Factory Radio restoration and Modification by Nick

[86 12 Brutus]

I'm just putting this out here. My friends here at the Bullnose are going to be the first to know. We are going to be starting an internet based business restoring and or modifying factory radios.. Nick has been an electronic engineer and designer for many many years. Brutus came with premium sound digital AM/FM cassette with 6x9's in the doors. Nick modified the radio for bluetooth for both audio and phone calls. This is not a cheap module hanging on the radio, but rather a AM/FM/Cassette/Bluetooth with Dolby :-) For our 79.5 Ranchero. He took a period radio, completely gutted it with the exception of the tuning circuitry. (believe it or not, the old analog ford radios although they sound very bad, the tuning section is one of the finest tuners that were ever built, and compete with the Marantz 10B tuner ( the finest tuner ever built ) The radio was turned into a head unit. Our goal for this project was simply this. We grew up in the days of the audiophile era of the 1970's and nothing sounded quite like the vintage electronics of this time period. I'm talking home stuff. The ranchero radio contains a modified pre-amplifier removed from a high end vintage stereo receiver. the amplifier is a highly modified Sansui design. In edition, he has developed a device that will totally eliminate alternator whine if you install an amp on your factory radio. right now it is called " stop whining damnit" :-) In edition to bluetooth mod's, he is going to totally restore some radio's to factory brand new. I hear alot of complaints about the vintage look radios which quite honestly, are rather cheap and don't sound very good. Many of us, me included want the factory radio. Just putting this out here to see if anybody may be interested.

[Gary Lewis]

I'm interested. But I'm in no rush as it is for Dad's truck and I'm years away on that. I've been planning to use something like the Classic Car Stereo's USA-740, although I've not settled on what I'll use. But basically the features I'd want are:

• AM/FM stereo

• Bluetooth for audio and phone calls

• Mike jack for phone calls so the phone can be in my pocket

• Reasonable power for speakers, but I could go with an outboard amp

• Sub output

• Preferably no clock as I'll have the factory clock just above it.

• No need for cassette

• No need for CD or CD controls

I believe I have the original AM/FM stereo radio, but memory says something doesn't work on it, and I think it is the FM section. Is that something that could be used to provide those features?

[brad1979]

I'm interested. But I'm in no rush as it is for Dad's truck and I'm years away on that. I've been planning to use something like the Classic Car Stereo's USA-740, although I've not settled on what I'll use. But basically the features I'd want are:

• AM/FM stereo

• Bluetooth for audio and phone calls

• Mike jack for phone calls so the phone can be in my pocket

• Reasonable power for speakers, but I could go with an outboard amp

• Sub output

• Preferably no clock as I'll have the factory clock just above it.

• No need for cassette

• No need for CD or CD controls

I believe I have the original AM/FM stereo radio, but memory says something doesn't work on it, and I think it is the FM section. Is that something that could be used to provide those features?

I had this done to a factory am/fm only radio (that no longer worked and couldn't be repaired) for my '81:

http://www.tech-retro.com/Aurora_Design/Home.html

Installed by: http://www.woodradios.com/

Not cheap but very worth it if you want your original radio with modern sound. It can also be done to an am only radio and you get fm and bluetooth etc. The sound is really good but you have to upgrade your speakers which in my case push the door panel out a bit. This could probably be remedied by spending a bit more tie getting the mounting better. Everything works as original including the preset buttons, the balance slider, tone, everything. Because the am/fm (and cassette decks) already has a LED in the display there is no difference at all in the looks, the only change is the LED changes color depending on which setting you have it on. If you have am only they would add a small led to the face for this purpose.

[86 12 Brutus]

I had this done to a factory am/fm only radio (that no longer worked and couldn't be repaired) for my '81:

http://www.tech-retro.com/Aurora_Design/Home.html

Installed by: http://www.woodradios.com/

Not cheap but very worth it if you want your original radio with modern sound. It can also be done to an am only radio and you get fm and bluetooth etc. The sound is really good but you have to upgrade your speakers which in my case push the door panel out a bit. This could probably be remedied by spending a bit more tie getting the mounting better. Everything works as original including the preset buttons, the balance slider, tone, everything. Because the am/fm (and cassette decks) already has a LED in the display there is no difference at all in the looks, the only change is the LED changes color depending on which setting you have it on. If you have am only they would add a small led to the face for this purpose.

