CD players

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

You could replace the grille with MDF formed to the same shape and have a centre dash with the stereo and other gear. For example switches and extra gauges or a CD storage slot.
There was a recent photo of Kev's (Vic) interior, but this looks like an original grille that has been modified.

[JB]

This is what I did to get some aircond vents in...



Bit of hardwood shaped to what i wanted, with a remote control for the radio, stacker in the glovebox... Over again though I would have had an MP3 player in the centre with the stacker in the glove box.

Jason.

[Sarge]

Rusty
       Will get a few pics together of differant set-ups I have fitted and e-mail them to you. Does your car have bucket seats as there is one set up that I have for a steel console (based on eh console) that I do make.

Cheers
Sarge

[Flamed_FE]

for those considering mounting in the glove box, 19mm timber fits into the gove box lower support like a glove and you just need a screw to hold it in place as security.  from there just make up a mounting platform for the radio.

If you are going to mount behind the speaker grill, if you hindge at the bottom ensure you have a strong clasp so it doesn't keep falling open as you drive along.  I have been tring to find some small gas struts that you can use for holding the grill open (or shut I spose if you do hindge from the bottom) but no luck as yet.

As a rule, I direct wire the power from the battery via a dash board switch.  I find that way I can turn it off easily when needed (ie hear sirens, phone rings etc) and you just wait until the next set of lights if you cannot reach the unit to change CD's or stations.

[Ed]

Some really nice ideas on this topic

For making glove box liners..

Streetneat's idea which I used was to use "signwhite" 0.6mm colourbond.

I made a custom liner useing an original liner as a template to house my ECU and provide other access to fusees etc in my glove box.

see pic.

for stereo I am planning to do the cabled remote face thing.
it is such a shame there are no more cable remotes around, these are perfect for glove box mounting stereos.

I am going for an ipod compatible stereo so I wont need to swap CD's or MP3 discs.

Cheers

Ed

[HARKO]

Man those luvres look good
It all looks awesome ,sure hope to see it at the All Holden Day in 3 weeks time

[NO NAME]

maybe a FE speaker grill would be good to slip your cd's through.
he he
hey ED, There is a sanyo excedio stereo at parklea markets, it is old stock from stratheilds, it was a top model a few years ago and has a brushed aliminium face, best thing about it is that it is its $149 and has auxillery inputs so you can plug in anything that has rca or a headphone output.
also for $179 is a sanyo with inputs, mp3 and remote but its not the fancy excedio series.
I bought a stereo for my cabin cruiser from there with ir remote, mp3, cd,aux in, 2x video out,vcd,jpeg,dvd,am,fm for $189 but its only a cheap brand one. all stock is obsulete stratheild car radios but whatever you buy in strathfeild now will be obsulete in 6 months time.
also, something else to consider is that most car dvd players have a ir sensor on a wire that can be hidden in the car, you can even stick the dvd player in the boot and load it with a mp3 with your 200 favorite songs and use it as a mp3 player wired straight to the amps, you simply aim the remote towards a hidden sensor and control it.
also it may be a good idea to set up a potentreometre in you rca lead between the dvd player and amps so you have a fail safe handy volume control, you can use a stuffed old valve radio as a dummy and replace its volume potentreometre with the new stereo one wired to the rca leads so it looks like that big sound is coming out of a 50 year old radio.
I wouldnt mount speakers in the kick panels, if you arent scared to butcher your doors you can stick some 4" or 4x6" speakers at the bottom on the exposed steel wich will give solid mounting. speaker grills can be made from perforated steel or for 4" there are chrome old grills on ebay every week in US.
in the back you can put in 6x9 - 7x10"s in the side panels but if you dont plan on loading stuff in the back I think you would get better sound from the tailgate, problem here is that there is little depth and only flush mount speakers will fit.
in a sedan you can fit 6x9's in the rear but you can spread 5x7" a little further apart, 5x7" would probably be fine with a sub and give better imaging due to the wider distance you can get between them.
if you can use your speaker grill in the dash for a speaker it sounds good, its a nice solid mount and gives strong sound.
6x9 speaker grills can be used from a FB or EK or chrome musical note ones are available in repro from places like moon.
if you want a vintage stereo the first car tape players came from muntz I beleive in 61, they played the muntz type 4 track tapes wich are also compatible with some 8 track players, these were fitted to most barris cars in the 60's and barris's cars were used to promote muntz stereos. prior to that we had a couple of record players like the highway hi fi wich was sold through chrysler and required specail records.
stereo wasnt popular in Australia till the 70's when 8 tracks were available so we dont hear much about 4 track here. however if you are going 8 track there is still heaps of music available, even stray cats!
if you dont want to go all out but are sick of radio or tangling noisy cassettes try plugging a small mp3 player ( they come as small as a 50c peice) into a cassette adapter and turn you old cassette player into a hi tech jukebox, no nead to scratch you cd's as you reload songs by taking the mp3 player into the house and plugging it into your pc.

