can this be done? 1963 impala upgrade

Good morning guys,

I need a little help here - I've searched online and through our archives for some direction on this topic. Here's the situation...

Customer has a 1963 Impala with factory OEM AM/FM radio. It uses a single (+) wire speaker output. The front speaker's negative is direct to chassis ground. The factory radio is rated for a 10-ohm load to the original front mono speaker. Here's the question:

Customer brought a pair of Pioneer 4-ohm speakers to me to install in the front/rear speaker locations. Although I am fairly sure that an 8-ohm nominal load won't kill the OEM radio (wiring the pair of Pioneers in series), WILL THE SERIES WIRING / NEGATIVE TO CHASSIS GROUND cause a dead short or fry the radio?

Basically, the flow would be like this: (+) out from radio to (+) of speaker 1, (-) of speaker 1 to (+) of speaker 2, (-) of speaker 2 back to radio and tied to ground. On my DMM, I still get an impedance of ~8 ohms when this is all hooked up (but not to the radio), but am I asking for a small puff o' smoke from the radio if I continue as described?

Anyone with experience in these older radios, please chime in ASAP! Thanks!

It'll work.

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Is this the same car we were talking about leaving the factory radio in and addin a new radio under the factory in this forum?

anyway I wouldnt do it. the old radios are very weak.
You can order a factory replacement 10ohm for that car

Just like amps if you go below you will see smoke.

Here was the other post
https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp~TID~115126~PN~2

Hello,

No, different post and OP.

Customer is intent on using the original and fully-functioning radio - I just wanted to make sure that I was safely wiring up the new speakers correctly.

Thank you for the quick responses.

Erik Quick
Mobile A/V Creations