1951 plymouth radio or not to radio...

[alan32433]

My car has a Mopar 802 and I kept mine original also. Rebuilding one involves replacing all the old paper capacitors with 630v poly ones. There are a few electrolytics that have to be replaced also. For sure, make sure you use a solid state vibrator (radiodaze is one supplier). The originals were electromechanical devices that were used to develop the high voltage required. They didn't last long. The solid state unit looks original but won't wear out. More than likely you will need tubes as well. If you keep an eye on eBay, you can find new ones at reasonable prices. If you are going to rebuild it, you might as well start with new tubes. Keep in mind, the new tubes still have to be tested. They can go bad just sitting. I've purchased a lot of NOS tubes that were weak or even bad.

When you replace all the capacitors and tubes, the unit will have to be aligned. I've rebuilt a few radios that worked after the capacitors were replaced, but worked much better after the alignment.

Last but not least, you need a good antenna. The antenna is part of the tuned RF circuit at the front end of the radio. Some aftermarket antennas don't have the same characteristics as the originals and might not work too well.

I had my original speaker (7") reconed. Shipping and all it cost $90 to recone.

[Booker T]

I pulled the original (non working) radio out of my 54 and put on the delete plates. I doubt I could hear any music over the racket from my car when I am driving anyway (running straight dual pipes). But, I am in the process of converting to 12v so I think I may add something for listening to music when I am parked, etc.

What I had considered was just hooking up an amp under the dash somewhere (well hidden) with an MP3 connection to it. The problem is that the volume control on MP3's can be a real pain to adjust to where you want it and in a bumpy car, etc. you can very easily slip and flip the volume all the way up. What I had considered is adding a volume pot in the setup somewhere. It would be nice to utilize a factory knob on the dash but now that I am getting my wipers in working order I don't have an extra spot and I don't want to cut the dash to add anything. Mounting something in the glove box might be an option. My final thought was to tear into the factory radio and utilize the volume knob on it...cutting out the original volume and adding the one I will be using for the MP3 setup. It would also be nice to add a hidden plug for charging. For a speaker I was thinking about using a dual voice coil speaker in the original dash location.

There was a good link here on doing this and keeping the look stock...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=11082

Then again, I just love the sound of the car and I don't do much sitting around in it while I am parked anyway

[thrashingcows]

I pulled the original (non working) radio out of my 54 and put on the delete plates. I doubt I could hear any music over the racket from my car when I am driving anyway (running straight dual pipes). But, I am in the process of converting to 12v so I think I may add something for listening to music when I am parked, etc...................

..............Then again, I just love the sound of the car and I don't do much sitting around in it while I am parked anyway

My thoughts too. I might take one of my beat up and broken radios and just use it as a false face.

[fedoragent]

thank you guys for the offers, im planning on piecing one together with several pieces...i just want that radio working!

Reach out to me Mack. Get this, I think the radio guy in Arcadia has your radio in the warehouse. LOL.

FG.

[DLK]

I decided to go the original route and spent over $200 to have Turnswitch (recommended by some here and elsewhere) rebuild my MOPAR 803 radio with new capacitors and solid state vibrator. When I put it back in last May it worked great for about 2 months. Then it developed a constant buzzing sound, the volume control did not work right and finally in September the off-on button gave out and it was dead. I brought the radio back in September and they still have not found the cause of the buzzing or fixed it. I think now my $200 would have been better put toward a modern conversion.

[BobT-47P15]

Sometimes I wonder about fixing the old radios as a few things will

be replaced, but everything else in there is still old. Maybe yours

was just a fluke sort of thing.......hope it gets repaired.

My son in law is going to have a fellow he knows work on some of

our old Plym radios. Hopefully won't be too expensive. Will be

interesting to see how they work.