I picked up an original AM radio for my 59 Chevy truck. I have never tested it but it is complete and I am pretty confident it will work. My truck never had a radio from the factory. I bought it with a old Motorola that was lightly butchered in and the speaker was attached under the radio. This means my truck still has a solid header panel that was never cut nor had the original speaker housing mounted up on it (Thank God!) WHY GO THROUGH ALL THIS TROUBLE FOR AN OLD AM RADIO? I love the challenge and I refuse to put a modern radio or an aftermarket clone into my truck. My truck will never be pebble beach material nor will it ever get 100 point resto but I want it my way. I am doing my best to unmolested my truck and in the process make some minor improvements. My plan is to install an original radio intended for my truck. I have been playing with the idea of adding a powered speaker from a 55 Chevy car and mounting it under the radio. I have every part that the 1959 chevy accessories book calls for to do this operation. I intended on doing it completely by the book with the addition of the powered speaker. My question(s) are pretty simple, a 55 Chevy car radio has a port on it that the powered speaker plugs into. My 55-59 Chevy truck radio has the same port on it. Can I plug the powered speaker from 55 chevy car into my truck radio without hurting anything? How loud is a powered 55 Chevy car speaker (Will it make me deaf in my small taskforce cab)? Any input is appreciated.
Seems like every Delco radio used that plug if it had separate pieces. Did you get the truck knobs ? A '55 - '59 dash uncut is scarce.
I don’t have the knobs but they sell them after market. The original ones are selling for more than a radio. Unfortunately that’s where the lightly butchered Motorola came in. There are two holes where the face of the original radio should poke through. In order for the Motorola to fit they cut little holes for the Motorola knobs. At some point I will weld those back up. I can’t really complain too much because the holes aren’t that big.
All the knobs and a fresh face are under 50 $$ Radio parts and obsolete Chevy parts for old Chevy trucks 1955-59 (cl***icparts.com) They don't show it there but if my brain is working right there are some cover panels around that serve as decorative trim around the oem radio and cover indescressions committed in the past life of the truck. Telling my age, I can remember pulling my radio out of my 55 Buick and taking the cover off the back and pulling the tubes out and packing them down to the store that had the tube tester and a stock of radio and TV tubes. You figured out what tubes you needed and then stopped by the gas station where your buddy pumped gas to use the air hose to blow the dust out of the radio and if you were real lucky his boss had a blow gun in the lube rack that you could do a good job of blowing the dust out. Then back to put it back together and hook it up. In my 51 Merc and that 55 I was high zoot at the time because I had a fader switch and a rear seat speaker and could adjust the sound front to rear. This Ebay seller is real proud of the TF radio they have for sale. eBay item number:364020420581 I just snagged the photo for show and tell as far as knobs go. I don't blame you for not wanting to drill holes but you can find plent of hidden spots to stick a speaker or two in that truck. Maybe just a six by nine in a slim box up high but hidden behind the seat. You can hook an antenna to it hook up a speaker and with a couple of jumper wires to a battery can bench test it real easy. Way back about 60 something years ago when I was about 14 one of my buddys who was a bit ahead of the game had a car radio hooked up in his room and ran it off a battery that was out in an outside storeroom with what had been a long extension cord. When the battery ran low he would hook the battery charger to it before leaving for school in the morning. I'm thinking both came out of an abandoned car that had been sitting in the woods until the deputy Sheriff had it towed. We weren't that far from a big Navy base and the sailors there were known for abandoning their bought cheap cars when they broke down.
Been years since I had mine out, but I don’t recall the “square part” behind the oval part that sticks through the dash. Also that’s all there was, no extra bezel/etc. @59Apachegail , why don’t you like the factory speaker location? Just for a cleaner look above? I’d like to find a place that would just turn mine into a solid state AM radio, no FM, blue tooth, etc. and still adjust the stations and volume as-is. Their was one tube that would always go bad, seemed if you hit ruts, etc after the radio had been on for awhile, “thar she blows”. My dad was down to two or three of those tubes when I got the truck. Always thought, “eh, I’ll get some more later”. Famous last words.
@Mr48chev Thank you for the link that is pretty cheap for a set of them. For the plastic lenses, I use Meguires headlight restore kit. It polishes those thing right up. As a result the numbers wash out, I use neon lure paint to restore them. White during the day and glowing at night (pretty cool). I have a thread on polishing up my cluster face kicking around the HAMB somewhere. @Budget36 - it reminds me of a grade school cl***room and I would be unwillingly waiting to get called down to the the principal’s office all the time. Haha . I do like the cleaner plainer look in my truck. I don’t want to add the p***enger side visor and will have a hard time putting the chrome knobs on my radio once it is in. I know which one you mean, it’s the VIB one (it can be fixed but you have to take the cover off and bend the offending tang). @FishFry - Thanks for tip, I may try that. I did some more digging, it looks like the radios that went with those powered speakers in the 55 chevy cars had 5 wires instead of 2 like the truck radio. This whole powered speaker fishing trip may be canceled.
I know what the ones with the arrows are for, two together go to the junction block and the one by itself is the speaker lead. That plug is problem:
What did that radio come from? I may still have another one for a TF truck, would have to look this weekend. But I could do some contortions and maybe get a look at mine.
@Budget36 That radio is for up models called Wonder Bar from a 55/56 Nomad or Belair. That’s where the powered speaker comes from: The radio for our trucks has a square outer face but the oval part protrudes into the hole in our dash. This is the back of our radio, the large cylinder that is missing is the VIB
The truck radio has the output stage inside the unit. The wonderbar that had the external powered speaker didn't have enough room inside for the output stage, so it was a separate unit. They're different radio designs. I don't understand why you don't want to drill a huge hole above the windshield, it looks so nice when the speaker box is covering it up My 59 came with the radio, but did not have the inside rear view mirror. I think I might have lost the little rubber plug that fits into the notch in the bottom of the speaker housing, for installations like this. You might be able to find a slimmer speaker to install in the original speaker box, that won't require cutting a huge hole in the panel.
Jim, if I understand this correctly our trucks don’t need a powered speaker unit because the radio already has that functionality installed? Haha no cutting! I’ll hide the speaker under the radio. I don’t have a rear view in mine from factory. I never use that mirror, I always turn around even in my daily driver.
You can get a stock truck radio and a say 60's aftermarket type radio (70's if you want FM) or use the Motorola and put the whole works inside the TF case. Should be fairly easy since the TF radios didn't have push ****ons. Friend did it on his '50 Merc radio, had to do mods to make the push ****ons work with the factory setup and he made a small hole in the face corner for a red light to shine through when in FM. Then you can put either one speaker next to the radio pointed down OR 2 smaller speakers behind the dash at each end pointed down (all hidden). I know it's a slight upgrade, but would still be using the stock shell and still be old .
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