VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Radio install - separate battery

Put a Retrosound Radio where the ashtray was on the dash of my 38 Master Deluxe. Bit of friggin around, cutting, fitting several times etc. Mounted 12v Rechargeable under the dash and wired everything up - over next 3 days spent trying to eliminate noise while car is running, crossed wires, power near speakers, antenna near power - drove me nuts. Pretty good now but amazing how the wiring can interfere even when the power source is not attached to the car system at all.

Anyone else have these problems - the unit is not grounded to the car other than through the metal strap on the back - just to the - battery terminal.

Just another example for installing an OEM radio. Most of those problems are already worked out.

If you are considering a modern radio or an original radio gutted and a transistorized interior installed, I strongly recommend that you talk to a minimum of two fellows that have gone that route, and then look up a place that RESTORES original radios.

Not really sure that an OEM for a 1938 Chev is all that much better especially as there are no FM stations on them - the new ones are 12 volts which makes the install a little trickier as well

It works fine now and looks like it came with the car so - 200 bucks well spent.

Actually, you don't need an FM capable radio as there were no FM stations in 1938.

"I'm kinda like Charlie on some subjects and this is one of them. I can appreciate having a car radio capable of AM and FM with a little IPad music, CD, an air-conditioner, PS, PB, AT, PW, radials, but my solution was to purchase a 2014 Impala. Now I have the luxury of all of those amenities in my ride. What about the old car? I carry a picture of it in my billfold."

PS: Charlie, you best come to my defense.

If you had a working original radio there are adapters to play a MP3 player or other similar devices through them,I cant blame you for wanting a newer radio since AM kind of a joke these days. All my old cars have modern stereos hidden so I can enjoy some music and since I do drive them to shows 900 miles from home I bring my portible satelite reciever along with me so I do not have to listen to commercials.

I'm with Ray and Charlie. We have a local radio station that plays nothing but prerecorded easy listening music popular from the the 40's through 80's. No rock and roll, no country, no rap, no heavy metal, no classical. Music that you can hear and understand the lyrics.

Nothing is nicer than to cruise around town in my 41 with the old radio playing crisp and clear. It gets even better, driving home after a winning high school football game, with the windows down, the dash all lite up, the street lights a glow, and the engine purring. Tis so!!!

Best wishes, Mike

P.S. Think I'll take the 77 out for a ride today, scare someone when I rev up the engine, smell the raw gas, and listen to a little Cake.

Sorry I couldn't sleep. Got up early all excited to work in the Dream Garage.

All great points - I have a foot of snow and the car is in the garage till next May- lot of the parts surely weren't made in the 30's even if they look like they did - at least all body parts, engine and suspension as well as everything else other than the radio are 1930's. I can put 30-40s tunes on my I-pod and let them play all day !

Not stock but works for me -

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Car is still pretty :

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That looks like a really nice installation and the car is beautiful. What kind of tires are you using?

I like originality. But wish I had XM too. Can't have everything.

My grand son showed his Christmas present from my son. He got a gadget about the size of a Claxton fruit cake. It was black and looked like something that was recovered from Area 51. He asked me to name a song I liked. Thinking I would trip him up, I said, "Come Sundown" by Bobby Bare. In two seconds the gadget was blaring out the song. He then asked me for another. I told him Stenka Raisen (sp) (Russian Song.) I'll be dad-gone it that as soon as he typed in the name in his phone that the dang foreign object didn't start playing that too.

I'm going to get those gadget to put on the seat of my 41. Am too!

Charlie

Nothing beats the sound of music coming from a tube radio but hardly any AM stations play music today and if I want to listen to talk I would bring someone along with me,years ago when I was working on a 53 Olds I had a working regular radio and a wonderbar that worked but was stuck on one station. We had a AM station that played oldies but when I had the car almost finished they started that talk radio format so in the glovebox went a modern stereo and I never looked back,over thanksgiving I drove to Daytona beach listening to 50s and 60s music driving a mid 50s car and it was great. Now if someone would come up with a app that makes all the other vehicles seen through the windows look old it would be nice but not going to wait for that to ever happen.

That installation looks nice and almost factory and how does it sound and where did you install the speakers.

Great job. I want to run the original radio. I need to find someone who can repair and add FM to it.

I have a 36 to 38? car radio head and looking for the rest of the radio since I have a idea of installing a digital tuned shaft radio in the box and hooking it up to the head,I am going to practice with a aftermarket radio to see if I can actually make it work.

Well I have the 5" tires but they don't run very smooth or straight so I use radials on the same diameter tires and the hubcaps are from a Nova although I did switch them out to baby moons - can't get OEM looking caps for the larger wheels

Not so sure you can but -- for 20 bucks you can buy an MP3 player with an FM radio that will work fine\

The head is just the knobs and cables to the unit that is inside the speaker enclosure on the floor - if you could get the cables to attach to the new radio shafts you could do it.

The speakers are behind the inside cloth in the back seat so they are not visible at all - in the front I placed them down at the bottom of the kick panels and put covers over them that are black mesh so they can be seen but don't jump out at you. There is space behind both the cloth and the panel for the speakers but not much bigger than 4 X6 - sounds great. Felt bad about wrecking the ashtray and it doesnt look OEM but unless you know what it is supposed to look like - it looks stock.

You can get rims to fit original style hubcaps,the hubcaps need to be modified to fit or buy some made to fit those rims.I bought reproduction artillery rims for my 37 p/u and sent my hubcaps to them to be modified and looks like I still have the original artillery rims.

I mentioned sometime back that I installed a FM Converter on my '41 AM radio and it works great. These converters are a small box with knobs and FM station dial. They were popular in the '40's and '50'. It mounts onthe bottom of the dash below the AM radio. The antenna plugs into the converter and the converter antenna wire plugs into the AM radio. You have to have a 12 volt power source. I put a 12 volt battery in the trunk. I got my converter at a salvage yard. I wanted to stay original on everything so this converter works great for me.

there are 6v to 12v converters available, I use them on my 29 and 53 chevys for the gps and cb raido. the filling station and others have them.Al

I use a 6 to 12 volt converter in my '37 and use a 12 booster pack in the trunk of my '48. Both are radios are 12v AM/FM car radios mounted on the firewall and connected to original type radio heads with the cables in the dash. The 37 is from an original radio and the 12v radio is in an original radio box, the '48 is an aftermarket radio made to fit correctly in the dash. The set up works pretty good, I think the 12v in the trunk works better than the 6 to 12v converter. I do have the original radio for the '37 in storage.