1977 AM Philco Radio removal

So i lost my patience and against my better judgement i removed the old Philco Am Radio on a cold day (i was afraid i might break some plastic part so i left the engine warm up nice and hot), i broke the tabs on one of the plugs that goes into the gauge cluster but it seems fine, maybe i can 3d print a new one someday) anyhow, i was studying the part and i was thinking there was a special tool, because
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there appeared to be a 4 prong knob. I was correct there is a special tool which would have made this all 50% easier but i couldn't find any information so i just had to continue to take the gauge cluster out.
There is a plate, through which the knobs connect through that secure the radio in place, this plate is then attached to the dash. The Black plastic dash is not strong enough to support the weight of the radio so i they went with a plate apparently. There are 4 Phillips screws that secure the plate. 2 of which you can only reach by removing the gauges, be very careful with the 40 year plastic, i was very lucky and only broke one plug. From behind
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from the front
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you can see i have removed one of the Phillips screws already, these are in there tight becareful not to strip them. Under the radio, you have to remove two Phillips screws by the ash
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Tray. This loosened the plate, and i was jiggling it around trying to remove it and i couldnt, this is when i realize that the knob had a special nut.
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i was able to get a angle head plier into the radio hole and loosen the 4 prong nut and remove them. This unhooked the radio from the special plate, and after about 10 mins i was able to jiggle the radio out. I had to cut the power wires because there didn't seem to be a plug to unhook, so i just cut it. There was a single speaker in the dash board, which i just left there because didn't want to take it all apart to get it out. I will install speakers in the doors since i found that the speaker holes are there even though the car didn't originally come with one. I reinstalled the plate, and will install a new stereo soon when its warmer. i am going with the https://www.crutchfield.com/p_068HRMOSAC/RetroSound-Hermosa-Chrome-buttons.html retrosound hermosa,.
 
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So yesterday i spent the morning finishing the Stereo install. The hard part, removing the old Stereo was over so i went with the install. The retrosound stereo is adjustable to fit any type of 2 dial hole. I measure the distance between the dial knobs on the old stereo and adjusted the new stereo with the same distance between dial knobs. It is impossible to adjust once it is in the dash, so be sure to do it before i had measure about 147 mm, and tightened the dials as much as i dared with a drop of locktight, and using a 1/2 in open ended wrench. For the right knob, i adjusted the pole as far back as it could go. For the left side on the old Radio, if you look at the pic, there is a spacer that is about 12 mm. On the new stereo, after you set the pole as far back as it will go, you have to now set a nut at 10mm from the backing plate. i did this using 2 of the supplied nuts, at 10mm i set them, and tightened them against each other as tight as i dared. After this i installed it into the dash. There is a L-shaped bracket on the old stereo that holds the stereo at the proper high. With the new stereo you get some thin gauge metal straps. you have to eye ball ball the height and "adjust to fit". I drilled the hole on the part that attach the strap to the body a little bigger and reused the same hole from the original L-shape bracket.
Next i did the wiring which is pretty cut and dry. The retrosound kit comes with the necessary harness to splice wires to.
The tricky part about the Mustang II is finding a hot wire. I couldn't find one and didn't want to go digging around pulling and pushing on 41 year old plastic, so i went with a 12 gauge wire directly from the battery, through the fender, and in through the door (i removed the antenna and ran it through the same grommet, i do not plan on reinstalling the original antenna).
For the Ignition Wire, there are 2 power wires that go to the original AM radio, a Yellow/Black striped wire for the radio, and a Blue/Red Striped for the light (also be sure to look at your wire diagram to be sure).
I used the Yellow/Black and using butt end connector, added about 4 more inches of length, there isn't much room to work with BTW.
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I used a ground from the ciggarette light and viola! wiring is done.
I had already taken the door trim off to access the speaker holes that were hidden (this car didnt originally come with door speakers). Installed the speakers (they didnt fit the pre-drilled factory holes so i had to carefully drill new ones). I ran the wires through the door to body rubber grommet and spliced them to the REtrosound harness.
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You will have to remove the foot panel to be able to pull the wires through. It wasnt that hard to force the speaker wires through
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I only plan on running two speakers for now, eventually ill probably put a couple in the back.
The Retro sound dials are tricky to get used to, but once you figure them out you can rock out. I run the USB and connect to my phone through Bluetooth and play music from Pandora.
I couldnt fit the faceplate that came with the Retro Sound, so ill have to find a black piece of plastic and fit a rectangle to fit and (not i didnt pull the plastic off the screen yet)
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