Actually a speaker upgrade is not necessary. factory speakers do not sound as bad as you think they do. it's the radio's

[brad1979]

Actually a speaker upgrade is not necessary. factory speakers do not sound as bad as you think they do. it's the radio's

The speaker upgrade was partly because the ones I had were not factory door speakers but some junkyard aftermarket ones and partly because Wood Radios strongly recommended it. I'm a bit ignorant of speaker ratings etc but they suggested 2 models and I think it was based on the ohm ratings to get "best performance". Regardless, the sound quality is really good and its nice to have bluetooth.

[Rusty_S85]

Ive personally been looking for someone to service and fix my old radio, I know the band for the cassette is busted, tapes play only for a couple seconds then auto stop and eject with the tape bunched up. The other problem I have is there is a small point on the volume pot around 50% volume where you turn it a from I guess 50% to 55% and there is no volume change but then you start hitting around 60% volume then it starts going up again from there. Figure its the pot itself. Then there is the push buttons they used to work but since I dont use them they dont work anymore.

Aside from that I thought of upgrading the radio to try and get it to sound better. I just dont like how it sounds with the lack of bass even though its a stereo.

I found one guy out in Arizona but his turn around is 8 months to 11 months and I dont know if I trust shipping my radio out and waiting almost a year to get it back.

[66gtk]

Ive personally been looking for someone to service and fix my old radio, I know the band for the cassette is busted, tapes play only for a couple seconds then auto stop and eject with the tape bunched up. The other problem I have is there is a small point on the volume pot around 50% volume where you turn it a from I guess 50% to 55% and there is no volume change but then you start hitting around 60% volume then it starts going up again from there. Figure its the pot itself. Then there is the push buttons they used to work but since I dont use them they dont work anymore.

Aside from that I thought of upgrading the radio to try and get it to sound better. I just dont like how it sounds with the lack of bass even though its a stereo.

I found one guy out in Arizona but his turn around is 8 months to 11 months and I dont know if I trust shipping my radio out and waiting almost a year to get it back.

I would love to keep my factory '83 cassette radio. The local outfit that converts old radios to new technology like you speak of won't touch mine because it has a cassette and they don't know how to work on those.

[Rusty_S85]

I would love to keep my factory '83 cassette radio. The local outfit that converts old radios to new technology like you speak of won't touch mine because it has a cassette and they don't know how to work on those.

thats the problem I am running into, everyone that messes with old radios like for my '56 they wont touch my '82 cause its a cassette. I found a guy out in Arizona or Nevada I cant remember now but he does 8-tracks but he told me hes been doing it for so long hes willing to take a crack and getting mine functional again. I told him it plays it just auto stops cause the band is broken. But my thing is I dont want to be a year without a radio let alone take a risk like that where he could possibly pass away and now I am royally screwed by not having a radio now.

Why Ive been really thinking about making my own repairs to the push buttons and then do a ready-rad or find some kind of inline bluetooth thing so I can just link my phone to the radio to play my music since I doubt I can get the cassette to work myself. I did get a link to a bunch of bands but dont know what size and there are quite literally thousands based off square cut, round, angle cut, the thickness of the band the depth of the band the length, ect.

[86 12 Brutus]

thats the problem I am running into, everyone that messes with old radios like for my '56 they wont touch my '82 cause its a cassette. I found a guy out in Arizona or Nevada I cant remember now but he does 8-tracks but he told me hes been doing it for so long hes willing to take a crack and getting mine functional again. I told him it plays it just auto stops cause the band is broken. But my thing is I dont want to be a year without a radio let alone take a risk like that where he could possibly pass away and now I am royally screwed by not having a radio now.

Why Ive been really thinking about making my own repairs to the push buttons and then do a ready-rad or find some kind of inline bluetooth thing so I can just link my phone to the radio to play my music since I doubt I can get the cassette to work myself. I did get a link to a bunch of bands but dont know what size and there are quite literally thousands based off square cut, round, angle cut, the thickness of the band the depth of the band the length, ect.

The inline bluetooth things do work, but they don't work all that well. We've tried many of them thats why he came up with putting the module inside the radio. We can rebuild cassette decks as well. For the radio in our truck. what we did. The truck came with premium sound radio. as you know with the trucks, there is only 2 speakers. we bought the exact same premium sound radio but from a lincoln which has the fader. the fader was removed and the microphone was placed where the fader is supposed to go, so you cant tell

 

[86 12 Brutus]

I would love to keep my factory '83 cassette radio. The local outfit that converts old radios to new technology like you speak of won't touch mine because it has a cassette and they don't know how to work on those.

the cassette can be rebuilt. the one good thing right now about the 80's radio's, they aren't going for ridiculous prices yet and if any parts are needed, they are usually found easily.