Lets Talk Antenna

[MNspiderman]

I see 124Spider has a 70 Spider and his antenna is on the front passenger side fender. I have a 77Spider and my antenna is in the exact location his antenna is in. But I just recently removed my dash and other interior things and followed this really old original looking light tan cable going from the center of the dash flowing under the drivers side trim all the way back just lying next to the fuel filler tube. Yes I know this is the Rear Mount Antenna Cable. But I don't have a hole back there and when i took photos of the inside, There never was any body work back there, smooth as steel on the inside and besides, who could get a grinder up there anyway. So is there any kind of determination on why and where the antennas go, is this a year thing? A dealers choice thing? I'm very curious to know. Thanks

[pope]

I would assume that since the radio was a dealer installed item, the hole for the antenna was a dealer drilled item.

[mbouse]

No assumptions needed.. the antenna and the radios were dealer installed options, with no direction from the factory on how or where to install them. so, multiply the number of dealerships by the number of technicians by the number of changes to either, and you have the total number of possible locations that the antenna were mounted. i have seen antenna on each of the four fenders as well as both sides of the cowl.

i have two spiders with driver rear antenna mounts. they are NOT in the same location

[kilrwail]

And then there's this location.....can you spot it?

[mbouse]

was that from the dealer that way? i gotta say, it is the best i think i've seen

[Kingme2]

... tight up against the windshield... very nice!

[kilrwail]

No, I installed it myself in 1979. It's the same style they used to have on Honda Civics in the late '70's. But I bought it at Canadian Tire and shortened it to fit the height of the windshield. I took a deep breath when I drilled into the A pillar, I can tell you! But it's always worked flawlessly and is very unobtrusive.

[manoa matt]

The cars came from the factory wired for a radio. Most dealers did not know this and hence the birds nest of wires in the radio console. They also came with the wiring provision in the trunk for a power antenna. I would assume the antenna wire was also factory installed since you need to remove half of the interior to feed one in after the fact.

Could you just attach the antenna wire to the body to make the whole car the antenna or would that screw with the chassis ground?

[htchevyii]

Mine was exactly like this! Add on wiring even though it was prewired, holes cut in the door panels, even though there is a spot in the kick panels and an antenna at the rear of the right front fender cut with tin snips. Gotta love those p.o.'s. I had the great idea of adding a retractable antenna. I had to drill thru three layers of steel and use an extention on the hole saw. It was scary

[MNspiderman]

Matt

my 1978 Mitsubishi Galant GSL (right hand drive car from japan) rear wheel drive. anyway. The antenna went to the trunk and used the entire trunk deck as the antenna. The bolts holding the trunk on the hinges were rubber mounted and the antenna just plugged into a little port made for it sticking off of one of the bolts that actually went thru the rubber grommet and made contact with the trunk lid. I thought it was an awesome design. It must be to simple for todays world. maybe if it were complicated they would use it again.