DAK
Active Member
One of the decisions I had to make for the car was what to install for a radio. The car was dealer equipped with a Blaupunkt Frankfurt Series Z radio. This is a mono AM-FM-SW unit. This is the radio that was in the car when I acquired it in 1978 and still worked. In 1978 I installed a Radio Shack AM/FM stereo cassette deck. It no longer works. I had a few alternatives. 1. Buy a modern 1-DIN radio. 2. Reinstall the Blaupunkt Unit. 3. Buy a new retro style radio that has USB and Bluetooth. 4. Upgrade the Blaupunkt unit with modern circuitry including USB and Bluetooth. 5. Upgrade a British Motor Corporation radio originally installed in my ’65 2000. 6. Repair the Radio Shack unit.
I wanted to keep a retro looking radio that has Stereo capability and the ability to play either via USB or Bluetooth. The fancy neon display of the modern radio alternatives would not suit the car, so I dismissed that idea after checking them out. Upgrading the Blaupunkt unit seemed like a good idea until I learned that I could sell the unit for top dollar. Apparently it is highly sought after by the Porsche 911 concours folks. Repairing the Radio Shack unit was possible but although it has analog tuning, it is still not a real fit for the car’s vintage. It also lacks USB and Bluetooth. The BMC unit has some cosmetic issues and would not look the best.
I landed on purchasing a new Retro looking unit with AM/FM radio and USB/Bluetooth capability. It has a digital display but has retro looking knobs. The circuitry is fully digital. I installed the unit and it worked well until I started driving. As soon as I would accelerate, the radio would cut out and would start a woop, woop sound. Great! I talked to the supplier and they told me that it was probably due to ignition noise and was likely especially bad as I had a current loop type tachometer. Apparently the units don’t have great noise immunity. Strange for a product that is meant for the classic car market. I disconnected the tach and bypassed the ignition wiring that ran to the tach. The radio worked much better. I knew that I could convert my Smiths RVI tachometer to have RVC voltage sensing circuitry. I did that conversion and changed the wiring from the distributor and coil accordingly. Unfortunately the radio still would get scrambled on occasion, usually during acceleration or deceleration as the timing would move. I was also not very happy with the calibration and linearity of the circuitry in the converted tachometer. That is where things were when I parked the car for the winter.
I have since decided to convert the Blaupunkt radio to digital circuitry. So much for a resale. This conversion vendor assures me that they have much better noise immunity. The vendor of the tachometer conversion circuitry was very supportive but I decided to move on and sent the tachometer to Nisonger Instruments where they installed new RVC circuitry and calibrated the unit. Come May, I will be able to test it all out. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I wanted to keep a retro looking radio that has Stereo capability and the ability to play either via USB or Bluetooth. The fancy neon display of the modern radio alternatives would not suit the car, so I dismissed that idea after checking them out. Upgrading the Blaupunkt unit seemed like a good idea until I learned that I could sell the unit for top dollar. Apparently it is highly sought after by the Porsche 911 concours folks. Repairing the Radio Shack unit was possible but although it has analog tuning, it is still not a real fit for the car’s vintage. It also lacks USB and Bluetooth. The BMC unit has some cosmetic issues and would not look the best.
I landed on purchasing a new Retro looking unit with AM/FM radio and USB/Bluetooth capability. It has a digital display but has retro looking knobs. The circuitry is fully digital. I installed the unit and it worked well until I started driving. As soon as I would accelerate, the radio would cut out and would start a woop, woop sound. Great! I talked to the supplier and they told me that it was probably due to ignition noise and was likely especially bad as I had a current loop type tachometer. Apparently the units don’t have great noise immunity. Strange for a product that is meant for the classic car market. I disconnected the tach and bypassed the ignition wiring that ran to the tach. The radio worked much better. I knew that I could convert my Smiths RVI tachometer to have RVC voltage sensing circuitry. I did that conversion and changed the wiring from the distributor and coil accordingly. Unfortunately the radio still would get scrambled on occasion, usually during acceleration or deceleration as the timing would move. I was also not very happy with the calibration and linearity of the circuitry in the converted tachometer. That is where things were when I parked the car for the winter.
I have since decided to convert the Blaupunkt radio to digital circuitry. So much for a resale. This conversion vendor assures me that they have much better noise immunity. The vendor of the tachometer conversion circuitry was very supportive but I decided to move on and sent the tachometer to Nisonger Instruments where they installed new RVC circuitry and calibrated the unit. Come May, I will be able to test it all out. I am keeping my fingers crossed.