Arran,
Actually, that’s not a bad idea. The Barracuda radio had already been butchered previous to my owning it, so the conversion on that unit was the best solution.
The ’68 Imperial AM/FM unit was supposed to be a working piece, but everything else from that deal was bad. It’s too ugly to go into detail here. This radio looks like it may have taken on water at some point. It was included within a lot of parts I had purchased, and all the parts fell short of their descriptions. It was only after the threat of filing mail fraud charges did I even get the parts.
The guy performing the conversion on my Barracuda radio also does repairs on original equipment. I may have to talk to him about the ’37 Philco in my living room too. The factory AM/FM in my wife’s Challenger will probably be repaired. I did enjoy the single speaker sound in that car. Repair may be a good option for the questionable ’68 Imp radio, provided it isn’t too badly damaged.
On the plus side, the original AM radio in my ’67 works just fine. The power antenna is slightly tweaked and does not want to cooperate. I have a Mopar power antenna that came from a good lot of parts from a friend. I need to pull the Imperial one to compare. I’m hoping the two are alike, but the antenna is lower on my list of things to accomplish with this car. The roadworthy items need to come first.
Rob McCall ’67 LeBaron
-----Original Message-----
Rob; Since your Imperial's radio is solid state anyway why don't you look at having it repaired? As far as I know components for transistor radios are still being produced and are relatively cheap. A decent technician in your area should be able to repair it, if need be, if you can locate a circuit diagram. Usually what happens with the older solid state radios is the little electrolytic capacitors dry out from age and start to cause problems, they are low voltage, easy to find, and cheap as borscht. From what I have seen the conversions are quite expensive, around $3-400 dollars, and the orginal radio in the Imperial was a good quality set so repair is worth investigating Best Regards Arran Foster 1954 Imperial Newport with Philco tube radio. ( and it's going to stay that way) Needing A left side tailight bezel and other trim parts.
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