Tee hee---yeah the late night thing kills me too sometimes.

Good thing you didn't get the two years above flip flopped - could have caused some serious questions

 

There is also the grand daddy of all sought after accessories, the stock '48-50 radio. The one shown on page one is actually a radio from a car with an adapter plate to mount it into the truck dash. The actual truck radio fits into the dash without an adapter. These are very hard to find. The truck radio is basically the same as the '48 Mercury radio with some minor differences:


Hey Jules, any idea what a truck radio is worth? Just curious to what they sell for now.

 

No Cap I'm clueless there.

I think a stock truck radio - in good working condition would be pretty pricy. It's one of those things that is worth what the highest bidder will pay for it. And if someone want's one bad enough, I would imagine it could go as high as $200 maybe even $300. But of course you could be walking around the swap meet someday and pick up one for $25 as well. I've seen some on e-bay but not tracked them.

If you are thinking about converting to 12 volt or positive ground forget about the stock radio as anything other than a decoration (and I DO buy things just for that to keep that COOL stock look). Hooking it up to maintain a positive ground is very dangerous (we had a post a while back about someones metal keychain touching it, shorting out and welding itself to the dash)!

 

I bought a working restored radio, the pictured in my first post, at a swap meet about 10 years ago and paid $200 for it. I was able to hear it work before I bought it. The vendor was a vintage radio restorer and had a Mercury radio right next to the one I bought and was asking $300 for it. After I plunked down my $200 the guy asked me what it was for because he couldn't find the application in any of his books. When I told him he said if he had known he would have been asking twice as much.

I bought a couple a Mercury and a truck radios off of the 'Bay a short time after I bought the one at the swap meet for around $25 each, neither worked but did light up. At that time no one knew what the truck radio looked like. Now if they show up, and even if they look like they were sitting outside for the 10 years they go around the $150-200 range. I also bought one at a swap meet a few years ago, it was sitting with a half dozen other radios and when I asked the guy what he wanted for it he said, "$5", needless to say I grabbed it. The last truck radio I bought came with the truck, I bought the truck pretty much to get the radio, I paid $400 for the truck and drove 400 miles one way to pick it up.

I'm planning to gut the ones I have and somehow install a IPOD inside them, only having the light work. I haven't figured out how I'm going to do it yet but it can't be that hard to rig something up. I now have a radio for each of my trucks.

 

Well Bob, one way to to that is just to make the stock radio a shell with a light. Then, install a separate stereo system, hidden under the seat, with a remote control and iPOD jack or MP3 that plugs into your lighter and transmits to the new stereo via FM carrier wave. If you want it to sound like the original, just kill all the lower frequency output (turn the base off).

My Sony does both the iPOD and the MP3 pick-up on FM radio - has a remote as well.

 

The only thing is with a new radio is you have to convert the truck from a 6vt to a 12vt. I want to find a radio with a cd changer that will work with 6vt. Anyone know of any? Also what was the green paint color called back in 49?

 

[quote=thendrix;7550828]You are correct but normal production of domestic cars and trucks a while to resume as all the factories were geared to production of military stuff. From mid '45 up until '48 my father and a partner in the garage business made their living by getting any kind of car or truck they could and making it usable simply because there were no new vehicles to buy. The designs that hit the showroom floors in '47 and '48 were the product of design engineering done prior to the war in many cases. Most of the early post-war engineering did not hit the market until 1949. One very apparent example of this is the '49 Ford car. Look at the big difference in it and it's predecessor, the '48 model, which is obviously a product of pre-war design.

So, while AX may have been in error about the actual time WWII ended. his point is accurate.

Later...

 

That's right you would. And the reason is because the 6 volt system will not provide enough generator charge at 35 amps to allow you to drive for sustained periods at night using other electrical equipment.....

Your CD palyer rating is in watts per channel - and it's a fair bit for anything decent.

Once again for all you 6 Volt guys who want to stay stock, but insist on throwing non stock electrical accessories on your trucks, I offer this quote from P. 351 of the 1949-51 Ford Truck Shop Manual:

"Excessive night driving or use of accessories, insufficient operation of vehicle, accidental discharge of battery (lights, ignition,radio,etc, left on overnight), improper starting procedure (flooding engine, not using choke properly, etc), or too heavy a grade of motor oil for the local climate could take more current from the battery than the generator can replace. Instruct the owner on the proper operation of his vehicle."


OBTW, for those of you who have converted to 12 volt and want that stock look, C&G sells a stock repro radio that is 12 volts and has an FM selection - pulls 180 watts - that's 15 amps...at 12 volts.....$649.95