Vintage factory stereos

Knurled wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Rx-7, GSL-SE I think.

MOST '84-85 RX-7s had that stereo. I've only ever seen one that did not have the equalizer, and it was a bare-bones zero-option base model. What you are looking at is actually three seprarate components, you can remove the EQ and it'd still work, and I'm fairly sure that you could remove the tape deck and it'd still work. Trivia. That is NOT a GSL-SE, or a GSL, because it doesn't have the pushbutton HVAC. The slider style HVAC is pretty rare and only found on base models.

Good to know. I know a lot about SA and FB Rx-7s, but not everything.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

Holy E36 M3 that is beyond awesome. Most radios are Double DIN now anyway, so that would work well.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Good to know. I know a lot about SA and FB Rx-7s, but not everything.

"I might've been born yesterday, but I stayed up late studyin'."

I'm not digging on you in the least, mind you. It was a serious irk of mine on the various RX-7 forums when people from outside the US would refer to that dashboard as the GSL-SE dashboard, not realizing that Mazda sold the cars in four trim levels in the US and they all used that same dash.

And that we still had drum brakes and 4x110 all the way up to the end of production, while most markets went disk in 1981 and 4x4.5 in 1983-84 across the board.

In reply to Knurled:

I knew they went to the silver center stack in '84 and '85. I didn't realize the difference in the various models. My SA was an S model and it was optioned out pretty well minus sunroof, aluminum wheels, rear sway bar and center console.

So it had no options then.

I've only ever seen one SA with no center console. It was also a non-sunroof car, and it had the 2-spoke steering wheel! It was getting thrown out, so I grabbed it.

McIntosh FTW,Why I want my cousins 2001 outback 3.0 H-6 VDC.

Knurled wrote: So it had no options then. I've only ever seen one SA with no center console. It was also a non-sunroof car, and it had the 2-spoke steering wheel! It was getting thrown out, so I grabbed it.

Nope it has A/C.

I couldn't stand messing up the dash in my '60 Elky, so I kept the original pushbutton AM radio. You can barely see it in this picture:

But, I love great audio, and this seemed like the perfect car to do it in. So, tucked behind the seat is 2000W of power, caps and subwoofers in a custom built box. There is a 12 disk CD changer under the seat, and the digital head unit is in the glovebox. The head unit works by a remote, so I can run it from the driver's seat, and the entire system is invisible.

So, in this car, "vintage" is fully authentic original AM piece, but the audio output is much more worthy.

It has 12 speakers throughout. Mids mounted in the doors, tweeters mounted on the A pillars, 3 ways under the dash, and a 2nd pair of 6x9 3 ways in the rear deck. I focused several of the speakers on the rounded fishbowl shaped glass and bounced the sound back toward the occupants, so this thing is as big a surround sound as it gets.

It's awesome!

I was at a cruise-in and saw a really sweet stereo setup. It was a hidden headunit, but the remote was on a cable and had a display and illuminated buttons. Mounted under the dash, you would flip it up when in use and then flip it under to hide it.

I have a personal thing against remotes, they seem to always get lost or the batteries die and the tactile response is horrible. This setup made me think twice.

My remote is a wireless, and I have converted the original factory ashtray to be a remote holder. I'll be darned if I am going to allow anyone to smoke in that car! I'm good at loosing stuff, but I have never lost it. It's too cool having a flip-down stainless steel compartment that perfectly matches the dash designed especially to hold it!

No issues with tactile response.

In reply to SVreX:

My Barracuda has the original dash and had a dead thumbwheel radio in it like this:

I had another dead spare with the wrong text (Solid State By Chrysler instead of By Plymouth). Put the spare dead one in the dash and sent the other out to be converted to modern guts. It's AM/FM now with RCA jacks in the back for a MP3 player or satellite receiver. Just need to get some time to install it.

Lots of '80s ones, Nissan and Volvo in particular, had shaft mount stereos with input plugs on the back for a remotely mounted tape deck. Takes almost nothing to convert that input to work off an MP3 player or sat radio unit.

benzbaronDaryn wrote: I have a becker mexico for my mercedes which I want to send to becker autosound and have redone with a MP3 input in the back so I can hook up an MP3 to the stereo in the glove box.

I love those.

I might be one of the few, but I hate aftermarket stereo systems in cars. No matter how well done, they just look out of place. I'm a huge fan of leaving the factory radio in, so I love the old vinatage radio. I just bought a '92 Geo Tracker and was absolutely thrilled to see it still had the factory radio in it.

My '90 Miata has an aftermarket stereo in it. Not a great one, probably 10+ years old, but I'm trying to find a cheap OEM unit to put back in.

I too hate aftermarket stereos. The crappy tiny buttons with little or no indication of what the buttons actually do. Lighting on them usually suck and all of the menus are terrible unless you pull over or have your co-pilot work it.

I know this is about vintage, but I love my '06 F150's stereo:

Large buttons with descriptions of what the buttons do... how novel? Completely operable with my [Jeremy Clarkson] "Fists of Ham" [/Jeremy Clarkson]

Looking at some of these '80s decks, they don't look much better in terms of little buttons.

In reply to RossD:

I'd like mine if the CD player actually worked.

I really like the Clarion unit that came out of my 87 RX7 GXL. I'll snap a photo tonight. Lots-o-buttons.

For those who have something new enough to have a DIN chassis, Nakamichi makes some very nice, very understated OEM-looking head units. Sound quality is excellent as well, but they're generally not cheap.

psteav wrote: For those who have something new enough to have a DIN chassis, Nakamichi makes some very nice, very understated OEM-looking head units. Sound quality is excellent as well, but they're generally not cheap.

I've got a CD400 in the 911 and it's very nice headunit. The CD400 does have a bit of a reputation for problems with the CD mechanism, unfortunately but boy does it sound good.

YUGO, Korean manufacture, still works. Zip ties are not Yugo factory, I just haven't had the time to transfer the din slot from the little add on plastic cubby thing I deleted to the heater control box. Sounds like crap, this could be speaker related. Original speaker in passenger door, random 5.25" bookshelf speaker in the drivers door. No rears currently, but i have a NOS set of rears for it.

Dad's 1981 Wagoneer had a CB band on the factory radio. In high school I borrowed it often. 2 of the german exchange students at school loved speaking german on it and getting truckers excited about the reception they were getting. We were easily entertained.

Rob_Mopar wrote: In reply to SVreX: My Barracuda has the original dash and had a dead thumbwheel radio in it like this: I had another dead spare with the wrong text (Solid State By Chrysler instead of By Plymouth). Put the spare dead one in the dash and sent the other out to be converted to modern guts. It's AM/FM now with RCA jacks in the back for a MP3 player or satellite receiver. Just need to get some time to install it.

That's cool!

Kenny_McCormic wrote: YUGO, Korean manufacture, still works. Zip ties are not Yugo factory, I just haven't had the time to transfer the din slot from the little add on plastic cubby thing I deleted to the heater control box. Sounds like crap, this could be speaker related.

I had one. Saw it at the junkyard and had to get it. Installed it in my first car.

It sounded like crap even with nice speakers.