My '30 coupester doesn't have any room for a radio or speakers but I wanted a cool and simple way to have some music. My solution was to take a couple of old drive-in speakers that I got off Ebay, they came from the old Evansville Drive-In Theatre which was shut down in 1981, remove the guts and drop Bose Soundlink Micro bluetooth speakers in them. I used foam discs I cut off the end of a pool noodle to brace the speakers in the housings so they wouldn't bounce around inside. The rechargeable speakers have a 6 hour battery life and can be linked together for stereo sound with the Bose Connect app and, of course, I can play anything I want from my phone. The housings are held together with just two screws so taking the speakers out to recharge them is no big deal. It's no fancy high end sound system but it cranks pretty good without any distortion and the cast aluminum speaker housings don't really muffle the sound and they don't interfere with the bluetooth signal. I didn't do anything to the exterior of the drive-in speakers so they look great, the sound is much better than you'd think it ought to be, and the project didn't break the bank. Plus, since they're not built into the car, I can use them in the farm truck, too. Mission accomplished.
$84 for refurbished, $119 for new. I already had one so I ordered a refurbished one for the second housing, looks and sounds brand new. Bose SoundLink Micro Bluetooth Speaker – Refurbished | Bose
Can you plug a USB charging cable into each speaker and run it out through the hole that powered the original speaker from post at drive in theatre? Then you could charge them without dis***embly.
Yes, you could, I just didn't want a wire hanging out. Although, I could probably fit a rubber grommet into the hole so the USB cable end could pushed right against it and be held in place by the tension of the grommet on the wire rather than hanging out loose. Then the cable could be pushed in until the end was up against the grommet and pulled out as needed. I'll have to look into that.
The drive-in speakers have solved another dilemma. I normally have to find a place to set a speaker so it isn't in the way when I'm working with the farm truck but yesterday I just hung a drive-in speaker from the wood stake bed frame. It kept the speaker safe and out of the way. Bet I can find a place to hang it on the tractor, too!
NICE! However......I'm thinking you risk forgetting the speaker hanging off the back of the stake truck, and driving off, losing it somewhere in the field, or worse, on the road. Now.....about that tool pouch......care to post a close-up of that? I'm digging the hell out of that idea. Roger
The tool pouch is another eBay buy. I needed a place to put paperwork, sungl***es, phone, etc. It's a well used electricians tool pouch, I just drilled a couple of holes in the wood dash and ran bolts through the tops of the belt loops. Like the speakers it fits the personality of the car and makes a handy place to put little things.
Funny. I was just thinking of doing something similar to this with a vintage early sixties portable radio and a blue tooth speaker.
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