Leaps of faith...

[moparedtn]

Armed with a radio obtained from a fellow FBBO member, I decided today was going to finally be the end of the hole in the dash that's been there since I've had the car (and no doubt, long before that even).
I had attempted this once before with a radio that had reportedly been rebuilt, only to find it had issues, so back to the seller that one went.
Hoping that's not the case with this one.

For a fella with big hands, that seemingly gigantic hole in the dash - isn't so big after all. My hands are all cut up now, but the dang thing is in there:

Ah, that's a bit better.
Yeah, I know the radio faceplate doesn't quite match the surrounding woodgrain trim. It's a repro, the only one I know of - and it's technically for a '69 model.
I got the radios' wires all extended and proper plug ends on it (it came with the typical stubby pieces sticking out of it) and got them plugged into their respective places on the speaker and inside the dash (would it have killed you to give us a couple more inches of wire on those in-dash pieces, Ma Mopar?).
The radio then was tested and it lit up when turned on and noise came out of the speaker, albeit lower volume than I'd expected.
So far, so good.
I plugged in the new "hidden antenna" that I'd bought for the thing and....nothing.
Radio wouldn't pick up a single station, including the one 5 miles from here.
I chalked it up to being a piece of crap Chinese waste of money and tossed it across the garage, then finished installing the radio anyways.

Yes, it's a leap of faith that once I get a good antenna, the thing will work.
You gotta do those once in a while, after all - those little leaps of faith.
Like I just did with my thyroid, which they wound up removing totally a couple weeks ago, successfully.
Tests came back afterwards and I have no lingering malignancy in that part of my body anymore.
See? Leaps of faith pay off sometimes.

 

[davek]

looks good hope to do mine soon.

 

[moparnation74]

Glad to hear the tests are negative! Thats the great news.....

Funny you mention about cutting your hands in the radio opening....I cannot tell you how many times I did the same....They are a pain to deal with....Looks very good now.....Congrats

Is the radio bezel a repop? Or is it from a 69? The wood grain appears darker than the hockey stick....

 

[GetX'd]

X2 on the positive vibes for the negative tests. I know you’ve gone thru a lot good news and leaps of faith are important.

My radio isn’t giving me any love either. Doesn’t light up or give me any white noise. I don’t have the antenna hooked up so I don’t expect music - static would make me happy though. I just have zero desire to pull that thing out of the dash. It used to work just fine and it’s been in there w/o moving for 50 years. Maybe it’s just a fuse - you’ve giving me the juice to at least check that out -never listen to music anyway.

 

[moparedtn]

Glad to hear the tests are negative! Thats the great news.....
Funny you mention about cutting your hands in the radio opening....I cannot tell you how many times I did the same....They are a pain to deal with....Looks very good now.....Congrats
Is the radio bezel a repop? Or is it from a 69? The wood grain appears darker than the hockey stick....

Thanky kindly.
Yep, a reproduction. The only one I've ever found and they're proud of it, too. Unfortunately, it's correct for a '69. The '68 is the lighter woodgrain like you see on the hockey stick to the right. The '68 doesn't have any lettering on it either - at least, I think that's how I remember it?

X2 on the positive vibes for the negative tests. I know you’ve gone thru a lot good news and leaps of faith are important.
My radio isn’t giving me any love either. Doesn’t light up or give me any white noise. I don’t have the antenna hooked up so I don’t expect music - static would make me happy though. I just have zero desire to pull that thing out of the dash. It used to work just fine and it’s been in there w/o moving for 50 years. Maybe it’s just a fuse - you’ve giving me the juice to at least check that out -never listen to music anyway.

Thanky for the kind words once again, sir. Much appreciated.
Get 'er done! Why should I suffer alone?
Hey wait, yours is a '68 also! Can you indulge me with a pic of your dash? I'd love to compare notes on the woodgrain and so forth!

 

[moparnation74]

They are very proud of these plastic pieces....crazy proud......

I never understood why they only reproduced the radio bezel only.....but they only care about "law of numbers".......

Still looks very nice on the dash!

 

[GetX'd]

Thanky kindly.
Yep, a reproduction. The only one I've ever found and they're proud of it, too. Unfortunately, it's correct for a '69. The '68 is the lighter woodgrain like you see on the hockey stick to the right. The '68 doesn't have any lettering on it either - at least, I think that's how I remember it?


