Imagine cruising the Strip with the top down on a ’65 Ford Mustang. The sun dazzles off the sapphire, pearlescent paint job, and the mist from the Bellagio fountains hits your face.
Almost nothing could make the drive better.
Unless the 50-year-old car radio could blast crystal clear music from your favorite SiriusXM radio station or through the Bluetooth of your iPhone.
Thanks to Retro Manufacturing, it’s possible.
Listening to the radio is such an essential part of driving a car, and no more need be the days of endlessly twisting nobs, combing through the airwaves in search of an audible AM radio station with a bearable amount of static.
Retro Manufacturing, based in Henderson, is the world’s largest manufacturer of shafted radios for classic cars. The company, founded nearly 10 years ago in Chino, Calif., moved here in October 2013.
Making cars safer is also part of the mission
Retro Manufacturing sells its audio equipment under the name Retro Sound. While that’s where they make the bulk of their sales, they also have a smaller offshoot, Retro Belts, which provides custom seat belts for classic cars.
“We find a way to make a car as safe as you can make it, whether it just be a lap belt or if we can put a 3-point belt in a car that originally didn’t have one,” owner and CEO Steve Harrington said.
Retro Belts provides all types and colors of seat belts, once again bringing modern technology to classic cars.
It is one of the world leaders in custom stereos and speakers for classic cars, building near-replicas with all the modern features. The company sells three models (priced at $199, $299 and $399) ranging in features from auxiliary input to Bluetooth capabilities and SiriusXM radio. It also sells custom-fitting speakers, amps and subwoofers.
“People want what they want,” said owner and CEO Steve Harrington. “They want to listen to what they want to listen to, and that’s part of their driving experience. We cater to really picky people.”
Top Selling Radios
• 1967-72 Chevrolet C/10
• 1965-66 Ford Mustang
• 1958-67 Volkswagen Beetle
• 1973-87 Ford F-Series
• 1967-68 Camaro
• 1969 Camaro
• 1955-56 Chevrolet
• 1968-70 Chevrolet Chevelle
• 1968-70 Chevrolet Malibu
While some classic car owners wouldn’t dare put a non-original part in their vehicle, Harrington said most want the classic look with today’s parts.
“When I first started, people were telling me to just build the replica radios and that people don’t care about the features,” said owner and CEO Steve Harrington. “I’m like, ‘No, I care about music. I want to be able to stream the music that I want to listen to. I like Squeeze and Joe Jackson, and they aren’t playing that on the radio.’ And I know there are people out there like me.”
Apparently there are a lot of people like Harrington, who said Retro Manufacturing ships out 100 to 400 orders every day, thousands per month. And more than 25 percent of the company’s sales are international.
Retro Manufacturing ships to more than 20 countries, including Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Thailand and South Korea.
People love their cars enough to make this business nearly recession proof, Harrington said.
“When the recession hit, we slowed down sales for maybe a few days, but then I started getting calls from people all over the world, saying they don’t care what happens with the economy, they are going to finish their car,” he said.
Harrington said his company had grown by double digits in percentage of sales each year since opening 10 years ago, and at least 30 percent every year since 2015.
“It blew up the second I started it, but I kind of knew it would because I’m a car guy and I was in the audio industry,” said Harrington, who worked in various car stereo shops throughout high school and college.
Every custom stereo starts with a phone call or online order.
“I’ll get a call from someone saying they want a stereo for their Plymouth Barracuda,” said product manager Greg Shannon, who turns his concept drawings on napkins into stylish car dashes. “If we’ve never made a stereo for that car before, I’ll go buy an old one, bring it to the warehouse and start cutting it up. Then I design a stereo that fits in it and send that design out.”
All of the design is done in-house. The parts are made at various locations and shipped to Asia to be constructed. Retro Manufacturing doesn’t install the radios, but Harrington said probably 70 percent of the customers want to install it themselves anyway.
Every so often, Harrington stumbles across his products at car shows.
“I went to the retro car show in France and there must have been a billion dollars’ worth of cars,” Harrington said. “There were seven Bugattis there. There was an Aston Martin collection, and these cars were probably $100,000 to $5 million. I looked inside and three of them had our radios in them. After that, I can die happy. That’s what we try to achieve.”
Shannon has been with Retro Manufacturing for three years and enjoys turning classic relics into modern works of art.
“It’s really cool to be part of the creative process,” Shannon said. “There’s a little personal joy when I see a car with a radio that I designed. It’s pretty cool to know that thing you worked on is in the dash of some really cool car.”