Once the filler plate was installed on the radio a bit of fiddling was needed to adjust the width and depth of the volume and tuner shafts. The RetroSound adjustable mounting brackets supported these adjustments, producing a good fit.
Support at the rear of the radio was provided by a custom bracket that picked up the support from the original factory radio. This was the second project where I’ve used the bench shear – this is so much better than tin snips or a cutting wheel on an angle grinder for working with sheet metal!
With mounting resolved the next step is the electrical connections. The supplied wiring harness makes this job straightforward. Except for one tiny little detail…
The radio is designed for four speakers: front left and right and rear left and right. I have left and right rear speakers. And a single center speaker in the front…
Most cars through the 1970’s had a single speaker in the middle of the dash. Stereo wasn’t a concern. Nor, to be fair, was audiophile quality. The 1963 Imperial was one of the earlier cars to have a transistor radio instead of a vacuum tube radio. It’s amazing that (when working) these cars can actually receive modern radio transmissions!
The common approach when installing a new stereo is to mount new speakers in the kick panels or the front doors. There is no way I’m going to cut up my new door cards! And there isn’t enough room in the kick panels. Or under the dash.
I’ve been wrestling with this problem for a while. Maybe just set the front balance to completely left or right? I can’t be the first person with this problem. Time to fire up the Google!
Would you look at that: stereo speakers are available! In this case a stereo speaker is a single speaker that produces stereo sound. It has left and right inputs. A single bass cone since bass is non-directional. And two mid range/tweeter voice coils for separate left and right. Probably not great stereo imaging, but it looks like these would work.
And, big surprise, RetroSound offers them. I wish I’d know about this when I placed the original order. Hop on the InterWebs and get another order in.
I have to replace the replacement speaker I installed in the center of the dash a couple of years ago. But that is a small price to pay for a clean solution.