New Radio Install

I recently purchased a new (modern) radio to install in my Bullnose. The truck did not have the radio option but over the years, someone installed one. The radio was missing when I bought it and all that's left is a hole in the dash and a few random wires.

1. Did all Bullnose trucks come prewired for a radio? or Is what is in there from the previous owner?

2. I have found some wiring diagrams/videos out there that list a:
-Main Power
-Memory
-Antenna
-Illumination
-Left Speaker
-Right Speaker

Where does the Illumination hook into for a modern radio (Is it needed)?
Where does the Center Dash Speaker plug into? Do I just pick a rear speaker?

Thanks Folks!

If the truck never had a radio, the only wires would be:

Yellow/Black Hash: Radio Power
Lt. Blue/Red stripe: Radio Dial Illumination

The two wire rubber connector would be located behind the dash upright between the radio and instrument cluster bezels. It will be loosely taped to the harness there, unless previously moved around.

And that is it.

I hope that the last radio was installed by someone who knows/knew what they were doing.

A lot of important things for a radio would be missing.

The fuse for the radio will not be in the fuse panel.
The Hood Bond strap will be missing, (Unless underhood lamp was installed)
Alternator Capacitor either on the coil or at the voltage regulator will be missing. (For Noise Suppression)

And of course speaker wires etc. . .

The illumination wire will most likely not be needed for modern radios. Don't mistake it for a ground wire.
Any Speaker wire would hook up to the radio directly, through connectors.

If only using one speaker, I'd use the front two speaker channels combined together. I would suggest looking at putting speakers in the doors, or getting one of those fancy dual channel dash speakers that are available.

Thanks. I think I have all the wires identified now. My main concern was what to do with the Illumination wire. From what I've read, I can just cap it off if the new radio doesn't have that feature. What about the center dash speaker? Just pick a the right or left rear to hook it up to?

Yes, just cap it off if it's bare. Originally it would have been protected by the original connector when unplugged.

And I edited my original post, yes you can combine the two front channels to the single dash speaker to get true mono sound.

If you just hook one channel up you will lose half of the stereo information instead of combining it.

Do I run the +- of both right and left outputs to the one speaker? I am installing 6.5" speakers in the doors. Based on your suggestion, I should hook up the 2 front outputs to the 1 dash speaker and the door speakers to the rear outputs?

Ah, if hooking up two door speakers as well, then you can use one channel from the rear for the center speaker.

Sorry for the confusion. If hooking up just the center speaker, then hooking up both left and right front + and - to the center speaker would be the thing to do on a mono speaker setup.

If it was me I'd delete the center speaker entirely if going for two door speakers.

Powerman5K wrote

I am installing 6.5" speakers in the doors.

Did you buy the speakers for the doors already? I installed speakers in the doors of my 1984 F150 (Which was a factory radio delete truck).

I don't know how much it helped (if any help at all), but I installed a set of foam speaker bafflers behind the door speakers:

https://www.crutchfield.ca/S-LNiwH4Kyryr/g_762/Foam-Speaker-Baffles.html

I also insulated the doors behind the interior panels, but I can't find the pics at the moment.

Because I used the full harness from my parts truck it had the wiring for the radio & speakers across the top of the dash to the door posts.
I went with a Ford factory am / fm / cassette so it only has the front left / right speaker output.

I did mount speakers in the doors and thought about the foam boxes you can get to help the sound but did not go for them.
I did use some peel & stick inside the door put on the outer skin.
This helps in 2 ways.
The skin acts as a drum and the peel & stick keeps it from drumming when closing the door, sounds solid.
Also the speaker sound dose not drum off the skin so it sounds a little better too.
I am happy with the sound from a 1980's radio
Dave ----