Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Yesterday I fitted a new car radio.

It had been a while since I'd done anything like that - and I'd been worried that as my little Puma had a Ford own-brand radio CD player (a creature of unusual size that filled the central bulkhead) replacing it would be a significant issue that would require fleets of specialist car audio engineers, to rip out the old radio, decipher Ford's wiring and then fit in something only specialists would know how to use.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

In fact I found a kit on eBay that would do nearly everything for me. It had fascia spacers, a mounting kit, the unusual wire keys needed to remove the old radio, wiring adapters that would convert the Ford connectors into a ISO standard wiring loom, and a new radio CD with an AUX slot for playing music from my iPod. And all for less than £70...

Yesterday morning at about 9.30 am I went out to the car. In went the removal keys, out came the old radio. I unhooked the wiring, and connected in the adapters. The fascia plate went around the new radio and the mounting kit bolted onto the back. I plugged it in to the wiring adapters, and tuned it to a nearby station. All seemed well, and I slowly slid the new radio into the bulkhead. Everything just fitted, the new fascia plate covering the gap left by the old radio. It was now 9.40 am.

A ten minute job.

Literally.

A lot easier than I feared.

So the old radio is now on eBay.

Let's see if I can recoup some of what I paid...