Original Radio and Clock

[Chas]

I have the original radio and clock in my '66 912. They are currently not working.

Any thoughts on how the value of the car would change if I fixed these, vs. replacing the radio with a modern one.

[Dave Lovato]

I don't know about other owners, but I've always felt that working OE accessories were an indication of the PO's (however many there might have been) dedication to the car. I seek originality, although I appreciate that many would prefer sensible upgrades. If I had to compromise, clock stays, radio upgrade OK, but original kept as a 'here you go' in case you later sell to someone like me!! I would definitely be more inclined to buy 'un-mucked about'. Jest my tuppence worth!!

P.S. I saw an excellent article on radio repairs and sympathetic upgrades on a 356C which was in either Classic Cars, or Classic and Sports Cars, I think. This guy had his original radio fixed for a reasonable sum, then had new speakers in the old grills, and an amp under the floorboards!!

R/Dave Lovato

Rota, Spain

[Wayne 962]

Yup, that's what I'm doing. I've got the original Blaupunkt Radio in my 356B, and I'm going to add an amp and some new speakers to it. I've also heard of people that mount two radios in their car. The stock unit in the dash, and then another hidden away that actaully sounds good.

We offer full repair services on the early Blaupunkt Radios. Typical rebuild and repair costs around $175, depending of course on what's wrong, and it the parts are available from somewhere.

Thanks,

Wayne

[Rick Becker]

Unless the previous owner has already chopped up the dash, I vote to keep the original radio in the dash, and add a modern radio elsewhere (maybe with a wireless remote control?). Ditto not to tear up the door panels, you can mount speakers under the dash.

[Elliott Kaufman]

I have seen the radios for sale in one of the catalogues. Is not Blaupunkt still alive and making car radios? What would be "wrong" with just geting the same size that was originally in the car. My 67 has some awful bad Radio Shack model with sort of round speakers in the door panels. I don't even use the damn thing but if I could get the original kind of radio then I might consider turning it on. Although I think that I would still have trouble hearing it( in the summer) as the muffler is pretty loud!

[Rick Becker]

The original radios were a now obsolete Euro standard with a very small nose, dials very close together (5 1/8" I think), and it is probably very difficult find new radios in that size now. If you do go for a modern radio, some CD players may be more compact in overall dimensions that cassette players and can fit in a 912 dashboard if you enlarge the dash opening CAREFULLY, but check the overall dimensions and be PRECISE in the installation!

Rick B

[Don Barlow]

I also have experienced the radio size problem. I had a really nice modern AM/FM/ Cassette Stero I was going to install in my '68 912. But.. I found as previously mentioned that the nose was too big for the
dash cut out.

I am back to the original Blaupunkt which I thought had died , but was found to be just the in dash speaker which had burned out.

I was thinking seriously about cutting the dash. I believe the horizontal chrome strip which is cut out for the radio is glued on. And I was thinking about getting a second chrome piece and cutting it to fit a modern radio. That way even though the dash "sheet metal was compromised " I could always go back to the original glued on chrome if I wanted the original look.

On the bad side my Blaupunkt was showing its age. Both dials were missing, the tuner display is plastic not glass and was getting fogged, and the radio internal light is burned out. On the good side the radio works it has AM/FM/SW mono only.

The radio shafts are non-standard but I was able to obtain some after market knobs that screwed onto the shafts.

After cleaning the radio up , it looks pretty good , even with its aftermarket tuning knobs. I mounted a speaker under the dash to make up for the blown in dash speaker. And the radio sounds fine.

I still don't have the internal illumination light replaced. Maybe in the future.

I kind of resolved myself to looking at the original radio even if it doesn't look like it is out of the factory. It certainly looks better than the crack in the dash which I have not been able to fix yet.

I also have a working Becker Europa TR. About the same vintage as the Blaupunkt.
It also was missing its knobs, but has a much nicer face plate. It is FM/BC mono. It came with a cover plate that slides over the dash before you put on the knobs. I wonder'd why it needed this face plate. Afterall isn't the chrome factory plate good enough ? On closer inspection I saw that it is a slightly smaller nose than even the Blaupunkt. The extra cover plate does a nice job of hiding this difference in size.

By the way has anyone installed a new antennae without taking off the drivers fender ? I did and it wasn't fun.

Now if I could just get the muffler a little quieter so I could hear the radio....