Now that this project is complete and everything works as planned, I thought I’d share briefly. Most of you will probably think I’m insane and you’re welcome to join the club. LOL.
I have a ‘73 Swinger that I picked up in November ‘17 from the original owner. I started it and drove it on the trailer. I have done a lot of work in the last year but try to maintain the “original” ideas behind the car throughout a majority of the work as very little had ever been
done or changed on the car.
I finally got around to the radio and speakers recently. I didn’t wanna cut the dash at all and had no desire to drop $400 on a modern look-alike. So, here is what I did. I pufrchased another am radio from a FABO member and began disassembly. With the help of my machinist friend, we installed a Pioneer am/fm/BT receiver inside the original housing and made a new shaft to accept the original Dart knob and control the modern unit. I then used the bracket from ‘74Sport
here on FABO to install a pair of 4” speakers in the dash, placed a pair of 6x9’s in the factory package tray locations, and wrapped it up with a Pioneer powered sub enclosure under the passenger front seat.
All said and done, I have right around $400 in it and it sounds great. We scanned the original am dial to print vinyl and applied to the inside of the radio screen. When the car is on, I can control my playlist and read the radio screen through the window. When powered off, there is no clue as to what lies behind the dash. Finally, the USB is available for charging in the ashtray and hands-free calling is accommodated via the mic I hid under the steering column.
I have a ‘73 Swinger that I picked up in November ‘17 from the original owner. I started it and drove it on the trailer. I have done a lot of work in the last year but try to maintain the “original” ideas behind the car throughout a majority of the work as very little had ever been
done or changed on the car.
I finally got around to the radio and speakers recently. I didn’t wanna cut the dash at all and had no desire to drop $400 on a modern look-alike. So, here is what I did. I pufrchased another am radio from a FABO member and began disassembly. With the help of my machinist friend, we installed a Pioneer am/fm/BT receiver inside the original housing and made a new shaft to accept the original Dart knob and control the modern unit. I then used the bracket from ‘74Sport
here on FABO to install a pair of 4” speakers in the dash, placed a pair of 6x9’s in the factory package tray locations, and wrapped it up with a Pioneer powered sub enclosure under the passenger front seat.
All said and done, I have right around $400 in it and it sounds great. We scanned the original am dial to print vinyl and applied to the inside of the radio screen. When the car is on, I can control my playlist and read the radio screen through the window. When powered off, there is no clue as to what lies behind the dash. Finally, the USB is available for charging in the ashtray and hands-free calling is accommodated via the mic I hid under the steering column.
