RE: John's commentary.
Why don't you buy an old radio and stick it in the dash for look. Connect it
to the power if you want the lights etc.. Then buy a remote control radio/CD
deck (pretty standard in aftermarket car radio shops, Circuit City, Future
Shop, etc.) and stick it in the boot. Just use your little remote control to
handle the sounds.
For my part, I stuck in a nice new radio with CD etc. I grab a bunch of 60s
and 70s tunes from the Internet and burn them onto a CD and head out to the
car. A few minutes only and I'm my own DJ. The huge advances in radio
technology so far outweigh the "originality" aspect that I wouldn't dream of
putting an old AM/FM back in under any circumstances.
I mean the original notion from Mike Brooks was for a nonstandard deck
covered by a standard faceplate. Of course to make the new radio sound
decent you are already connecting to new speakers in non-standard places.
That already will kill you in any sort of originality challenge.
Have to agree with John on this one (as with pretty much all of his other
notes). Sorry to add another bucket of cold water to the stream...
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: jonmac [mailto:jonmac@ndirect.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:16 AM
To: mike@gsta.net
Cc: Triumph List
Subject: Re: Radio face plate
Mike Brooks wrote:
There have been some questions lately about obtaining the correct
radio/faceplate/knobs for a TR6. So this is a little market research for an
idea I've been toying with for sometime and was wondering if you guys
thought
this might be worth doing.
I was thinking it might be interesting to make a false 70's British radio
face, printed correctly etc... that would flip down so that a modern
CD/Receiver could be mounted behind it inside the radio console area of a
TR6.
I have good friend in the plastics industry and I also have alot of printing
connections so I'm sure I could create a fake front that looks good. Any
thoughts?
First you have to standardise and agree on the make you plan to portray.
There were many different ones from which to choose - but a Smiths
Radiomobile would be the logical choice as this was the only make fitted by
the factory. Then you have to make up your mind on model variant
AM Medium Wave only - manual tune (North America)
AM Medium wave - pushbutton (North America)
AM Medium & Short wave - manual tune (Aus, NZ, Rest of World)
AM Medium & Long wave - manual tune (UK & Europe)
AM Medium & Long wave - pushbutton (UK & Europe) - models 1070, 1080 or
1090?
If that's not enough, "a 70's British radio" varied in appearance from model
changes and updates. The satin chrome look? The matt black look? The satin
chrome and matt black look? A lot of radios appeared from Smiths between
1970 and 1979 - so which one do you choose for "a 70's look"? Then, to make
it look reasonably convincing as a cover plate, you're going to need some
niifty tooling and printing which will not be cheap. I think I'd take the
lower cost route. Fly to England next year when the autojumbles start again,
buy a genuine working radio - and then go home. Once installed and working
you'll appreciate more fully why car and radio technology has changed over
the years since then. Sorry to pour cold water on the idea - but go for the
real thing. That *is* convincing - and a lot cheaper!
Jonmac
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