I have a 84 GSL SE that has the original radio/equalizer/cassette setup. I recently upgraded the speakers to Infinity Reference 6.5 and 4. Nothing crazy, but better than the paper speakers that were there. Anyway, stereo is starting to act up. I don't feel like messing with a 35 year old setup and thinking of just changing it all out to something new. I will keep the components so if I ever sell the car and someone wants stock, they'll have it.

So, what should I know before I take this on?

A few main things I want to do is:

• double din unit so I have no open space
• keep power antenna (and figure out how to get it to go down when car is turned off, not just when radio is shut off)
• don't want to do a lot of wire cutting (keep wiring if car was to go back to stock at some point)
• i don't want to spend a lot of money!! Simple radio nothing crazy.

 

You could send it to a place that preserves the look and feel and replaces the insides with modern electronics and get some blue tooth and usb support as well.

Retro Radio Restoration | Retro Radio Restoration in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

 

I'll send them an email and see what they can do if anything. It would be awesome if they could add those components and still keep the factory setup. Something tells me it will be pricey, but we'll see what they say.

 

To be honest the DIN is a standard and you really can't go wrong with anything. Just find something that you like, something that looks good basically. I upgraded my FC with a Pioneer and it has hands-free, spotify, usb and bluetooth. I can't remember what I paid but it was cheap. I was searching for a name brand deck that had orange lights. Most decks now come with colour settings that will work with most dash setups but some don't so be sure to keep that in mind. It comes down to blending in nicely with your other lights at night(to me).

One thing I would keep in mind is how much space sits behind the deck. This is always the issue haha.

OTOH, if you only want a radio then getting your original radio repaired would not be that expensive I imagine. What issues are you having with it?

 

For the most part, all of it works, just starting to get staticy and I figure it would be a nice upgrade. Also, does not have a lot of power even with the speaker upgrades I did that that unit could actually handle.

 

why do you want to have a double DIN if you want nothing crazy?. And the +30 year old connectors will crumble so your are going to have replace the wiring. It isn't going to be that hard.

 

Nothing crazy meaning I don't want GPS and Sirius XM ETC. I wanted Double Din becasue i hate the look at the cheap pocket that would need to go underneath otherwise. The double din units I can get for not that much. I just think it looks a lot better.

 

im going to be reaching out to see about upgrading my interals on my radio, i love the look of the factory clarion unit

 

The site says years 1932-1982.

 

Cracklings is usually due to the fader joystick. You can bypass it with some wiring.

Bad reception is usually due to bad grounds. Look through the electrical diagrams, find the ground points remove the screws, clean off the contact points with some sandpaper and reinstall them.

The Clarion Amps are a weak point with the sound quality of the system. They sound fine with OEM speakers but can be quite harsh once you have upgraded to decent speakers. You can find class-D mini amps roughly the size of one of the original amps that are a great upgrade. The best solution is to make your own patch cable that converts the DIN style (I think it's a 7 pin) connector to RCA and then the rest is pretty simple.

 

This ^^^ Good post.

Convert DIN connectors to RCA, feed to nice modern class-D amp, then you'll have great sound. The next thing you can do is to splice in a bluetooth transmitter, as described here: https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...hlight=clarion

Also, some modern amps have bluetooth input built in, so you can bypass the factory radio altogether. You get the quality sound of direct digital input, but have the original factory appearance of the OEM radio.

The final option is to install a modern headunit in the glovebox with app control and use your phone to control the stereo, while keeping the OEM radio in situ.

 

There are a few threads here that discuss it, but if you have an 84-85 I recommend checking out the first page of my build thread where I outline the Bluetooth integration. I hid a button in the center console and when you click it, the radio turns off and a USB Bluetooth module turns on to connect to your phone.

https://www.rx7club.com/build-thread.../#post12251767

 

I have a 83 with a cassette deck. I like the way the original stereo looks. So what I am going to do is buy a $80 bluetooth portable speaker and just use that for a stereo and leave the stock one alone. Just an idea

 

 

I'd love to get my hands on one of these...
https://uncrate.com/panasonic-cq-tx5...be-car-stereo/

 

when you did this and changed the amp did you retain use of the stock EQ? i m looking to do some upgrades to mine but cant stand the look of the new radios out there, especially when they ruin the beauty of the interior of my car.

 

Yes, 100% operation of stock radio, cassette deck, and equalizer. I bypassed the fader joystick but you don't have to. The hardest part is making your own 7-pin DIN cables but if you want to be crude, you can just cut the existing cables and figure out which color wires you need.