Dash Hole Mystery

[pbking]

Anyone want to take a crack at what this hole pattern was for? Came this way from the PO who didn't have it long, so no help there. Just mildly curious, but if its from a good idea, I might capitalize on them.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Toggle switches, indicator lights, choke cable...
Could be about anything.

 

[savage]

Toggle switches, indicator lights, choke cable...
Could be about anything.

That's what I was thinking, kind of a weird configuration.Here's a pic of a 69 dash.

 

[pbking]

Toggle switches! That's what I can use them for! Maybe I'll install a full set of neons circa '95 and turn them on view switches in those holes.

I was kind of hoping someone would have something awesome like "oh, that's the right layout for a vintage CB mount" or maybe an advanced missile targeting system?

Thanks for the pic, I guess I may just chalk it up to another one of those things from owners gone by.

 

[half cab]

22 Long rifle cartridge holder..Three shots n your out

 

[MarsChariot]

Even more mysterious is why your ignition switch is rotated 30 degrees counterclockwise.

 

[langester]

Bowling Pro!?

 

[pbking]

Even more mysterious is why your ignition switch is rotated 30 degrees counterclockwise.

Sad part is, that hasn't even bothered me yet! I'm too busy fixing obvious stuff, like actually mounting the dash so it doesn't shake every time I hit a bump, or routing the fuel line so it doesn't wrap around the exhaust pipes. Switches will be aligned and fixed over my first big project: new wiring harness! I thought since my fuse box has soldered wires over burned out fuses and a general rat's nest of splices everywhere, this would be the best first project to tackle. It was in preparation for the new switches and wires that I thought I'd find out if something needed to go in my mystery holes.

I may play up the bowling motif! I just need 7 more holes.

 

[berg bronco]

Anyone want to take a crack at what this hole pattern was for? Came this way from the PO who didn't have it long, so no help there. Just mildly curious, but if its from a good idea, I might capitalize on them.

On a different note...how do you like the radio? Its the one with Bluetooth right?

 

[Fallingcedar]

Those are clearly Predator Laser tracking marks, did you find any glowing green blood during the rehab?

 

[pbking]

On a different note...how do you like the radio? Its the one with Bluetooth right?

It is the Retrosound with Bluetooth. I'm kind of mixed about it.

Having only had the EB a couple of weeks now, I haven’t truly been able to "live" with it to give a good review, but here are some of my first impressions: (+=Positive, -=Negative, ~=Meh, ?=Huh?)

+It does work. I can stream whatever I want from my phone via bluetooth, or plug it in to the USB ports that have wires tucked up under the dash.

+ The display colors can be changed to suit your interior colors...or your mood, if you're a hippy.

+ The tone sculpting has more control than I thought. It has Low/Mid/High controls, but you can also set the frequency levels of where those categories exist in the spectrum, giving you more tune-ability. Yes, most aftermarkets have something that does this, but i just wasn't expecting it on this one.

~ It was installed using 2 speakers, sub, and amp, so I can't speak to the native sound quality.

- It looks cheaper than the pictures. I don't care how well you install it, it still looks like chromed plastic. The posts sticking out of the plastic fascia (for the knobs) seem way longer than necessary. This maybe a poor install, but if not, sure makes it awful ugly from a profile view.

- The controls are too sensitive! Try adjusting the volume or change tracks while hitting a bump and you end up with a sound level unfit for human consumption or at the very last song on your playlist.

- Controls are not intuitive and are hard to figure out. So you've got two knobs and a rotating collar right behind each knob making for 4 total "turning" controls. From those you have a volume, sound source, mute, tuning, main menu, sub menus, etc etc. I'm not sure how, but the other day I was trying to switch from BT stream to terrestrial radio and ended up calling the girlfriend, who was pissed at me because I didn't say anything...because...

? There is no microphone hooked up to make bluetooth calls, but you can still accept and place calls through the sound system. I'm going to investigate this, could just be faulty installation. Not that this is a big deal to me due to all the ambient sound in my EB currently anyway. It rattles when sitting in the driveway with the motor off, no way anyone is going to hear me over the phone.

In all, I'm not sure I would install it if I had to do over again. If you're going for resto-build and just have to have something that looks closer to original with modern conveniences, go for it. If you're looking at it because you care about the sound system, cut the dash and put something better in. Buy an extra dash to replace if you're ever tempted to go back stock.

