LED sensor and it would have to see the light pulses from the remote.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

How about this for a speaker mounting idea?
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2856674920092261295bPJlhF
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2571875150092261295Yrixfq
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2609474230092261295VidbbY
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2762780220092261295AHoJLp
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2066118970092261295hUWDdI

thanks much guys.... especially denny for testing the door in front of the radio..
longbox, way cool idea for speaker boxes...and where you have yours in the cab corners, is where i want to mount mine... way cool using the ammo boxes.

i want a radio with a c/d player in it, and nobody makes one that will fit the factory holes. i dont care too much about keeping it factory looking, but if i did mount it in the factory arwa, would have to cut the dash, and the radio would be blocking access to my fuse block, so thats why i was thinking aboutt he glove box mount,.
might do like denny and make it easily removable..grwat idea...

thanks so much guys...leonard

Well, last year JC had a 25% off sale so I took my 25% "savings" and blew it on a reproduction radio. Brothers sells a dual speaker system that fits behind the stock speaker grille for sound and I'm going to find an old pocket transistor radio and conceal my iPod inside of it and hang it from the rear view mirror and run a concealed wire from it to the jack on the radio.

That's the only way I'll ever be able to listen to Freddy Fender on the radio while I'm tooling through town.

I can't imagine the benifit of having a CD player over an iPod. You can put 1,000 songs on an iPod for under $100, from the APPLE STORE and just plug it into the jack found on most replacement radios.

good idea woody... but i dont know a thing about ipods. LOL.

leonard

I have a new infra-red remote control radio mounted in the metal glove-box of my anti-truck '55 210. We used an infra-red extension I ordered off the web--less than $40--(the sender end of the device was mounted on the inside of the glove-box door so it would be opposite the pick-up on the radio when the door was closed and the device pickup was mounted in the speaker cavity.) We just point the remote and the speaker and it works just fine. The connection wire is fairly long so you could mount the pick-up almost any inconspicuous place on your dash and it would work well. Hope this helps.

56picup, thanks much. i have heard of one of those extensions and will look into it. i really appreciate it guys, since i want a radio but dont want to cut my dash up..
thanks

leonard

I'll be 62 in December and I'm hardly what you would call a techno-geek. I bought a refurbished iPod Touch (33% off) and could operate every function in it within 20 minutes.

ANYONE can master an iPod Classic, Nano or Shuffle in 10 minutes... they are really THAT simple. For your radio, you can buy a simple wire at Radio Shack that will plug your iPod into the radio. I too, can remember when we used to hang transistor radios from the rearview mirror. Hanging an iPod up there today would be the 21st century equivalent... with MUCH better sound.

thanks..but i dont want the hassle of downloading songs onto an ipod. i like just popping in a c/d if not listening to the radio.

gonna redo my bench seat frist, then start on a radio and speakers.
thanks again guys for all your input.

leonard

Leonard

Take a look at item #200248237577 on evilbay. Infrared IR Remote Control Eye Extender Repeater is exactly what I used and you can get it for less than $30 with "buy it now" including shipping.

56picup

This is what I did to mount a 10 disk cd changer in mine
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2355678610092261295BGYqCp
It's made out of aluminum, and also provides a storage space for a toolbox, spotlamp, and the factory jack mount (I had to get a bottle jack, original jack was missing). It's bolted to the floor on the sodes with 1/4-20 bolts, and is easy to take out if the tank needs to be accessed.

I just bought a 55 series II that someone had put an after market radio in the glove box but it didn't have any speakers attached to it. I just finished building a speaker box that fits under the seat. If I remember I'll post some pictures of it. I had a hard time finding 4 inch speakers with cover plates. The finished product looks look and it is easy to remove. I went to Radio Shack and bought a four clip spring connector for the speaker wires.

thanks much guys.... 56picup, i saved the ebay site so when i am ready i will buy one...that will make it easy..thanks

longbox, all your stuff is always so cool....thanks

and jeff, if you are bale to post some pics of your radio and speakers, please do..thanks again.

leonard

Have you seen these? Kind of pricey, but very nice. I just got one for my "58". It has RCA inputs for a CD player or IPod built in. AM/FM with 45 watts RMS per channel. Exact replacement for factory unit. Only it's about 1/4 the size behind the dash.

http://www.radiosforoldcars.com/newradio0F.htm

Yeah, I saw those. They really do have a much more accurate original look that CASs units, and a much smaller package, too.

Here is some pictues of the speaker box I built. The odd shape has to do with the raised bar across the front that the seat bolts into.

http://community.webshots.com/album/565618923bBbxiF

jeff, thanks so much for posting the pics of your speaker box.
what a super clean install. very nice.
i will buy a radion here by next weekend, and i am gonna install it in the glove box just as you did.

i got my seat out now for a redo, but once i get it back in i will see how much room i have under it,a nd just might do a speaker box like yours.

thanks much..
leonard

The hardest thing to find for me was the 4 X 6 speakers with the face plates. A local auto parts store them. Most of the ones on-line did not come with them. Good luck with radio install.

i got a radio and 6 x 9 speakers. i will mount it in the glove box hopefully this weekend. also will hopefully fab all or most of the gas tank shelf also. will wait to get my seat back from reuphostry shop and then fab some speaker boxes.

i bought a decent jvc radio with cd player and sony 6 x 9 speakers. will only go with a 2 speaker set up, behind the seat as longbox did.

when i get it all done i will post pics.

thanks much guys..

leonard

guys, i got my jvc radio installed in my glovebox. i bought one of these infrared remote extenders so i can operate the radio with the glove box door closed.
http://www.pac-audio.com/products/productsCatagory.asp?mmSearch=Infrared%20Repeaters
it is the top product.
easy install with just 2 wires, one hot and one ground. then run the one end where ever you want, i got mine just under the dash, and the other end goes in front of the radio. then just poit my remote tot he sensor under my dash, and it operates the radio.

i got mine from woddys custom shop, 1-949-722-1084. very helpful and fast shipping. ask for chuck.

i got a hidden fm antenna booster from crutchfield.
http://www.crutchfield.com/app/product/item/main.aspx?i=12044UA200&search=fm+antenna
one wire hot, and kept the antenna under the dash, and it picks up fine. if you want am reception you will have to mount it on your dash or up by your rear view mirror.

hope this helps all you guys out there who dont want to cut up your dash and drill a hole in you fender for an antenna, because i didnt want to.

thanks for all your help..

leonard

There is room for 6X9's in the kickpanel of an AD, I Have em mounted in mine, there is just enough depth for the speaker magnet to fit in there.
I uploaded a few pics to my photo bucket if any one is interested.

Tim

tim, very cool. i will see how mine sounds with just the 2 speakers in the back / sides of the seat, but might do what you did and put 2 more in the kick panels.

tim, you got one beautiful truck..

leonard