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I have a 76 F350 that never had a radio and I want to install one. I have a ford antenna with the rectangular base. My problem is I am not sure where to drill a hole in the cowl. Could someone give me the measurement from the front of the rectangular antenna base forward to the edge of the cowl(towards the hood), and the measurement from the side of the rectangular base down the side of the truck(towards the fender) to the edge of the cowl ? With those two measurements I should be able to figure it out. Thanks!
Hang in there, I am sure someone that owns a tape measure can get you that. I have a tape measure....but I am 7,459 miles from my truck. I am searching my pic stash for ya and this is all I can find so far.
Here's what I got sorry I'm not an artist lol. So from the front of the rectangular base to the hood is 1". From the right side of the base (as if you're sitting in the drivers seat) is 2.25 inches to where the Cowl bends down. I used this measurement because eyeballing is hard on this curve and I had an actual body line to follow. The easier measurement is to measure from the left side of the base. This measurement is 8" from the very last air slit in the the cowl. If you need clarification on any of it I'll just take a picture and draw on it that way.
my '73 is the same way. and its loose and messed up and all janky. ill probly go grab one off a ranger or something later years probly, more modern. dunno yet.
I used an antenna off a 94 F150 and the 1" and 8" measurements. It went on great, but if you stand directly in front of the truck, the antenna leans slightly outward. Maybe the base was cut a little differently on the 94????? It's not hardly noticeable, so I'm not going to worry about it.
Either base was cut or the cowling is sloped a little more towards the front on a 94 cowl. These trucks seemed to be more nose down as they got away from the square lines and sharp edges. I'd say this is most likely the visual you're seeing. Either way glad you got it on. For my own info...does your dash support underneath have about a 1 inch hole where the antenna cable routed through even though your truck came without an antenna? I'd assume all dashes were designed the same in stamping but just was curious if you had to make a holes for the cable to come through after the install
You should remember that back then the trucks were often brought in without radios and dealerships installed the units per customer orders. They could have one mechanic who did them a lot, or maybe just have whoever was qualified and available (depending on the size of the dealership and demand). So hole location varies from one installation to the next. Anything close will work, the opening below the fender surface is 3" or so around.
I can see maybe where they were dealer installed but the antenna cable hole in cowl looks factory made to me as it has rolled edges. I don't think most mechanics or techs could roll edges like these at the dealer but I've been wrong before. This just suggests to me that maybe the factory trucks without radios had to be ordered that way since the holes are rolled
'Often brought in' is the key phrase... I suspect if we had access we would find that the bill of material for a Ford truck would have a couple of possible options at that point - if a truck was ordered with a radio fender A with a pre-stamped set of 5 holes for the antenna was on the BOM; if the 'radio delete' option, fender B with no antenna holes. The tooling for the two fenders would essentially be the same, when they wanted to do a run of 'antennaed' fenders they would likely put a removable insert into a stamping die to add the additional holes. Probably after the first blanking but before the bends were stamped. Not much worry about distortion of the hole, a 1" hole is actually a bit oversized for the antenna.
