Radio options

[desert-rat]

Originally Posted by Dan-K

I ponied up and bought a Retro Sound head unit for mine , lasted about six months and crapped out .

Maybe a bad unit? I bought a Retro for my '87 Chevy maybe 5 years now and still going strong.

[Casper42]

that's the Custom Autosound radio. Brothers sure has a habit of calling stuff their own. I suspect the reason they carry this, and at a discount is the non-bluetooth. If you go directly to Custom Autosound, which I did, they no longer offer non-bluetooth

Originally Posted by 1972CheyenneSuper

Holley/Brothers has this unit on sale currently for $245.

https://www.holley.com/products/inte.../parts/CS0SB72

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Originally Posted by Casper42

that's the Custom Autosound radio. Brothers sure has a habit of calling stuff their own. I suspect the reason they carry this, and at a discount is the non-bluetooth. If you go directly to Custom Autosound, which I did, they no longer offer non-bluetooth

I had seen that as well. OP hadn't specified if he wanted bluetooth or not, I just seen these had come on sale last week. For a factory looking AM/FMradio it looks better than some of the other renditions and the price isn't horrible for what they seem to go for. A month ago I probably would've picked one up, but I bought an original AM to fill the slot and will be using a bluetooth amp placed elsewhere for sound.

[1969stepside]

i think id want the bluetooth one but there is one that is non blue tooth but it has a bluetooth reciver that will plug in the back of the radio. so i wonder if that it just as good as one with bluetooth built in?

[dmjlambert]

Yes. As I described above.

[1969stepside]

https://www.classiccarstereos.com/SE...etooth+adapter


here are the two adapters that they offrer

for this radio

https://www.classiccarstereos.com/19...o-usa-630.html

[68 C10 Driver]

Originally Posted by dmjlambert

That looks nice. Can you tell us a little about it? Does the orange needle move across the face as you tune in stations, do the buttons work by tuning in a station and pull the button out and push back in to program it? Does it switch to a different dial face for FM? Are the connections for aux and usb in the back?

Station indicator (orange needle) is nonfunctional. The tuning is done digitally. A LED display sits behind the "analog" display. The chrome buttons are used to toggle between functions of the radio. The digital indicator will display AM with station, FM with station, Aux, Bluetooth, etc.

I would have preferred a converted original radio, but the cost was prohibitive at the time, so this was an acceptable alternative considering my needs. The USA-740 can also work with modern speakers where the original radio cannot.

[Richard]

I have one of these hidden units to install for 99% of my listening. https://www.memphiscaraudio.com/product/smc2a/ It is kind of like the bluetooth amps mentioned but I can use my own amps and components with it. It can be installed without the hardwire controller if you only want to use your phone. My original working AM/FM will be installed in the dash with the new speaker I purchased.

[K10-Kansas]

I went with the retro sound slidebar. The previous owners cut the dash. It took me several hours to fix that.

[dmjlambert]

Your dash repair looks great! I am enthused to work on my mangled dash so I can get my radio installed.

[68 C10 Driver]

@ K-10 Kansas: Great work! Fixing those kind of issues is really rewarding, you are doing great work, please submit a finished dash pic when you are done!

[1969stepside]

i ordered a radio

https://www.classiccarstereos.com/19...o-usa-630.html

with free bluetooth adapter and a 15% off coupon

[72SB]

my 72 was a radio delete so no antenna either. This mas my $300 solution that took maybe 5 min to install using existing screw locations. Yes its loud.

[K10-Kansas]

Originally Posted by 68 C10 Driver

@ K-10 Kansas: Great work! Fixing those kind of issues is really rewarding, you are doing great work, please submit a finished dash pic when you are done!

Thanks Yup, here is before and after. I got a panel from LMC, bought a flux welder, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, practiced with the flux welder, took the flux welder back to the store, bought a mig welder and took my time. I've never done anything like this before. It was great fun!

[lolife99]

For anyone doing a repair with a complete spare dash,…
Cut under the dash pad and all the way to the dash cluster and all the way to the glove box.
Requires less filler.
More disassembly required.

[RichardJ]

Hell, why not cut it and make it like you want.

CD player with bluetooth for phone. Cup holder. AC Climate Control. L/R Fuel Switch.

The CD is kind of dated now, but I had to weld a previously cut dash to put that in and I can do it again.

[K10-Kansas]

Originally Posted by lolife99

For anyone doing a repair with a complete spare dash,…
Cut under the dash pad and all the way to the dash cluster and all the way to the glove box.
Requires less filler.
More disassembly required.

That is excellent advice!

[cj847]

I think next time I am going to go with something like this. Might even mount it in the tachometer hole.

https://www.amazon.com/Kicker-46KMC2...2-63e904010ad0

[dmack91]

I just converted a stock AM radio to Bluetooth using one of these from Amazon for $18.

ZK-1002L 100Wx2 50W 80W 5.0 power amplifier board

I gutted everything from the radio except the two knob assemblies. Then removed the rear section of the volume knobs rheostat, which left a shaft I was able to file to fit the bluetooth volume shaft. Mounted the Amp to the factory case (lining up the shafts to work without binding was the worst part).

Tested it with a spare battery and some ancient speakers and sounded good. Took about 4 hours of tinkering.

[cericd]

--flipped--

[3757chevy]

Originally Posted by dmack91

I just converted a stock AM radio to Bluetooth using one of these from Amazon for $18.

ZK-1002L 100Wx2 50W 80W 5.0 power amplifier board

I gutted everything from the radio except the two knob assemblies. Then removed the rear section of the volume knobs rheostat, which left a shaft I was able to file to fit the bluetooth volume shaft. Mounted the Amp to the factory case (lining up the shafts to work without binding was the worst part).

Tested it with a spare battery and some ancient speakers and sounded good. Took about 4 hours of tinkering.

Any more details?

[dmack91]

Originally Posted by 3757chevy

Any more details?

Basically started by taking the outer top and bottom metal casing off the radio. They are held on with a bunch of small hex head sheet metal screws. Once those are off, start cutting out the old radio components. You will need a soldering iron to melt out some of the connections between the electronics and case. You basically want to get to the point where all that's left is the two knob assemblies and the push button assembly.

[dmack91]

Next, take out the on/off/volume rheostat knpb assembly. You will.see r small tabs that hold the front and rear parts together. Carefully pry the tabs out, one needs to be heated to release the solder, and pull the two halves apart.

This is the bluetooth Amp I bought off Amazon for $18. You can see the slot in the Amp shaft. Now lightly file the round part of the half circle shaft coming out of the factory on/off/volume rheostat to fit the slot in the Amp volume shaft.

[dmack91]

The Amp comes with a power cord. I then wired a 4 wire connector, similar to a trailer plug, to the speaker outputs.

Then fasten the amp to the radio casing. This was the worst part, trying to get the shafts to line up without binding. I ended up making about a 3/16" wood shim to go between the outer case and the Amp. Then made a 3/4" sheetmetal strap to fasten it to the case.

Then just put the upper and lower casings back on and wire it in. I did cut out part of the back of the casing for the wires to exit.

Overall, I think it took me about 4 hours of tinkering and a total investment of about $25.

Obviously, the am radio no longer works, but the original buttons and scrolling tuning knob do still function. And the original on/off/volume knob works as the original, but now controlls the bluetooth.

[3757chevy]

Thanks. I ordered one . I think I will try this too.