Ok so I just found out my 70 Stage 1 was factory equipped with a fender mounted radio antenna...I know some cars had the antenna in the windshield and my car currently uses this set-up. Can't find anything on the 1970 wholesale order sheet. My car is also equipped with an AM radio with rear speaker and is a 12B built car. Anyone care to educate me? :Smarty:
Glen, How do you know your car was factory equipped with an external antenna? I've gone through my wholesale order forms, assembly manuals and everything else I have to no avail. I have never seen a factory external antenna on any 70-72 Buick A body.
I don't know for sure...thats partly why I asked. I suppose the owner could have been looking for better radio reception, that could explain it. I'll ask the original owner about it. This is the early picture of my car that got me thinking...
I'm more into Oldsmobiles than Buicks, so I can't speak as to what was or wasn't available on the '70 Buicks. But in the Oldsmobile world, there were a lot of customer complaints about poor radio reception when the new in-windshield antenna came out for the '70 model year. Apparently, lots of dealers were installing fender-mounted antennae to satisfy the customers, because a dealer service bulletin came out encouraging them to "trim" the radio instead. Turns out the radios were very sensitive to antenna variations and needed trimming after the car was assembled -- something which may not have been done well (at all?) in the factory. So it wouldn't surprise me if your fender-mounted antenna was installed sometime in the first year of ownership, not by the factory.
Fender antennas on these cars? John Belushi would rip it off and smash it like that hippy guys guitar. And right he should. Destroying that valuable sheet metal is a crime.
