I was wonderng if any of the '40-'47 owners on here have ever installed an aftermarket stereo in their trucks. I have my '46, which will be a semi-daily driver, and is going to be modified (351/AT, disc brakes, etc) so original appearance isn't important. But I was thinking of maybe installing it in the dash, along with the A/C controls and such. I am only willing to do this since the dash is flat, and the holes could be patched if I really wanted to make the truck stone stock again (very unlikely). Has anybody done this, or can recommend alternatives? I thought of the glove box thing, but I hate to lose the storage space, plus I need everything easily accesible while on the road.

Gary
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1946 pickup-ongoing project
1947 pickup-waiting for resto.
1957 Ford FL 500 Town Victoria
1970 Mustang FB-daily driver
selling my '88 B2 2.9/AT 2WD

 

Hi Gary. We've thought long and hard about where to put a stereo with limited space. The AC system we're putting in takes up the entire passanger side dash area (including the glove box). We thought about putting it under the seat and use a remote, but figured that would be a pain since Steve surfs channels all the time and we wouldn't have easy access for changing tapes. We didn't want it just hanging below the dash - there's little enough leg room as is plus it doesn't look all that good.

What I came up with is - since there's so much head room, I'm going to build it into the headliner at the front of the cab. I haven't gotten to the headliner part yet, but have began planning on how to do it. First I'll form a box for the stereo to slide into - all the wires can be ran behind the visor part and down the front door jam arms (if that's what you call em). Then I'll smooth out the box area to flow into the balance of the headliner.

"Sounds" easy - we'll see once I get started. First I need to finish the bodywork so I can paint the cab.

Anyway, thats what we're going to try.

Keep me informed on how you decide to do yours - you may have a better idea that we might want to incorporate into ours.

 

Carlene, your idea sounds good. It'll be neat to see how it turns out. I'm still just kicking ideas around, especially since I think the cowl vent mechanism is going to be in the way if I put the radio in the center of the dash. But I'll be figurin' and workin' on it to see what kind of ideas I come up with. You should post some progress pix of the headliner as it goes.

Gary
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1946 pickup-ongoing project
1947 pickup-waiting for resto.
1957 Ford FL 500 Town Victoria
1970 Mustang FB-daily driver
selling my '88 B2 2.9/AT 2WD

 

I think the dash would be a nice place for it, but then again I like the origional looks of the dash and cutting a hole might make a few people unhappy. Most trucks I have seen have it above in the headliner like Carlene plans. There was a car in Street Rodder where an installer built and an adapter so that the face plate of the receiver could be mounted seperately from the receiver itself. I would like to do this and have the contols overhead without the whole thing over my head. This would require opening up the reciver and splicing the wires either yourself or by someone who may know what they are doing. That's just an idea, I havn't done it yet, so I don't know what all it would take and if it would really work. Good luck!

Clayton