Is that an 8-track player? .... Nope... its a stealth CD player!!

I have to credit this to Georges website http://www.buickperformanceclub.com/CD8track.htm
And the article's writer - Chris Gullo

After years of looking at this, I finally did it.

I got my hands on an 8-track player that did not work. And it looked played hard and put away wet uzzled:

Anyway, I removed all the guts, and was left with just the outer shell and front plastic cover.




I cut the 'guts' across where the pieces meet as I thought I would need the front section to keep all the buttons/wheels in place, but more on that later




I cut the large lip off the bottom of the shell and sand blasted it




Then a coat of semi gloss black




The plastic front was stripped of its metal pieces and painted too





I got a piece of aluminum and cut it to fit in the front




Cut a hole for the mounting bracket to slip into. Once inserted and everything lined up I used JB Weld on the inside to make sure it was not coming out.






Got some small hinges at Home Depot and used JB Weld again to hold the all the buttons and the 8-track opening in place
Instead of using the section of the internal chassis I cut off, I removed all the buttons and glued them inside the plastic front cover.
The 8-Track opening still swings open too on its spring. :grin:






And voila! Fully assembled
I cant wait to put it in the car.
Will need to figure out a bracket so that it mounts lower than stock so I can keep the triple gauges in place or maybe move them to the side.

 

Very nice!

 

Now cut an 8-track so it hangs out! Great pictures, thanks for sharing. Coooool!

 

Thats a great idea!

 

VERY NICE indeed !!
Nice work!! :TU:

 

Thanks for sharing. Looking good.
I'm at the point of doing the same with the same type of 8-track so these photos are a great help. :TU:

Still need to find the bracket though (or make one myself)

 

Curtis, that looks awesome! Thanks for posting it up.

I've been looking for an 8 track player case to do the same thing, but so far, I've been unwilling to spend $100+ for a radio case!

 

Awesome job Curtis!:TU: I would have done the 8-track/CD player conversion again in my current buick but I'm running underdash gauges in the spot instead. If I remember correctly, the repro Camaro 8-track player bracket was shorter than the Buick one.

 

Great idea!! Now to find the ones I have stored somewhere. Pretty sure I have an old quadrophonic unit, but won't cut that up.

 

Very nice. Thanks for sharing!

 

That is cool! Something to add to the list of things to hunt for,thanks for the post.

 

Use "The Best of Bread".

 

Nice job Curtis - and great how-to photos too !!
It looks fantastic, and probably sounds a whole lot better than the old 8 track. :TU:

 

Thank you gents!
Just need to come up with a bracket now. Been thinking about it and I hope to be able to make one.
I do see there are reproduction ones out there

I may need something custom so I can keep my triple gauges. Ive already checked and I can move the gauges left or right so I can fit the 8track.

 

A brilliant idea!

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?61189-Have-You-Ever-Seen-One-of-These-Before

 

That is awesome! And shows I can mount my gauges next to it
Thanks for posting that I had not seen it before!

 

>>Something I was working on for my current Buick before going another route was hiding three smaller Autometer gauges inside the Buick 8-track player. You just have to make a faceplate for the gauges and it worked like the hidden radio with the flip down front of the 8-track player. I sold my gutted 8-track player from this project after deciding to go with larger gauges that were easier to read and I built a shelf inside my glovebox where I mounted my aftermarket radio/cd player.

 

Hi Curtis, any luck on coming up with a bracket?

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?136206-Dimensions-for-8-track-underdash-bracket

 

Hi Curtis,

Very cool idea and a great job of putting it together. I picked up a working in-dash am/fm 8 track and just finished installing it. I bought the dual voice coil (stereo) front Retromod 2way speaker and put a pair of 3way 6 x 9's under the new package shelf. I picked up an 8 track to cassette adapter on eBay and now I can listen to 8 tracks, cassettes or I plug in my cassette to mp3 adapter and I can listen to my iPod. The worst thing is that it still sounds like a cruddy old 8 track from the early 70's. I guess you could call it "period correct". Oh well, I suppose there is always that big block under the hood I could listen to.

Keep up the cool and innovative work.

Gary

 

Awesome Idea. I cant think of a better use of an old factory 8 track player. i went the easy route and bought the repro BUICK AM/FM/Cass dash mount when I did my GS in 2000. looks period correct but now even cassettes obsolete! time to dig up the old factory 8 track that i grabbed at a swap meet 25 years ago and gut it and stuff it full of modern stero/CD/I pod and return the dead original factory AM/FM Stereo radio the car came with back in the dash .

Another cool stealth upgrade is a dash tach. Swap meets are full of period correct aftermarket sun tachs that can be retrofitted to fit the Skylark/GS dash without cutting up the dash or lenses. I have done several that way and it adds a custom guage touch that is stealth and low buck and looks factory to the untrained eye and fills that unused waste of space or dead clock . The current vintage Sun tach in my GS455 is the very same one that was bought by my father in 1970 and served duty in dad's hot rods through the 70's.