2R Series Truck Radio Speaker Grill

[61LaRk4dr]

Hello,

I am hoping someone can help out here. I want to make a small run of radio grills for the 2R series trucks and I am looking to borrow or request a paper trace/pattern of one that was produced at the factory. This way I can get the dimension close to what they are. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I suspect a number of you would want to be able to place a radio in your trucks? Please let me know.

[RadioRoy]

There are three different radio grills/adapters for the 2R series trucks.
-for 47-49 car radios
-for 50-52 car radios
-for 53-55 car radios

All/any of them are correct for all/any years of 2R trucks.

They all fit the same truck dash board, but are designed for different car radios, depending on what the dealers had in stock. The dealers put these radios in and sold the adapters and the radios. If they had an older radio in stock, they would likely have used the adapter for that radio and put it into the truck, regardless of the year of the truck.

[Skip Lackie]

What Roy said. Great idea, but you will have to decide which of the three designs you want to reproduce. They each will only work with the specific car radio for which they were designed. Roy would know better than me, but I suspect that the most common radio is probably the 47-49 model, simply because Studebaker sold more cars during those years. I can loan you the face plate for the AC-1427 1947-49 truck radio installation kit, if that is the one you want to make.

Also, you may want to consider having someone reproduce the unique rubber gasket that sealed the area around the radio nose piece, which is the only part of the radio that extends into the cab. I have one of those in decent shape from the same kit that you can borrow.

[Lynn]

I am confused. We talking about a RADIO mounting plate, or a SPEAKER grill?

[mbstude]

I am confused. We talking about a RADIO mounting plate, or a SPEAKER grill?

On a 2R truck, it's one in the same.

[RadioRoy]

The one in Matthew's picture is for the 47-49 radio.

[61LaRk4dr]

What Roy said. Great idea, but you will have to decide which of the three designs you want to reproduce. They each will only work with the specific car radio for which they were designed. Roy would know better than me, but I suspect that the most common radio is probably the 47-49 model, simply because Studebaker sold more cars during those years. I can loan you the face plate for the AC-1427 1947-49 truck radio installation kit, if that is the one you want to make.

Also, you may want to consider having someone reproduce the unique rubber gasket that sealed the area around the radio nose piece, which is the only part of the radio that extends into the cab. I have one of those in decent shape from the same kit that you can borrow.

The 1947-49 is exactly the one I was thinking. I have a 1949 that I am restoring and noticed how expensive the grill kit is NOS. It doesn't seem that complicated, but I don't have one to physically look at to determine that.

[dpson]

In the old days you would need to have a metal die set made to stamp out the radio speaker grill, which today, even out-sourcing to China, would likely be pretty expensive to have made, plus set up costs, materials, stamping, etc. Another option would to try to have these "hand made", but the time and labor costs would likely be prohibitive, unless it was a labor of love. However today there may be new technologies, such as 3-D printers, that might possibly be used to bring down the costs. Of course you also need to think about the market, how many 2R owners are out there that will shell out money to install a radio in their truck? I suspect in the long run it will be discovered that the cost of buying an NOS radio grill is not all that expensive when compared to make new ones.

Keep us posted as you go forward with this idea.

[jetboat]

who has the NOS grille plates ?

[2R5]

Usually see 1 or 2 at the international meets

[RadioRoy]

I also have one you can borrow. It is the type for the 47-49 radio, the same as Skip has, and seems to be the most readily available mounting type.

[61LaRk4dr]

Suppose I am wrong, but it almost sees to me that you can take the "blank" out of the dashboard and have the speaker grill pattern and radio slot milled/laser cut out? Or does the "blank" have a different pattern on it than the radio grill? I think that is what I want to verify. Seems if the "blank" can be removed without being damaged, it could be sent out to a shop that has already been informed of the program needed to modify these plates and then sent back for a "setup" fee. If you knew someone with the privately owned equipment, even better....may only cost you a beer or two...

[Skip Lackie]

Several people who have removed the blank from the dash have told me that it is not easy to do without damaging the blank and/or the dash itself. The radio installation kit panels are actually somewhat larger than the hole to cover over the buggering of the edges.

Also, the panels in the kits don't just have some holes punched in them. The lower section of the panel has a good deal of 3-dimensional relief to accommodate the radio nose. I believe (don't have one handy to look at) that the 53-55 radio noses actually point somewhat upward. In other words, I think the lower section would have to be a newly made-up piece.

[2R2]

Here is a NOS installation kit. Hope to get the radio in this year.

[Mrs K Corbin]

Skip is pretty much on, however with the exception of the edges being larger for the accomodation, the panel can be reworked.
I removed mine some years ago and didn't bugger it up. I took a hacksaw blade, wrapped it in tape and slipped it thru the edge and carefully worked at the little spots that are still attached until I got it down to 2 and then just worked it back and forth until they snapped. a file and that was it.

However, I had a proper plate to go back in there for a radio, so I didn't need to do mine. My radio is the one the goes in from underneath, so the lower relief and knob holes are not needed. It looks just like a really big speaker grille, with 4 screws, one at each corner.