Old car aerial - what are the chances?!

ThisIsWeird

Hi.

Did a repair on a friend's motorhome aerial last week, but it would be nice to get a replacement; although it 'works', I've no idea what length the original extended aerial should be, so how short the repair is! Also, the bottom section is corroding through, so will snap off at some point.

If he lived closer, I could drill out the chrome stem from the cast body, and solder in a new aerial, but couldn't do this during a fleeting visit.

The problem with a full aerial replacement is that my friend is not very DIYish, and lives in Wales. To avoid the agony of him having to try pulling the aerial cable thro' numerous bulkheads and panels, the ideal outcome would be to find the same antenna and he can replace just the aerially bit. This is held on by one wee bolt. 

This is obviously the longest of long shots, but does anyone recognise this fellow from 20+ years ago?!

I'm loving the cast finned section - clearly has a major effect on signal capture... 

I've tried Google images, but no luck.

Thanks.

Mildly_Miffed

That's not a factory aerial. It's a generic aftermarket one.

That's a Fiat Ducato/Citroen Relay/Peugeot Boxer, 1994-2002, right? The factory aerial was on the cab roof. If it's a motorhome with an over-cab bed, the aerial obviously can't stay there...

prettyandfluffy

Try posting on https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/portal/ the people on there can be incredibly helpful.  Someone will probably know where you can get one or might even have one.

ThisIsWeird

Thanks, MM - I just knew there were some saddos like me on here who'd know that :-)

Spot on about the make and model - Fiat with the over-cab, 2002!

I agree it'll be an aftermarket aerial. It's quite a solid beast, with the bottom section being cast. That makes it distinctive, and only a very similar type will be boltable on to the wing mounting part.

Worst case is he needs to wait until he's back down this way, and I can look at fitting a chrome ant into the cast bit.

I've been scouring eBay for old vintage aerials...

Cheers.

ThisIsWeird

prettyandfluffy said:

Try posting on https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/portal/ the people on there can be incredibly helpful.  Someone will probably know where you can get one or might even have one.

Good call - thank you.

Mildly_Miffed

Just buy a complete replacement aerial - the hole in the wing is just a hole, and the chances are the cable will connect very similarly. It's not hard to route the cable from there through to the cab - I bet it goes through one of the big grommets behind the battery, and is then reachable from by the pedals.

I've also had good results from the windscreen stick-on flat aerials, then you just need to replace the aerial base with a grommet in the wing.

Arunmor

Why not leave as is and buy a speaker and run it off a radio app on your phone?

ThisIsWeird

Mildly_Miffed said:

Just buy a complete replacement aerial - the hole in the wing is just a hole, and the chances are the cable will connect very similarly. It's not hard to route the cable from there through to the cab - I bet it goes through one of the big grommets behind the battery, and is then reachable from by the pedals.

I've also had good results from the windscreen stick-on flat aerials, then you just need to replace the aerial base with a grommet in the wing.

That can certainly be done, but couldn't in the short time he was visiting. Also, a hole may be a hole, but I'd bet my bottom dollar the darned thing would need enlarging - and that means priming the raw edges etc etc etc

Anyhoo, it's working, and he loved the analogue crackle from MW as he listened to the footie on the way home :-)

ThisIsWeird

Arunmor said:

Why not leave as is and buy a speaker and run it off a radio app on your phone?

You haven't met my mate, have you? Ooooolllldddd school