Original stereo.....do you still have yours?

When we bought our '56 we were told the radio hadn't worked in decades. I put a new antenna on it; turned the nob and after the tubes had warmed up I heard Mike Shannon announcing the Cardinals game! Its a Sonomatic and it works great!

 

I've seen a factory AM/FM radio in a '63 Thunderbird, '62 Chrysler 300G, and a '63 Cadillac deVille, so my guess would be that they became available right after the FCC approval of use of the FM part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

My '66 still has its original AM radio, but it quit working a few years back. I have a working spare, but simply have not got around to swapping them out. When I do that, I plan to fix my clock while things are apart, too - it said quarter to eight when I got the car in 1980, and now it's 8:03, thirty years later.

 

That's not for a car is it? Thats huge.

 

Original 54 Cadillac am tube radio with factory front AND rear speaker, High cl***!

 

Stock radio from my 68 corvair & wonderbar from my 56 olds
:d

 

68 corvair & 56 olds wonderbar

 

37 Chevrolet rebuilt original tube radio and rebuilt original speaker and a REDI RAD installed. works great!

 

Still have the original Wonderbar in my 56' although it does not work. Hope to get it refurbished one day.

 

I have the original radio in my 61 Dodge. I plan some day to put some modern tunes in the dash and cover it with a radio delete plate I got on ebay.

it played when I got it but the paper speaker has since deteriorated to crumbs

 

I Wish!!! The Ole Timer (son of the original owner) that 'Custom'd' my truck back in the early 80's CUT the stock radio OUT!!!!! Now it has some early 90's Eclipse that doesn't work cuz I cut out the 8, yes 8, speakers he mounted all over the place, along with a 20 Set Zapco equalizer!!!! It's all gone now...except the deck...havent really cared enough to pull it??

Damn it!!!! I wish my '64 still had the radio, then I could mount a new deck in the glovebox...Ah well...

 

I converted the stock AM Radio to 100 Watt AM/FM stereo (with RCA input jacks for IPOD) in my 65 Barracuda, a few years ago but no sounds in the Model A Coupe... yet.

 

yea in the dash, but to listen to, hell no! i have a real bad*** radio in the glove box! i need my tunes always! pandora in the car, cant go wrong! and if you feel different about it, you must not love music in you car. but thats just me. some just like the sound of the motor, thats cool cause you can always turn your radio off. music makes the trip sooo much better. just my two cents.

 

Just sent a 50 Ford radio to Krazykrout in Germany. I charged him $20 but it cost him $40 to ship it. Not only did I make $20 but a good friend. I love the hamb.

 

Mine in the Firebird is still in the dash ,I rewired the am and fm to use the same antenna but that failed ,Feedback galore .....So the am is disconnected and the fm is under the seat.....

 

still have original am/8track in my tbird also i have a huge number of older country tapes. would trade for rock tapes, or 50s doo wop

 

Have the original am in my '53 Ford. I'm not sure if I want anything newer- there's something about listening to the radio as it was back then; kinda like the final piece to the time machine experience.

 

Still got the AM in my galaxie!!! It cuts out though when i drive under a powerline, tunnel, bridge, street lights, or next to a tall building.... haha

 

Still have mine in the 58 Coronet. works great, if you like AM ?
I installed a new unit under the dash inside a dash bezell of the same year
works pretty good , I do not have a pic of it now ?

 

I'm lost......no such thing as an AM stereo....original stereo?? so when was the 1st production stereo?? maybe 1965? mono/stereo?

 

I took a older Kenwood am/fm/c***ette.cd changer controler and put it in my 56 in place if the alpine pullout deck,then added the KMart 8-track under the dash........did I mention the hidden 12 inch sub.amps and speakers in the car all looks like 70s gear like when it was built,also built a new center section to look like a 56 piece,still got the 70s look to it........

 

Leave the original in, but upgrade with a seventies pioneer supertuner. Under the dash with a slide plate. They kick ***. I got three. Love em.

 

I still have my Chevrolet 8-track with the bowtie emblem on the chrome door and a Santana Abraxas 8 track, also my original home stereo my brother brought back from his Viet Nam days. The old big component Kenwood, Akai, and Sansui stuff, the kids were amazed at the turntable and reel to reel tape deck.

 

I'm jealous. I have a 1940 Chevy truck and a 1959 Austin Healey Sprite. Niether came with a radio. My daughter and I sing to make noise.

 

Info for 39 All Ford: I lived in L.R. from '69-'72 and was Music Director & Air Personality at KAAY Radio...50,000 Watts or Rock n' Roll. The pic below is me in my MD Office. Great times, great fun, G-R-E-A-T Music !

Info for 64 Wildcat: Still have the box for my Motorola Vibrasonic Reverb that I installed in my '63 Galaxie 500 ! It now holds a collection of my '54-'59 Car Craft "little pages" Mags. I've enclosed a pic for you.

ALSO, my '61 INVICTA still has its Original GM radio in the dash...am/fm hidden in the glovebox. And, my '57 Dodge D-500 has the Original unit in the dash, with a hidden am/fm/cd Panasonic unit.

"The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same."

Jonnie King

 

In starliner 1 I have a radio delete plate.
In starliner 2 I have a push****on AM with Motorola Transistors.
In starliner 3 I have an AM with a chrome piece covering the push****ons.
Starliner 2 is the daily driver, and, I plan on adding an amp front and rear and a tunable graphic equalizer hooked to an I pod dock originally for a computer. No second deck. The Ipod will be the deck. Plan on hiding 6 speakers; and using my ashtray to mount the Ipod deck and power switch for the amps/equalizer. Equalizer is very thin, and will be mounted in the glovebox along with a switch to share the speakers with the stock AM radio. Hidden, small, will hold a TON of tunes.

 

Have the stock 6BF tube type in the 56 customline. Get the old 50's radio airchecks from Rock it radio and transfer to MP3 player then run through the old AM on the redi rad. Have DJ's, news and old commercials. Love the look of the light at night and the sound of the stock dash speaker. Plays clear as a bell and plenty loud going down the hiway with windows down (no A/C). Kids call it my time machine. Young folks say you can't go back. I can, the memories are in there and they come right back when I drive the old heap. I was there at the end of the AM era. Just a dumb**** I guess that don't like the newest and greatest stuff.

 

I totally agree, its best to keep the original radio in the dash.. lots of places will convert it to fm or add an mp3 jack for your ipod.. it irks me to see twin pioneer speakers sitting on the rear deck, or speakers in the kick panels.. i added the rear shelf speaker to my car for the RH channel and use the underdash speaker for the LH channel, then I have an underdash receiver unit which connects to the amplifier and 10-cd changer in the trunk.. CDs skip too much when they get moisture or when the road is bumpy so I will soon be changing out my underdash unit for one that accepts USB flash cards or plays mp3 CDs and get rid of the cd changer..

 

I am pretty sure that my Stude had a rear speaker as it had every option available in '53. I have the radio still but I doubt that I will be putting the radio back in about all you can get around here in AM is talk radio.

 

No radios for me. The sounds from the engine bay are all that I will ever need to hear while driving.

 

I still have the original radio for my '57 Buick. It didn't work though, so I separated the face plate from the rest of the radio. The dash is still pretty, and I shaved about 20 pounds of dead weight from the ol' boat anchor.

In the future I'll probably figure something out, but for right now hearing the motor turn would be the best sound in the world.

My brother has a '57 Lincoln and the radio still worked in that, I'll agree that it really is cool to hear the old technology. It almost makes me want to have my original radio and speakers repaired/replaces to get that old school sound. In an old car, it's almost cooler than a bose-quality system.