I have an older aftermarket radio in my '57 Bird from Larrys Tbird Parts. It has a set of wires coming out of the back of it labeled for hooking up a CD player. Can this be adapted to hook up an IPod or similar modern music storage device? New radios have a jack installed. Mine has a cassette player but they are getting hard to find. Hate to have to replace a perfectly good radio if there is a cheaper option.

It seems plausible.  You can usually use inputs labeled as one device for others.  If there is a blue tooth device or dock that interfaces with the radio in the same way as a cd player, it will probably work.

There is also a guy on www.slick60s.com who converts old radios for blue tooth.  So you can have the original radio modified for blue tooth.


Lawrenceville, GA

Radio Shack used to carry a Y-connector cable that plugged into an Ipod and split into 2 RCA phono plugs that mate to your radio. Make sure the single plug is compatible for Ipod. Also I see you can still get an rf modulator that allows you to play through an unused channel on radio without connecting a wire to the radio. I'd prefer the cable connector if you can find one.

While I can't speak to your particular radio, I have used the type of Y connector Sandbird is talking about.  They're available at a variety of stores, 2 RCA plugs to an 1/8 in stereo plug.  I have had radios you had to read the owners manual to learn how to activate the aux-in selection but it should work.

Don

If you look on ebay, there are also very small "mini-amps" that sell for about 30.00. They are usually about 30-40watts, and can be hooked up off a switch, or relay if you desire. They have RCA's that can easily go to an ipod. In my '50 Pontiac, I gutted the stock radio except the switch and the lights, then fitted the amp inside the radio, with the RCA outs. I swapped out the old Alnico speaker for a nice 3-way speaker. Now, I simply turn the radio knob on for power, which then subsequently turns the amp on, and I have tunes. All the lights light up in the radio, so it still has some element of cool factor to it.