"Custom" Interior

[Crawford]

Trying to find an effective solution for mounting my CB and CD headunits, i thought i would ask if anyone has any particularly novel interior modifications.

 

The large Cobra CB i have takes up too much of the passenger footwell when mounted in the location the previous owner had theirs.

 

There is little space for the CD headunit, back of the front speakers, wiring etc in the front A frame under the switches and dials.

 

I had considered mounting both in a custom built, and more secure, glove box. However, i have realised tonight that this would leave them angeled skywards, and the bottom of the box would still extrude deep into the passenger footwell.

 

Only other idea has been to out the CB behind the passenger seat; problem here will be the instinctive taking the eyes off the road to see it.

 

Anyways, i wondered what anyone else had done, either as regards these problems or just in general.

 

For example, i did see that the chap with the chevy-enhanced TR in the concours had replaced the face level vents with speakers!

 

Should have looked at others for ideas, but forgot in the "heat of the moment"!

 

Crawf

[foster461]

The modern head units with DIN cages fit quite well in the standard dash support once you enlarge the hole. I'm not familiar with the Cobra CD to know how it mounts though. This is a TR so real estate is at a premium.. As for the CB unit, how often do you use it ?. Maybe a removable mount with quick disconnect electricals would be acceptable so you only have to deal with it on specific occasions or maybe switch to a hand held unit ?.

 

Stan

[Andy Moltu]

Option 2 smaller CB mounted on snatch plate with a linear amp to take performance up to/beyond the Cobra

[Peter Douglas Winn]

Help

Can anyone explain to me what this is all about?

 

Quote

"Mounting my CB and CD headunits, The large Cobra CB i have takes up too much of the passenger footwell when mounted in the location the previous owner had theirs.Little space for the CD headunit, back of the front speakers, wiring etc in the front A frame under the switches and dials.mounting both in a custom built, secure, glove box. angeled skywards, and the bottom of the box would still extrude deep into the passenger footwell.the CB behind the passenger seat; chevy-enhanced TR"

 

CB and CD head units at your feet in a chevy conversion pointing up skywards behind the passenger seat!!!!!

 

Perhaps I am getting too senile.

Why are we driving TRs to convert them into Chevy flying multimedia systems.

Why don't we just buy a old Fiesta fill up the boot with concrete and put in large speakers.

 

The home page of the webside, Quote "to carry out the club's basic principle: to preserve the TR marque and keep the cars on the road."  explains better what I am trying to say.

[chrismitchell]

I use a Cobra 75ST CB, several other Redrosers have the same.  The fixed bit is tiny and easily mounts under the seat.  All the controls are in the detachable handset.

The CD stacker is in the boot, connected to modernised elderly Motorola radio by tuning to one of the FM channels.  The radio was converted to FM by the Vintage Wireless Company in Sale, S. Manchester.  But not sure if he is still trading as his website is not working anymore.

 

Peter - the CB is great for keeping in touch with your mates when on a trip. It makes group travel much more fun and faster as you dont need to keep line of sight.  A decent set has a range of a couple of miles in good conditions.  As for the CD, well why not, makes modern traffic jams a lot more bearable, mine was on all the way home from Malvern in the p***ing rain.  Ok you cant hear it when really motoring on in fresh air, fair point.

[Peter Douglas Winn]

Chris

Thanks I now understand what your getting at.

I have just a digital, cassette radio with speakers in the backboard before that tank and in the 2 lousy cutouts at the side of the centre consule. The make a noise and I can hear a distorted voice reading the news with the hood down and I also can hear traffic warnings. QED.

For contact with other TRs we usually use our mobiles. If you are not doing it to often, it is not too expensive.

[foster461]

I dont have a problem with people upgrading the audio system to use new components. I've done that myself and it makes driving the car much more enjoyable so I use it more. It is on a par with system upgrades like new poly suspension bushes or retrofitting overdrive as far as I'm concerned and the modern electronics and speakers do more and fit better than the vintage stuff.

