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Im not sure what the problem is here . Are you trying to accomplish keeping the stock radio operational for judging? The auto tuning wonder ars surely you do not want to " gut" . All this talk of 4 and 5 hundred seems over the top. If you have a base radio and want to gut it, or buy a second wonder bar and gut it seems a wast. This can be accomplished by leaving the factory components all un touched and installing a modern radio and 2 speakers . It can be done for around 150 and you can have CD, ipod, usb, blue tooth etc for whatever yout want to spend on the radio and 25 for a relay and some wire. I have done it on a pos grnd 55 though it is 12 v. Radio is hidden wherever you want, uses remote if out of reach and you isolate the radio from the car chassis with wood brackets. Be sure to isolate an antenna if using one. I have no issues with feedback or batt draw. I did not even isolate the speakers. They are mounted directly to the vehicle- no problems.

My wonder ar I wanted to keep, stock and untouched as well as the dash as it is a big part of the cars charm. Ignition on- the relay is energised supplying power in correct polarity to the modern unit. Leave it off and sw the wonder ar on and it "seeks" the stations. Shut it off and turn on the hidden unit and crank up whatever you want in high , clean fidelity.

I have not looked into this issue to any great extent, but in talking to the geeks at Best Buy about installing a modern radio with MP3 output and modern speakers in the Caribbean ....as I have done with my other old cars...the major obstacle has been that none of the usual suppliers offer a system that will work with the 12 v positive ground system.

I have restored the original radio and speaker in the car but there is not much offered in AM broadcasting that I would care to listen to while cruising.
I have a Bose Bluetooth speaker that will allow me to listen to all of the songs on my iPad or iPod while I figure out whether I want to install a radio....although I seldom listen to the radio in my regular ride.

If someone has a simple solution to install a modern radio in a positive ground Packard without use of a converter, I would like to hear about it. I have heard of some folks installing a radio with its own negative ground battery or converting the car to negative ground but neither seems like a good solution.

Adding a hidden radio will only work for the non v8 cars if they are converted to 12v.

Well, there have been many discussions here on 12 v conversions and a modern functioning radio has been one of the driving forces behind these. I will let others speak to that. I will say those who will gut a radio and add other modern accessories may not be worried about a voltage swap from factory stock. There are voltage converters and even small hidden dry cell options for those who desire only a radio and would like to keep all else stock. My info was for those with 12 v pos grnd cars to offer a less expensive and more sympathetic option as I saw at least 1 poster in this thread above is involved with 1955 and56 cars.

if you want yo use a 12v neg acc. on pos,

just use a dpdt relay,, it reveres the voltage. when you X the wires

My car was originally 6V +ground. But now is 12v -ground. The radio in my car is completely DOA, on top replacing any burned tubes, vibrator and recapping, it would also involve a 12v conversion.

The whole point in this is to have a working FM radio, cause the only thing on AM here is news and foreign language stations. But, maintain the controls of the original radio.

That being said, just to "restore" my radio to AM would be north of $300 and quoted $500-$600 with the voltage conversion.

What I am looking to do would use the controls from the original radio. Basically replacing the non-working AM analog innards with a FM/Line-In/Bluetooth ready digital radio. To anyone seeing it, the radio would function just like the original, except receive FM. So to most people looking at the car, the radio is just working, volume, tuning, signal seek etc.

My car is not a show car, it's a driver. So for me, I would rather have the Packard radio controls working, then just sitting there dead in the dash, and me using a radio hidden in the car and controlled by other means.

This is not for everyone, and thats fine. There are other options available out there.

So for the V8 Packard radio, would everything be in the tuner area, and the speaker by itself? Would it work on the 55 positive ground and 56 negative ground too?

It will work with 6v and 12v. I have to figure out the ground isolation so it also work with positive ground cars. This could be made into a plastic box so that all the radio internals stay in place, and you just run the power, control wires into the existing radio. The antenna would then be unplugged from the radio and into the antenna port of the plastic housing. This would keep the grounds isolated.

I understand Kev. Sounds like a cool option. I have said before i am not against mods on a driver. For me- all the mods i have done are with an eye towards a future caretaker of the car. No chopping / cutting. All orig parts kept so as to easily go back if desired. My orig wonderbar turns on and humms and will scan the dial if you press the wonder bar on top. I was told if it does this do not leave the radio on or more damage will result. Experts say if you recap it and repl the vib contacts it will work. For me, it is not feasBle to send out and spend 4 5 or 6 beans to repair. But having tunes until a friend or someone else in the future with the expertise and fourty bucks in capacitors can repair it, was the goal. I must say- pushing the big bar, watching the preset buttons pop out and the tuner needle sweep the dial and pop back to the opposite side is still quite cool even without am crackle and just a humm. Someone told me the old tube radios need time for the tubes to warm up and the sound will ome out eventually by itself. I guess that scene in Christeen is not so far fetched after all!