Alternatives to Cutting Holes for Sound System Upgrades
Short answer: You can upgrade sound with little or no cutting. The no-holes route: a vintage Audiovox AM-FM converter that fits inside the ashtray, wired to the back of the factory AM radio — open the ashtray to change bands/stations. Period-correct, cheap, and fully reversible.
A more ambitious near-stock install (one member’s): a Sony head unit in the dash; an EQ and mini-gauges bracketed to the ashtray brackets; a pair of 5-1/4″ speakers at the dash mono-speaker location (on fabricated sheet metal); two 6×9 enclosures hung from the trunk-deck stationary panel (angled up, leaving room for a CD changer between them); and Sony amps mounted by the cocktail-shaker area. Quality head units have built-in noise filtering, so no extra suppressors were needed. (The aftermarket dash-speaker kit and its 4″ speakers were judged not worth it.)
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Content last modified: June 13, 2026 at 10:06 am
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