Radio panel repair

[wydomkr]

I just picked up a 1980 Silverado over the weekend. 350, 4-speed, body is excellent shape for as old as it is. Anyway, at some point someone cut the dash to put a CD player in it. Now that's bad enough, but someone then stole the CD player and so what was left of the metal rectangle where the CD player sat has now been further butchered and I don't think there is enough metal there to even put a CD player back in. Does somebody after market make a patch panel to repair this? I did a Google search, but didn't come up with much except for people cutting that section out of parts dash and welding it in or replacing the whole dash. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Driveway Dreams]

You could always just make a patch panel with a piece of sheet metal. Weld it in and cut the hole for the CD player that you want to put in.

[babyJay]

Cut it bigger and use a 1.5 DIN radio. Get a guage bezel out of a 91 Burb, it'll fit perfect....

[Red_69]

I used a '91 Burban bezel and made my own plate and it actually looks factory IMHO.

[BLE 'BURBAN]

I had a double din Sony cassette/CD player/changer controller in my '90 burb for a while.


Then I yanked it out and upgraded to a KENWOOD DDX812 Double din that I put in an overhead console.


Leaving a big A#* whole in the dash that I filled in with a stereo istallation kit where I moved my switches for my rear window/heater & defroster to with a cubby hole in the bottom that I ran a lead into for my IPOD connection with enough room for my remote as well. I used a face filler panel that came with the Kenwood made out of a thin piece of plastic to hold the installation kit and mounted it to the dash by way of the 2 lower heater control mounts and the mounting holes on the right and the bottom right.

[wydomkr]

Thanks for all the suggestions, now I guess I just have to find a newer burb bezel. I would assume that finding one without A/C is going to be next to impossible, but I'll try. Is it 90 and 91 that would be the same gauge wise and have the larger radio opening?

My other thought was just getting a different bezel for the 80 that still has the two holes for the radio stems, using that to support the front and then making sure the back was extra supported since there is no metal in the front holding up the radio.

Will have to check the for sale ads for either of these, thanks again.

[S10Fan]

Originally Posted by wydomkr

Thanks for all the suggestions, now I guess I just have to find a newer burb bezel. I would assume that finding one without A/C is going to be next to impossible, but I'll try. Is it 90 and 91 that would be the same gauge wise and have the larger radio opening?

My other thought was just getting a different bezel for the 80 that still has the two holes for the radio stems, using that to support the front and then making sure the back was extra supported since there is no metal in the front holding up the radio.

Will have to check the for sale ads for either of these, thanks again.

I made a thin aluminum plate to fill the radio area (bezel). Once that was in place I cut the aluminum panel to fit a shaft style radio. The panel is held in place by screws much like the bezel would be. I don't have any pictures but will take a couple this evening and post them.

[S10Fan]

OK, sorry about the fuzzy picture, it's late, I'm tired, I'm hungry. LOL

[AceX]

Just be careful when securing the face of the radio to that plastic bezel because you can crack something really easily by tightening it too much...

[73chevyman]

wow that looks stock s10

[wydomkr]

That does look good. Before you did this yours was cut out in a big rectangle to fit a newer CD player? I will have to give this a try, thanks.

[S10Fan]

Originally Posted by wydomkr

That does look good. Before you did this yours was cut out in a big rectangle to fit a newer CD player? I will have to give this a try, thanks.

Yes it was, and not a very straight cut either. LOL.

[TexasJeff]

Way to fix a butcher job S10fan, very impressive fix.

[S10Fan]

Thanks for the complements.

The fix was very simple, took maybe an hour or so. The panel was sprayed with some patio furniture “textured” satin black from Rustoleum. BTW, the Rustoleum is a great fast drying paint that looks really good for under the hood detailing, or cleaning up a very used dash trim panel.



I had considered replacing the dash (the complete steel portion) but it looks like the dash is welded at the windshield frame. Is that a correct assumption on my part?


Bryan

[impalamark]

S10
I made a similar repair a couple time using sheet metal like your
repair and used duplicolor black wrinkle finish paint to finish it
and looked very stock
great job S10
Mark

[joe1982]

Originally Posted by S10Fan

Thanks for the complements.

The fix was very simple, took maybe an hour or so. The panel was sprayed with some patio furniture “textured” satin black from Rustoleum. BTW, the Rustoleum is a great fast drying paint that looks really good for under the hood detailing, or cleaning up a very used dash trim panel.



I had considered replacing the dash (the complete steel portion) but it looks like the dash is welded at the windshield frame. Is that a correct assumption on my part?


Bryan

does anyone have an answer to this question? the part about the metal dash being welded to the windshield frame? i have the same problem with my 82 shortbed. the junk yard by my house has plenty of 80-87 trucks, are they interchangable? i hate looking at the cd player, i want to put the stock sterio in but i cant because the metal is cut out to bad, and the plastic bezel is hacked out too.

[texassquarebodies]

Cut out another radio opening out of another truck atleast an 1 inch bigger than your hole and pop rivet over your existing butchered hole. Put dash bezel on. Noone will no the diference.

[impalamark]

the dash is bolted on the sides and spot welded below the windshield all
the base.
once you strip the dash and remove the windshield and bolts on the sides
it it not hard to break the spot weld and pull it out

however it would be easier to just patch the radio section
good luck

[joe1982]

Originally Posted by impalamark

the dash is bolted on the sides and spot welded below the windshield all
the base.
once you strip the dash and remove the windshield and bolts on the sides
it it not hard to break the spot weld and pull it out

however it would be easier to just patch the radio section
good luck

cool, thanks man. i am not much of a welder.

[Damien]

The dash is spot welded along the windshield channel. The windshield has to be out of the truck to get at the welds. I took the dash out of a parts truck by drilling the welds with a spot weld cutter from the outside because there is not enough room to get at them with a drill from the inside. The seam has three pieces of steel there and in some places four. The cab was falling apart by the time I got the dash out. To put the new dash in another truck, you would need to cut most of the old dash out with a tin snips or sawsall. Then there is room to drill out the spot welds. The new dash would then have to be spot welded or plug welded to the pinch weld in the windshied channel.

I was going to put this dash in a cab that the PO hacked out, but decided I could fix the rust in an unmolested cab much easier.

To fix the radio I would just patch a new piece in verus replacing the whole dash. You could weld/screw/rivet/bond in a piece from another dash or make a new piece for a fraction of the work of replacing the whole dash and have the same results.