Radio delete, vinyl dash, magnetic phone mount on the 66

[BLAKE]

This is probably a pretty obscure mod for most of you, but I've never seen anything like this and it was fun to do, so here ya go:

1. I no longer use the factory radio, and I really didn't like the way the 80's Custom Autosound unit looked, nor do I have any cassette tapes for it, so I wanted it gone.
2. I love the idea of a magnetic phone mount so I can display GPS speedometer, music controls and navigation, but I wanted it to be as clean as possible. Really, what I was going for was invisible.

So I measured and cut out a piece of metal...
66MustangCustomFill2

Placed that over the factory hole. I wanted it to be reversible, so the factory opening is unmolested. I put two bolts through it where the radio posts go and counter sunk them flush...
66MustangCustomDashFill

I then covered the whole dash with black vinyl from the local JoAnn Fabrics store. This is what it looks like normally with no phone installed.
66MustangCustomDash1

I attached a strip of metal to the back of my iphone case and put two old hard drive magnets behind the dash below the radio opening...
66MustangCustomDash2

This little amp in my customized factory console drives the tunes. I have a little bluetooth unit in the ash tray of the console, and I installed an auxiliary power point/cigarette lighter behind the dash and ran a power cord into the ash tray in the dash if I need to charge the phone.

66MustangCustomConsole1

This has been a really fun project that took less than a full weekend to do. Wish I had done it sooner. Let me know what you think!

[BLAKE]

For those not familiar, this is what the crappy radio looked like:


And here's a stock dash for comparison:

[Gasser64]

Very nice, I like it.

Imo you don't have to explain wanting to get rid of that old junk. Fuck those lousy old radios. Modern tech is the tits. I'd keep it on hand of course, in the attic.

[garycrist]

It has been so long, I used to have a cheap
mod for tightening up the floor shifter.

That dash is cool too. I did fake wood grain my '63
Galaxie 500 way back when.

[Kart21]

Looks really nice, good work.

[BLAKE]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I appreciate it.

It has been so long, I used to have a cheap
mod for tightening up the floor shifter.

Huh?

[Baba Ganoush]

That’s absolutely brilliant. Perfect for that car, very well executed.

Let us know how it holds! Or if it randomly changes you phone’s language or some shits.

[slow84lx]

That looks really nice Blake. Good mod!

[BLAKE]

Thanks guys. I’ve been driving it all weekend and the magnets haven’t bricked my phone, lol. I grabbed an old phone case and put the metal strip inside and it still holds strong. Pretty fun.

[Gasser64]

Guess it would be a whole lot of trouble and money to make the dash look stock except for the new radio...

I have to admit that I like the paint and the slick texture and even the line that is shown in the pic of the stock dash.

[garycrist]

Auto Shifter

It appears from your pic that the car is an automatic.
The shifter in my Cougar was sloppy, rattled and was
loose as a goose. Ford no longer sold parts to fix the
rattling thing. There was no "HELP" section nor Autozone etc.

Just remembrances and cool fixes that had to be done
in yesteryear!

[BLAKE]

Guess it would be a whole lot of trouble and money to make the dash look stock except for the new radio...

I have to admit that I like the paint and the slick texture and even the line that is shown in the pic of the stock dash.

Yeah, deleting the radio without covering it would not only be difficult, but tough, if not impossible to put back to stock. I have that same vinyl on other parts of the interior so it looks right at home.

It appears from your pic that the car is an automatic.
The shifter in my Cougar was sloppy, rattled and was
loose as a goose. Ford no longer sold parts to fix the
rattling thing. There was no "HELP" section nor Autozone etc.

Just remembrances and cool fixes that had to be done
in yesteryear!

Ah, no it’s a T5 with pro 5.0 shifter. You can see the clutch pedal in the corner of the smoothed picture.

[KBScobravert]

Looks good. Ingenuity. I always thought magnets and electronics were a bad combination though.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[BLAKE]

Looks good. Ingenuity. I always thought magnets and electronics were a bad combination though.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Thanks. I thought that was a bad mix too, but magnetic phone mounts are a big deal nowadays and apparently there is not interference. Maybe it's the solid state hard drives? I dunno, but it works great.

[scootro]

love it!