Alpine's Stunning 1937 Ford Coupe

By: Ben Vollmer, Car Audio Nationals

Moe from IASCA sent me some pictures of a 1937 Ford Coupe that he and the crew over at SoundCrafters just finished. I thought some people picked difficult vehicles, but the space available in this coupe, especially with the multi-point full roll cage, just makes me cringe!

This coupe won a 2007 Hot Wheels Design Award for "Car with Attitude" at the 2007 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Horsepower is estimated in an over-the-top 2300 horsepower range!! The car represented Weld Racing in the SEMA South Hall at the Inside America Racing booth.

The monster hot rod features an full Alpine Electronics setup, which just has to be loud to overcome the burble and bang of the monster engine. From a sound event judge's perspective, I wonder how we'd do an alternator noise check with that big of blower? :)

Follow the jump to check out some pictures - enough to hold you over while we work on a full write-up with installation pictures to be published a little later. A huge shout out to Moe and Rob Casto who did the install on this monster.

RetroSound's Model One is a Modern Classic Solution

If you have an old school muscle car or retro-rod and you've tried to upgrade the audio system to something a bit more modern, then you're already familiar with your painful choices: either put the new radio in the glovebox, an underdash or custom-built console, or *gasp* cut the dash to fit a modern radio. Mounting a radio in the glove is fine, but controlling it can be complicated. An underdash shroud can look hokey if not done right. Custom built consoles can look really hokey if not done well. And cutting the dash... Well, for most that's simply NOT and option.

Old school radios use a shaft-mount system where the radio mounts from behind the dash panel and is secured in place using the shafts from the volume and tuning knobs. And sometimes the shaft opening is not a standard size, requiring even further modification to the dash panel. Modern radios use a standard DIN opening and requires a rectangular opening (approx 2" x 7") to accept a new radio.

But don't fret! If you want to respect your elder and maintain the classic OEM interior, better options are available! Take RetroSounds Model One radio for instance. I've seen a few modern shaft radio solutions, but this example is by far the most advanced yet. Get the details, pics, and check out some videos after the jump!

in the forums!

Project Car: 1969 Camaro Overhaul

One of the current projects in the HzEmall shop is a classic 1969 Camaro RS. We're re-doing almost every aspect of the car from the wiring to the upholstery, adding air ride, and dropping in an LS2/6 speed motor/tranny conversion. It's going to be quite an overhaul, but when it's finally complete, it will be well worth it. Here's our victim:

We'll have some better pics for you when the job is done!

Center Console
When we got the car it had a GTO console in it, but I can’t even really begin to describe how poorly it was installed...it wasn't pretty. Anyways, it had to be fixed, so we added it to the list.

Here's the before (and yes, that is carpet wrapped around the front, and yes it looked like he trimmed it with a sawzall).

Make sure to check out the rest of the build after the jump. You won't be disappointed!

in the forums!