Hey thanks Rick. I'm up for that. What about you Bill and Kevin???

 

The radios are cool aren;t they? Here is my story. I bought my truck in 1977 and like was said earlier poor farmers didn't get them. I bought my truck from my grandfather and he was a dairy farmer. As a kid in college in 1977 I thought these trucks just never had any radios since I didn't see a radio delete plate like I saw in my Dad's '48 Chevy 5 window cab. I thought Ford just didn't make radios for these trucks. That is what I believed until I started rebuilding the truck in 1998 and I bought an owners manual and saw the radio! Wow! then I researched it on the internet. Then I found one in an old '55 F-600, paid the old geezer some $50, cleaned it up, replaced some tubes but never had the guts to cut a hole in my dash. Besides, my truck was a farm truck. It had the recirculation heater, only one sun visor, only one door had a lock, etc. I had to keep it plain. So I sold it at the Carlisle Truck Show several years later.

 

I'd love to have one of those radios in my 55!


For the time being I'll just have to be satisfied with the AF67 and PMR7 I have ready to go in!!!

I don't think you could "convert' it to AM/FM though....(you'd need to rip out the guts and put an AM/FM radio in there....it just wouldn't be worth the time and money to try and build a VHF tuner/FM discriminator etc)

I WOULD modify one to work on 12v though.....That wouldn't be all that hard........

 

I have one of the round radios in my truck. Once the tubes warm up, it works great! Really gets you thinking about what songs and news the old radio has played throughout its lifetime...

 

I'm curious, how much did you sell the radio for$$$

 

Don't forget when working on them that those radios were 6V + grd (except 56). The box under the dash is the actual radio, the dash portion is just the tuner.

 

It would be cool to have one..... Changing it to negative ground, plugging in a 12v vibrator and rewiring it for 12v shouldn't be all that hard.....It would require replacing the 6v filament tubes with equivalent 12v tubes and replacing the power transformer or doing a little engineering on the high voltage side of the power supply.... and changing a lot of the old capacitors especially the electrolytics (which should be done in any old piece of electronic equipment anyway)

Here's one! I think the guy is in LALA land though with his price!! Ya gotta want it real bad for $750!!

OEM 1953 - 1955 Ford Truck complete Radio set

 

All I can say is WOW !!! I'm with you on your asessment of his euphoric state. I was think maybe $200.00 tops in working and refurbed condition.

I would most likely with hold modification for polarity and voltage until I have a buyer so I would not be limited to a particular set of buyers. I have not taken one of these apart nor have I seen a schematic, although I'd like to see one if anybody has one. If there are an equal number of 6v tubes they can be seriesed in pairs to work on 12 VDC. I agree abouit the electrolytic filter caps because I doubt they have survived that last 20 years of exposure to broad temp ranges and excess humidity.

Later Man...

 

I sold it for $180 about 6 years ago.

 

There is a place that rebuilds them and can also convert to FM. I think I have a web address. I will look it up.

 

Did you send Grandpa a few bucks???

 

Thanks, but I have been into electronics for almost fifty years and I have designed and built my own Ham Radio equipment. I have a pretty extensive electronics shop so I figure I can restore the radio. I figure those guys get a bundle for what they do but once it is converted it's not original.

Later Man...

 

Check this one out on Ebay. Item number 230309157961. It's hard to believe how low it is currently! Even though the speaker isn't with it! There are over four days left! I have the newer 12v version that came with my 59 parts truck. I enjoy getting them working and leaving them just as they are. I want to be taken back in time, when things were slower and more peaceful, when I look into a cab of an old truck! However, I am not opposed to hiding a cd player under the seat to crank a little J.T or Merle! To each his own! That's why it's fun!!




Take my advice, I'm not using it!

 

[quote=spurredon;6801433]Check this one out on Ebay. Item number 230309157961. It's hard to believe how low it is currently! Even though the speaker isn't with it! There are over four days left! I have the newer 12v version that came with my 59 parts truck. I enjoy getting them working and leaving them just as they are. I want to be taken back in time, when things were slower and more peaceful, when I look into a cab of an old truck! However, I am not opposed to hiding a cd player under the seat to crank a little J.T or Merle! To each his own! That's why it's fun!!
quote]


I checked it out. I can think of three reasons why it is so low. Probably the foremost is the fact that no one has searched for it or knows it's there, next the fact that it is not categorized properly, then ther is also the extreme poor condition and missing speaker. It will be interesting to watch the auction. I personally think it's primary value is a source of parts for restoring other units.

Later...

 

Dave,

Yes it would be no problem to rewire the filament circuit. I think every tube in that radio had a 12v version though so I would go that way instead of using 6v tubes.....(unless I had all new 6v ones to start with!!)

I looked at the EBAY auction for the radio. MAN it's rough!! Some one will probably pay WAY TOO much for it though......



Here's a source for a Sams Photofact for that radio. It's probably not that expensive...

FORD Automobile Photofact Service Schematic Diagrams


73/Rick