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Re: Car Stereo

To: "Ross A. Goldberg" <loki@computek.net>, mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Car Stereo
From: jtilton@vt.edu (Jay Tilton)
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 02:58:08 +0500
Ross A. Goldberg wrote:
>The stereo is a standard modern tape player / reciever.  I had taken it out
>because it wasn't mounted very securely and I am looking for suggestions on
>how to mount it.

Best way I've seen is with two easily fabricated (or probably even readily
available at Pep Boys or somesuch) metal plates that secure the front of the
stereo.  Excuse the ugly ASCII exploded view here.

                               radio
                        dash   faceplate
                          V     V
          --------     |  |  |  |
          |Radio |--   |  |  |  |
          --------     |  |  |  |
                       ^     ^
                   metal   metal
                   plate   plate

The metal plates naturally have to be a little bigger than the hole in the
dash to make this sandwich work.  It's a pain in the arse to get it all in
there, but it holds things securely and does a good job of thwarting
half-assed attempts at theft.
 
>I suppose the best way would be to attach the back of the
>stereo to the underneath of the dash

The rear of most stereos I've seen has a little protruding screw you can use
to secure the rear with a commonly available steel strap that's been
perforated to accomodate bolts.  Failing that, there's always baling wire.

Or you could just hootch it under the seat and blank off the hole in the
dash.  Thieves would probably completely ignore your car.

>How do ya'll have your stereos wired???

I was loathe to go hacking any new holes anywhere on my car.  I have my
speakers in two homemade cabinets that perch on the rear shelf/battery box
area with the drivers facing rearward.  More ASCII art.
 
             |--\         |
             |spk\<-driver| trunk
             |____\_______|
            / shelf^
           /
    ______/
     floor

I tried setting them at the rear with the forward-facing drivers, but the
lumps in the metal back there kept them from sitting flatly, so they tended
to shift around a lot.  They also interfered with putting the top down,
which completely obscured the sound anyway.  This is the only
orientation/position I found that the speakers don't interfere with putting
the top down, and the top doesn't interfere too badly with the sound.  FWIW,
the nice pocket of air space back there with the top up and the rear-facing
drivers gives an *amazing* sound reflected off the rear bulkhead and window.
Far better than when they were forward-facing and pumping into the rear of
the seats.  I never knew my speakers could get along so well with my car.

>I welcome all comments, recommendations, and advice.  I tried calling
>'Crutchfield Electronics' figuring they would be able to help, but they
>don't have installation kits for older cars.  Bummer!

Pish tosh.  They're just fools.  How unique do they think a kit would have
to be to put a rectangular stereo into a rectangular hole?  See if an
off-the-shelf generic kit wouldn't work.  Oh, and don't try asking the boobs
at Circuit City.  They're even bigger fools.  Last time I asked them a
question about fitting a stereo (looong ago), the twits were under the
impression that an MGB was nothing more than a badge-engineered Fiat.
--
Jay Tilton  |  jtilton@vt.edu
http://fbox.vt.edu:10021/J/jtilton/index.html


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