Radio cluster already cut for CD player

[Buicknut65]

Does anyone have a pit free radio cluster that has been cut already ? I won't cut mine and hate putting in glove box .
Email pics and price directly if possible buicknut@earthlink.net .
Thanks , Mike

[elagache]

Dear Mike and mid-60s Buick audiophiles,

Does anyone have a pit free radio cluster that has been cut already ? I won't cut mine and hate putting in glove box .

Our cars may be old school but you aren't forced to stick to old-fashioned ways to listen to music.  A CD can only hold about 74 minutes of music.  Any smart phone or music player can hold much more than that.  I put a Custom Autosound 630 stereo into my wagon.  I did some modifications so that it looks even more authentic:



The Custom Autosound 630 can take a music player as input or even a USB "thumb" drive with MP3 files on it.  If you have a smart phone that supports Bluetooth there is an adapter available so that you can play music from your smart phone and even make and receive phone calls.  I was only able to drive my car for about 3 months, but during that time I used my iPhone as my music source and found it very satisfactory.

Anyway, some alternative food for thought . . . .

Cheers, Edouard

[GS66]

Your setup looks really good Eduoard!

[Buicknut65]

Looks awesome what all did you do ? I can see 65 letters/buttons did knobs go right on ? Does it have i pod hood up . My dad drives car more than I do
I want it to be easy for him .

[elagache]

Dear Jim, Mike, and mid-60 Buick audiophiles,

Glad you guys liked it!

Looks awesome what all did you do ? I can see 65 letters/buttons did knobs go right on ?

Actually, if you just buy a Custom Autosound stereo (either the 230 or the 630) it looks very nice and can be used with digital music.  Even without the modifications I made it will look very nice.  I documented my modifications on this thread on V-8 Buick:

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?268438-FYI-Custom-Autosound-mods-for-improved-authenticity&highlight=1965+Custom+Autosound

I'll be glad to help you reproduce them if you are motivated to get that authentic. 

Does it have i pod hood up . My dad drives car more than I do   I want it to be easy for him .

Yes, you can hook either Custom Autosound stereo to an iPod.  How much does your Dad drive it?  If the car isn't driven several hours a day, I would suggest creating a USB thumb drive with your Dad's favorite music and leave it permanently hidden behind the dash.  You can get USB drives with enormous amounts of space these days.  Just put enough of his favorite music on one of those drives and there will be enough variety that he won't get bored.  If you setup the stereo to play the USB drive, it will stay there (so long as the battery isn't disconnected.)  So when your Father starts the car, it will pick some random selection from the USB drive and keep on selecting random selections.  Basically your Dad would have jukebox of his favorite music without any intervention needed at all.  I might have to adjust the volume depending on the road noise, but that would be it.

It can't get much simpler than that!

The only problem for you would be to collect that music as MP3s and copy them over to the USB thumb drive.  You might have to borrow some of your Dad's CD's, convert them to MP3 and finally copy them to the thumb drive.  You can certainly use iTunes to do that and it is free.  There are probably many other options, but since I'm a Mac guy, that's what I use.  iTunes also runs for Windows and still is free, so that's definitely an option.

Hope that's some help and inspiration!

Cheers, Edouard