63 and 64 radio knobs

[Donald L.]

[Chris D.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

Don't know about am/fm sets but my 63 wonderbar has push on knobs, no set screws.

[Donald L.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

The only problem is they never reproduced these with the setscrew so everybody who restored the cars over the last 50 years put the push type on, because that’s all you could get. I have two more sets of originals that I took off 40 or 45 years ago and they have set screws in them also. I had a couple of NOS ones also and they are push on, so even GM did not make them with the setscrew after they were produced.

[Frank D.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

Don't know about am/fm sets but my 63 wonderbar has push on knobs, no set screws.

Mine too...a May 29th car, maybe another mid-production change ?
Other than a repaint my car was very unmolested when I got it...the knobs are a little pitted and dull so my thinking is that they are original.

[Chris D.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

No restoration on my car. Been under my personal care since dad picked it up on 64. You will hear no claims from me on how other cars were built ( especially 63s). I just know these are the knobs it had when we got the car. Not likely to have been changed in the first year by the first owner.

[Donald L.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

Someone sent me a link that shows now corvette Central makes these radio knobs with a set screw, but it is not an Allen screw so someone knows something about these things.

[Ken A.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

Someone sent me a link that shows now corvette Central makes these radio knobs with a set screw, but it is not an Allen screw so someone knows something about these things.

Correct 64 knobs had a slot set screw as the socket screw was a PITA to remove and tighten.

[Loren L.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

The fact that these knobs were used on 1962, 1963 and 1964 Passenger cars and Corvette (and ?) suggests the possibility of a NUMBER of suppliers. If AC-Delco still existed as it was, you might have a CHANCE that you used only one supplier for the 4 Corvette radios, but it would be a slim one. As it is, the AIM shows U65 (AM) with knob #7277055 (no set screw listed or shown) and U69 (AM/FM) with knob #7286030 (no set screw listed or shown). The '64 AIM continues the listing for the #7286030 knob. Maybe the OP is onto an explanation - call it a
"misprint".

[Donald L.]

[Loren L.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

"...don't give much faith in the AIM" - Curiosity compels me to ask "What ranks ahead of the AIM/".

[Donald L.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

50 years of restorations, many years of judging, years of recording small oddities, on every 63 or 64 I can check out.

[Patrick C.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

When I took the radio out of my largly original ‘64 all the knobs had the very same patina and mine were allen head screw on. With judging coming up this stuff makes me crazy!

[Alan D.]

is just a KNOB

[Frank D.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

Well - I'm going to have to reverse my earlier statement - I'm not near my car and apologize for the "zoomed in" and fuzzy picture, but my 63 is showing set screws (or at least I think it does!). A late May car.. That's what I get for not double-checking..

[Chris D.]

Re: 63 and 64 radio knobs

The fact that these knobs were used on 1962, 1963 and 1964 Passenger cars and Corvette (and ?) suggests the possibility of a NUMBER of suppliers. If AC-Delco still existed as it was, you might have a CHANCE that you used only one supplier for the 4 Corvette radios, but it would be a slim one. As it is, the AIM shows U65 (AM) with knob #7277055 (no set screw listed or shown) and U69 (AM/FM) with knob #7286030 (no set screw listed or shown). The '64 AIM continues the listing for the #7286030 knob. Maybe the OP is onto an explanation - call it a
"misprint".

Loren,

My '63 AIM shows the U69 knob asm #7286030 as you observed but also has in the pictorial a comment with a leader line to the knob that states, "set screw". The U65 knob asm #7277055 lacks that comment. My mid-March car, to my mind, confirms knobs without set screws did come on some builds. And the AIM suggests the knobs changed with the adoption of those new fangled FM sets.

However, Noland's restoration guide speaks of the possibility of an overlap period where either a Wonderbar or an AM/FM radio could be specified. I'd be surprised if the knob changeover would be closely controled simply because it didn't need to be. Either knob would function on either radio.

The observation of set screw knobs on late Wonderbars would not surprise me.