ebay (expires in 1 hour)

[murray720]

will i need a separate amp for this radio to work?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33566&item=2457740170

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Good news is - that Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio shouldn't require a separate amp.
Bad news is - that particular radio won't properly fit in the Fintail dash. The radio case will fit in the hole but, because of the ridge in the wood dash and location of the lower chrome strip, the radio faceplate won't sit flush. You would need to change to the narrow W111 Blaupunkt faceplate to properly fit that radio in your 220S.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[murray720]

Thanks Mark,
I guess it's not so bad that i was out-bid.

[Mark DiSilvestro]

If you already have an AM or non-working Blaupunkt in your dash, you might be able to swap the W111 faceplate and mounting hardware to fit a later style radio, like that Frankfurt radio on Ebay.
Same thing goes for using a W111 Becker faceplate/mounting kit to fit a later style Becker radio.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[murray720]

I actually have a wood faceplate covering the radio’s slot. I haven’t really looked to see if there's mounting brackets but I have an antenna so imagine, at some point, there was a stereo (and brackets) installed.

i need some tunes

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Chances are there won't be any useable radio brackets behind your dash, so you'll need to customize your radio installation. Whatever radio you decide on, measure the unit and faceplate to see if it can easily fit in your dash. Otherwise you could mount it under the dash, if you don't already have an AC unit there. I don't know how much of a purist you are but if you don't already have speaker holes in your car and don't want to cut up your interior, you can get small self-contained 50 watt, cube speakers that will fit under the seats or on the the rear floors. Radio Shack has some small RCA cube speakers that should work and I've recently seen some similar ones at Best Buy and Circuit City.

For my 'good' audio system, I had some old two-way Japanese Kraco cube speakers which I installed in the rear of my 220S. I found they sounded best on the floor facing up, in the corners against the rear seat. I could also have put them on the rear shelf but didn't want to advertise to someone with sticky fingers that I had some kind of audio system in the car.

For powering the rear speakers, I installed a compact 100 watt amp behind the dash, above the handbrake. A stereo cable runs from the amp to the center tray between the front seats, where I connect a battery CD player or a cassette walkman. I'm very pleased with this setup.

My radio intallation is still a 'work in progress'. I originally installed an old 220S Becker tube AM radio that I found many years ago at a yard sale, but I still wanted FM.
Later, I was able to find a W111 Becker faceplate kit to be able to install a '70s Becker Europa AM/FM mono radio in my 220S dash. The Becker is now connected to an old 5 x 7 Philips speaker mounted over the passenger footwell, in the under-dash cardboard. Unfortunately the Becker's amp is weak so my radio performance is barely adequate.

I may decide reinstall my old tube Becker and add an FM converter or, with a recently acquired W111 Blaupunkt faceplate kit, I might install the stereo Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio from my '72 250C and tie that in to my dash amp and rear speakers. Stay tuned.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[300SDog]

Lesser known secret of the Heckflosse 220Sb - if you pull the press fitted dashboard speaker grill and no speaker has been installed - then you have nice dashboard tray for cigarettes or even ballancing a cup of coffee.

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Unfortunately, if my '60 Heckflosse 220Sb had a dash-top speaker or provision for one, it would have made my radio installation easier and probably sounded better. I believe the dash-top speaker was added on '61 and later models, to allow for installation of the Kuhlmeister under-dash AC unit.

During the mid '70s, my Dad had a '60 220SEb, with the cool manual sunroof and the 'factory' Becker Mexico AM/FM station-seeking tube radio. That car had the large Becker speaker enclosure mounted under the dash. The enclosure had a vinyl rim that matched the dash padding and beige cloth with two horizontal chrome bars over the speaker. Fantastic sound from that old tube car radio. I wish I had that Becker Mexico now - they go for big bucks on Ebay!

Happy Motoring, Mark