Original am-fm or new

[72VETTETORONTO]

i have the original am-fm radio for my 72. the owner before put in an aftermarket which required him to cut a larger opening in the radio gauge bezel. my preference is to install the original. i received a new radio gauge bezel from riks but it arrived with a small area where the finish had flaked off. is it a big job for an amatuer to replace the radio gauge bezel? should i go with the original or aftermarket ? thanks for the help

 

[red70vette]

Center guage bezel is not very difficult. There are two posts on the bottom that attach it to the console. Attaching the nuts on these posts is a real PITA. Other than that it is a piece of cake. Make sure you make a diagram of what bulbs go where. The wire color is noted on the reverse of the bezel but it does you little good when it is installed. Make a diagram after you take out the old bezel so you can work from it.

Handle it carefully as it is very thin above the guages and breaks very easily. It was designed to do that in case of a crash and it is one of the few GM designs that work too well.

 

[72VETTETORONTO]

Thanks for your help

 

[Mike Carter]

I went original and now regret, same problem as you. The original radios are low wattage and require original speakers, did that and at end the mechanism that switches faceplate from AM to FM failed. No more, I'm going replacement so I have tunes I can listen to, if your building the car for daily ride like me, then my opinion is build what you want.

 

[smook]

... another small note.

When replacing the faceplate, and possibly the radio... Be extra careful when bending any of the plastics for fitting, they break easily.

The older radio's don't have the sound you are used to, as compared to today's blasters. New might be the answer. Check the speakers as well.

Overall, looks like a quick and fast fix. Actually took me 1 full day of playing around to just install a new radiio and check for fitting/squeaks/etc. afterwards.

CAUTION, don't do this at night. And no rushing the job!

-Bill.

 

[Greekman]

When I bought my car it had a aftermarket radio in it. Sounded okay, but the lights in the radio were orange and not green to match the rest of the lighting in the dash and console.

I found a original radio on eBay that was priced fairly and installed it.

Besides the sound being the biggest difference in these radios, the original radios are MUCH larger and a son of a gun to install. Also wiring was much more complex.

The orignal radio was an improvement in my case over the aftermarket radio as the old one only had two channels and was only working on the two front speakers.

My overall experience is the new '79 radio looks better and sounds better from that "cheap" radio that was in there.

Just my experience.


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