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The present radio in my '57 is not correct and I would like to replace it. From what I have seen on Ebay and other sources, the '57 Wonderbar is priced out of my range. They are going for $1200 and up. My question is, did GM make a passenger car wonderbar that would fit the hole space for a '57 and appear from the outside to be correct?
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Re: '57 Wonderbar Radio replacement
A 56/57 passenger car Wonderbar radio will fit in the radio opening of a 56/57 Corvette. The biggest difference between the radios, that I could find, is the spacers on the volume & tuner shafts are different lengths and the knobs are different. The spacers are easy to fix. The correct knobs are hard to find. (The dial face and "Wonderbar" are different on the two years.)
The problem is that a passenger car radio uses a tube type power supply/amplifier/speaker that is much bigger than the transistor Corvette power supply/amplifier/speaker. While it will not fit in the proper spot under the dash, I have been told that you can hide it behind the kick panel. This will give you a functioning radio that looks 100% correct, until you crawl under the dash for about 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of a real Corvette setup.
Email me if you want more information. I went through this about a year ago.
Dave Christensen -
Re: '57 Wonderbar Radio replacement
Dave's remarks are good. I mounted a vibrator supply up behind the speaker and fashioned a couple of brackets to hold it. The 8 " speaker was mounted in the bezel by using the holes on the speaker and just screwing into the fiberglass. Not too bad and it works. I recently saw and bid on a proper power supply for 56/57 on ebay but it went for $500. Would have been okay if it looked good but the thing looked like trash. It was rebuilt and tested but so it worked.
Ted von KampenComment
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