 

I notice that the Motorola TalkAbout hand held communications do-dads are very popular here in the US. I dont know what their range is but it is miles and we use them when travelling as a group (typically one at the fornt and one at the back). They are not much bigger than a cell phone and since they fit in your pocket you can use them for other activities like hiking, shopping or odd jobs around the house where you need to coordinate with someone in another room.

 

Stan

[Crawford]

Upgrading car stereo equipment in classic cars brings them into modernity, and the realms of realistic everyday use. It reflects the selective application of useful technology, within the framework of a servicable and approachable mechanical design. This hands-on activity is, for many, crucial to the appeal of classics.

 

Upgrades in audio systems, seating, poly-bushes, braking etc only serve to enhance the useabilty of these cars, and reflect a progressive development many engineers would admire.

 

Without such changes, the 14,000 miles covered in my first TR6 year would certainly have been more challenging.

 

These enhancements are, of course, unnessecery where cars are used only occasionally, and would certainly be out of place in an Alfa 8C.

 

However, a more permissive attitude to such changes could only be beneficial to rejuvinating TR membership, and the longer term preservation of classics.

[rob wilsher]

In 1977 i bought my first TR6 for £1500, a neat french blue 125bhp. I fitted this out with a SONY stereo cassette traditional "2 knob" unit. I made speaker boxes to suit the rear shelf and it sounded beautiful even when really motoring.

 

My recent "6" has no sound system at all and I need to sort this out as I am a music addict. Most TR6s seem to have speakers either side of the central console. Does this provide good stereo? It seems practical but off-beat sound wise.

 

Rob

[foster461]

Does this provide good stereo?

 

Nope, at speed you can hardly hear them or you have to crank them up so loud that they will distort because there is a limit to the size and depth of speaker you can stuff into the kidney pads.

 

Most people opt for one variant or another of rear speakers where you have more options on the rear shelf or the rear trim panel and can put some good size speakers back there. I have seen some very nice looking installations, one in particular that had triangular shaped enclosures that fitted into the rear corners. There is no room in the front side panels, no room in the doors. Miata seats with improved headrest speakers help a lot but you will need to find some bass somehere either from some big-ish rears or a sub.

 

Stan

[jemgee]

I have 2 speakers mounted in the back panel which is fine except when we load up. I also have Mazda MX5 seats which have small speakers mounted in the headrest - one day I'll get round to hooking them up  

[foster461]

one day I'll get round to hooking them up  

 

Mike, if these are the original cardboard tweeters in the standard Miata seats you will probably have to replace them. The Miata head unit has a special port for these speakers and if you try to drive them like a full range speaker they will sound like **** because they cant handle the lower ranges. Your options are to fit a high pass filter so they only see the upper frequencies like they were desiged for or replace them with a wider range speaker. I found some inexpensive 3.5 inch speakers that I wired in series. They sound good and using the front/rear balance on the head unit I get good sound through the volume range.

 

Stan

[jonlar]

Hi Peter and Crawf, for those of us old enough to remember (not you Crawf!) Citizen's Band radio started in a big way over in the mid - late 70's, I was still a copper at the time with a totally illegal Midland AM/SSB rig.    There was a group of us used to regularly get up on top of the hill at Westbury White Horse in Wiltshire, with the skip and height used to get all over west country and US as well.    One day, we were up there and the roads out were suddenly blocked - Post Office Telecomms and Radio Authority officials - confiscated the lot from us all, 12 - 15 rigs! - if we'd tried to claim them back, we'd've been taken to Court and done - not at all desirable for me then! and the Court would've ordered confiscation and destruction.

 

Because of public demand and possible Revenue source, CB sets were made legal and had to be licensed from 1981, but these were rubbish FM sets limited to <4W, different frequencies to US and rest of world, took off quite well though, but very quickly taken over by foul-mouthed (Bucket mouths) idiots, but are still in limited use by some truckers and people with disabilities or elderly.

 

Crawf, I still have a new Ham International Concorde 3 and a Uniden 2830 (26 - 30 MHz), K40 mag-mount and Zetagi 300W burner packed away somewhere.   The Cobra was (and still is) a good set.   Keep on truckin' and ****in' - 10-10 till we do it again!