1964dynamic88

Hello!

I just registered for this forum as I've had my beautiful Olds for two years now. I've been meaning to sign up, but you know as it goes. I live in central North Carolina.

It was a lucky find and I'm only the second owner. When I got the title it was in a museums name. 28,258 original miles when I got it! Now it has about 29,500 miles on it. I put new tires on it and all the hoses and belts it needed.

For my first question, what's the speaker look-alike on the rear bench?

jaunty75

It's, er, a speaker.

I have a '67 Delta 88 with the same kind of thing. It looks like your car has an AM/FM radio, but even for AM-only situations, Olds offered a center-of-the-rear-seat speaker. Two options were available on the 88s. In the cheaper one, it was simply a second speaker playing the same thing the front speaker did. It was called "Bi-Phonic" rear speaker, and it cost $16.14.

For $53.80, you could have gotten a "reverbatone" rear speaker. In this case, it still played the same thing as the front speaker, but what was done was to delay the signal to the rear speaker by a small amount so that there was sort of an echo effect. It made for a deeper, richer, almost stereo-like sound. An AM/FM radio was an available option on your car, and if I'm seeing your dash correctly in the one photo, it looks like you have this radio. But it was not a stereo radio. The AM/FM radio was a $150.64 option. In 1964, FM was still somewhat in its infancy, and few FM stations transmitted in stereo.

In base form, no radio was included for your car. The basic AM radio, called simply "deluxe pushbutton radio," was an $88 option. Next up was a "Super-Deluxe Signal Seeking" radio, usually called "Wonderbar," that cost $124. This was also an AM-only radio. The highest price radio option was the AM/FM model discussed above.

Looks like a very nice car.

oldcutlass

Welcome to the site, your car is awesome.

jaunty75

By the way, does the radio in this car work? Based on the fact that you asked what that thing was in the center of your back seat, I'm assuming that even if the radio works, that rear speaker doesn't.

Can you hear any sound through it at all? If the speakers are original, they're 50 years old and could very well be dried out and non-functional. The originals are 10 ohm, I believe, and you would want to replace them with similar speakers, assuming you wanted to keep the original radio. You can also get the original speakers rebuilt ("re-coned").

rocketraider

As stated, it's the rear speaker location for convertibles. Closed cars had it in the right rear corner of the package tray.

Your car has an aftermarket radio so it may or may not have had a rear speaker. It was available factory or dealer installed. If there's one there, you should be able to see it thru the trunk by lifting up the top well liner. Look for a single dark blue wire in the trunk, coming from the passenger side of the car, to determine if it had a factory or dealer rear speaker.

If the car had reverb, you would see a switch next to the top switch and the reverb amp mounted on passenger side of the trunk shelf.

1964dynamic88

Thanks for the responses! So it's a speaker after all. No sound comes from it and my next step will be trying to get the cover off to inspect the speaker itself. I replaced the other two speakers and get decent sound, but with the factory radio there's not too much power. I've thought about adding a small amp under the dash made for classic cars. One of the things I love about my car is that it's basically unmolested. All original except for a new convertible top.

jaunty75

Comments:

1. So you DO have a factory-original radio? Where are the other two speakers located? I thought there was only one speaker in the center of the dash. (But what do I know?)

2. Getting at the rear speaker might be easier by removing the rear seat back itself. Getting the rear seat bottom and rear seat back out are fairly easy, especially when you have a convertible and can put the top down. If the seat is the same as on my '67 convertible, remove the seat bottom first by pushing the lower forward edge of the seat rearward while pulling upward at the same time. This will disengage the seat from the retainers on the floor pan. When you get the seat bottom out, you can see how it is retained.

To reinstall, push the rear edge of seat under seat back, then push rearward and downward until the seat re-engages the floor pan retainers.

Once the seat cushion is out, look at the bottom edge of the seat back for screws to remove. There may be screws along the upper side of the seat back as well. With the screws removed, pull the bottom of the seat back out while lifting it to disengage it from the hangers on the seat back support panel.


As I say, I replaced the speaker on my '67, and I took the seat out to do it. It's a very similar situation to yours.





By the way, if you're not totally happy with your radio, and you don't want to cut into the dash, you might think about doing something similar to what I did. I put in an '80s vintage aftermarket radio (AM/FM/cassette stereo) designed to fit in the shaft-style openings of that era. I got it at a swap meet for $20, and it works great. I wired it up so the speaker in the center of the dash is the left channel while the speaker in the center of rear seat is the right channel.

The original AM radio was in the car when I got it, but it didn't work. But I can always restore the radio to a factory look if I ever wanted to (and could find a working radio).

1964dynamic88

Awesome feedback!

I'll take apart the seat this weekend and look at the center speaker. Yes, my other two speakers are working just fine. See the photo on their position. You can see the black edge of the cover. They're on the end and quite close to the edge of the rear bench.

I don't think I have any speakers in the front. There might be some on top of the dash, but I'll have to look a little closer (as in take it apart).

The radio is a good tip. Of course it would be nice if I could plug up my iPhone. I found a radio that does it, but it's about $200. http://www.vintagecarradio.com/store...Path=20_72_414

jaunty75

In my opinion, you probably don't have a speaker in the center of the rear seat. If those two speakers under the armrests on either side in the rear are factory-installed, why would there also be a speaker in the rear center?

But I'm going to guess that those rear speakers are not original as I don't think that kind of speaker arrangement was offered by the factory. Again, no stereo radio was offered in 1964, so why would a pair of speakers arranged as though there were a stereo be offered? Also, you say the radio is not original. No reason to assume the speakers weren't installed later as well.



