S-10 owners where did you mount your radio?

[Turbo-T]

Would like to see how those of you with S-10's mounted your radios.

[jaysalpha1]

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This was the only spot in my "96" S-10 that I could find any room to put my radio and still make it functional. My next option was to remove the center console and buy one of those pre-fab, cup holder/ext.speaker mounts.

[Turbo-T]

Thanks. Wow that looks like you'd be banging your knees into it all the time.

The S-10 I'm putting it in is a 1991 model (old style), it is a 5 speed with 4X4 which means both shifters take up the entire center hump. I'm thinking either under the passenger side dash above the passenger's feet go....or maybe mount it between the sun visors....it's a big chassis radio so hopefully it doesn't weight so much it starts pulling on the roof's sheet metal.

[jaysalpha1]

I am 6' 2 and it just does miss my shin, I have to ride with the seat all the way back. So far I have not had to make any very quick stops . I think if I ever have too I will have quite a few heat sink impressions on my right leg. I does look pretty tight but it isn't really that bad.

[BIGHOG]

Check it out Turbo-T. No busted shins. Keeps the floor un-cluttered. And I don't have to worry about anybody kickin' my General! He doesn't like to be kicked Plus, at night the blue looks sweet through the rear window. These are old pics, I now have my home made remote sitting just above the GL so you can see the LED's lit up to.


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[stlboarder]

How did you mount that to your roof? The visor screws? Can you still see out of your rear view?

[BIGHOG]

I took the metal clip and hardware off of a clipboard I had laying in th garage. Slid that between the headliner and the cab. Then used sheetmetal screws to mount my brackets to the headliner. That will sandwich the headliner to the clipboard plate . Then takeone or two more screws and run them through the whole deal into the sheetmetal of the cab.*****************************************ONLY IF YOU CAN FIND A DOUBLE-WALLED AREA TO DO SO********************************
I have a nice rusty star on the top of my cab besause I got in a hurry . I found this area to be close to the windshield near the visor clips. But once again, don't drill if you are not 100% sure. I have had my GL up ther for two years with no problems. If you are careful with you bracket design it will nor obstruct you rearview at all. Take you time, test fit, test fit, test fit! You will be happy with it. I will take some up to date pics and post them to day

[BIGHOG]

Oh, and SEMPER FI Devil. YATYAS

[Turbo-T]

Hey Bighog.

That was one way I considered....you're right...less cluttered and since the speaker is bottom firing on most radios, I'll bet an external speaker is not necessary, even with the windows down.

The way I thought of doing it was to weld on a pair of nut plates to the underside of the roof skin...only down fall so I'm told is the heat from the welder can blister the paint on the roof. Of course if you have one of those typical "paint comes off of the primer by the sheets" GM vehicle from the late 80's to mid 90's with it's original peeling paint in need of a paint job, it may not be an issue.

I don't know how strong JB weld can hold them nut plates with a radio's weight hanging off of it.

Also if done that way not sure if the weight of the radio would cause the roof skin to crease where the nut plates are welded on it.

Do you have any pics of how you actually mounted the clip board clip?

I know there's usually a metal brace that sort of runs along the top of the windshield that the sun visors are mounted on....I also thought of welding an extension piece off of that for the radio's bracket.

[BIGHOG]

I re-read my post and its a little misleading. Its the clipboard board itself. The board is just the right size to slide in between the headliner and the sheetmetal. That way your screws will go through your brackets (I made mine out of aluminum) through the headliner and into the board without penatrating the sheetmetal, except where you want them to in the doublewalled area. Sorry, I did not take any pics of the whole install. But if you can visualize what I am talking about, you will see there is no reason to reomve the headliner which is real nice. I do lots of welding, and if you are welding on a single walled section, you WILL BLISTER THE PAINT. The JB WELD is an idea but you have to remove the whole headliner and trim. The hope the radio doesn't fall off! Not knocking your ideas, just saying mine has worked faithfully for two years so far. Oh, and I do use an ext. Ranger speaker. It just sounds better than the GL.

['Doc]

I hesitate to say definitely one way or the other, but I really don't think I'd use 'J.B.Weld' in that manner. It does fine with low stress situations, but terrible in high stress ones. If there's a lot of bouncing around, jarring, etc, it will break. Think of 'J.B.Weld' as epoxy or fiberglass with metal particles in it. No, that isn't exactly what it is but it's close enough to give you an idea of what it's capable of. Sort of.
- 'Doc

[Turbo-T]

If anything I was considering using the JB Weld to hold the nut plates in place long enough to tack weld them on.

Bighog that's what I had in mind...remove the headliner, tack weld the nut plates on the underside of the sheet metal, drill two holes in the headliner backing, then reinstall....the radio bracket would sandwich the headliner between it and the sheet metal.

[BIGHOG]

That will definately work for sure. Just remember that you will burn that paint on the outside when you tack those nutplates on. If the paint does not blister, then you did not get sufficient penetration and the nut plates WILL fall off. On the other hand, the sheetmetal up there is pretty thin. So be careful not to blow through it with too much heat. Just thowing it out there. I am not sure of you welding experience/skills. Would hate to have you end up having to weld in patch panels just because of trying to mount a CB! Sorry about the delay on the pics, our new daughter is keeping us kind of busy. For only beeing 4 days old this girl sure can eat!