Mopar Radio in my Fairmont!

More learning. Boy, I hope that Ford kept some of its Fox engineers in this mess.

I went searching for the Tach rewiring to modify it for my inline six, fahgetaboutit.

They have a switch built in to go from 4, 6, or 8 cylinders!!! 1979 to 1986 Mustangs.

Found it here:
http://www.mustangtimes.net/15-11/pg32-33.pdf

But had go from Google, because the site makes them available to their Club. All this page shows are some indexes:
http://www.mustangtimes.net/

They do have some downloable 'scrapbooks' though.

 

Shouldn't have attached those pics in that post. Trying again, with comments:

This bezel's part number says it comes from a 1984 Mustang:
P/N is E4ZB-610045C90-B

It has a fine line grid pattern, $60 for the bezel and cluster:



This cluster is also from a 1984 Mustang - Circuit P/N is:
E4ZF-10C956-AA.

The Tach adjustment from 4, 6, or 8 is through a hole in the lense with a flatblade screwdriver:



If you look at the lefthand side of cluster, there's 4 idiot light blanks. the top two are Brake and Seat belt warning lights. The bottom two are the Oil moron, and a SHIFT light. I can trim that back and insert this vacuum/boost gauge without affecting the mounting. Dremel tools. Ditto with the black bezel. Don't like gauges hanging everywhere. It's a whiteface but it's illuminated with adjustable 7 colour LED display. Cheap at $22.



This weird looking thing mounts where the center front speaker goes in the dash. Optional Premium Sound radio item in Fairmont/Zephyrs from 1978 and up, and used in most other highend Ford Mercuries. It can be a PITA to use with non-Ford radios.



The salt box came in the last grocery gettin'. But that radio is also a 1984 Cougar Premium Sound radio. Ford had 4 radios back then. P/N is: E4AF-19A198-AA
AM. AM/FM. AM/FM Cassette, AM/FM Cassette with Amplifier (the amp was optional, but the connectors are the key to easy hookup.) I was LUCKY!



These grilles are interesting. The round black ones are a heavy gauge steel bonded to the Ford stock speakers, which are fastened to the door cavity. The Fairmonts didn't have that, which explains why so many were kicked in. $5.00 for the set.

The rectangular grilles have concealed prongs to hug the cardboard/hardboard cutout from behind. The big Signature Lincolns (1973) used them. I originally got the car with the common aftermarket round grilles which were pretty low profile, but because they were almost 6" OD, the window winder beat them up. Fairmonts had similar grilles in 1978 to 1980. No more damaged speakers and grilles. These are plastic with an embedded steel grid. Fairmonts were 100% plastic. I've still got a can of SEMS plastic dye and their soap to clean them up with.

These speakers are really interesting. The company who makes them is Pyramid Car Audio.
http://www.pyramidcaraudio.com/

The place I bought them from buys closeouts globally, so I got them for $10 each (CDN$) about $8.00 (USD$) from their normal price of $22 USD$ each. Not a 2-way or 3-way. Just mid-range. Perfect for what I wanted.
http://www.pyramidcaraudio.com/items.asp?category=Mid-Bass/Midrange+Drivers

Mine look like this:


And he threw in a bunch of relays, some extra wiring harness and the heater control from the Mustang.

That dash bezel fits right in to the Fox Fairmont/Zephyr cars from 1978 to 1982. Dashes were different in Cougar wagons, but the swap is the same.

I wanted to track this motor, now that its 31 years old, and these gauges will do the trick. The vacuum gauge and trip meter will help track mileage per tankful.

EDIT: The place I bought the Vacuum Gauge and Speakers from is:
http://www.princessauto.com/

Head office is here in Winnipeg, but they ship anywhere. You can get a free annual catalogue and their montly 'specials' catalogue. Good deals on compressors, welders, odd hoists for anything and anything related to farm equipment maintenance. Good prices. Good return policies and good people running their stores. I think they've got a place in ND too.


I'll post progress pics, after I work out the wiring zoo.

 

Norm, the premium Ford radios of that vintage had a separate amp mounted in the dash somewhere. Not sure where. The radio will not work without it.