If there was originally a speaker in the front, it would be in the center of the dash, and it's presence would be obvious as there would be cutouts like a grille in the center of the top of the dash. See the photo below of my car. Note the center-front edge of the top of the dash toward the upper right corner of the photo. That's the speaker grille (actually two rectangular grilles side-by-side, but there's only one speaker underneath).




I think a center front speaker would be standard equipment on any '64 Dynamic 88 ordered with a radio. The only speaker options were to add a center rear speaker, either "basic" or "reverbatone."

Given that you apparently do not have a center front speaker and you DO have those outboard speakers in the rear, which appear to be aftermarket, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that your car was probably originally ordered with no radio at all. The base Dynamic 88 (or most any Olds) that year came with no radio, and perhaps whoever originally ordered the car figured, with the top down, he wouldn't be able to hear it, anyway. There would have been a blank-off plate in place of the radio, and I'm assuming it could have been removed later and a radio put in. In other words, I don't think ordering the car from the factory with no radio precluded the possibility of adding one later. The cutouts were there, just hidden.

Does your car have a grille at the top-center of the dash? If not, there's no need to take the dash apart. If there's no grille, there's no speaker. On the other hand, maybe a grille was included on all dashboards, even on cars ordered without a radio, in case it was desired to add a radio later.

Don R.

Welcome to the forum, that is a beautiful car. Those rear speakers are definitely not original.

D. Yaros

One would like to see a better, close-up shot of the radio. I cannot tell if it is factory or not?

Did Olds offer AM/FM radios in 1964?

I doubt the rear speakers are a factory install at all. A factory install would have been a front speaker in the center of the dash, a shown in jaunty75's photo, and one in the center of the seat back.

Cannot speak definitively on 1964, but in earlier years if there was not rear speaker the grille in the seat back would not have the Oldsmobile rocket logo (red) on it. Given this car has the rocket, I would assume it came with a rear speaker.

jaunty75

Yes, as I noted above. It was a $150 option.

jaunty75

Why couldn't it be the other way around? In fact, if there were no rear speaker, why would there be a grille at all in the back seat, rocket logo or not? I don't know one way or the other. It just seems, what's the point of putting in a speaker grille if no speaker was there?

rocketraider

The radio is definitely aftermarket. Olds did not offer a manual-only tuned radio in 1964- all pushbutton.

AM-FM radio first offered 1963 in Buick/Olds/Pontiac/Chevrolet. Cadillac had it a couple years earlier.

OLD SKL 69

Welcome to CO. Nice car!

Charlie Jones

The radio, as well as the speakers, are aftermarket as previously stated.
If the present setup works OK , leave it as is. Original AM/FM radios can get very expensive
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1963-OLDSMOB...81327022774%26

jaunty75

A fool and his money are soon parted.

1969w3155

Click on the pic, and hold the" Ctrl" tab on your keyboard then hit the "+" key, each time that you hit it, it will enlarge the pic, though as it gets larger, you will lose resolution. As others have noted, it is not factory.

1964dynamic88

Ok. Then it's not a factory radio. I haven't yet removed the seat to inspect the rear speaker. From online info I found only 10,042 models were produced. It's remarkable how much you know about them.

The speakers on the side then are definitely aftermarket. The black covers I put on when I put new speakers in it. The grilles that were on there didn't look all that nice. Of course with such an old car there's a lot of spare room to just cut into the sides, run some wires, and poof there are some new speakers. Imagine doing that to a car now! Another reason I love classic American cars. I attached another photo showing just the radio.

While we're on the subject of original, the trunk is still outfitted with the widow maker car jack. I got a kick out of it as I had never seen one before. Obviously I'll never use it.

Charlie Jones

This particular E-Bay vendor is rediculous with his prices.
The sad part is that sooner or later SOME FOOL will pay it. And then everybody will think "that's the price"!

Octania

How are you supposed to read this?

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jaunty75

What's interesting about that radio is that, while it's not factory, it is a vintage aftermarket radio. I presume it's stereo FM.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a "widow maker" car jack? Is it the same bumper jack that Oldsmobile put in its cars for decades? I had a '64 Jetstar 88 once, and a bumper jack was what was in the trunk of that car. What would you replace it with?

jaunty75

This vendor is not alone. I see auction descriptions formatted that way fairly often. I don't even try to read them.

Charlie Jones

Exactly right! If used properly they are fairly safe, however if used on soft ground and under less than ideal conditions they can be very dangerous.
Plus, I think you would have to be crazy to put one on an $800 (or more) re-chromed bumper.

A good floor jack would be a safer alternative.

jaunty75

My point is that, while certainly you would never use the bumper jack at home in the garage (that's what a floor jack is for) when doing maintenance on the car, when you're out on the highway and have a flat tire, you need a way to jack up the car. I agree about not wanting to scratch a vintage bumper by using the bumper jack, but I carry a old dishtowel or something like that to put between the bumper and the jack.

You could also put something like a scissors jack in the trunk and just keep the bumper jack for a correct look when displaying the trunk at car shows. I don't see carrying a floor jack around in the trunk. Even small ones are fairly heavy.

Oldsmobomb

Hi, This car was listed on eBay for sale ending June 20, 2014. Apparently it did not meet reserve, but did get 1 bid for $7800. Was this your car?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1964-Oldsmob...vip=true&rt=nc