History Who on the H.A.M.B. has the oldest original car radio in their car?

I was reading about the invention of car radios. The article said radios were the invention of a couple of guys from Quincy Illinois in the early '30's and that Ford was the first to offer them. This is the era that many cars of interest to this message would be. Two questions.
1. How old of a radio have you seen or found in your quest of a project?
2. Who has the oldest working radio?

 

oops, I might need a moderator to delete the T in car.

 

Original radio in my 37 Chevrolet pickup.

 

1937 Pontiac

 

Hi Larry! Does Mr. Chevy have a radio? How about his transporter? I used to belong to the RRC’s with you about 30 years ago. I’m so happy you have Mr. Chevy, he is very special and super cool!

 

Hi Andy, good to hear from you.
Mr. Chevy is built for the strip only. It doesn't even have a passenger seat.
Mr. Chevy's hauler does have an original truck radio that work.

 

This is an early 1930's Cathedral radio in my '31 Model A. It was explained to me by the antique radio association that those who had radios in their cars in the early '30s were quite wealthy as car radios were very expensive.

 

Wow! This thread made me go looking on the internet for "earliest car radio".

'Found this Motorola ad from '32.



$69.50 in 1932 money is equal to roughly $1,327.00 today!!!

Holy hell!!! Nothing has changed.

 

Wow, and I thought my original 1950 radio was old...

 

mine is only a 1940 . man do i miss wolfman jack on the radio!

 

A 50 Olds I owned, had a Wonder Bar,

 

Cool but I don't understand the key?

 

So the valet can’t mess with it.

 

Yeah, you wouldn't want someone changing the only station in town.

 

Have the radio for my 36 ford with the “tuner” but never tried to make it workable?? Could a “voltage reducer” installed in a 12 volt system make a 6 volt radio come to life?? What are the chances radio tubes can be bought or made to work again in the original radio?? Where and who is a HAMB recommended repair man to have a look at the stock 36 ford radio?? Flatheads Forever!!

 

I have a buddy with an original 1934 ford radio. It replaces the glove box.

 

My '51 Delco radio in my Pontiac doesn't even get close to being oldest! Still sounds good though. People are surprised when I tell them it's gotta warm up before it works.

I rebuilt one of them. Not a bad set, not quite as sensitive as model years that followed it, but a neat design given they space they crammed it into.

Technically, yes.

100% so long as the difficult to source parts (transformers, plate capacitors etc) are in good shape.

Sure there's folks on here who repair and restore radios professionally! Just ask.

 

"The first car radio was fitted to the passenger door of a Ford Model-T by 18 year old George Frost, president of the Lane High School Radio Club in Chicago in May 1922. In November that year, the first radio was installed in a Daimler limousine by the Marconi-phone company and displayed at the Olympia Motor Show in London, England."
https://listverse.com/2008/07/12/top-10-fascinating-firsts-in-motoring/

 

The best way to do this would be to replace the 6 volt tubes with 12 volt ones. Most tubes will have 12 volt equivalent ones.
And getting back to the OP's question, I have a stock radio in my '37 Cadillac.

 

Be careful bolting a 6 volt radio to a 12 volt system, even if you use a voltage converter you need to make sure they both use the same earth polarity as some earth through the housing.

 

With one caveat, some vibrator supply radios don't care, which is really helpful.
Just have somebody check the Sams Photofact before plugging in.

Also, changing the tubes is only half of the task on a tube set if you plan on running a 6 volt on 12; your B+ voltage will be roughly 2x what it should be (600V instead of 300) which can have some very smoky/pop/bang results.

Running a dropper resistance is the easiest method to running an older radio, also has the side effect of being a bit of a heater.

 

That was the one big advantage to using the old steam powered radios.

 

I learned a lot about how to restore radios from watching this how to series of videos on youtube:

At 1:05 there is a table of contents for the complete series

How to Fix Antique Radios

 

A dropping resistor is not a good way to run a 6 volt radio on a 12 volt system. The resistor does not react fast enough to cope with the initial current draw. Resistors are better suited for motors such as heaters or wiper motors.
My ‘49 Cad has the original which was updated with later Cad 12 volt components after the prior owner thought he could operate his newly restored 6 volt unit on a Volt-A-Drop and fried it.
The oldest car radio I have is a ‘34 Philco.
Since accessories were a dealer sold and installed they were offered by many brands such as Motorola, Arvin, Philco, and Firestone. My ‘37 has a Firestone tuner.

 

Volt drop resistors rely on constant current to give a stable voltage. Varying the settings such as the volume control change the current load so change the volt drop significantly. You need a regulated supply.

 

Put a newer radio under the seat and just use the on/off switch on the old radio to power it. Amaze your friends at how great your 1934 radio works.

 

Good idea! I thought about doing that with mine, but it’s such a bitch to take out, I wished I’d thought about it before I had put it back in after repainting the dash! So I haven’t done it yet, still might…

Besides, AM radio is pretty much dead anymore anyway. Around here it’s either talk radio, religious programming, or Spanish music.

 

I worked on a guy's 1933 Ford that had the original radio. It's been a long time, but I think it was probably similar to what Mr Jim Sibley mentioned that his friend had in his '34. If I remember correctly, the knobs were remote, connected with cables. Pretty interesting. And it still worked.

 

Back when we still had an oldies station around here, I always got the AM radios in my old cars working and just kept it tuned to that one station.
WHNE... "Honey" radio.
Those old tube radios had a good full sound.

But there aren't any oldies stations on the radio anymore.
Bluetooth action, now.