 

Yup. Where the middle/center front speaker goes. I've got the side speakers in the dash.

 

I knew I had this link somewhere. The guy did a redesign of his 1987 Ford TBird TurboCoupe. He goes through all of it, from rewiring to new gauges and senders. Good writeup:
http://jr.rustecat.com/articles/cluster/

Make sure you get the pictures from his Image Index page. A lot of the images are in full size, so that you can see the details better, plus some are not shown within the text instructions:

http://jr.rustecat.com/articles/cluster/images/

 

They used to be called "wrecking yards",not salvage or dismantling yards.I guess some people remember that...OR just have no respect for either the car or the next guy that's going to come along...When I was looking for another carb for my 74 Mustang II,I found several engines where; somebody hadn't removed the linkage from the carb,they'd broken it off(?) And then,there was the adventure in looking for a taillight assembly for my wife's 85 T-Bird(she'd been hit from behind while stopped at a stopsign.(1)Apparently,a lot of T-Birds had been hit on the same tail-light and(2)somebody else needed lightbulbs and broke a bunch of assemblies to get them out...

 

My wife works at Sears, in the women's department. Until yesterday, I thought it was a woman-thing. She tells me that when they go look at the 'front-end loaders' (AKA bras ), they open the boxes, and without ever looking, throw them on a table or the floor and open another box! Or they check out a garment or winter coat, and throw it on the floor! It's like they take out their bundled up closet of emotional junk and let fly!

Well, I guess we do it to, when we get to the yards. It doesn't make sense, but most people go to keep the old beater going, and not to restore. No wonder we find the yards raising prices on ordinary parts. One way or the other, they have to make a buck or close down.

 

I knew there was a trick to rewiring a Ford Tach from 4 cyl and up. Not complicated, just fussy:

http://www.coolcats.net/tech/advanced/4to8tach.html

If you look at the bottom of this page, there's also instructions to recalibrate newer electronic speedometers and other stuff, including making your own whiteface gauges on your printer:
http://www.coolcats.net/tech/advanced/index.html

 

Mopar guys, here's a luxury car links page bar none!

http://www.lincolnsonline.com/links/links.html

If its restoration, it's on that page. The Lincoln guys are either spoiled rotten or they're all members with resto-related businesses. Impressive!

The tech page is likewise, but mostly Ford, Mercury and especially Lincoln related. But solid DIY articles:
http://www.lincolnsonline.com/tech/tech.html

 

Excellent Door DIY speaker and baffle article with pics:

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143416

 

A noise damping material to line the doors:

http://www.secondskinaudio.com/vibration-mat/damplifier-pro.php

 

Found a neat tech article dealing with upgrading the dash lights from the old incandescent type to LED lights on the Mofified Mustang and Ford Mag site. I'll see how my vacuum guage looks with the stock lighting on this Mustang dash. Never seen one before.

http://www.mustangandfords.com/techarticles/mdmp_0812_dash_light_replacement/index.html

 

Found a picture of the infamous Fairmont AMPLIFIER SWITCH! Install below the Tailgate wiper/washer switch:



Just waiting for the owner to email me with a P/N.

 

Boy, when you do a project Normie, you sure go all out. I like that!

 

I'm a stubborn bird, CE.

I knew I saw that picture about 6 months ago, but I couldn't find it. Now, I'm having a beech of a time finding the part number (middle 6 or 7 characters). The first 4 in a Ford P/N are the year and product group. Some parts on even new cars still have 1960's number (Start with the letter 'C'). Then there's the suffix after the first two groups of numbers XXXX-YYYYYYY-ZZZ. They middle set gives you a way to search for the radio, in my case: 19A198 regardless of year modified. Sometimes that just means that the knobs were different.

I'll go to my old Ford Dealer this week. He's still got the old microfiche cards and viewer, as well as the new computerized lookup database. He might be able to look it up and tell me the difference between the 1979 and 1984 switch.

On Mustangs, they only amplified the rear speakers. On the 1979 wagons, and luxury cars, they made them Quadrasonic (sounds like a concert hall, but without the echo.)