220Sb Fintail - Help with radio and speakers

[hdavis]

Hi guys, new to the Peach Parts Forums, but not new to vintage MBs.

I just started the restoration on a 1960 222Sb and have a number of questions I'd appreciate your help with.

First one has to do with the radio speaker.

My car comes with a beautiful Becker Mexico the original owner bought from the dealership a couple of months after he bought the car (I have the invoice for that purchase actually). But now it has no speaker and I'm wondering what speaker it would have come with and where would it be installed.

There is a speaker grill on the center of the dash, but i think there is no way a speaker could fit in that hole, it's just not deep enough.

Anyone with an early W111 that can tell me about this?

Thanks

Henry

[dobrodan]

The speakers are available. I recently bought one here:
https://www.authenticclassics.com/Dash-Speaker-for-230SL-250SL-280SL-Other-Mods-p/auth-002720.htm
Good quality OEM German speaker.

If you need all of the parts for the speaker they have this:
https://www.authenticclassics.com/Complete-Dash-Speaker-assembly-for-Mercedes-230SL-p/auth-009961.htm

You can also pay more and get it at Becker:
https://www.beckerautosound.com/mercedes-benz-speakers-72-95
They don't seem to have the correct speaker on their web site now but have had it in the past.

[hdavis]

Thank you

I have seen those speakers, but the problem is that those will not fit in my dash. If you look at the picture in th original message, there is a steel plate (that is part of the dash structure itself), about 1 inch below the speaker grill, so there is no space for th speaker to fit.

I really have no idea what to do. I don't think cutting the steel is a reasonable option. I will undress the dash and see what can be done

Thanks again

[ScooterABC]

Originally Posted by hdavis

...a 1960 222Sb and have a number of questions ...

My car comes with a beautiful Becker Mexico the original owner bought from the dealership a couple of months after he bought the car

Could you post a pic of this Becker Mexico from 1960? I would like to see exactly what you are talking about.

I'm stumped on the dash speaker area.

[hdavis]

Attached is the picture of the radio. It has a separate power unit from the actual radio (this is a tube unit). The faceplate is not in the best of shapes, but I have already sourced a very good one.

[Squiggle Dog]

The early fintails didn't have a dash speaker, and the original dashboard pad wouldn't have even had an opening on top for a speaker grille. I believe they would have had a speaker box located underneath the dashboard. But, when air conditioning became an option, the speaker was moved to the top of the dash.

I am not sure that you can place a speaker on top of the dash, which is a shame since you have the later version dashboard pad with the hole for the speaker. You could probably locate an original early-style speaker that mounts under the dash, or make some custom kick panels with them.

[ScooterABC]

Originally Posted by hdavis

Attached is the picture of the radio. It has a separate power unit from the actual radio (this is a tube unit). The faceplate is not in the best of shapes, but I have already sourced a very good one.

Super cool radio. Excellent!

[hdavis]

Originally Posted by Squiggle Dog

The early fintails didn't have a dash speaker, and the original dashboard pad wouldn't have even had an opening on top for a speaker grille. I believe they would have had a speaker box located underneath the dashboard. But, when air conditioning became an option, the speaker was moved to the top of the dash.

I am not sure that you can place a speaker on top of the dash, which is a shame since you have the later version dashboard pad with the hole for the speaker. You could probably locate an original early-style speaker that mounts under the dash, or make some custom kick panels with them.

Thanks for the reply. That does explain the situation. The dash in my car was probably changed sometime in the last 60 years....

I guess the speaker would have been similar to that in a Ponton model, that is probably what i will try to find. as to the hole in the dash...I will be taking the dash out to have the car painted and the wood refinished, maybe I can see if I can re-cover the dash so that no speaker hole shows.

[hdavis]

A 1960 w/o speaker on the dash....

[Thunder-71]

Originally Posted by hdavis

A 1960 w/o speaker on the dash....

Hello, this is George, we exchanged messages on ebay about the speaker situation. SquiggleDog woke me up. Yes there is no dash speaker on early finntails. I removed the Original good damage free dash pad out of that 1960/1961 220SEb. It is black, the upper pad is 2 piece with the seem at the instrument cluster, the lower pad is one piece. I would post pictures here but I don't know how. I received your email so I will send you pictures there.

[hdavis]

Originally Posted by Thunder-71

Hello, this is George, we exchanged messages on ebay about the speaker situation. SquiggleDog woke me up. Yes there is no dash speaker on early finntails. I removed the Original good damage free dash pad out of that 1960/1961 220SEb. It is black, the upper pad is 2 piece with the seem at the instrument cluster, the lower pad is one piece. I would post pictures here but I don't know how. I received your email so I will send you pictures there.

Thanks George, got your email

[Squiggle Dog]

Originally Posted by Thunder-71

Hello, this is George, we exchanged messages on ebay about the speaker situation. SquiggleDog woke me up. Yes there is no dash speaker on early finntails. I removed the Original good damage free dash pad out of that 1960/1961 220SEb. It is black, the upper pad is 2 piece with the seem at the instrument cluster, the lower pad is one piece. I would post pictures here but I don't know how. I received your email so I will send you pictures there.

I was just going to mention that about the dashboard being essentially 4 pieces. It was also an option to have the upper half of the dashboard a different color than the lower.

If you have big bucks to spend, you could probably send a rough one to justdashes.com and have them recover it and fill in the speaker hole. Of course, it still wouldn't be "original", but it would do away with the unusable speaker hole, at least. But, I think buying the one from Thunder-71 is the best idea.

I'm not sure what kind of hassle you'd have to go through to cut out the metal in the dashboard to try to make a speaker fit. For the later model year fintails, you can cram a pair of 4" Boss 200W 4 ohm speakers in there okay. Maybe this will help someone else.

[Idle]

I once had a 108 where a previous owner had used the same solution as above. The sound was good because small speakers have improved so much during the last few years.