FM Adapter or Badge Engineered Radio Swap? - Mitsubishi Mini Truck

The nephew is 16, just got his license, and has his late grandfather's '79 Plymouth Arrow.

The most important thing in any 16 year old's ride, is tunes of course.  Unfortunately the Arrow only has an AM radio.  However, the kid's grandfather had installed an FM converter at some point. 

Now this is all second hand info, from a 16 year old with his first car, but apparently the FM converter doesn't work.  Since I'm into cars and play "tech support," for the whole family, I must know how to fix it...

Unfortunately I have zero experience with AM to FM convertors or any of Chrysler's "captive import" little trucks of yore.

Going into it blind, my knee jerk reaction is to put a modern head unit in it, you'll get FM & AM, maybe even HD, XM, Bluetooth, Aux-in, USB, LMNOP, BBQ, HDMI, QWERTY, etc.  What teen wouldn't be all over that?  I'll tell you... this one.  Surprised me, but I think the sentimentality of it being grandpa's truck is strong, and the kid wants to keep it stock looking.

So what are my options of getting the kid's AM radio to play FM stations?  Even if I figure out how to make the existing FM converter work, it's likely ~40 years old, surely there's been some technological advancements in the past 4 decades.

My alternate idea, I haven't pitched this one to the nephew yet, so it may be a non-starter, but looking on eBay, it appears that I can get a factory Mighty Max or D50 AM/FM radio.  My ASSumption is that it'll be a direct swap in the Arrow, anyone able to confirm my assumption? 

Keep the original stereo, put a modern stereo in an under dash pod like this?  Would be a good use for one of those sub $20 Blaupunkts from the other thread.  

Any pictures of the dash? I'd be against cutting anything up as I can't even find a picture of what it might look like.

If it's just a single din, throw in the cheapest Pioneer H/U that has bluetooth. They're worth the small premium over the "blaupunkt" from the other thread and they have an extremely short chassis—like 3 or 4 inches. Also plan on new speakers, because anything aftermarket will decimate 40 year old stockers. Again, pioneer—for about $10 a speaker he'll be happier than a pig in a 1995 BMW M3.

Learn to enjoy talk radio?  :)

I know zilch about an am to fm converter as in I didn't even know they existed.  Doesn't look like you can even buy new anymore. 

This seems like a perfect application of the headless amp conversion some of the GRM crowd have done.  Link

But, it's just to provide audio input, no radio stations.  He can run music from his phone or maybe buy an older ipod and just dump music and stuff on it to play through the input.

A quick Googles search and it looks like the old 2 shaft radio opening.  Understanding that funds are limited for a 16 year old, it may not be an option, but there are several places that make classic stock looking stereos but have modern gadgets.

If he's new to the hobby, might be a good excuse to hit up a junkyard and look for any cars with dual shaft stereos that might work.  Although, it'll have to be a classic junkyard as opposed to a newer one that rotates out cars a bunch.

-Rob

ebelements said:

If it's just a single din, throw in the cheapest Pioneer H/U that has bluetooth. They're worth the small premium over the "blaupunkt" from the other thread and they have an extremely short chassis—like 3 or 4 inches. Also plan on new speakers, because anything aftermarket will decimate 40 year old stockers. Again, pioneer—for about $10 a speaker he'll be happier than a pig in a 1995 BMW M3.

Agreed with all of this, but since it's a '79, it might even be the old two-post style, These guys have some modern solutions that would work with that setup.

Anything for a Mitsubishi Mighty Max of that same era should work on the Plymouth Arrow.  Those trucks were all Mitsubishi underneath just a change of badging and a different grills.  My '91 Ram50 has a Mitsubishi plate stamped to the firewall to identify the engine, trans, etc and a VIN that shows the country of origin was Japan.