Disco Radio! 1.5 DIN Alpine

Happy late Thanksgiving by the way!

And yep had fun working on the Cruiser with my kiddos. Eddie, the oldest, has been helping me with car stuff since he was born, but this was his first stereo install. He really sucked it up, loved learning how to use the crimping tool.

Fun stuff!

-Mike

 

My eldest (the one who lives with us..) isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. She does her own oil changes on her Focus, and when she had her Ford Probe we dug in and replaced her alternator, among other things - had to remove the radiator to get to it.

It's great Mike that you and your sons are spending this time together. These moments are ones they're going to remember for a long time.

 

Well that Alpine CDA-D855 is coming out this weekend. The internal amp is failing. Driving along every once in a while you get a loud pop or static-y pops from the speakers, and sometimes when it pops, the speakers totally cut out and that's it, dead radio. When that happens, you can watch the graphic equalizer still dancing along to the song, but you get no sound output....SO frustrating. If I shut the radio off for 5-10 mins it will come back to life and work fine again...for a while.

We're using the wagon to go visit my in-laws over the holidays and I HAVE to have a working radio to drown out the five kids! I should most likely just suck it up and buy a new modern radio and be done with it, but I really like how well these Alpine's fit the dash opening in my Olds, and I have that Alpine CD-Changer already installed that needs and Alpine deck to run it.

SO I got online again and found a guy selling CDA-D852 in Wisconsin, for $50. This is the step-down model from what I have now, but it's a small step down and I should not notice any real difference once installed.

Real nice guy on the phone, and he swears it all works like new. He heas the original box, wiring, and remote. Ordered it yesterday...we shall see. I'm also hoping the D855 and D852 use the same plug and wiring so it'll be plug and play. I'd think they would but will look at the install manual first.



I am going to take that CDA-D855 to the local stereo place once I get it out. If it can be fixed, and not cost a fortune to do so, I'm going to install it in my Cutlass later. The Cutty has that same 1.5-din opening.

Goofy Projects!

-Mike

 

They're not goofy projects; they're motivation and satisfaction generators!

 

That is the biggest demotivator for me to go to aftermarket radios. Splicing in all those wires. Even if you use a kit...

 

Wiring using the kit is very easy. You splice the new pig tail onto the the pig tail of the head unit, then plug into the factory harness with no cutting at all. I use either crimp fit/heat shrink connectors or else I get the heat shrink with solder and flux already in it. Either way, quick, simple, and I've never yet had a problem.

 

Well my 2nd new (used) Alpine, this one a CDA-D852, came in the mail over the weekend and I installed it last night.

This one, while the same design as the D855, looks much cleaner and the LCD screen is MUCH brighter than the first Alpine I installed. I'm guessing this unit was not used nearly as much as my CDA-D855 was. Also, this one came from Wisconsin, the other one came from Los Angeles Ca. I wonder if baking in the California sun faded the screen on the old one? Hmmm.

ANYWAY the wiring from the CDA-D855 with the bad amp plugged right in to the D852, as did the CD changer. No popping amp so far, nice bright screen, and the remote control works. Pretty cool, and it sounds really good.

Little-by-Little I'm getting this Olds in shape!

 

My father borrowed the wagon the other night to pick up my aunt (drives a Camry herself....bor-ring) at the airport. Dad said she liked the Custom Cruiser, she'd owned a boxy one in the 80's, but she wanted to know what ghetto my radio came from.

No respect......

 

I would have probably just used a 95-99 era GM radio, with the Theftloc on the face, cassette, since I own like no CDs, and I'd wonder if I could make the speed controlled volume work on it.

 

I thought about putting a Delco CD in it from a Chevrolet...say the 95-02 full-size truck radio. It's the correct size, but the backlighting is white on those, and on the Pontiac radios, which would also fit the dash, it's red.

The backlighting on the Olds dash is blue...and good luck finding a good Olds CD in the Din-1/2 size. Rare as hens teeth and not cheap. I looked a lot.

Finally decided in the Alpine because you can still find them, they are the right size for the dash, and they're cheap now. Plus it lights up in blue and green...so it "kinda" matches the rest of the blue dash lights. Oh and it plays burned CD's, the old Delcos do not.

If I ever come across a good working early 90's Olds CD player I'm going to nab it. My Mom had the correct-for-my-wagon Delco one in her '93 Cutlass Convertible, but the CD part failed when the car was about 6-years old.

Those early Delco CD players just didn't seem to last long, so even if I do find one in a salvage yard, there is no promise that it'll work.

-Mike

 

Song controlled volume would be better. When tunes like "Born to be Wild" or "Highway Star" are played the radio volume should crank to 11 automatically .

 

Mike - do you have any experience changing out an old shaft style radio in a B-body for a modern DIN (or Din and 1/2?) unit? This old AM/FM in mine has got to go....I haven't looked behind there, but I'm guessing there's got to be a good amount of room.....

 

I'd be a real shame to cut up that dash. I lived with the factory AM/FM cassette in the '79 Electra just to preserve the originality.



What you COULD do is look for one of the mid-to-late 80's digital Delco 2-post radios. They used these in Suburban's through 1988, and many other high-end GM cars. Will give you digital tuning, seek, scan, and a cassette...and still looks factory.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Delco-GM-AM...Parts_Accessories&hash=item51a7760550&vxp=mtr





These are still fairly common. I always planned to put one in the '79 Electra but never got around to it.

 

Marshall, I would go with the Classic Autosound head unit. Best of both worlds. It will slide right in, and has the option of a remote cd changer. Of course, cds are becoming obsolete now, anyway. The Classic units have both MP3 and USB ports for what ever modern medium you choose, and no cutting hacking or changing necessary to that great, original dash. Unfortunately, the Pontac dash did not survive long enough for there to be a later model year you could cull one from. That is possible with the Olds and Chevy dash panels.

 

Krash, why not find a period correct shaft stereo like an Alpine? I have Audiovox and Kenwood and Pioneer shaft stereos, all digital, but they did make analog ones and the sound quality is awesome if they're wired up right. Here's an example of an Alpine in an 80s (1.5DIN) GM enclosure:



Here's what the DIN radio would look like (I used to have one of these Sonys in a Dodge Intrepid, by the way, they sound GREAT if you can put up with the beeping when you shut the car off) if you cut the dash and did it cleanly and put a straight trim plate on it (77 Impala example):



Another idea is get one of these modernized "media playing" radios. It has no cassette or CD, but it is shaft style and has SD, USB, and AUX ports on the front. Play your MP3's right from an SD card or attach a cable to your MP3 player or use a USB stick. The sound quality isn't very great, though. Only $22 but ratings/reviews suck.

http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PLR14MPF...d=1359845384&sr=8-1&keywords=car+am+fm+sd+usb

The original Delco would sound better and you can have an AUX port added to that through the internal amp, drill a small hole in the face somewhere (usually by the AM or FM lettering on the band selector) and plug in an RCA jack there to your MP3 player. Here is what that would look like:



This is my choice. In fact I have a spare Ford AM-FM mono radio that works except for the pushbuttons, and I want to send it to someone to have an AUX jack added. That would allow me to take the other one out and refurbish it to sell on eBay, its pushbuttons work fine but the volume is scratchy and the tuning knob doesn't tune for a few turns after using a pushbutton. It's probably all worn out inside.