 

[jwh]

It is the Retrosound with Bluetooth. I'm kind of mixed about it.

Having only had the EB a couple of weeks now, I haven’t truly been able to "live" with it to give a good review, but here are some of my first impressions: (+=Positive, -=Negative, ~=Meh, ?=Huh?)

+It does work. I can stream whatever I want from my phone via bluetooth, or plug it in to the USB ports that have wires tucked up under the dash.

+ The display colors can be changed to suit your interior colors...or your mood, if you're a hippy.

+ The tone sculpting has more control than I thought. It has Low/Mid/High controls, but you can also set the frequency levels of where those categories exist in the spectrum, giving you more tune-ability. Yes, most aftermarkets have something that does this, but i just wasn't expecting it on this one.

~ It was installed using 2 speakers, sub, and amp, so I can't speak to the native sound quality.

- It looks cheaper than the pictures. I don't care how well you install it, it still looks like chromed plastic. The posts sticking out of the plastic fascia (for the knobs) seem way longer than necessary. This maybe a poor install, but if not, sure makes it awful ugly from a profile view.

- The controls are too sensitive! Try adjusting the volume or change tracks while hitting a bump and you end up with a sound level unfit for human consumption or at the very last song on your playlist.

- Controls are not intuitive and are hard to figure out. So you've got two knobs and a rotating collar right behind each knob making for 4 total "turning" controls. From those you have a volume, sound source, mute, tuning, main menu, sub menus, etc etc. I'm not sure how, but the other day I was trying to switch from BT stream to terrestrial radio and ended up calling the girlfriend, who was pissed at me because I didn't say anything...because...

? There is no microphone hooked up to make bluetooth calls, but you can still accept and place calls through the sound system. I'm going to investigate this, could just be faulty installation. Not that this is a big deal to me due to all the ambient sound in my EB currently anyway. It rattles when sitting in the driveway with the motor off, no way anyone is going to hear me over the phone.

In all, I'm not sure I would install it if I had to do over again. If you're going for resto-build and just have to have something that looks closer to original with modern conveniences, go for it. If you're looking at it because you care about the sound system, cut the dash and put something better in. Buy an extra dash to replace if you're ever tempted to go back stock.

I just received mine, so I don't have it installed yet, but I put everything together just to see how it looked.

I don't mind the chrome finish. The chrome looks way better than my pitted out/half flaked original place holder. I'm replacing all the knobs and bezels on the dash, so the original in its condition would have looked really out of place

The control do seem like they will be quite touchy. I read through the manual and the controls do seem a bit confusing/hard to get use to. The basic features of volume/band/input etc seems like it should be fairly straightforward.

There should have been a microphone included with the unit. Mine has one. If yours is missing you can probably get one. Looks like it attaches with a standard audio jack. The hook up should be on the rear of the unit. But like you said, I'm not sure how useful that feature will be in the Bronco.

The knobs do seem to stick out way farther than I was thinking they would. I rack it up to a poorly thought out design for the face plate. Right now the posts need to stick out far enough to thread a nut on to hold the face plate on and then between the end of the threads and where the rear button sits when fully seated is about 3/16 of an inch, plus the nut (1/16 or a bit more), plus the inch of the knobs assembly plus the thickness of the face plate, it sticks out about 2". If they had of designed the faceplate with a recessed area around the posts allowing the buttons to sit closer to the face plate it would improve the overall look. The other options is secondary mounting screws for the the faceplate its self, much like factory, again allowing the knobs to sit closer to the faceplate (along with a thinner rear knob). My kit included a rubber sleeve to go over the posts to clean up the look a bit. Not sure if you have those or not. Not going to help with the protrusion but should finish it off a bit better.

I debated on picking one up, but jegs had some on ebay for $259 so I pulled the trigger. At $329 I was interested but couldn't justify it to myself.

 

[pbking]

I may have been a little hard on apperance. The shafts DO stick out, it annoys me. Someone else may not notice.

The chrome face looks nice and clean, a certain upgrade over rusted/faded. What probably bothers me most about it is that the color of chrome is just a shade or two off when compared to the stock dash bezels. It's close, but not close enough and it sends my CDO* into overdrive.

It all comes down to taste, and I certainly didn't mean to tell anyone they made a bad choice!

