1972 B-Body Modern Radio Install

I'm super proud of how this turned out so I wanted to share. I bought a USA-230 radio from Classic Car Stereos and I was pretty disappointed at how lame the install would have look should I have just installed it the way it came. So I made some custom parts to make it look like it belonged. I think it turned out pretty nice.

Here's what the radio looked like when I got it.

I designed a 3D printed several parts to make the installation go smooth. The first was a piece that located the posts eliminating the need for adjustment and guess work. The I needed to make some adapters for the post nuts because they were too small and thin for a proper installation. I also made a piece to cover up the chrome that I felt would look out of place. Finally, I modified an original set of knobs to make them fit the posts of the new radio.

I also printed an adapter for a pair of 3.5" dash speakers in place of the 4x10. I took me 2 weeks of trial and error, along with a few failed prints, to finally put everything. After it was done the actual install only took about 20 minutes.

Nice! Enjoy.

NICE!!

Have you thought about putting those pieces together as a 'kit' and starting a little side hustle?

How well does that radio work?

I thought about building them and selling them but I'd have to charge $300 a radio to make it worth it because the radio is over priced to begin with, and making the additional parts is very time consuming.

The radio works good, but it's a pretty cheap radio with little functionality. Basically, its just a radio with an aux port.

Thanks for the follow up DUFFMAN.

When I was still driving my wagon, I had an old AM/FM cassette hanging on the bottom of the dash. HATED the way it looked, but didn't want to hack the dash, and the glovebox was a bit of a reach. At the time, was thinking of a way to cut the dash following the chrome trim line and make a 'plug' to hide the modern stereo. With the plug in place, it would look like a radio delete dash, with the plug off, you'd have access to the stereo. Make sense?

I may just try it one of these days.

Until I found this radio with the posts on the same side I was going to try and modify one with the posts on both side.

I guess if someone was really interested in this install I could sell the ad-on parts.

Beautiful workmanship. Looks great.