A mini-CD player and DTR in a stock '74 stereo....?

Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too!

There were some obvious problems to overcome, physically and electrically. The added CD player had to be wired into the amp so some signal tracing was involved. Then there was the issue of whether to keep the digital clock on the '80 unit. I opted to use the volume knob to control the cd track: push for forward, pull for back. This meant adios to "Recall" so I figured since my '76 Eldo already has a clock, I'd rather see the station all the time. But simply jumping the 'recall' contacts won't do because when the car is off, pressing recall still shows the time so it would be on continuously, etc. etc. I needed some way to play/stop the CD and since I never use "Scan" on the radio, this seemed like a good candidate. I also wanted the display to blank out when in CD mode so some creative use of the radio's 'dimmer' and 'park lamp' input wires took care of that.

The 1974 Delco 8-track AM/FM stereo. Looks pretty full.











        
A 1980 Delco DTR spread out on the bench.        +          A 60-second anti-skip discman.

         
Hmm, this might work...with a filter                             The modified amp. Notice the extra switch pot in the stack. That took some work.

     
The '80 circuits mounted in the '74 enclosure. One alternative.      Here's the final placement with the CD player roughed in.

Another view. Notice how the display has been extended.