My '88 Ram 50 extended cab 4x4 musings

[steve1814]

And now for something completely different:

Since I am doing boring, clean-up and replace work on the Ram 50, even I need to take a break from the mundane and fiddle with things that have a little more impact. I really didn't want to add an aftermarket radio to either the Ram 50 nor the MM since I don't drive them as much, but not having a radio that work well was out of the question. I like the look of the old Double DIN radios that Mitsu used to put in the upscale models and thought it would be nice to add one.

One day while looking for parts on eBay I came across a seller that was advertising some Mitsubishi radios that looked quite nice, brand new in fact, so I thought I'd try one out. The radio was everything it was advertised to be and looked to be NOS (new, old stock). After ensuring it worked I promptly ordered another to have one for each of my trucks. While I was buying the second one, I had an idea, so I also looked up micro BT (Bluetooth) modules and order and pair.

The Radio bezel for the Double DIN is different that the standard ones, but I was lucky in that the parts truck had the Double DIN bezel in it and I sourced another for the MM from another person on FB.

A little bit of poking around the guts of the factory radio to get the lay of the components, I was able to tie the BT module into the "CD" input on the radio and run power to the module from the radios' power bus. Everything fit internal to the radio, so if you didn't know it, the radio would look (and act) completely factory.

So, with everything soldered up I buttoned up the unit and installed it in the Mighty Max (this is my second project truck):


click to play video