Simple antenna aero mod
 

So you want to help your vehicle get better aerodynamics by removing exterior options, but don't want to lose radio reception? Do a simple relocation of your original antenna then. My 1998 Metro radio antenna was broken off and I got tired of listening to the same old CD's all the time. A replacement antenna was cheap enough, but I am Hypermiling here and don't want an external radio mast sticking out of the body. I found a used antenna from an old car at a yard sale for $0.50 cents and decided to get some radio reception finally.

First thing was to remove the "A" pillar trim by pulling it off and sliding the antenna down the pillar. I plugged the antenna into the radio and put the trim piece back on. I decided to have mine stick out slightly to also use it for holding receipts, toll tickets, etc. You then need to find a rubber grommet or piece of plastic to cover the original antenna mounting hole.

Here are a couple pics.................

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...etf/ant003.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...etf/ant004.jpg

That's beast. I wonder if you can just run a wire using it as an antenna because that is what I have done to my cd player in my room. The wire runs from the player to around my windows and I get better reception than with the little antenna that came with it.

Clever mod - thanks for posting!

Question: is the original antenna accessible through removing the A pillar trim, or does it run inside the pillar?

Pretty sweet idea, woulda never thought of it, I just took mine out...

I just printed out the necessary steps for removing my antenna from the official repair manual for my car. It's 6 pages long and requires removing the head liner, rear seat backs, etc for a total of 35 steps before re-assembly.

I think I'll hold off on this mod until I have a free 3 day weekend ;) Very nifty solution though!

my previous car didn't have an antenna so when i wanted a radio i got an internal antenna... it was a bit pricy around 40 euros but worked great so no regrets... basically its sort of a strip that you stick to the top of the front windshield and than run a wire to the radio behind the a pillar liner, as is shown above.

of course if you can get away with a standard antenna on the inside thats even better, but should you run into reception problems you might want to look into these things, they have an internal signal amplifier and imho they're just as good if not superior to normal antenna's

now i'm stuck with a electric telescope antenna... looks cool but i hate the look of it in my mirror... it just screams drag (while in all honesty it's probably not that terrible in perspective.... and i can always leave the radio off, but at some point i'll refit that interior antenna)

My antenna is retractable... woo. It extends to like 2.5 feet! I get great reception

my '73 el camino has its antenna built into the windshield. would be nice to be able to do it myself

I removed my antenna, it was a simple un-screw style. I took the wire running out of my radio and sliced it with some old speaker wire that was already in the car, and my reception is just fine. My rear defroster is broken so there was always the option of hooking the wire into there to increase the length of the antenna.

http://picasaweb.google.com/matthewm...10700467206594

I just discovered that my antenna is manually retractable from like 2' long to nothing. I usually listen to my iPod anyway (direct hook up & control through headunit = awesome)

when its retracted all the way the housing barely sticks out 0.5" from the A pillar anyway