By: Chuck Miller
Having Fun

A repainted drive-in speaker in 24 hours or less

So I still have a few drive-in speakers around the place, and I’m feeling the itch to refinish and restore another one. Besides, I need some blog content. And I also need some video content, so I’m actually filming the restoration on this unit.

This is a Projected Sound unit, manufactured in Plainfield, New Jersey, and originally graced the speaker-poles of the Transit Drive-In in Lockport, New York. The Transit opened in August 1952 as a single-screen drive-in with space for nearly 400 vehicles. Today, the Transit has five screens, and 1,000-car nights at the facility are not uncommon.

This drive-in is as much a part of Buffalo’s legacy as chicken wings and wide-right field goals. The place has survived everything – a concession stand fire, a windstorm that knocked down one of their screens, the COVID-19 pandemic, you name it. But the Transit remains operational today.

This type of speaker – the one that hangs in your car so you can hear the movie – was removed from the Transit in 1987 when the drive-in converted over to an FM broadcast system. And 35 years after that removal … this little bad boy ended up in my possession.

So what does one do with something like this?

One restores it. For sure. I decided a simple restoration would suffice – there was no need for a new cable or speaker, since the original units were still intact and working. Instead, I chose to remove the innards, repaint the chassis, reconnect the unit with drive-in-appropriate Holt safety screws, and replace that chewed volume knob.

And this time … I chronicled the entire procedure on video. Because yeah, I did.

But just for the fun of it … here’s what the drive-in speaker looks like after I gave it a 24-hour repaint and restore.

Does that look boss or what?

So how did I get to this point?

Ah … that’s where the video comes in. Now the next time I do this, I really need to get my own dedicated video camera, so I don’t have one hand holding the cell phone while the other hand is doing the work. 😀