Period correct radio upgrade (Bluetooth/aux in)

[RNajarian]

Disclaimer:

I do not have any of the items (products) listed below for sale or do I have any financial interest in them.

For 7 years I used a period incorrect radio in my 1975 S, it worked fine but the modern look in my 40 year old car ruined it for me.

I came across a neat (inexpensive) option to keep the appearance of originality and yet incorporate modern audio technology.

Becker, which has made and does make radios for Porsche had a line of radios in the 70's and 80's which had a 6 pin RCA jack in the back for auxiliary purposes. It gave the consumer the ability to add an external under the dash 8 track tape player or cassette player.

I found out some genius on eBay made two different types of RCA plugs for this line of radio that would act as an AUX in port (for iPods or smart phones) or as a Bluetooth receiver that would stream from a smart phone.

I bought two Becker Europa 559 radios (one for $88, and the second for $50). Both radios worked normally, except that the lights on the $88 unit were burned out and the $50 unit was missing knobs. I combined the hardware to make the $50 unit the one I used in my car. For $20 on eBay I bought the AUX RCA plug. I installed the radio (which happens to have a power antenna connection) plugged in the RCA jack and that was it. The whole process took less than one hour.

Overall I am VERY happy with the result. When the radio is on you can use a cassette or play the AM or FM stereo, but when I plug a 3.5 mm jack into the phone then the AUX it will play music from my smart phone or play music from my SirusXM app on my iPhone.

The first three photos I "borrowed" from eBay, the last two photos are of my system





The RCA jack is under the black plug to the left of the speaker plugs


Closeup of the RCA jack


My system




This is the AUX plug installed under the dash


Of course the quality of the sound isn't 21st century ( but who can hear the music over the sound of our engines anyway? ). And if you decide to go down this route just make sure you match the proper RCA plug to the back of the radio. Some RCA jacks were six pin some were nine pin.

Another important thing to make sure is that you get a radio that works, there are several organizations on eBay that sell refurbished ones for several hundred dollars and there are some sellers that will sell old radios that were removed out of cars and not refurbished. In my case I got lucky being able to put together a pretty good unit inexpensively.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask. If anyone lives in the Los Angeles area you're free to come check out my system and see what you think

[evan9eleven]

Great work!

[30westrob]

Thanks for the great write-up. My 73 vintage Blaupunkt Frankfort has a similar RCA plug in the back. I wonder if your application will work. I will have to check to see how many pins the RCA plug has. Rob

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by 30westrob

. . .My 73 vintage Blaupunkt Frankfort has a similar RCA plug in the back. I wonder if your application will work. I will have to check to see how many pins the RCA plug has. Rob

Rob,

I did a little homework . . . It MAY work for the Blaupunkt Frankfurt. Below is a screen capture of a Bluetooth product for apparently the Europa and Frankfurt radios, and again I have no connection with this seller.

I would shop around. You may find it for less.



Screen shot of EBay listing for Frankfurt Bluetooth RCA jack

[TheSt|G]

This is really awesome.

[Slanski62]

Stefan(?) at SW Stereo Specialists did this for my 69 Frankfurt when he restored it.

[4flyboy]

^^^^^^ Kudos for Stefan I used him too ^^^^^^