1983 PONTIAC TRANS AM

25TH ANNIVERSARY DAYTONA

PACE CAR REPLICA

I finished rebuilding the camper and had a couple of hours to work on the Pace Car - yeah!!  I stopped by Pep Boys and bought an antenna to match the "new" radio I got off Ebay.  It has a small antenna plug versus the older, larger plug.  I also bought the hardware needed to attach the Jamex strut brace.  

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After drilling four holes and attaching the nuts and bolts, the strut bar has been mounted.  I can't really tell much difference, but I haven't driven the car very hard yet, either.  Oh well, it dresses up the engine compartment a bit.

The Pace Car replicas came with a fancy AM/FM Cassette with graphic equalizer.  My car lost that radio during one of the times it was stolen and stripped.  The replacement radio was a standard AM/FM Cassette without the equalizer.   The radio was also non-functioning when I bought the car.  I installed this cheapo radio thinking it would get me thru the rebuild.  The sound was so bad I had to replace it earlier than planned...  The little yellow disk is a stick-on clock.

I got a 1996 factory GM radio from an Ebay auction that is a duplicate of the one in my daily driver pickup.  I decided on getting one of these after reading about installing late model radios in third gen F Bodies at the IrocZone.  It's kinda hard to see but I got one of the radios with the "ear mounts" rather than the slide mount.  I used the WH-36 adaptor from River Oaks Car Stereo as mentioned in the article on the IrocZone website.  I ordered the adaptor on a Thursday and it was in my hands the next Monday. 

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The radio sticks out by about an eighth of an inch.  The trim plate was carefully attached and tightened so it was just snug.  I have plans to do some custom work to the console so I'll live with a small gap around the trim plate for awhile.   I bought a fixed mast antenna and carefully stuck it up under the dash, inside the lower dash panels.  I still get great radio reception around town and now I can fill in the fender hole and not have an antenna showing.

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