Now for Some Tunes
My car came with the standard AM radio, but around here, there aren’t any music stations on AM, just talk shows, so I needed to upgrade.I wanted a 70s look and feel, so I bought a working 8-track AM/FM from another Mustang II owner. I also bought a new antenna off eBay because the one I had was all rusty.
My dad and brother weren’t available to help on this project and back then I wasn’t confident enough to attempt it myself, so I took everything to Best Buy and asked if they could do it. You can imagine their reaction when I showed up with a 77 Mustang and an 8-track player and one in-dash speaker! But they were up to the challenge (and promised to be careful) and they did an awesome job. Looking back, I can’t believe I want to BEST BUY, but it all turned out OK. Whew!
Eventually I was able to track down on eBay a sealed Ford demo 8-track from 1977 that came with the new models for that year that showed people how 8-tracks worked. It’s a neat piece to have with the radio.
Update: The one speaker in the dash has started to go out on me, so I’m hoping to replace it this summer (2010). I’ll try this project myself, so if you have any tips for me, let me know!
If you want to get that original speaker re-coned, I have a great source. They will use a Pyle cone that actually sounds much better than original.
I worked in a TV Repair shop in the late 1970s and early 1980s that serviced car radios from a used car lot in the area. I hated working on those Philco 8 Tracks as they were a bear to disassemble.
Anyhow, if you ever need car radio service, let me know. I still work on these as a hobby.