Ken, I put a radio/CD player in my car ('77 1500) last month, and I'm very
pleased with the results.
I mounted it in the dash support (where there was previously a very old,
slightly broken radio/cassette player). I have a pair of 4" speakers mounted in
the rear of the cockpit, in the panel in front of the fuel tank - had to insert
a piece of sponge between the speakers and the fuel tank to stop them from
knocking each other, and had to mount them slightly towards the centre of the
car, where there's more room than there is on the outside of the car, but no
problems apart from that. If you can find a decent set of 3.5" speakers,
though, they'd fit better. I run speaker wires under the door rubbers, simply
because I was too lazy to remove the seats! I will move the wires under the
carpet the next time I have the seats out.
Sound-wise, it's ok, but not going to win any awards. I can hear the stereo
perfectly at 70mph with the roof up. With the roof down, though, it needs the
stereo to be on very nearly full volume to be audible - I think this is at least
partly because the soft-top covers up the speakers when the roof is down. (Ok,
so the weather isn't good enough to be driving with the roof down yet, but I
just *had* to try it!)
You're right, you can only insert or remove CDs in 2nd or 4th gear - I don't
view this as a major problem, but make sure your CD player doesn't auto-eject
when the CD's finished! Also, mount the stereo as high up in the dash support
as you can - this will allow more room for inserting CDs.
Let us know what you do, especially WRT speakers - there seems to be more debate
about mounting of speakers than there is about mounting of head units.
Dean
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Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 07:22:15 -0800
From: Ken C <kenwc@pacbell.net>
Subject: Radio Installation
Spitlisters,
Trying to install a radio/CD player in the '72 Spitfire. Any suggestions
regarding the mounting ? I would like to put it in the center dash support
cutout, nothing was there when I got the car. In fact, there wasn't even a
dash support. Are there any popular alternate locations ?
Looks like the only way a CD could be inserted would be in 4th gear, VBG...
TIA...Ken C
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