Jim's 1969 Custom/20

[bollybib]

TUNES (Part 1 of 2)

I spent most of my time on the truck over the past several weeks working on the exhaust system and driveshaft. I’ll post something about those soon. When I got near the end of the exhaust-ing work, I needed something fun to do, so I decided to put in a stereo. I managed to find most everything I needed in my small-but-extensive "salvage yard", so this little project ended up costing me the price of a pack of connectors, $3.58.

I didn’t want to remove a lot of stuff or drill any new holes or cut anything. The stock AM radio doesn’t work, and I didn’t want to troubleshoot it or remove it since the AC ducts are in the way and I was not of a mind to destroy those just yet. I didn’t want to put the stereo unit in the glove box because it is way too far to reach while driving. There are two fat pan head screws below the HVAC control unit on the dash that looked like they would make fine attachment points for brackets. So I scratched my head and drew a quick sketch on my work table.

I rummaged around to find something suitable for a bracket. The center-to-center dimension of the factory-installed screws is identical to the width of the stereo unit so I needed something that would provide a rigid offset around the screw heads. I had some 1/8" thick rectangular aluminum tubing on hand that looked like a good candidate, and it would be easy to cut and drill too. So following my sketch, I fabricated two brackets and made a few test fits. It looked like it would work OK.

Then I went to the truck’s electrical schematic to find a good place to hook up the power. I used the lead at the cigarette lighter for unswitched power and ran a wire to the radio connector near the fuse box to get switched power because I couldn’t reach the radio’s power connector. A PO had drilled a hole in the bottom of the dash directly above my mounting location so I used that for a ground screw. I disconnected the antenna cable from the radio to use for the stereo (lucky I could reach it without taking stuff out). I needed to buy some spade terminals but I had everything else on hand.