1963-1968 "Pontiac" Bonneville - 2 radios?

[Telecolor 3007]

About 3 night ago, when I was riding my vehicle (bicycle - I do not have money for a car and having a car in Bucharest is madness). That night I stoped a '80's? "Mercedes-Benz" open top... well, in a place where I spotted another open top "Mercreds" around 1986 560SL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nyuP_CmaQgit was a nice 1963-1968 "Pontiac Bonneville". There where any models that had 2 radios, because that one seemed to have 2, one quite above the steering wheel, one in the middle. It seemd quite odd that it didn't had radiocassetteplayer, but I thought it was a '70's car; probably for a 1963-1968 model 8 track player was optional.

[Electronic M]

The one in the dash is probably the original. It wasn't uncommon for there to be 4 radio options in the late 60s: radio delete, AM only, AM-FM, and AM-FM-8 Track. Some brands had separate 8 track players that hooked into the head unit.

If that car was optioned with an AM radio it's possible the "radio" on the steering column (GM never did that in the US post WWII) is an aftermarket FM converter that basically heterodyne FM down to the AM band for AM slope detection.

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

About 3 night ago, when I was riding my vehicle (bicycle - I do not have money for a car and having a car in Bucharest is madness). That night I stoped a '80's? "Mercedes-Benz" open top... well, in a place where I spotted another open top "Mercreds" around 1986 560SL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nyuP_CmaQgit was a nice 1963-1968 "Pontiac Bonneville". There where any models that had 2 radios, because that one seemed to have 2, one quite above the steering wheel, one in the middle. It seemd quite odd that it didn't had radiocassetteplayer, but I thought it was a '70's car; probably for a 1963-1968 model 8 track player was optional.

Hi Telecolor 3007, me being old enough to have driven these cars "back in the day", I can answer your question here.

Of the two "radios" you saw, the one on the right is the car's one and only radio, and the one on the left is actually the HVAC controls, cleverly disguised as a second radio. I will enclose a (kinda crappy) pic of the dash from a 1963 Bonneville, I'll bet this is what you saw, yes ?

PS, of the two knobs, one of them adjusted the temperature setting from cold for A/C to hot for heat, and the other adjusted the blower fan speed. The buttons were to select between heat, A/C, and of course whether the hot or cold air came out of the windshield defrost vents, the dash vents, or the floor vents. And, before ya ask, the knob between the two units is the car's cigarette lighter (Yes kiddos there was once a time when cars, trucks, busses and airplanes all came with ashtrays and cigarette lighters as standard equipment)

[mr_rye89]

Wow a Bonneville in Bucharest, those are getting rare here....

[init4fun]

Another crappy pic, this is the 1965 version.....

[Telecolor 3007]

Yes, that what I saw. Never thought they would made those controlls to look like a radio. The car probably was bought here by a person who liked it. I rode a 1976 "Cadillac" that was bought in Romania only after 2000.
I know what cigarette lighter on a car is. Most cars here had them. On a lot of trains you could smoke on the corridor, because the seats where in the compartent so if you did closed the door of the compartment the smoke stayed on the corridor; well, in smoker cars smoking was permited on the compartment, but some people where civilized; smoking was not permited on the buses (I'm talking about the interurban ones; on urban public transportation it was never allowed as far as I know). Good for me that I quit smoking.