Thanky for the kind words once again, sir. Much appreciated.
Get 'er done! Why should I suffer alone?
Hey wait, yours is a '68 also! Can you indulge me with a pic of your dash? I'd love to compare notes on the woodgrain and so forth!

Happy to provide you some pics of the dash. These are original to the car so they’re worth a pretty penny. I protect them with my life lol

 

[GetX'd]

You see that piece below the blade on the hockey stick - there’s one on both corners of the dash. They can get banged by people’s knees over time and they crack. Those pieces are exceptionally rare as well! Very difficult to find. I had to replace both of mine and found one that I paid a reasonable price for -then needed the other side. Paid Tony a princes ransom for it in perfect condition. My warning is be protective of those as well cause you won’t find them......

 

[moparedtn]

They are very proud of these plastic pieces....crazy proud...…
I never understood why they only reproduced the radio bezel only.....but they only care about "law of numbers".......
Still looks very nice on the dash!

You ain't just whistling dixie! Spending over a thousand dollars on dash bezels for a ^%^@ Plymouth is NUTS!
Somebody at one time was going through the motions of trying to reproduce a set on his own.
Wonder whatever happened with that?

View attachment 628660 View attachment 628661
Happy to provide you some pics of the dash. These are original to the car so they’re worth a pretty penny. I protect them with my life lol

Thank you kindly, sir. Good to see at least I do remember it correctly.
What was supposed to go in that blank black panel below the radio on these cars anyways?

 

[GetX'd]

You ain't just whistling dixie! Spending over a thousand dollars on dash bezels for a ^%^@ Plymouth is NUTS!
Somebody at one time was going through the motions of trying to reproduce a set on his own.
Wonder whatever happened with that?


Thank you kindly, sir. Good to see at least I do remember it correctly.
What was supposed to go in that blank black panel below the radio on these cars anyways?

There wasn’t anything that went into that black panel. It was just there for effect. I had a scat pack sticker on mine from 40 years ago. Still see the outline of the sticker. I need to take those off and repaint them for perfection.

BTW - the member that was reproducing those bezels is @SoCal440GTX. He does make them and did see your thread. He only makes the hockey stick I think. They’re not plastic. They’re made out of aluminum so they don’t match a piece you already have but they do a damn sight better job than nothing! I’m not sure if he makes the radio piece or not.

 

[Cornpatch MO]

Ed, glad to hear the good news, sure hope that is the end of your problems.
Could you give me a general report on how to take that radio out. I took a quick look at mine ( has factory A/C) and that is as far as I got.........................MO

 

[SoCal440GTX]

https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/mopa...odgrain-replacements-1968-8-track-gtx.135602/

See this long thread if interested. Be sure to see post #93.

I have made all of the pieces, 68, 69, Push Button radio, 8-Track radio, GTX, R/T, etc. etc.
I'm not really eager to make more sets right now for a couple of reasons:
1) I'm currently working on a major upgrade that if successful will blow minds, seriously. Or it may fizzle. Now way to tell until I do the work, and I'm doing that right now.
2) The more sets I make the more I seem to get deeper in debt.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[SoCal440GTX]

@moparedtn The first sets of trim I sent out had a .1" gap between the hockey stick and the radio bezel. I found that unacceptable and I sent, at my cost, new sets to those people. Now I see yours has an even larger gap and it makes me wonder if I was stupid to do that.

 

[moparedtn]

@moparedtn The first sets of trim I sent out had a .1" gap between the hockey stick and the radio bezel. I found that unacceptable and I sent, at my cost, new sets to those people. Now I see yours has an even larger gap and it makes me wonder if I was stupid to do that.
View attachment 629062

Seriously? For that, you are of course to be commended, but...
Man, I can't even imagine trying to hold the factory to such a tolerance, since the whole thing is based on big-assed stamped sheetmetal.
I didn't get crazy trying to make things fit better than I did - what you see here is honestly the first slapping together of the whole mess.
I haven't even dared try to finagle the hockey stick, for example - it remains right where it was when I got the car 7 years ago.
Maybe it's in factory-installed position, maybe not, who knows?

The radio bezel (reminder: the REPOP bezel from who knows where) is locked into place pretty much predicated on radio position, but that too
is wholly dependent on the sheetmetal stamping. A little core shift on the stamping machine and it's easy to lose some dimensional integrity.
Heck, the way I tightened down the two mounting screws can throw it off that much, I'd think.

