- Joined
- Jul 27, 2012
- Messages
- 3,094
- Reaction score
- 445
- Location
- Brisbane - Australia
- My Car
- 1973 Mustang Convertible
Hi To All,
At the moment, i'm doing a step by step make over of my '73 Convert's interior. Installing a decent sound system was on my priority list. My Mussy came from the factory with the still working Philco AM radio and dash speaker. Sadly, it sounds like the music is coming through a tin can.
Over the last 8 months or so, i've been doing a lot of research into upgrading the sound system. It's been an interesting, learning experience as i've gone along. Today, there are a lot of options as to what you want to do. I was drawn to 3 basic choices...... 1. Buy a modern good quality 1 Din Radio Head. 2. Buy a 1 Din DVD Multi Media Player with 7inch flip out touchscreen. and 3.Buy a new classic style radio head that fits into your existing factory bezel.
All three choices had there pluses & minuses. Anyway, i decided to go for the modern good quality i Din radio head with all the goodies. And that's why i'm posting this thread, because my problem was how to marry up the modern look radio head into the old original Ford Radio bezel, and not having it look like a cheap add on.
The first thing i did was to buy a Ken Harrison black plastic replacement radio bezel which comes with the 1 Din letterbox cutout for the modern radio head. I paid good money for it, and tried it on for looks. It was passable, but it didn't have any chrome trim like the original has.So i decided to stick with the Ford bezel for my head.
I've seen a lot of photos on the net over the months where guys have done that very thing to their '71 -'73's.(Modern head on Ford bezels).Where they go wrong i think, is that they leave the raised chrome lines on the inner bezel face, and that spoiles the finished look. It looks like an after thought add on.
So i came up with what i thought was a clever plan,and modified the Ford bezel so the end result looks not too bad at all. Firstly, i bought a repro Ford Radio bezel to hack into so i can store and save away my original factory radio and bezel.The next step is to use a Dremel and small grinding stone and go to work grinding down the raised lettering and inner chrome surround on the face of the bezel. (Use several overlaying strips of masking tape to protect the surrounding chrome trims as your grinder can wander and cause untold damage).
Next, mark out and measure accurately, the cutout for the radio head slide in chassis. Hacksaw off the protruding volume and tuning metal knobs, then using a good jigsaw with a fine tooth metal blade carefully cut out your rectangle. File and shape as needed.
Now you have two choices. You can either refinish the black front face within the existing chrome rectangle with spray putty and matt black, or you can do what i did and make up a rectangular cut out packing bezel out of 4 ml craftwood or plastic that sits within that rectangular chrome surround. Making the bezel is fiddely and time consuming, and it will have to be sprayed with black paint anyway to finish off. The choice is yours.
I ended up making a packing bezel of craftwood, spray painted it black, and Sika flexed it to the radio bezel face.It looks good finished. That's it then. Slide the radio chassis in and secure, slide the radio in and secure and your done.Now that end result may not be everyone's cup of tea, but i think it's not such a bad compromise.
See my photos on Photo bucket to help tell the story.They are not actual real life photos, but accurate mock up ones.
http://s1295.beta.photobucket.com/user/gregsladen/library/73%20Radio%20Bezels
Also, there is another story relating to the major install of my sound system in my '73 Vert. This covers the speaker and amp setups and choices for front and back of the Vert, as well as the choice of sub woofer/ amp combination setup. Above, ivé described the install of the Alpine radio head but the rest of the system has a interesting story.
Basically, i was up against it with my '73 Vert in regards putting in a modern sound system, as there is very little practical room for speakers, amps, subs etc, in these cars. I did not want to deface the interior of my Vert as much as possible, so i came up with some working ideas to help get around this problem. Firstly, my front speakers were mounted on the kick panels. The problem with this idea was that the driver's side speaker would interfere with the foot park brake pedal. I redesigned the foot brake by reshaping the pedal so it would be offset and then clear the speaker housing and grille. This worked out well.(see pics)
In regards the back speakers, defacing the interior, such as a quarter trim mount, was not an option for me. To get around this, i bought two Pioneer 4 inch speakers, and did a custom mount in the top center of the dashboard, replacing the old factory mono speaker.These then became my rear speakers. Again, that idea worked out well also, and sounds great as well.(see my pics) To finish off, i installed a sub woofer and it's own dedicated amp in a custom made tray style floor cabinet, that's positioned on the trunk floor just behind the rear seat upright.(see my pics), I also installed a hard wired in usb power mini cable for my sat nav machine. It sits to the far bottom left of the windscreen.
The component brands and specs should be identifiable in my pics as well. To sum up - this sound system i chose, sounds very good. I went for good quality components, with good specs, and that was a wise decision for starters. I get a good clean quality sound, with great bass and treble characteristics, and plenty of volume, which you need for a top down convertible, as a lot of your sound is lost into the atmosphere, and has to compete with traffic noises as well.
