I have the week off so the interior blitz has begun! I'm aiming at getting the car interior done and the car drivable for the nationals in July.

OK first off cut covers for rear torque boxes out of 14 gauge sheet metal and welded in:

  

That finishes the welding on the car (thank God)

Went over to Home Despot and picked up some 1/4" birch plywood and built a new package tray and rear seat insert that separates passenger from cab compartment:

  

Both will be covered with a black vinyl, with insulation tucked inside where room permits. Will do the covering ASAP.

After that finished wiring in car and got the new stereo hooked up. First thing to do was find a good ground, my buddy Bill found the biggest piece of sheet metal on car, but couldn't get a ground until he scratched that pesky new paint off the car:



Yeah my friends are a riot all right....

Anyway, what I did was took an original radio and removed the guts on the on/off volume control knob. From there soldered wires on to make the original falcon radio a simple on/off switch:

 

From here I ran the power from the radio switch to a relay mounted to outside of original radio. This relay controls a beefier power feed to a new secret audio system from Custom Autosound.

I did a quick mock up of the new system on the passenger floorboard. Quick pic and then I'll describe what the hell you're looking at:

   

OK the secret audio head unit is faceless, and I mounted it on top of the original radio with bracket provided in kit. A quick wire job linked in constant car power, the switched power from the original radio, the speakers, and the CD changer. All the grounds are wired to the glove box door.

So what's with the original radio? Well, what I'm going to do is mount the original radio (with secret audio head unit attached) in the car in the original space. It will make dash look factory - the radio will even glow when dash lights turned on.

And when you turn on the old radio it *really* powers the new hidden stereo. So the old AM radio all of a sudden makes the power antenna come up and is broadcasting stereo sound.


The controls of the secret audio stereo are controlled by a small LCD screen that you can mount anywhere in the car, along with an RF remote that allows you to get about 20 feet away from car and control all radio functions, including CD player...

I'm will get the radio pieces installed in the correct places ASAP - then yank it back out so I can strip and repaint the dash real quick. From there it's all new parts and a better looking car all around.

Mike in Chicago