Guess what I'm trying to say is I can't see how the heck someone trying to reproduce a part such as these can make them to such exacting standards
when no two of these cars is going to be the same exact dimensions to begin with.
I can totally appreciate your efforts to do so, though.
Folks like you make this hobby tick!

 

[SoCal440GTX]

I purchased the repop to make sure i was on the right track dimensionally. That was a mistake. The OEM bezel has oversized thumbwheel openings that are tapered, larger on the outer edges. The repop has smaller square openings, providing no allowance for adjustment.

No big deal, I only paid $29 for the repop but I see them on eBay for over $100. I hope people don't pay that.

 

[moparedtn]

I purchased the repop to make sure i was on the right track dimensionally. That was a mistake. The OEM bezel has oversized thumbwheel openings that are tapered, larger on the outer edges. The repop has smaller square openings, providing no allowance for adjustment.

No big deal, I only paid $29 for the repop but I see them on eBay for over $100. I hope people don't pay that.

I think I paid like $70 all told when I got it some years ago.
Wish they did one for the '68.

 

[SoCal440GTX]

Here is a link to the source of the repop...still $28

https://www.retromanufacturing.com/products/mopar-bezel-03-113?variant=24236716419

They said there wasn't enough demand for any of the other pieces so they had no interest in making them.

"Our research shows there were around 163,561 of these produced. With some of these offering different trim packages such as 8 track and others with am/fm radios this would create a need to make two different kits at least.

At this time there are less then 9k of these vehicles registered today. We have found that only a small percentage (less than .25) of these owners would purchase this kit. For us to manufacture these we would need to sell at least 2500 of these to make it a worthwhile product. We made the ones we have in conjunction with another company that was producing the other matching parts. After producing these the sales fell flat. I am sorry to say at this time there is not enough market need to produce this complete kit."

Although I am glad they took the effort to make them, the fact that they are off dimensionally and that the woodgrain doesn't look anything like 68 or 69 is a huge disappointment.

 

[moparedtn]

Here is a link to the source of the repop...still $28
https://www.retromanufacturing.com/products/mopar-bezel-03-113?variant=24236716419
They said there wasn't enough demand for any of the other pieces so they had no interest in making them.
"Our research shows there were around 163,561 of these produced. With some of these offering different trim packages such as 8 track and others with am/fm radios this would create a need to make two different kits at least.
At this time there are less then 9k of these vehicles registered today. We have found that only a small percentage (less than .25) of these owners would purchase this kit. For us to manufacture these we would need to sell at least 2500 of these to make it a worthwhile product. We made the ones we have in conjunction with another company that was producing the other matching parts. After producing these the sales fell flat. I am sorry to say at this time there is not enough market need to produce this complete kit."
Although I am glad they took the effort to make them, the fact that they are off dimensionally and that the woodgrain doesn't look anything like 68 or 69 is a huge disappointment.

Sure sure, rub my nose in it.
Interesting number they toss out there "less than 9k of these vehicles still registered".
I assume they mean total of all '68-'69 GTX's, Sport Satellites and Coronet R/T's?
Pretty heavy attrition rate if those numbers are accurate, eh? They're talking a 5% survival rate if that's the case.

 

[GetX'd]

That’s what makes the nice ones so valuable and expensive. Beauty, muscle, And rarity. Doesn’t seem to me that they produced an overwhelming number of them in the first place. Compare that to the same year roadrunners. I don’t know how many were produced but bet it was over a mil. They have the same characteristics it’s just that the GTX is a bit more IMHO of each of those. Of course I’m biased - but the facts also speak for themselves. Unfortunately what comes with that is finding some pieces that we need and just barely exist - and boy do we end up paying for them.....! Ouch!

 

[threewood]

Ed, so glad to hear that your tests are negative and I pray that they stay that way.

Radio looks good and the slight difference in color is a non issue to me as Chrysler had so many damn parts and pieces with loose tolerance and differing shades of color. My 69 has the original hockey stick with repop radio bezel. I had to elongate the upper screw holes to get it to screw into the dash frame...no idea what I paid for it but it's better than a gaping hole.

And the lower plastic extensions, the early ones that are smooth and translucent, are rare as heck. I bought a driver side one that was cracked for about $12 if I remember correctly and I was very happy to get it.