The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Replacement Antenna

Anybody by a good one? I bought the $60 "original" one from classic parts... it's okay. I'm going to use it but I feel like the old rusty one with the metal trim piece was nicer. It comes with a plastic trim piece which kind sucks. It also doesn't look as nice and doesn't sit as flush to the cowl. However, it has a LONG mast which is kinda cool. I'm currently fitting it to the cowl before I paint my truck. It comes with some bracket your supposed to jimmy rig up. Anyone buy this antenna and install it the correct way? I'm going to come up with at nice way to make it fit correctly, I just wanted to see what everyone else did. Let me know...

This procedure worked fine for an original-style antenna in my 54 cabs.

http://www.classicparts.com/1947-54-Antenna-Original/productinfo/69-955/

The bracket at the base of the antenna was not a Jimmy-rig(?). There is/was a hole on the side-cowl, under the dash for that bracket to be attached.

Tim

Tim, I'd have to agree with Jeff's findings. You’ve seen the kind of care I take in my work so I think you will understand that I’m not a novice when it comes to working with my hands.
I bought one of those antennas from Classic because it did look like the original antenna on the out side, but I gotta say, it ranks up there as one of the bigger disappointments of this restoration, and there have been many.
For the money I laid out I certainly expected a better copy of the original. You can still buy a blister pack antenna at your local auto parts store that’s made just as well as these are, in fact I just bought several that I use for other radio work that I’m doing.
The inner angled die cast bushing was the wrong angle and it had the antenna pointing out to the side. Luckily I have a mill and lathe and was able to make a new one to get the antenna to sit vertical. The plastic external finish nut would not start on the thread properly and I must have spent an hour just trying to get it started with out stripping it. Once I did get it to start it only went on a few threads before it stopped against the end of the housing leaving a large gap between it and the plastic angled grommet. I had to machine the inside counter bore so it would close the gap.
The bottom inside bracket that Jeff mentioned is exactly that, a poor attempt to secure the bottom of the antenna, which needs to be quite ridged when you have six foot of mast blowing in the wind. I ended up making a new bracket that lined up properly and secured the bottom of the antenna housing much better.
The cable socket was potted into the side of the housing with silicone and that was loose and I had to dig it all out and re-pot with fresh silicone.
A very poorly made product, but with no other alternatives out there, I guess we are stuck with this crap.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Yeah man I'm not trying to be an A$$ but this thing is bad, and I'm pretty much stuck with using it. I don't want the auto parts store version, I work at NAPA Auto Parts and could buy one for $8, they are not my cup of tea. LMC has a Antenna for $80 but that seems a bit high and who knows if its any good. Denny I did what you did I changed the spacer ground it down and made it fit somewhat better. The antenna still sticks out from the cab but the more I look at pics of trucks some did from the factory too. Im going to try and get it a little bit better and may just end up leaving it, oh and the brackets are getting modified they are horrible.

Oh Denny, is there any way you can send me pics of how you mounted your antenna? Id like to see how the trim fits to the cowl, and the bracket you made.

Maybe Jim Carter has a different antenna than the one now sold by Classic Parts? I bought mine several years ago - one from each vendor. The last one I got was from JC. He sells two styles at significantly different prices.

http://www.1954advance-design.com/Photos/Reassembly/23_AntennaHood3.jpg

I now recall that I had to send one set back to one of the vendors - it came with an incorrect combination of plastic cover, cast base, and bracket. I would not have guessed that something was wrong if I did not have another set that was correct. Maybe if you post photos, I can compare to the un-mounted set that I have.

Tim

Try these, I had them loaded to webshots but it takes forever to find anything there and the ads drive me nuts. So, I just re-posted them to my new album at pbase:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/accessories&page=1
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/accessories&page=2
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

WOW Denny you did some work to make yours fit correctly I worked on mine last night. I got it mounted fairly well, it doesn't sit nearly as straight as yours does though. I'm going to paint my truck and then maybe I will screw with it some more. Thanks for the pics.