Radio delete + MP3

[project 911]

Well, after years of adding stuff to my car, I now seem to be on a quest to minimize some things. Over the past few years I've had several stereos in it but all either seemed too blingy or didn't work well. I don't do too many long drives and enjoy just listening to the car most of the time, but decided it was time for a change (again).

I finally got an iPod and of course that got me thinking of using one in the car. I was too chicken to experiment with the iPod but had a cheap MP3 player around so I tried an experiment using it with extra amps and speakers I had laying around. I found that if I ran a cable from the earphone jack directly into the low input RCA jacks of my amp, it worked great.

So, I pulled out my head unit and replaced it with a panel covered in basket weave fabric left over from my old door panels to complete the radio delete look. I replaced the dash speaker grill (before) with a wood panel covered in vinyl that closely matched the dash. I ran my cable under the carpet from between the seats, through the tunnel access hole, up through the smuggler's box and up to my amp. I have a 4 channel amp so I had to get a couple of RCA splitters to connect the two cables to four inputs. I had to adjust the gain levels down on the amp and I did add a switch on the console to power the amp.

So now I have a cheap (under $50) MP3 player that just holds about 30 of my favorite driving tunes and can attach to the side of the passenger seat (Velcro) or be removed to hold in your hand or lay on the seat. There is enough slack in the cable to tuck it out of view if needed. It just runs on a AAA battery so I don't need messy power adaptors (I just carry a spare battery). Perfect for a few occasional tunes, and if I want to get fancy I can put the iPod in for long trips. I'm sure the audio experts will say this isn't the way to hook things up, but it works for me.

Radio delete:



Speaker grill delete:


Amp mount (I already had this):


MP3 unit mounted:

[Jim Richards]

Wow, that looks great!

[artplumber]

Very clean!

[obrut]

nice one, i have recently bought a '73 2.4E that was ordered/delivered without a radio and i have been thinking of doing exactly this.

[project 911]

Thanks guys-

I've been trying it out for the past few days and I really like it. I love the clean look of it. I got rid of the speakers I used to have on the deck in the rear window and covered the deck in black carpet which seems to cut the glare. I have some 5.5 or 6 inch door speakers with a set of tweeters, and just stuck a pair of heavier speakers on the floor behind the seats. They are in a wedge shaped enclosure so they kind of fit partially under the seat and point toward the rear. The amp is only 150 watt, but seems to be plenty for me.

I can adjust the sound with the equalizer presets in the MP3 player, and can adjust volume and song choice easily with the player close to me. With my old head unit I could never read the display in the daylight, and was always leaning over fidgeting with little buttons.

[herman maire]

HAh hah hah.... Oh man, you have to be kidding.

Did you not just spend the better part of a month repairing the torsion tube? And your still tuning and tweaking your car ....Man that makes me laugh, your a machine.....

BTW that looks like a really nice install. I like the 911 badge on the amp...Looks factory, very nice.

[project 911]

Hah!

Yeah, after the torsion tube repair, everything else seems like sissy stuff.

Just before the torsion tube deal, I had pulled the doors off and removed the flag mirrors, welded up the holes, hacked some chunks out of the door skins and welded in new steel, then repainted them.
Currently I have a center fill gas tank and a dual center out muffler under way... I can't seem to stop screwing around with this car!

[87coupe]

I love the 911 treatment to your amp, looks great! BTW, iPod away with your setup, it will work w/ no problems

Cheers,

[cegerer]

Sweet setup. And you might be able to finance the entire thing by selling that original speaker grill!

[SandyI]

Sorry for my confusion but you spent all that time creating a stealth set-up by covering the radio area in your dash but then you cut speakers in your doors and drive with free standing speakers on the floor behind your seats? I don't get it. Sorry.

[widgeon13]

I like the idea and the clean appearence of the dash. Separate question and certainly don't want to steal this thread but......

I have a Sony headunit in my car and it has as AUX plug on the front. Can I just run a line from the headphone output of my ipod to the AUX on the radio and listen to the ipod???

The aux on the radio is the same size as the output on the ipod.

[k9handler]

I wish my dash looked that nice!