I saw this in a truck i'm thinking of buying.

[keh27]

I know its not factory but still period correct and pretty cool.

[68shortwide]

Agreed, I like it.

[sboris]

I kinda like it. Definitely period. if i bought it, i sure wouldnt take it out. If you get it and jerk it out, i would have some interest in this.

[keh27]

no I would leave it in for sure. heres a couple more pics.

[michael bustamante]

i wonder how bad the dash is chewed up behind that plate. i think it definatly looks cool in a old school way. if i found a truck with that, id leave it too and go for an old school mod theme

['68OrangeSunshine]

So what are those components? Looks like an AM/FM/CB on top and a tape deck below. Is it 8-Track or Cassette?
I still have my CB coax running out to a ball mount at the drivers side step fender and my mike clip on the dash. Someday Verizon's gonna p!ss me off and I'll go back to ratchetjawing.

[keh27]

It 's 8 track

[keh27]

I have had a problem come up, so i will not be buying this truck, pm me if you want the phone #

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by keh27

I have had a problem come up, so i will not be buying this truck, pm me if you want the phone #

Probably just as well. Although rare now, the AM/FM/CB type unit was neither a good hif-fi receiver nor a very powerful 2-Way. They were a compromise system. Usually sold by aftermarket outfits like JC Whitney. I have heard of mid-'70s dealer options, but not much in our trucks. Also 8-Tracks were no great shakes either. Lo-Fi, the tapes stretched a lot and jammed and you had to buy pre-recorded music from the record store. No dubbing from your own vinyl LPs. Cassette was a better system.

So Threes and Eights, Good Buddies... Great copying the Mail with Y'All and the Old Orange Sunshine is clear and 10-10.

[tommys72]

Doesn't necessarily trip my trigger, but it's cool in an old school way

[special-K]

I don't remember anything like that from the school I went to. Not sure what period it is correct for. I must have been in detention

[keh27]

Originally Posted by special-K

I don't remember anything like that from the school I went to. Not sure what period it is correct for. I must have been in detention

[jeffahart]

Looks like someone jacked the dash real bad and had to cover up the mess... with a glove box door off something else. Too bad. I have the original radio in my truck. I crank AM 1070 when I'm mall crawling!!!!

[tcrist]

New pieces can be bought to fix the dash back, so no issue there.

Not my cup of tea either but we used to do all sorts of strange things to vehicles back in the day. Nothing wrong with that.

[special-K]

I had a '78 454 SWB Silverado with all the bells & whistles, including AM/FM/CB. I was never into road chatter and wished it had been a cassette. I never owned an 8-track for all the reasons listed above...and more. I never understood why I was the only one using cassettes back then, then it all changed to cassette. I still prefer cassettes, even to CDs. I think they are more durable, store easier, and are easier to remove from the case while driving. I was just listening to a TDK tape I recorded in '77 yesterday

[Boog]

Tdk from 1977. How has it survived all this time? I laugh but i may well have some 8 tracks stuck away somewhere.
I think my first tape was The Hag. Merle Haggard.

This panel might have been a JC Whitney item.

[slowcpe]

Someone had one of those am/fm/cb decks when I was growing up. I can't remember if it was a truck my grandpa owned or my stepdad. I was into CBs back in the day and remember the thing didn't work very well. My Cutlass in high school had a Cobra 19LTD Classic, K40 antenna, amp, external speaker and of course the echo mic

Still kind of a cool setup.

[68shortwide]

If I build a stepper it'll be fake patina'd with steelies and a cb/cassette set up. Somethin about that style that's just cool.

[special-K]

I don't know how they survived so well, but most did. I always used a TDK head cleaner w/solution and a head demagnetizer. The demagetizer used a watch battery and you had to leave it out when not in use or could mess up tapes in the truck. Also had to take all tapes far away when using demagnetizer or it would erase them. I used 90 minute tapes and I think that fit two albums. Memorex was most advertised and they sucked. Got all muffled (lost fidelity) in no time. Pre-recorded tapes (8-track or cassette) are recorded at very high speed, not actually playing speed like home made, and they used cheap tape. I did whole albums, recorded radio shows, and made my own takes that linked songs by different things...such as "hit the road", "headin' south", "train songs", "cowboy", "get laid", etc. I only used the CB to help people or get help. The rest of the time it was off and the tunes were cranked. I have the GM AM/FM/Cassette in my Jimmy and my '92 was playing a tape in the factory unit when it died last June. My '72 is getting the Alpine AM/FM/Cassette and component amp I removed from my '84 when I sold it in '92. Too bad the matching "car phone" won't work any more. I wonder if someone could put digital guts in there. That ($700) thing was cool. All the buttons matched the stereo and when a call came in it paused the tape or turned the radio volume down till the call ended. I gave my home cassette deck to my older son ages ago. I need a need one so I can make more cassettes...from CDs!

My first cassette deck I bought in '71. It was an under dash (as all decks were then, except a few factory) and had a slide-out tray under it. I could store 4 tapes. It also stored the mic that came with it. That's right, it had record mode. Had lots of fun going down the road with girlfriends. They could also sing along with songs. That thing was made by ampex, who only made consumer grade sound equipment for a short while. They were known for PA systems and auditorium type systems. The speakers were Altec-Lansing, who also only made consumer grade a short while. They made speakers that were found in various cabinets and amps. I tell you what, that was one mean sounding system for the time

[MARKDTN]

Originally Posted by special-K

...My first cassette deck I bought in '71. It was an under dash.... That thing was made by ampex, who only made consumer grade sound equipment for a short while. They were known for PA systems and auditorium type systems....

Actually Ampex was also well known for making magnetic tape for video and audio. They made it in Opelika, AL, a town over from where I grew up. They really dominated the magnetic tape for TV video industry until digital took over. Their history is quite interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampex

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...ation-history/

[Boog]

Like many i used with the cb back in the 70s to 80s. Later i couldn't stand all the filth and trolling on the airwaves so i removed them for good. Poor manners and total lack of respect seem to be the norm anymore. Now days with cell phones and internet, cb radios arent needed so much.

[special-K]

I've wondered about the laws that make using a hand held cell phone illegal (stupid law). what about CB and 2-way radios? These have been used for decades before the first "car" phones came out. The problem isn't the device, it's that they came out with a product that any non-thinker on the road uses. The problem isn't the hand, you can drive with one hand. The problem is where your mind is at. that doesn't change with a hands-free device. I can hold something in my hand without it taking all my focus away

[special-K]

^^^ You are right. I forgot about that. Back when reel to reels were big, Ampex tape was the audiophile's choice. I never had one, but recently acquired two and a bunch of tapes from a buddy who moved back to CA. I have yet to check them out. Howzat for goin' back? Thanks for the links

[truckster]

As Special-K mentions, you could record on 8-track tapes. It was a slow process, because you had to record in real time.

The biggest problem with 8-tracks for me (aside from having them eaten by the player) was the track switching. Since albums were recorded on 2 sides and 8-tracks had 4 stereo tracks, and album side had to be divided between two tape tracks. That meant that switching often occurred in the middle of a song. The studio would usually fade the song out at the end of the track, then back up a little and fade the song back in at the beginning of the next track. "South City Midnight Lady" by the Doobie Brothers (a great blues/rock track) had the cut right in the middle of the guitar solo.