Radio's In a Traditional Hot Rod

i bought me one of them new fangled cd disc thingy's, put it in the player,turned it on in the hotrod, and that needle tore the crap out of it!!!

 

Regarding the 4 and 8-track tapes...Yeah, it seems like just yesterday that the roads of America were littered with 4 and 8-track tapes....at least once a week the tape deck would "eat" a tape, the window would go down, and that tape was airborne!!!

 

My brother and I put a Motorola out of a '36 in the Model A. The one with the controls on a little round dial unit with two knobs. On the '36 it fit in a hole in the dash, we hung it on the choke-rod with hay-wire. It had flex-cables going down to the radio mounted on the firewall, speaker was there in the same case.

Couldn't hear it when the motor was running, even at idle. Couldn't run the radio very long with the motor off or it ran the battery down and we had to push it off to get it started.

Of course it wasn't a hot rod in any sense of the term. 1950.

 

Pig Pen this is the Rubber Duck.. I'm about to put the hammer down.

 

May I settle this discussion with some proof? I am very friendly with an old dry lakes racer and he gave me these pics of one of his Deuce Roadsters.......the pic was taken in the '40's........if you look below the dash on the left side you will see an early accessory radio.........so they did, indeed have radios in their very traditional old roadsters.....





CB

 

You're right, look at some of the pictures in Don Montgomery's books...a number of early hot rods had radio aerials...sometimes actually hooked to a radio, sometimes not...if the girls thought you had a radio they were more likely to ride with you, or at least until they realized that they could not hear it because of the engine noise.

 

I don´t like criti-sizing another one´s ride - since they probably think my ride should have this or shouldn´t have tat... I´ve had numerous FM converters in my AM only cars but right now my car has radio delete and that engine can be the sweetest music.

 

Sheesh, next thing you know automobile victorlas and record players will be all the rage. Everyone will want a hi-way hi-fi.

 

Lame. Just build it how you want it. All those other narrow-minded fools can drive around uncomfortable and freezing with nothing to listen to

 

I got one in my KB1

 

Hot Rods can have radios but they have to be 6 volt. Man, I would give $10 for my old $5 NOS '49 Chevy radio

 

I agree my pops rides always had tunes.I remember I still hear the orlons
coming from the two speaker 62 starfire radio. oh ya and our 29 ford truck was under the dash.

 

just picked up one of those Motorola units for my model a.

 

I don't have a radio in my but I do have a four channel amp with an ipod cable RCA input to it. Totally hidden. You would never know I had a system in the car. Anyone who drives there hot rod any distance without Rockabilly playing way too loud is just plane crazy.

 

I have tunes in all my rides.

 

i got a cool old underdash 8 track player am fm radio that im gonna put in my model A mostly because it was in every old hot rod my brother had when i was a kid. use to have to put a book of matches under the tape to keep the tape from draggin. probably will look out of place in there but its neat and i like it. my brother was gonna throw it away when he was cleaning out his garage so i grabbed it up

 

heres a pic of the 8 track if ive done this right

 

There are few companies that can take an old radio and put new "guts"in them.They can be set up with am-fm.mp3 and satellite radio.I have one in my car and it works great.You can use any type of old car radio.It cost me about $375.00.really cuts down on the extra wiring for a cd player because youend up using your mp3 most of the time.

 

Hot Rods and Rock & Roll have grown around each other you need tunes in your car.

 

The Original AM radio in my 49 works great.
That being said, I'm in the process off making a small pocket sized AM transmitter to plug an Ipod into. This would enable me to play my modern music through the old AM radio. Can run it with a 9v battery, and as long as it's within a few feet of the radio, it should probably work fine.

 

I am going the i-pod route. Never have liked antennas, and the i-pod is so cean. The best part of i-pod to me is not hauling around a ton of cd's etc. Just my 2 cents.~sololobo~

 

Do you remember the converters that turned your am into a fm? How about reverbs?

 

Yawn.

 

I know Danchuck had a radio or two you get that was the authentic look for a '55 - '57 Chevy but operated like a new system (ipod plug, etc.) even had one that the face plate moved down to reveal a slot for a cd. You never knew it wasn't the real thing.

Don't know if there are other models/years out there. I say go with the radio. Nothing like cruisin with some classic rock.

 

I've got one rod I couldn't hear a radio in, but i've got a radio sitting on the shelf just waiting to be hidden in my current build!

 

I've got a '52 F1 and would love to have one of those factory-looking upgrade jobs. Nice power, i've heard. $500 is just a little steep when I can hide a Pioneer in the glove box. Poor boy got poor ways I reckon.

 

You would have a radio in a 1940's, 50's, or 60's car, but in modified teens to early 30's cars most radios did not fit well and did not have the output to hear them over all the noise.

 

I can't even hear the passenger in my cars let alone a radio, but if I could it would definitely have to be one of those special am radios that picks up lost air wave from the 50's, then...

 

Never heard that one before .
We did have a great sounding AM radio to listen to while cruising with our friends or necking with our girlfriend !
Anything else is not traditional ! That is why they make " Hidden " radios or the ones that have the inside of your original radio redone with a modern AM/FM inside .

RetroJim

 

If they are built right with loud pipes you really can't here the radio. Ask me how I know. I hid my antenna under one of the running boards.