💟Final resto 1968 BB💟

[C3C7NIC]

Originally Posted by Anjdog2003

Rich/Baller people problems

🤓🥰

[dvarapala]

Originally Posted by C3C7NIC

Yea, that.


Shush your pretty mouth professor. 👨*🏫

By your command FLUXcb.

[C3C7NIC]

Got things done today. As with most projects hit roadblocks.


The vintage air top that goes where the wiper control is does not fit at all. Gotta love aftermarket stuff.

Happy with the looks of the new radio. Happy with the botton restoration.

Did not have the insulators so used foam from exterior outlet and made my own.

Discovered the antenna is not long enough to be routed under drivers side and along sill. Of course carpet is in so now to decide what to do.

[C3C7NIC]

This is how far the vintage air top is off.

[LATB]

Looks great.

[dvarapala]

Originally Posted by LATB

Looks great.

[Rodnok1]

If that's plastic a little heat and should be able to bend it to fit.

[C3C7NIC]

Originally Posted by Rodnok1

If that's plastic a little heat and should be able to bend it to fit.

Metal.

I know there is no bending of the original pot metal, very brittle.

Will be calling vintage air Monday.

[dwjz06]

Originally Posted by C3C7NIC

Metal.

I know there is no bending of the original pot metal, very brittle.

Will be calling vintage air Monday.

Doing a great job doc. Stay with it. Getting closer. Take care,

[C3C7NIC]

Working on quick connect and extensions for behind the dash wiring. Total NOOB at this but seems “fairly” straight forward.

Please critique my process, plan to use lighter vs gun. Better control and hopefully localized heat.










New bulb holders so bulbs don’t fall off inside console.

Did not want to go the way of LED but did get all new bulbs.

Found out soldering can be tricky so these little gems should do the trick!

[sublime1996525]

Hopefully Vintage Air made things right. They’re usually top notch from what I hear.

[C3C7NIC]

Originally Posted by sublime1996525

Hopefully Vintage Air made things right. They’re usually top notch from what I hear.

They told me to bend the piece. Not sure how bendable it is but will find out.

[Rodnok1]

Use a grill lighter so keeps fingers away from the heat. Unless you like burns on thumbs,

As they say more than one way to skin a cat, whatever works best for you.

[dwjz06]

Originally Posted by C3C7NIC

They told me to bend the piece. Not sure how bendable it is but will find out.

heat might help you bend it better. You got a crappy old one to practice on? If not small increments at a time might be your best bet

[sublime1996525]

Originally Posted by dwjz06

heat might help you bend it better. You got a crappy old one to practice on? If not small increments at a time might be your best bet

This! Use heat. And forget what everyone is saying about a grill light. Butane torch FTMFW. Go big or go home….. (I jest, please don’t use a torch lol).

[C3C7NIC]

The vintage air part bent very easily. I was chicken shit to try to bend. Vendor said go for it. It’s not pot metal, a much thinner metal.


Used hot air gun, for solder shrink tubes above; worked great. Just kept moving back and forth. Putting everything together on the bench was easy; attaching the other spliced ends and using the heat gun inside the car was another story. Used a cookie sheet to block the heat elsewhere 😂

Next to do the center console extensions, run the speaker wire; which is +\-???? I’M scared! 😱

[Kevin68]

Originally Posted by C3C7NIC

Discovered the antenna is not long enough to be routed under drivers side and along sill. Of course carpet is in so now to decide what to do.

If it's not too late, try running the antenna wire down the center console, through the rear storage compartments and at an angle to the left rear corner. Should be 3 feet or so shorter run.

Originally Posted by C3C7NIC

Attachment 104661

Next to do the center console extensions, run the speaker wire; which is +\-???? I’M scared! 😱

That connector is a nice thought but when you sell it, someone is going to hate you. Again, too late to the party, but individual bullet connectors keeping the same gray (or colored wire for direction, high beam) would have been easier for someone to figure out. I didn't do any connections and I don't remember having any issues getting the dash in. There was plenty of slack. This is not an area that is going to require much, if any, maintenance.

For the speaker wire, the harness on the radio and the tabs on the speakers should be labeled. If one speaker tab is wider than the other, that's +. If not clearly labeled, just try it both ways and whichever is louder is correct. It's not going to hurt anything to cross them other than sound quality.

Not that you are looking for ideas at this point, but I kept the shitty aftermarket look-alike radio for looks and put a bluetooth amp in and just use playlists. Mounted it vertically on the back bulkhead between the rear speakers and wired with an in-line fuse directly to the battery/frame.

[C3C7NIC]

Originally Posted by Kevin68

If it's not too late, try running the antenna wire down the center console, through the rear storage compartments and at an angle to the left rear corner. Should be 3 feet or so shorter run.



That connector is a nice thought but when you sell it, someone is going to hate you. Again, too late to the party, but individual bullet connectors keeping the same gray (or colored wire for direction, high beam) would have been easier for someone to figure out. I didn't do any connections and I don't remember having any issues getting the dash in. There was plenty of slack. This is not an area that is going to require much, if any, maintenance.

For the speaker wire, the harness on the radio and the tabs on the speakers should be labeled. If one speaker tab is wider than the other, that's +. If not clearly labeled, just try it both ways and whichever is louder is correct. It's not going to hurt anything to cross them other than sound quality.

Not that you are looking for ideas at this point, but I kept the shitty aftermarket look-alike radio for looks and put a bluetooth amp in and just use playlists. Mounted it vertically on the back bulkhead between the rear speakers and wired with an in-line fuse directly to the battery/frame.

Too late unless I want to pull the carpet, which I don’t, going to just get a 90 degree antenna extension.

As far as the colored wires. The original wire is still there, just need to follow it through to end. All but 2 are all gray anyway. If I wanted to be OCD I could paint the wires, but again all they have to do is follow the wire back. Not hard.

Since the 68 only has 2 Speakers (kick panels) I’ll just treat the wires with print on them as + and the - the side without.

Apparently the 68 is a real PITA on the drivers dash side. Have to get the wiring harness just right. Have never heard it was an easy task but maybe the other folks having done this are sissies.

Hopefully getting closer to install.

[C3C7NIC]

Triple digit heat and the garage is 🥵 so picked a quickie project today.

Really hate it when I forget to take a before picture. Suffice it to say that this had all the grime and some surface rust spots consistent with a 50+ yr old vehicle part.

The metal turned out pretty good. Took about an hour and a half of elbow grease with some metal polish and 0000 steel wool. Also redid the little plastic -rubber piece that fits over everything.

The glass in the mirror has some spots that could only be fixed by replacing the Mirror, but I will leave it for now. Will be easy enough to unscrew and make it pretty down the road.

There is some hooping of the windshield sealant. Is this something I absolutely don’t want to mess with or do I let my OCD get the best of me and I trim this off? I obviously do not want to affect the integrity or the waterproof Quality of the windshield.

[C3C7NIC]

This will be a 1st.

Not installing the center gauge cluster but getting all the speaker wires ready and the speakers installed hopefully today.


Have never installed auto stereo or speakers.


So many questions and the instructions are not helpful.


1.) I’ve fit the stereo in the center bezel. Have determined that of all these wires only need 7. The wires for the speakers look the same, so as long as +/- attach correctly, I assume the wire is the same?

2.) anything special to do to secure the unused wires/ends, or can I just wind them up and zip tie out of the way?

3) with 68, only 2 speakers in the kick panel area. There are none in the dash or in the rear. I mean it’s a vert so not worried about quality sound. lol.

4.) friend 3-D printed these speaker holders. Will require some modification.


Here goes nothing.