1978 Cutlass RetroSound Install

Factory Survivor

After the completion of our 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass build we started to rack up the miles. This car was destined to be used for display purposes at events and shows. It has been getting some serious miles on weekends at some local shows as well. Wasn’t very long before the need of a better stereo system was made known. Although the factory AM/FM unit was in good working order in this 25k mile survivor, it wasn’t optimal when compared to today’s standards. We have used RetroSound radios in a couple past projects, so we reached out and worked with RetroSound develop a solution for our needs.

We start off with a pristine interior and we would like to keep this car as stock looking on the inside as possible. Up until now, we have only made a couple changes on the interior, a set of Dakota Digital gauges to monitor the Pace Performance LS3 power plant, and a Forever Sharp steering wheel to replace the factory wheel that was sun damaged. RetroSound set us up with a period correct styled head unit that includes Bluetooth and USB connections. The new head unit provides the connectivity we were looking for with the looks we needed to retain for this build.

Considering we wanted to make this Cutlass a street cruiser we opted to incorporate some sound dampening product into the install.  This car is loud when you’re on the throttle and we needed to block out as much of the road noise coming into the interior as feasible.  RetroSound provided a couple dampening materials which we put to use on the bare interior floor and panels.  As an added bonus, these also provided a secondary benefit of helping to keep exhaust heat from coming through the floor pan.  We also added a RetroSound Quadraphonic 4 channel amplifier to help boost the sound level for easier listening when you put the go pedal down. This amp fit perfectly behind our head unit and the wiring was a breeze. 

Hidden Subwoofer

To finish out the rear we pulled the dated black carpet out of the trunk and relined the trunk pan with a medium gray colored carpet to complement the false wall we through together to confine the RetroSound SUB8100 8″ Amplified Subwoofer. Wiring was a cinch with the power wiring running up to our fuse block that we installed under the hood while installing the LS3. The bass can be controlled with the remote knob that we installed on the edge of the panel in the trunk for easy calibration changes.

 Quality Products

Now that all components installed, we carefully reinstalled the interior and made some adjustments on the head unit’s simple interface to obtain the sound quality we were hunting for. Since the install I have put on some serious miles and can undoubtedly said that the RetroSound products were a amazing upgrade to this Cutlass.

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