Grrrr! RAnt! Punk Kids! - Radio Gone

[bennelson]

I got my radio back!

Apparently, it was a ring of punk kids fleecing the neighborhood. They got caught red-handed.

I hooked the radio back up to the car, (just plugged in the wire harness!) and it works, although the removable face was kinda jammed. I wiggled it around until it popped on and off cleanly again.

I still have to properly mount the radio. Maybe this time I put some gigantic bolt straight through the back of it into the car frame!

The only real downside to this incident is that I still have to return a new radio to Wal-Mart! Oh well, they have a pretty good return policy!

[Daox]

wow, thats pretty amazing!

[ShadeTreeMech]

Originally Posted by bennelson

I got my radio back!

I still have to properly mount the radio. Maybe this time I put some gigantic bolt straight through the back of it into the car frame!

Check the back of your unit, there is generally a provision for a bolt in the back so you can fasten it to the body. There are also generally similar threaded holes in the side. You can't make a stereo impossible to steal, but if you make them have to work for it, they'll likely give up.

In my minivan, my radio is bolted to the subframing the factory radio was bolted to and the subframing is bolted to the car using torx bits I think. It can be stolen, but it'll take a while!

[aburk4]

Wow! That is extremely frustrating. I'm sorry that some kids just broke in to your car and broke in like that. (Assuming it was locked)

I've never heard of this happening to peoples car's, only boats.

Thanks.

[esoneson]

Congratulations Ben! So nice to hear that there is at least some justice left and that you benefited from it.

......now get rid of some of that black "mounting tape"

[bennelson]

The radio was actually a very clean installation.

It's the ammeter and voltmeter that use black "mounting tape". The trouble there is that the meters are such an odd shape, and they barely fit in where they are. I just couldn't find a real nice way to mount them. Not really enough room for custom black plastic bezel, etc.

Since the radio is out, perhaps I could look at swapping where the radio and meters are? Somebody suggested earlier about having the radio in the glove box. (Not sure it would fit! Metros have tiny glove compartments!) But if I did, maybe it would free more room for instrumentation.

[cfg83]

bennelson -

Woo-hoo! I like those happy-endings.

CarloSW2

[Dr. Jerryrigger]

That is amazing, I would have never guessed you would ever retrieve it!
I guess people who rob people who drive Metros aren't the most skilled crooks.

If you could extend the wires 18 inches or so you could stick it under your steering wheel. I would be wary of putting anything other than a cheap radio in the radio hole. It just seems like anything "fancy" there would look like a good thing to nab. I'm also a big fan of really sloppy installation, if there is a lot of wires hanging around it, it looks like junk (like my ipod aka the frankinPod ).

[vpoppv]

I'm glad to hear there was a happy ending!! I almost have hope I might get my batteries back now
Something to think about on the radio install: The best job I ever did on securely mounting a radio cost me a totally thrashed dashboard! I'd rather lose a stereo than having to replace dash parts. It was a detachable face too, and I threw the faceplate under the passenger seat. They took the stereo, but left the faceplate

[Piwoslaw]

Please stop breaking into my car!