1966 radio delete

[DAVE CUNNINGHAM]

just wondering if anyone can tell me if the factory ever drilled the rear deck for an antenna, if the car was not ordered with a radio, I am positive that my 66 427 roadster was not ordered with a radio, but there is a hole in the rear deck that has been filled ( not by the factory) a former owner told me that when he had the car, in about 1984, it had what looked to be a factory rubber plug in the hole.

also I was wondering if the car should have the braided covers on the spark plug wires, or if they are just bare.

thanks for your help

Dave

[Kent D.]

Re: 1966 radio delete

Is the hole behind the bulked? Is the dash cut for the radio? The hole was most likely cut by someone that instaled a radio after it left the fatory.

[DAVE CUNNINGHAM]

Re: 1966 radio delete

Thanks for your responce Kent, I had considered that possibility, it is just that the hole is in the exact position that the factory would have drilled it.
The dash was never cut out for a radio and I am sure that it is original.

thanks,

Dave

[mike mccagh]

Re: 1966 radio delete

no factory holes added for radio delete cars. the plug wires( i assume your referring to the 390 or 425 hp BBC) would have the ground sheaths regarless of presence or absence of radio. mike

[Mike M.]

Re: 1966 radio delete

believe i was wrong in stating the plug wires on radio delete 66's had the grond sheath. mike

[Michael H.]

Re: 1966 radio delete

Dave,

Is it possible that your car was originally radio equipped? It may be possible to determine if this was the case as there are a number of things that would be different than a no radio car. The most obvious would be signs of the original hole in the instrument panel being filled, although many people replaced the entire panel to make an authentic looking no radio car. The entire fiberglass dash panel was available from GM for many years without the radio cutout.

The left radio side fiberglass panel would be unique as it would not have had the hole for the power antenna switch. Tell tale signs would be on the inside of this panel as it would be unpainted fiberglass so any repair would be obvious.

There are a LOT of things that are supposed to be different on a no radio car but some are not conclusive. The lack of condensers and ground straps in various locations would be another clue but some genuine no radio cars did have some of the condensers and straps, even though it would be incorrect.

Is there still an antenna mounting bracket mounted to the back side of the LR wheel filler panel just ahead of the power antenna assy? The bracket would not have been in place on a no radio car. If the original bracket was removed, there would likely be signs of rust in the area of it's original location on the back side of the filler panel.

If you know for sure that your car was ordered/shipped with no radio, it's possible that one was dealer installed at the time of delivery. This was common in the 60's, especially on Corvettes as the cost of the radio option was quite high compared to passenger cars.

Big blocks with no radio would have had standard, non shielded spark plug wires, and no chrome distributor shielding. These items were part of the radio option. The engine would have had only one left side dist shield mounting bracket. The right bracket was only used with radio equipped cars.

There are at least 25 more tell tale items that will help determine the originality of a no radio car but the few that I've listed may help for now.

By chance, is your car silver?

[DAVE CUNNINGHAM]

Re: 1966 radio delete

thanks for your responce mike, as I mentioned, I am almost positive that the car was ordered without a radio, as I recently had the dash panel out and found traces of the original paint on the end tabs ( the car was painted red, and then repainted in the original sunfire yellow)the panel was never cut out for the radio, the side panel was also not cut for the antenna switch, there are none of the condensers or ground straps present. Also there is absolutely no sign of the antenna bracket ever being installed on the rear filler panel, what I was hoping to hear from someone was that they had heard of the factory drilling the deck by mistake and plugging the hole with a rubber plug.
Thanks for the info on the spark plug wires.

Dave