Are C body Radios the Same as E-body Radios?

[Henrius]

I am looking for a factory look-alike AM/FM radio for my 1972 Newport or have an old one converted. Problem is, presentable cores for a conversion are hard to find! I stupidly chunked mine years ago.

Vintage Auto Radio has a new AM/FM/Bluetooth stereo they sell, advertising it as correct fit for E-bodies. To the eye, the E-body radios look the same as C-body radios- both knobs on the left.

But are they? I would hate to spend big bucks on an E-body radio for my Newport, then find it would not fit!

 

[Wollfen]

Dimensionally they are the same yes. The only concern I think would be the face and whether that would fit your panel?

 

[Henrius]

Dimensionally they are the same yes. The only concern I think would be the face and whether that would fit your panel?

I just noticed that the knob style is different between the two. The C body radio knobs look like the headlight switch knob. Don't know if anything else is different. Are Repro knobs available?

 

[ayilar]

Nope, see here: How To Identify E Body Radios

 

[Henrius]

Nope, see here: How To Identify E Body Radios

Thanks. Just minutes before I read your post I bought a nice core for conversion. From reading your source, it looks like the real McCoy, but we shall see. Apparently the knobs varied from one C-body to another. My Chrysler has knobs of silver and black, but some Plymouth and Dodge C bodies look like they had all black knobs.

Sure will be nice to get back to an original-looking audio rig in my Newport.

 

[CBODY67]

You might not notice some things unless you look for the differences. On the "72 Newport radio, as the instrument panel where the radio sits is slanted away from the passengers, which means the "dial" section is similarly tilted to match (is vertical as the radio body is angled upward), PLUS the push buttons are "upside down" compared to the E-body radio. The E-body radio is installed into an instrument panel section that is completely vertical, so the "dial" is flat against the outside trim piece of the radio, plus the indentations to pull the buttons out to set the pre-set stations are on the bottom of the buttons, as they normally are (hidden from the passengers' view). Other than these two things, I suspect they will have the same mounting mechanisms for whatever "body" they might be installed into.

On my '70 Monaco, where the radio and surrounding trim is vertical, an E-body radio would probably fit and work as long as the surrounding bezel if appropriate for the size of the E-body radio faceplate.

CBODY67