Thread: Installed 2004 Chrysler Radio into my 86' Dodge

For a while now, I've wanted to upgrade my cars radio, but I don't care all that much for after-market units. I like it get away with stuff looking like, or close to factory whenever I can (I actually have another project going for swapping a gauge cluster from another dodge, so I can still have a tach and other gauges, while having it look factory instead of the obvious after-market gauges I have now).

Anyways, I'll let the images speak for themselves.

Here's a picture of the radio:


Here's a picture of the interior of the car with the radio:


Here's what it looks like in the daytime:


If you'll notice, its not absolutely perfect but when driving around, it does look really close to factory and I'm for the most part pleased. Especially considering that this is my first modification to my car that has involved modifying something so that it still looks good afterwards.

Although I am pretty happy with the final results, it bugs me a bit that the four corners are indented, because the new radio has the area around the knobs indented instead of it all being perfectly flat like the original radio. What I've been thinking about doing is having a plastic piece cut out using the radio face as a template, from a plastics shop down the street. Then I'd cut the center of the trim out (all the part that goes over the radio) and gluing the new perfectly cut to fit piece and fill in the seem on the front with some plastic filler and sand and polish it all out.

For reference, here's a pic of it and the original radio.


Tell me what you think guys and how I might make it better.
Edit: By the way, if there are any other K-Car guys here, I'm actually writing an article on how to do this; it's not completely done yet as I have to take some more pictures, but its getting there: 2004 Chrysler REF Radio into K-Body