I’ve got a very original ‘65 Dart with heater and radio deletes. I needed tunes but I wasn’t about to cut up the unmolested dash. I got a speaker bracket from ‘74 Sport, mounted two Kicker 3.5” speakers and a cheap Bluetooth amplifier off Amazon (search DAMGOO TPA3116) . The amp fit nicely between the two speakers on the bracket. ‘74 Sport’s bracket is nicely made and fit perfectly under the dash.
My local hardware store had a bin of small carriage bolts. I forget the exact size but the smallest size they had fit the dash cut outs perfectly.
My car didn’t have wiring or a fuse for a radio circuit. It did have the top clip in the radio fuse spot. I was able to source a set of fuse clips from eBay (seller fmmpar) to add a fuse to power the radio in the factory fuse location.
There are a couple quirks:
1. The amp plays the AOL instant messenger start up sound when it powers on and the new message chime when it gets a bluetooth connection from my phone. Originally, I was thinking about trying to dump the chineesium firmware from the JTAG test points and hacking it to disable those sounds but as a kid who went to college when AIM was first getting popular it’s kind of grown on me.
2. The master volume is set by a knob on the board. Unfortunately, to adjust the max volume, I need to crawl under the dash which is a pain. I have the master/max volume set about mid way which is loud enough that I can run down the highway singing along to Lady Gaga on Pandora at the top of my lungs. It pulls about an amp cranked all the way up on a bass’y song (according to my Fluke amp clamp). I control the volume using buttons on the side of the phone. I keep my phone next to my leg and just reach down and toggle the phone volume buttons without taking my eyes off the road.
I’m not an audiophile but I’m super happy with how this project turned out. Thank you so much to ‘74 Sport for making the speaker bracket. It is nicely made and fit the application perfectly.
My local hardware store had a bin of small carriage bolts. I forget the exact size but the smallest size they had fit the dash cut outs perfectly.
My car didn’t have wiring or a fuse for a radio circuit. It did have the top clip in the radio fuse spot. I was able to source a set of fuse clips from eBay (seller fmmpar) to add a fuse to power the radio in the factory fuse location.
There are a couple quirks:
1. The amp plays the AOL instant messenger start up sound when it powers on and the new message chime when it gets a bluetooth connection from my phone. Originally, I was thinking about trying to dump the chineesium firmware from the JTAG test points and hacking it to disable those sounds but as a kid who went to college when AIM was first getting popular it’s kind of grown on me.
2. The master volume is set by a knob on the board. Unfortunately, to adjust the max volume, I need to crawl under the dash which is a pain. I have the master/max volume set about mid way which is loud enough that I can run down the highway singing along to Lady Gaga on Pandora at the top of my lungs. It pulls about an amp cranked all the way up on a bass’y song (according to my Fluke amp clamp). I control the volume using buttons on the side of the phone. I keep my phone next to my leg and just reach down and toggle the phone volume buttons without taking my eyes off the road.
I’m not an audiophile but I’m super happy with how this project turned out. Thank you so much to ‘74 Sport for making the speaker bracket. It is nicely made and fit the application perfectly.
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