Putting a normal radio into a Nissan Figaro

Well I arranged to have my old nissan radio/cd refurbished by Clarion, but they refused to collect it until I had phoned them to receive detailed instructions on how to pack it into a box. So I thought they could piss off and stop wasting my time.

Instead, I went down to Argos and bought a better CD/radio/mp3 player for 40 quid. The first problem is that the Nissan radio plugs are non-standard, so to connect my new radio to the car I needed to buy an adapter. Fortunately some enterprising person in Hong Kong sells these on ebay for £3, so I got one of them and the new radio operated fine.

The only remaining issue is mounting the new radio under the dashboard. Nissan's radio is a non-standard size and shape, so to fit my new DIN-size radio, I needed a cradle made. I found someone who knows about this kind of thing and he measured up the screw-holes and made a cradle from sheet aluminium. £60.

Overall, I'm pleased. I now have a new Ministry of Sound radio in my car, and it all cost me a hundred quid, whereas the Clarion upgrade would have cost 250. Furthermore, now that the cradle is built, I can continue to change my radio to another of the standard size.

old radio next to new radio	cradle for new radio	cradle for new radio
New radio in a Nissan Figaro	New radio in a Nissan Figaro	This is a gratuitous picture of my fig in the snow (yes! we had snow! didn't last long however)