Thanks much for the information about the Mic. I'll look into it when I start my re-wire project. I may find one that will work, you know, when the engine's off and the wind isn't blowing, and nobody is driving around me.


(*CDO is like OCD, but it's in alphabetical order LIKE IT SHOULD BE!)

 

[MarsChariot]

It does sound like the radio was not mounted correctly if the knobs stick way out. If you use the long sleeve nuts supplied with the kit you can get the control shafts pretty close to flush so that there is just enough for the inner knobs to mount. The instructions are ambiguous about that, so I can see how that would be easy to mount incorrectly. Almost did it myself on mine that a did a month ago.

 

[jwh]

I may have been a little hard on apperance. The shafts DO stick out, it annoys me. Someone else may not notice.

The chrome face looks nice and clean, a certain upgrade over rusted/faded. What probably bothers me most about it is that the color of chrome is just a shade or two off when compared to the stock dash bezels. It's close, but not close enough and it sends my CDO* into overdrive.

It all comes down to taste, and I certainly didn't mean to tell anyone they made a bad choice!

Thanks much for the information about the Mic. I'll look into it when I start my re-wire project. I may find one that will work, you know, when the engine's off and the wind isn't blowing, and nobody is driving around me.


(*CDO is like OCD, but it's in alphabetical order LIKE IT SHOULD BE!)

pbking, I didn't take anything you said as anyone made a bad choice. I agree with pretty much all of your assessment. As for the chrome, my Bronco and the new bezels & knobs are at the body shop so I haven't been able to compare the colour and look. I'm finicky about stuff like that too sometimes, so it may end up bothering me some too

 

[jwh]

It does sound like the radio was not mounted correctly if the knobs stick way out. If you use the long sleeve nuts supplied with the kit you can get the control shafts pretty close to flush so that there is just enough for the inner knobs to mount. The instructions are ambiguous about that, so I can see how that would be easy to mount incorrectly. Almost did it myself on mine that a did a month ago.

Sleeve nuts would be perfect. I'll have to look for some that fit when it comes time to install mine (there were none included in my hardware that came with my radio I just received)

 

[berg bronco]

It is the Retrosound with Bluetooth. I'm kind of mixed about it.



Having only had the EB a couple of weeks now, I haven’t truly been able to "live" with it to give a good review, but here are some of my first impressions: (+=Positive, -=Negative, ~=Meh, ?=Huh?)



+It does work. I can stream whatever I want from my phone via bluetooth, or plug it in to the USB ports that have wires tucked up under the dash.



+ The display colors can be changed to suit your interior colors...or your mood, if you're a hippy.



+ The tone sculpting has more control than I thought. It has Low/Mid/High controls, but you can also set the frequency levels of where those categories exist in the spectrum, giving you more tune-ability. Yes, most aftermarkets have something that does this, but i just wasn't expecting it on this one.



~ It was installed using 2 speakers, sub, and amp, so I can't speak to the native sound quality.



- It looks cheaper than the pictures. I don't care how well you install it, it still looks like chromed plastic. The posts sticking out of the plastic fascia (for the knobs) seem way longer than necessary. This maybe a poor install, but if not, sure makes it awful ugly from a profile view.



- The controls are too sensitive! Try adjusting the volume or change tracks while hitting a bump and you end up with a sound level unfit for human consumption or at the very last song on your playlist.



- Controls are not intuitive and are hard to figure out. So you've got two knobs and a rotating collar right behind each knob making for 4 total "turning" controls. From those you have a volume, sound source, mute, tuning, main menu, sub menus, etc etc. I'm not sure how, but the other day I was trying to switch from BT stream to terrestrial radio and ended up calling the girlfriend, who was pissed at me because I didn't say anything...because...



? There is no microphone hooked up to make bluetooth calls, but you can still accept and place calls through the sound system. I'm going to investigate this, could just be faulty installation. Not that this is a big deal to me due to all the ambient sound in my EB currently anyway. It rattles when sitting in the driveway with the motor off, no way anyone is going to hear me over the phone.



In all, I'm not sure I would install it if I had to do over again. If you're going for resto-build and just have to have something that looks closer to original with modern conveniences, go for it. If you're looking at it because you care about the sound system, cut the dash and put something better in. Buy an extra dash to replace if you're ever tempted to go back stock.

Thanks for the info! Very insightful!