I got an AM radio and gutted it to this:
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I bought a sweet little amp from ebay - direct import from China :wink:

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Built this control board. These small switches will line up behind the push buttons on the radio. The circuitry is just a voltage regulator so i can step 12v down to 1.5v for the MP3 player.

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Took an old MP3 player and ran leads out of it that connect through to the switches on the player. Those leads than connect to the switches on the control board. You can see the headphone jack connects through to the amp. After i took the picture i also connected a usb cable to the player and have the end hanging out of the radio so i can bring a laptop in the car for music updates.

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Here is the control board actually mounted to the back face of the radio. You can see rubber grommets between the board and the housing just for a little protection to the switches. You can see one on the radio push buttons is all the way in and how its activating the control board switch.

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Put the cover on (amp is mounted to bottom side of cover) and put the radio is in the dash and looks 100% stock from the front. I even left the dial indicator in it. The power for the amp and mp3 player run through the stock switch. Turn the volume **** to power on and use the push buttons to control the music.

A fun little project. Amp cost me $20. All the rest of the parts i had hanging around.

 

Way cool project, from this engineer's viewpoint!

Of course I still wonder how the chinese can pack 500W of power in a $20 amp that is the size of a deck of cards...

 

I think you should give us all one of those as a Christmas gift! .....Sweet work!

 

Nice work. Should throw up a pic of the finished product. So the push buttons control the MP3 player?

You have officially stepped out of my realm of knowledge.

 

Thanks for the comments guys.

500W hehehehehe. They should have marked the thing 1000W. I only purchased based on physical size. Its the smallest amp i could find.

The finished product looks like a stock am radio. Sorry i didnt take one more pic all assembled. Yes the original AM radio push buttons that you would normally use to jump to a station now instead control play/pause/fast forward on that little MP3 player that is now buried inside the radio housing.

 

Too cool, will that deal play vinyl??

I converted my factory 8 track into an MP3 player.

This may be a little technical ,hope I don't lose anything in translation.

Eight track to cassette adapter-cassette to MP-3 adapter- tons of rumbling noise from the 8 track motor still going constantly and whatever other junk is in there.

It actually works...sometimes, I keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case, you never know... you just never know

 

That is slick!

 

Pure genius. Way cool man.

 

Not bad. Why didnt you gut the amp also to save more room?

 

Nice piece of work. I only wish I could do something like that as I am electronically challenged! Did you also run some stealth speakers as well?

 

You should do this for a living or second job - creative to say the least!!

I'm tired of "put the new radio and/or other components in the glove box" idea.

 

Hey Mac Guyver!! Was there any duct tape involved in making this unit.

Nice idea!!!

 

I've got an old chassis. How much to make 1 4 me?

Ralph

 

I am too old to even know what an MP3 player is! I would like to find a cheap fix for my 49 model tube type AM radio that looks stock, but I just want a regular radio AM or FM to fit in the original box and play off of original 6volt system. I don't want 1000w or a CD player, just a radio. Do the Chinese have an answer for that?

 

Hey Bill, you are never to old to learn !!!! An MP3 player is a recorder that doesnt use physical media to make a recording. Consider it the modern day version of an 8 track or cassette without literally having a tape.

I am not so sure the Chinese have the answer but i do recall reading in Hemmings about a oldschool gentleman in NY who is a radio guru who could put AM FM guts in your original radio. I dont know if that qualifies as cheap or not.

Sorry i couldnt be of more help and good luck to you.

 

Pete,

The guy you're referring to does a nice job but it is pretty expensive. I saw his product at GM Carlisle last year and it looks completely stock.