Advice on replacing radio unit

[Henson80MGB]

I was given a Retro Sound Model 1 Radio for the MGB.

Before I dive into pulling the old radio out and putting this one in, I was wondering if anyone has any good reference material or suggestions to ease this procedure?

I've got The Complete Official MGB Workshop Manual, but just wondering if there was something that provided more details or methods for the correct "order" of removal and re-installation causing the least amount of disorder to the interior of the car.

Thanks in advance.

 

[PAUL161]

Larry, it's hard to give you advice on your radio, as they come in many different shapes and sizes. I took the original dealer installed radio out of our 72 and went to a audio center and matched up a stereo setup approximately the same size. Please don't ask the brand name as I don't remember. It came out looking nice and I had no cutting of the original panel hole. It's a trial and error thing. Patience is the virtue. Here's a, not so good, pic of ours during restoration. It has a pop off face for security. PJ

<span style="color: #000099">I might add, I wouldn't do it again! A radio in a B is worthless while driving. Too much road noise and the 400 bucks I spent could have been used elsewhere. I should have left the original AM radio in there for looks.</span>



And another;

 

[Henson80MGB]

Well, the hopeful good news is that the radio was actually found on Moss Motors site, and it seems to have fully adjustable dial units.... They claim it will specifically fit an 80 B, w/ no cutting, which was a must!

So far we only drive the car around town and teaching the boys to drive a clutch, so the road noise is minimized.

I'll take it slow and steady, during the dis-assembly, to make it easier for the re-assembly

The key will be, now that it's back on the road and the weather has nice days, to keep it drive-able during this process

 

[drooartz]

I'll take it slow and steady, during the dis-assembly, to make it easier for the re-assembly

That is the best plan. I removed the radio from my '70 MGB (metal dash as it's a RHD car) and just had to go slow and deal with whatever came up. These were not necessarily mounted in any standard way, so you'll just have to see what you have and work with it.

Good luck, and don't forget to post some pics when you're done.

 

[aerog]

Well, the hopeful good news is that the radio was actually found on Moss Motors site, and it seems to have fully adjustable dial units.... They claim it will specifically fit an 80 B, w/ no cutting, which was a must!

FWIW there's nothing particularly special about the late MGB radio holes. Many (most?) single-DIN radios will fit or will be darned close. There are two holes: the one in the plastic front panel and the steel support structure behind the panel. When I did mine I found many radios that seemed just a little too big, but tons that were perfect. I ended up with a Kenwood with a hidden face. Just so happens that a friend of mine put the same one in his Eclipse.

Face-open

Face-closed

The bigger problem was finding decent speakers that fit without adding obnoxious looking boxes or chopping up the rear bulkhead.

But, you already have a radio that will fit so that shouldn't be an issue Once you get the existing installation out you should have a big empty space without much back there except a support structure, some wires, and the heater control cables:

I wasn't <span style="font-style: italic">thrilled</span> with using the existing radio wiring with my new radio. It seemed ok for a basic low-power AM/FM radio that would have been standard in the late '70s. Using it as it was, with the power switching on/off at the ignition switch didn't instill a lot of confidence.

On my installation I chose to run power directly from the battery to the radio with an inline fuse at the battery hookup. At the radio I built a relay circuit so the power to the radio could be switched on/off with either the ignition-switch setup or an external toggle switch. The circuit uses the existing wiring to control the relay and memory back-up in the radio, while the other side of the 30-amp relay uses heavier and better wiring to actually power the radio. The previous owner installed a rocker switch to control an auxiliary fan so the matching rocker now is a master-switch for the radio.

That may seem overkill and it might be. Part of my plan though, was to also use a small amp. The speakers I used are actually pretty good but the poor radio gets overtaxed and starts flat-topping pretty badly at higher volume levels (your radio may be different). The wiring/relay setup was intended to also make adding the small amp pretty simple. Plus, making my own wiring harness made the actual radio installation simple. The wiring took some time, actual installation of the radio rack took 15 minutes. The radio itself is a slide-in and only takes a minute to do.

My radio is ok for around town or with the top-up. With the top-down on the highway though, forget it. I never did install the amp though