[normd]

Hey Burnsy
  Sorry , but I'd missed your post ,  Maaaaate , "Wireless"  yep , we had one of those when I was a kid , no such thing as "TV" then , so we listened to the "STC Wireless" every night.  but after owning a "Music Shop" for 13 years and being a "Muso" for 30 yrs , I sort of updated a little .   .

 Norm  

[Ed]

nice info Leon,



I have sussed out the stereo situation and am going to use a cabled removable face stereo.

for the ultimate hidden install.

have decided for an ipod compatible stereo from Pioneer or Kenwood.

unfort the wagon doesnt have the best sound dynamics, but 6.5" splits are going up front with mids in fibreglass pods on the kick panels, and 6 x 9s flush mounted in the rear.

A 4 channel amp is only used for the 6x9's and bridged to run a single 10" rockford sub which will be in a removable box.

the body has been deadedned using "DYNAMAT" and this works well, still need to do my floor tho.

Cheers

Ed

[Effie C]

unfort the wagon doesnt have the best sound dynamics,

Have to disagree there Ed, mates VH wagon has won best sound quality (in his class) at summernats for last three years, also at moruya, some other show in Sydney etc . wagons called awesome, currently running in pro class.

Effie C

[HARKO]

And I recall reading an article in Street Machine a few years back about an FB Holden that was winning its share of awards for sound .
The guy being interviewed said the acoustics in old Holdens were unbeleivable and hard to be matched due to their design and body metal guage.

2 1/2 weeks to go mate - start thinking about rego

[FC58q]

I have my cd player in the glove box and have just changed to a hand remote as I had a couple of close calls turning up the volume while driving,I saw one mounted behind the speaker grill and  thought it  a very smart idea Iam going to move mine and keep it out of sight

[surferboy]

Gday Rusty, Gday guys,
my setup has 6 stacker mounted ontop of radio/cassette/CDplayer unit, all mounted behind speaker grille. hinged at top... this way it stays closed when driving. I just hacksawed off the funny bit that stuck out into the glovebox (cant figure out why it was there in the first place ? ) Its within easy reach while driving.you soon get used to button locations so its EASY to change stations, modes ,discs etc while driving. (yes you do have to park to swap the 6cds in the stacker ). I have 6x9 speakers in mdf boxes in kick panels and in rear panels of wagon all covered by speaker grilles to suit vehicle.

hope this helps    

[Phantom]

G'day Surferboy,got a pic of your set up by any chance and the hinges as well ?
                                          Cheers Rusty

[FC0058]

Hi Phantom
I installed a Panasonic combo  AM/FM Radio & CD/CDR/CDR-W/MP3 Player in my car before heading to the nationals.

I ended up mounting it to the bottom of parcel shelf above the tunnel.

As a mounting bracket I used an after market moulded plastic unit easily obtainable from any good Auto One or Supercheap store.

It does not look to bad in its current location and is easily opperated by the remote and can be reached if CD change is required. However I drove from Hornsby (Sydney) to Ipswich (Brisbane) all on the one disc of MP3 files with a couple of songs to spare.

All up the unit in the car with a couple of VDO speakers cost me about $300.

Cheers Jim

[surferboy]

gday Rusty,
see...realcars gallery...members photos...now you dont.
has discussion on stereo placement

[Ed]

Hello,

Has anybody mounted amps etc under the original front bench?

I have made a shelf that sits under the seat, but I couldnt check to see if it all fit since my seat is at the trimmers.

anybody have an idea of the clearance between the hump in the floor adn under the bench?

Cheers

Ed

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

16cm from the base of the seat (underside of padding) to the carpeted (and well insulated) hump. You would still need to allow for compression of the seat when someone is sitting there though.

[Ed]

thanks Stinky,

I reckon the 16cm may be enough

Cheers

Ed

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Don't forget to allow for compression of the seat when sat in! I'd bank on at least 6cm.

Just to be sure I measured the distance in the FE sedan with a bare floor and it was 17cm, between floor and underside of seat padding.