New radio or delet on my '73T?

[jcwolff]

Howdy-
The previous owner installed this radio and its a piece of junk. The car did not come with a radio, but has an antenna as part of the s package. It never had a center speaker. He used some freestanding speakers that sit under the dash and on the rear deck lid. I recently purchased a door panel with the same fake leather vinyl that you see in the photo. The problem is that the vinyl isn't the same shade brown as the dash vinyl. So I am trying to decide if I should cut a piece of the vinyl from the door I bought and die it to match, or should I make my own center speaker and put in a new radio receiver. What do you guys think?

[serge944]

Is this your DD? No stereo can get old - I don't care how good a car sounds. Base your decision over whether you need a deck or not, and only you can make that distinction.

[rgrimm]

I feel your pain. I cringed when I saw the photo--I have the same head unit in my wife's Alfa Spider and your description of it is right on...a piece of junk. The sounds's not too bad..."when it works!".

If it is a DD, then by all means, put in a new head unit that meets your purpose. I've got an older Blaupunkt Boston in my 68 that I bought new in 1993 because it still had "two knobs" and thus a bit of a vintage look. Still AM/FM/Cassette--no CD, but it's fine for my purposes. Not wanting to cut the unique and hard-to-find 68 door panels, I spent some money and bought one of the "Moch-1" underdash panels--no more wires hanging down and you can't see the speakers either. While it might not be audiophile quality, it's fine when you need to hear some news, a weather report, or satisfy the significant other that wants to hear something other than the flat-6!

[serge944]

On another note, I really like the recent panasonic headunits. They're all black and don't scream "look at me" like a lot of cheesy headunits these days. Sound quality and price are also quite pleasant.

Lots of people with german cars buy blaupunkt because it's more "fitting," being a german brand. However, in a nutshell, blaupunkt is junk.

[turborat]

I stumbled across this website some time ago. Perhaps they can set you up with a vintage look that has modern sound. They list Porsche and may do custom work.


http://www.soundmove.com/customautosound.htm

[jcwolff]

I drive this to work a couple of times a week and on the weekends. To me the radio is an eyesore on a compeletely unmolested 911 with 22,000 miles on it. But, on the other hand will it ever look stock with a dyed replacement piece of vinyl?

[nigel911]

RADIO DELETE
I would buy more door vinyl and replace the vinyl across the entire dash so the doors/dash match.

KEEP RADIO
Buy a vintage look radio with hidden CD.

[jcwolff]

Thanks for the link. The secret audio receiver is cool. I'm going to look into that. If I could delete the radio face and still have a radio hidden and controlled by remote, that would be pretty cool. Thanks again.

http://www.soundmove.com/secretaudio.htm

[jac1976]

Find a Blaupunkt Frankfurt or similar period correct model and put in dash with new panel and install new CD deck in the glovebox. I would use the dash deck as a dummy so it wouldn't matter if it was functioning although working models can be found on Ebay for <$200.