Just a heads-up that I am still looking to buy an AM/FM radio for a 70-72 Skylark/GS. That would mean Delco models numbers 04AFPx, 14AFPx or 24AFPx, where the 'x' is usually the digit '1'. Some personal background info: I have been working with electronics since my early teens, both as a hobby and later on professionally. Part of this interest has been in the form of being an active licensed radio amateur, and another aspect is collecting and restoring/repairing vintage radios. Currently my home houses 14 vintage radios, a number which is mostly limited by the available space. As spare parts and stock for my experiments I have a few thousand vacuum tubes stashed away. I have also been doing electronics design work for my fellow radio amateurs. Below you see a snapshot of my cluttered work desk at home taken a few days ago. In the upper LH corner is a '66 Skylark Special AM/FM radio being prepped for an in-depth examination and overhaul. Upper middle shows a '71 Skylark/GS radio bezel, which arrived from Florida a week ago. On the right is some of my radio test gear, which will be used on the '66 and hopefully on one of its younger siblings in the not too distant future. Center and low middle shows a 1959 Philips Paladin ND 581 VT/01. This is an AM/FM mono car radio (yes, from '59) which uses special low voltage tubes running directly on battery voltage (no high voltage). It uses a total of 7 tubes and 3 transistors, this at a time when most ordinary high quality domestic AM/FM receivers only used 6 tubes. It is not exactly a common radio, I suspect mostly because it must have cost an absolute fortune when new due to the technical complexity. The idea was to use the Philips radio in my '59 Chevy. The AM band is dead in Denmark, as there are no longer any national broadcasts here. So an AM only car radio is mostly a gimmick or placeholder, you need FM if you actually want to hear anything during daytime. This radio was my best bet for a period correct FM radio for the Chevy, though I would have had to fabricate a new dashboard insert to make the head unit fit. However this is no longer relevant since I swapped the Chevy for the Buick. Down to business: I wrote all of the above to hopefully show that I am very serious when it comes to vintage radios. On the exceptionally rare occasion, where this interest meet up with my other great hobby, classic US cars, I tend to let reason go out the window. Apparently I was too subtle on this point in my previous post. I am looking to spend $250 plus shipping in order to get one of the radios mentioned above, as those are the models which fits my Skylark. Radio must be complete with knobs and buttons in reasonable (doesn't have to be spotless) physical condition, in original condition (not restored or repaired). Doesn't have to work though I don't mind if it does. Doesn't need the mounting bracket but would be nice to have, I can probably get one of those elsewhere, or simply fabricate something appropriate. Also I have a semi-OK triple pin connector for the wiring harness, but wouldn't mind a better one. Studs I can probably fabricate if they are missing, but they are needed for properly mounting the radio in the dashboard. The reason why originality and physical condition is more important than whether it works, is because the critical (calibration) components are unlikely to be at fault if a radio has simply stopped working. The critical components are however the ones most likely to have been physically broken if a repair person doesn't know what he or she was doing. Also I would like to check how the factory calibration holds up after nearly 40 years. This I suspect would be of interest for my article on radio restoration I am preparing for V8Buick. Attempts at recalibration would of course have thrown any trace of the factory calibration out the window. To the best of my knowledge $250 is a very good offer for such a radio in possibly non-working and unrestored condition. Hopefully the community will let me know if this is not the case. Currently I am searching eBay, where I strongly suspect $250 or so will sooner or later buy me one. However since I am already planning on spending something like this, I thought I might as well extend the offer to the V8Buick community. Maybe someone out there has a radio surplus to requirements, and who wouldn't mind some cash instead. This offer has been given to one of the people from the other thread some days ago, so he has dibs here if he wishes to sell. I will post in this thread if/when I do manage to buy one, so the offer stands until I say differently. Practical detail: One of the deals from the other thread fell through because I didn't get and thus couldn't respond to an email in a timely fashion. If I am talking over the details of a trade, then there is *zero* chance that I suddenly start to ignore the other party. If for some reason I don't want a particular item, then I will clearly say so. Not getting a response from me means that either I didn't get the message/mail, or I haven't had the opportunity to respond to it yet.
I have one on the shelf but it may be out of an Electra "big car". I'll check the numbers you listed.:TU:
The full size radio will not work in a Skylark model Has to come from a Skylark and have the radio code as he stated.
I have an AM/FM radio. Pretty sure its for a Skylark/GS since it came with one of my cars. Can't find any numbers on it and do not know if it works, but it looks to be in pretty good shape. I have attached some pictures. Let me know if this is something you may be interested in. Thanks, John
HI Frank..does it HAVE TO BE a 70-72? I have a 68 GS California AM/FM WITH a rare dealer installed power antenna switch...It WAS WORKING when it was removed years ago...I've had it posted here a while back for $285, and obviously no takers... So, take a look and let me know: :beers2: Wheelz, Tampa Bay
I have for for a 72 GS 24AFP1 in nice shape with nice knobs! Let me know soon as I am going on vacation for 3 days leaving this Thurs. morning. I can send some pics to an email address. I will see if I post here tomorrow.
Frank, Here are the pics of the 72 GS am/fm radio I have. The buttons are nice and so are the knobs. The chrome is pretty good too. The radio is suppose to work.
Now that was a lot more effective than I anticipated. :eek2: Seems the Buick community came through again, intent on saving me from the evil that is eBay. I will post a longer comment later today, plus send out some replies to PMs received. Time is a premium right this moment. Thanks everyone, this is totally awesome.
apparently there is a guy in new hartford new york the restores and modifies all sorts of old radios - according the a recent article in hemmings muscle machines.
OK, all the people, who sent me a PM, should have received a reply by now. Wheelz, Yes Dennis, I am afraid it has to be from one of those years. While I don't mind it being the wrong year, it is only those models, which looks the part I am afraid. Thanks for the offer though. :TU: 70455ht, No worries if you leave on vacation. I will probably not know how this is falling within the next few days due to personal events at the home of the person, who currently has the offer. If the offer falls in your lap, then it won't be too late when you come back. GS-XNR, There is no difference, I just made that shorthand up. As I read the GM info, then the last digit is used for signifying different production models for a given model year if Delco saw the need for mid-year changes. To my knowledge there are only '1' models out there, IE. only one blueprint was used for each year. However I wouldn't mind if someone actually did have a '2' they wanted to sell, so I wrote the 'x' instead of '1' to signify 'don't care'. 72 gs conv ny, As far as I know there are several people in the US, who does this kind of work. Cannot say I know anything about them, but that is a minor point. It is probably obvious I prefer to do the restoration myself. ---- Okay. Right now I am waiting to hear back from the guy, who currently has the offer. May not happen much until after the weekend due to personal events beyond his control. He wishes to sell, yet may not be able to. If that deal do fall through, then I need to decide who the offer should pass to next. Seems I am not lacking in good offers here, so I am wondering if the community has some agreed method of fairly choosing who should be next in line. Stay tuned everybody. I am very pleased to see just how many actually do keep these radios close to their parts stash even when they don't need them themselves. I have seen too many cases, where people just toss their vintage radios, apparently thinking they are pretty worthless. Transistor car radios tend to be the ones, which gets thrown out first in my experience.
I have purchased 2 radios from these people. I got a AM/FM for the 66 Skylark and a AM/FM for the 72 GMC. Their stuff is always top shelf. http://www.originalcarradios.com/
Frank: any interest in a factory AM /FM stereo, 4 way fade, out of a '72 Gran Torino Sport? Was a car of mine in '72. Marty
