Even though I have the fuse box for my rewiring project, once I got the HVAC boxes installed and everything buttoned back up, I decided to go off on a slight tangent and break down the dash frame. It was mainly for the idea of prepping the dash for the rewiring job soon to come. The dash has a single speaker that even though it looks in good shape, it is old, and rather than reassemble the dash only to have the speaker crap out and me having to pull the whole dash, I'll just replace the speaker now. The makers didn't put a provision for easily replacing the dash speaker so now's my chance to do so. Also I cut away the brittle padding around the speaker opening to A: open up the speaker for better transmission of sound and B: add an aftermarket covering for the dash.
Since the speaker installed in place is a regular speaker, to get the type of sound I will need to get with the modern radio that will be installed, I will need to install a 3 way speaker, since I don't plan on installing standalone tweeters. Now I can install 3 way speakers on the sides behind the seats where two more speakers are situated and leave this speaker to be a regular unit that won't require me cutting out any more material from the dash. That may be my main option as most of the sound will come from the rear mounted speakers anyway. Plus this single speaker will be that third wheel that will have to be mounted on the left line or right line of the new radio.
One unique thing I did note was when I removed the stereo from the dash that this thing was an 8 track stereo. For all intents this car had all the options to make it more luxury than utility, with a clock, cassette stereo, cruise control. Only thing it didn't have was power windows and locks. But after removing this stereo, I found that these old units are heavy as hell. I will have to cut out the opening in the dash to be able to install a single DIN radio mount in order for me to install a media player. In most aftermarket stereo installs no one uses CD's or other "older" media. Music is played from our phones or from apps through our phones, with the media player stereo using bluetooth connection to connect to the phone wirelessly. Now, "old school" media would be using a flash drive or micro SD card with music to play on a media player stereo. With few exceptions, many people don't even use the AM/FM radio feature of their car's stereo anymore, with even that option being available through our phones. Before we know it there won't be a need for a stereo at all but a bluetooth surround sound speaker assembly, similar to that of a home surround sound system. Only "old heads" will want a regular AM/FM stereo in their cars at that point....
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2023
|