Last year I made a speaker out of a Bud Light beer case. Full article here. My idea was to take those internal components, and retrofit them into an old vintage radio.

I eventually found a unit that fit the bill on Facebook Market Place.

For something older than myself, it was in pretty good condition. However I had no intention of restoring the internal components or anything like that. I carefully removed them all and stored them safely away to preserve them.

I then proceed to review all the components from the Bud Light speaker and see how they would fit. I wanted to set the volume controls to match the original locations, and my skills (or lack of) removing soldiered components. Plus I wasn't really happy with the amp & speaker combinations, so I went out and bough some new components:

And I reused

Next step was to redesign the UI to suit the unique screen size of the radio cabinet.

I then started to think about positioning all the compoents. I build a small box for the speakers and encolosed it. I mounted all components onto a single sheet of plywood and inserted it into the box.

I drilled some holes in the bottom of the box (only permanent changes) to secure it, along with attaching the screen itself to some mounting blocks I had glued on the inside.

I cut a new back piece out of MDF and attached the Raspberry Pi, as well as an ethernet jack, subwoofer and power plug & board.

I slid the pieces into place and secure them.

I re-touched the outside of the box using some light sanding followed by Ez Strip Paint and Varnish Remover. I then applied some Danish Oil to retain the old look & preserve some rough spots while removing some water damage.

I replaced the old and dates speaker grill cloth with some lively orange fabric from Michaels.

This all sounds much easier than it was. This was 3 to 4 months work to ensure I could make this sound good while also preserving as much of the original as possible.