Well, after a day of doing work moving boxes around in our new attick wich I did not want to do, I have decided to tinker for a little bit. Im not called tinkerman for nothing. LOL. Anyways, I recently bought a plastic radio bezel here from Phils toys. Thank you! Took the USPS two weeks to send a priority box from him to me one state away! LOL. Alas, it did show the other day. So what better thing to tinker on while I am without grean then this! LOL. So I have a really nice Sony CD head I pulled out of my van for this project. Unfortunately, I do not have any speakers to spare yet, so the instalation will not be done in any quick fashion. My car also was never equiped with a radio. So I will have to tap in somewheres for the power. I am lucky enough to have the two wire lead behind the dash. SO I believe this should help me with the power? Maybe if someone here knows wether they will or will not work for me, please chime in! I will have to decide where to put speakers in my car. My head unit is stereo with a four speaker set up. So I am debating a set in the back by the rear seat in the wagon. Note even though I do not readily plan on hauling much in the wagon, I do not wish to put speakers in the rear just in case I do. Now for the front set of speakers, I have yet to decide where? I have seen several in the doors. But my door panels are mint! I will eventually be replacing them with something custom made I am sure. But that is some time down the road. I would think maybe on the plastic trim under the dash infront of the doors. But I am unsure of how much space is there for speakers? I know I have seen them there before on some other pintos. So again, if anyone here has done this, please chime in. When I did a search for radio instalation, it came up with only two different threads, one posted in 05 and one later in 08 by the same person. So.... here I go. LOL. My first objective will be to trace out the metal instalation cage and cut that out. Then test fit. Once I am happy with the fit, I will be painting the bezel black for now. Once that is painted to satisfaction, I will install it into the car. Now I did not note a hanger in the car, so I may be left to create some sort of hanger behind the radio to hold it still. We will see when that time comes. So.... without further ado, here are the parts I am starting with. Thanks.
(http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad54/mykustomcarz/Pinto%20Project/HPIM5133.jpg)
Alright, here we go. Step number one. Trace out the instalation box. In the photo you see two sets of lines. LOL. I began by drawing the out side one. This I could get the marker tip right up against. However, on the top side of the bezel, I could not get the marker in. So I reserved to tracing out the inside. However, I could not get the tip right up against the cage. So I went back and drew in the remainder of the outside line by hand. I will start by cutting it out from the inside line out until I am happy with the fit. I will be cutting the bezel with a dremal tool with a cut out piece. Since I am used to doing this kind of thing working with hacking up plastic model cars, I know from exsperience that the plastic can get hot and put out fumes. So, if you are concerned with such things, I would suggest wearing a paper 3M face mask. I have been around paints and stains many years and the smell does not effect me. So onward I go. LOL. Updates as I complete them. Thanks.
(http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad54/mykustomcarz/Pinto%20Project/HPIM5134.jpg)
Alright. After supper I got the old dremel out. I cut away first the inner lines wich was just basically the knob holes on both ends. Then I filed it away until the metal cage fit snugly. Then I chucked in a drill bit into the dremel and beveled the edges to soften them and rough them up to take paint better. Here are three shots in a row to show the work and how well it fits and what it looks like with the radio in. Next step, lightly scuff the plastic so I can prime it with Duplicolor automotive primer. My favorite for canned paint. Thanks.
(http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad54/mykustomcarz/Pinto%20Project/HPIM5135.jpg)
(http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad54/mykustomcarz/Pinto%20Project/HPIM5136.jpg)
(http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad54/mykustomcarz/Pinto%20Project/HPIM5137.jpg)