Back in the mid-late '70's, what was the most common, popular tach you would see in cars?
Sun or Stewart-Warner in a chrome pod on the steering column
What did you see more often..am/fm converters or underdash 8-track players?
By the late 70's there were decent aftermarket in-dash am/fm/cassette available. Sparkomatic, Kraco, Craig, & Pioneer are the most common. Most of these only offered left/right separation. Speakers usually went in the rear. I put a Sony cassette player under the dash of the 74 Omega I bought new. The area under the dash was usually for a CB radio (Royce, Cobra, and Radio Shack).
Also, if you had to pick ONE vintage sticker from that time period to have, what would it be?
STP was the most common, IMO.
I wanted to add a couple period-correct accessories to my '73 Sport, but it must look authentic and not the "I bought something new that's supposed to look retro" crap.
If the car did not have rallye wheels, then wheels. Cragar S/S, Ansen Sprint, & Keystones were popular. By 1973, performance was way down. I didn't see much in the way of mechanical modifications of new cars in the mid to late 70s. Credit the enviro-fascists and the insurance industry for that.
Under the hood, a chrome open air filter cover and matching, or finned aluminum, valve covers were popular. Under the car, Thrush or Cherry Bomb mufflers are typical. Saw a few with long leaf spring shackles and clapper bars on older cars.
In the mid to late 70s, the CB (Citizens' Band) craze hit, fueled by songs like
Convoy and films like
Smokey and the Bandit. Initially, the band was regulated and a FCC permit for broadcast was necessary. Due to massive sales of units and general non-compliance, the feds gave up trying to regulate the band entirely. Output power was/is regulated. If you run across an old CB with a station number and call letters on it, the unit will date back to the early days when such labeling was required by the permit. Because the antennas were regarded as
self-service items, usually the mount stayed in place and the antenna in the car when parked for the night. Some antennas had magnetic mounts. They weren't too popular because the scratched the paint and they tended to blow off at high speeds.
Because of the Sony cassette unit I had under the dash, I got a Radio Shack CB with the controls on the back of the microphone. The radio portion was tucked up under the seat. CB antenna mount clamped, using Allen head set screws, onto the top edge of trunk lid.
Late 70s saw the advent of radar detectors. The Fuzzbuster was the first to earn a reputation. More serious manufacturers got involved, like Escort, as the market developed. The Fuzzbuster was about the size of a single duplex electrical box, sat on top of the dash, and camouflaged by a modified tissue box. The original Escort was about the size of a paperback book and came with a clamp that would allow it to be hung from a sun visor.