See my sound system install photos ..........................
http://s1295.photobucket.com/user/gregsladen/library/?view=recent&page=1
Thanks,
Greg
At the moment, i'm doing a step by step make over of my '73 Convert's interior. Installing a decent sound system was on my priority list. My Mussy came from the factory with the still working Philco AM radio and dash speaker. Sadly, it sounds like the music is coming through a tin can.
Over the last 8 months or so, i've been doing a lot of research into upgrading the sound system. It's been an interesting, learning experience as i've gone along. Today, there are a lot of options as to what you want to do. I was drawn to 3 basic choices...... 1. Buy a modern good quality 1 Din Radio Head. 2. Buy a 1 Din DVD Multi Media Player with 7inch flip out touchscreen. and 3.Buy a new classic style radio head that fits into your existing factory bezel.
All three choices had there pluses & minuses. Anyway, i decided to go for the modern good quality i Din radio head with all the goodies. And that's why i'm posting this thread, because my problem was how to marry up the modern look radio head into the old original Ford Radio bezel, and not having it look like a cheap add on.
The first thing i did was to buy a Ken Harrison black plastic replacement radio bezel which comes with the 1 Din letterbox cutout for the modern radio head. I paid good money for it, and tried it on for looks. It was passable, but it didn't have any chrome trim like the original has.So i decided to stick with the Ford bezel for my head.
I've seen a lot of photos on the net over the months where guys have done that very thing to their '71 -'73's.(Modern head on Ford bezels).Where they go wrong i think, is that they leave the raised chrome lines on the inner bezel face, and that spoiles the finished look. It looks like an after thought add on.
So i came up with what i thought was a clever plan,and modified the Ford bezel so the end result looks not too bad at all. Firstly, i bought a repro Ford Radio bezel to hack into so i can store and save away my original factory radio and bezel.The next step is to use a Dremel and small grinding stone and go to work grinding down the raised lettering and inner chrome surround on the face of the bezel. (Use several overlaying strips of masking tape to protect the surrounding chrome trims as your grinder can wander and cause untold damage).
Next, mark out and measure accurately, the cutout for the radio head slide in chassis. Hacksaw off the protruding volume and tuning metal knobs, then using a good jigsaw with a fine tooth metal blade carefully cut out your rectangle. File and shape as needed.
Now you have two choices. You can either refinish the black front face within the existing chrome rectangle with spray putty and matt black, or you can do what i did and make up a rectangular cut out packing bezel out of 4 ml craftwood or plastic that sits within that rectangular chrome surround. Making the bezel is fiddely and time consuming, and it will have to be sprayed with black paint anyway to finish off. The choice is yours.
I ended up making a packing bezel of craftwood, spray painted it black, and Sika flexed it to the radio bezel face.It looks good finished. That's it then. Slide the radio chassis in and secure, slide the radio in and secure and your done.Now that end result may not be everyone's cup of tea, but i think it's not such a bad compromise.
See my photos on Photo bucket to help tell the story.They are not actual real life photos, but accurate mock up ones.
http://s1295.beta.photobucket.com/user/gregsladen/library/73%20Radio%20Bezels
Also, there is another story relating to the major install of my sound system in my '73 Vert. This covers the speaker and amp setups and choices for front and back of the Vert, as well as the choice of sub woofer/ amp combination setup. Above, ivé described the install of the Alpine radio head but the rest of the system has a interesting story.
Basically, i was up against it with my '73 Vert in regards putting in a modern sound system, as there is very little practical room for speakers, amps, subs etc, in these cars. I did not want to deface the interior of my Vert as much as possible, so i came up with some working ideas to help get around this problem. Firstly, my front speakers were mounted on the kick panels. The problem with this idea was that the driver's side speaker would interfere with the foot park brake pedal. I redesigned the foot brake by reshaping the pedal so it would be offset and then clear the speaker housing and grille. This worked out well.(see pics)
In regards the back speakers, defacing the interior, such as a quarter trim mount, was not an option for me. To get around this, i bought two Pioneer 4 inch speakers, and did a custom mount in the top center of the dashboard, replacing the old factory mono speaker.These then became my rear speakers. Again, that idea worked out well also, and sounds great as well.(see my pics) To finish off, i installed a sub woofer and it's own dedicated amp in a custom made tray style floor cabinet, that's positioned on the trunk floor just behind the rear seat upright.(see my pics), I also installed a hard wired in usb power mini cable for my sat nav machine. It sits to the far bottom left of the windscreen.
The component brands and specs should be identifiable in my pics as well. To sum up - this sound system i chose, sounds very good. I went for good quality components, with good specs, and that was a wise decision for starters. I get a good clean quality sound, with great bass and treble characteristics, and plenty of volume, which you need for a top down convertible, as a lot of your sound is lost into the atmosphere, and has to compete with traffic noises as well.
See my sound system install photos ..........................
http://s1295.photobucket.com/user/gregsladen/library/?view=recent&page=1
Thanks,
Greg
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