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Sun Jan 25, 2015 3:28 pm

So, as some of you may remember, my mexi bug came with a early '90s pioneer stereo, the kind you were supposed to pull out of the car and bring along with you as you left the vehicle unattended.

now, even though I had cleaned and refurbished it and it worked pretty good, I still was unsatisfied. not with the head unit itself, rather with the fact that I only had one speaker, mounted in the stock location on the left of the steering wheel. So my stereo actually was a mono, and I often found myself listening just to the left channel of a song.

I ruled out early the option of installing a proper set of speakers as the car is totally unmolested and even drilling little holes for speaker wires bothered me.

So I was about to buy the retrosound twin-coil speaker... then I saw the light while casually browsing the net.

...enter the blaupunkt casablanca 2012:

a din-sized head unit with AM-FM tuner, usb and aux in... with built in (albeit low power) stereo speakers.

the unit itself is not that much expensive, and more importantly it allows for the cleanest radio install ever. It mounts using a din cage (I'm still going to build some rear support for it just to avoid the risk of having it bouncing around), and it just has four wires to connect: battery positive, ignition, ground and powered antenna, of which of course I only needed the first three.

(the antenna cable needs a jack-to-iso adaptor)

I made some extension leads using vw colour coded wires (red, black and brown), then I hooked them to fuses #7 and #12 and to the front ground point as per mexi beetle radio wiring specifications.
Put in a low-profile usb drive and... bang! good stereo sound in 30 minutes of work (most of them spent making and neatly rounting the leads). It even could pick up FM stations while parked in the garage at the 5th underground floor.

Now, this is not going to satisfy lovers of hi-fidelity sound, but it is enough to allow me to properly listen to my tunes without having to use the cassette adapter to plug in a digital player and with no signal loss, and it requires literally no modifications at all to the car.

one last shot of it in the dash playing some '80s italian music 8) :

Mon Jan 26, 2015 1:03 am

Cool find - and kudos on the clean install!

Mon Jan 26, 2015 1:43 am

I am replying to this post, just so I can find it again. I really like it. Both the looks and the Stereo.

Mon Jan 26, 2015 4:58 am

Looks great! I hate to cut holes or add boxes. Where in the US can these be purchased?

Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:04 am

Bravissimo!!

Mon Jan 26, 2015 7:29 am

I'm curios, how does it sound while travelling at highway speeds? Can you hear it? I like the idea of not having to cut holes for speakers but wonder how practical this unit is for everyday use.

Mon Jan 26, 2015 7:39 am

Nice. And unlike so many modern units, it looks like it belongs there.

Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:35 am

i've never heard of this model of blaupunkt before. i don't think it was ever available in the us. it looks great in your mexi beetle!

vintage cars like a beetle are so noisy inside the cabin, at least as compared with a modern vehicle, that it seems foolish to invest in any sort of hi-fi audio equipment. it simply isnt worth it with all road noise, engine noise, etc.

in these old cars, you need only a simple way to get some music playing, and this looks like it fits the bill perfectly. very nice!

Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:44 am

toddb_67 wrote: I'm curios, how does it sound while travelling at highway speeds? Can you hear it?

not yet tried it on the autostrada, but in the garage, with the engine on, it definitely sounded better than my previous mono speaker. also, the sound now comes from the center of the dash, so it has a better diffusion in the cabin. of course power-wise it cannot compare with a "real" stereo set up.

avw1973 wrote: Where in the US can these be purchased?

No idea, unfortunately. I got mine from a german seller on amazon, even blaupunkt does not seem to promote it that much, you can download the user's manual from their website but that's all. If it can help the model number is 1 011 200 380 001.

Sat Jan 31, 2015 2:16 pm

in the first post I pointed out how this stereo does not come with the usual screw/post at the back of the unit used to secure it.

Once installed using the din cage the unit felt robust, but I did not want to risk having it bouncing when driving and putting stress on the dash sheet metal only.

so I bought a couple of perforated steel bars, took some measurements and came up with this:

that's a "u" clamp that slides over the unit providing a mount at the back.

then took some more measurements, and made this other piece:

(the bars were nickel plated but the bending took away the plating so I painted them and all the associated hardware with some zinc primer)

aand... job done. now the stereo is supported at the back just as the old head unit was.

once sure that everything was working properly, I finally removed the now useless mono speaker. funny thing, between the speaker and the grille were a couple of dead bugs. :o

funnier thing, I discovered the speaker itself was of the wrong size and whoever installed it secured it with just one nut and bolt and a lot of twist tie wire... :lol:

Sat Jan 31, 2015 8:40 pm

I really, REALLY like this- I always had the idea of installing a true 4 speaker with subwoofer system in mine, but this has me rethinking the whole prospect.

You can get these from BlaupunktDirect UK,

http://www.blaupunktdirect.co.uk/car-audio/oem-radios/casablanca-speaker-inside.html

They will ship worldwide. I don't know how the radio bands match up though.

Sun Feb 01, 2015 11:18 am

sb001 wrote: I don't know how the radio bands match up though.

just checked in the user's manual, it says the unit can be set up to receive stations in EU, the US, south america and thailand.

Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:49 am

To wrap the thread, I've finally ventured on the autostrada and I can say that at 120 km/h with the window open you can quite clearly listen to the radio even without turning the volume up to max. Actually, the listening is better than my previous set up since the speaker on the left of the wheel got quite disturbed by the airflow from the window or quarter vent at speed.

Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:30 am

This is the best radio install I've seen yet for that dash. Now I'm googling.... :)

Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:57 am

Very nice!

Does it have any sort of audio output?

Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:13 am

GArBa wrote: sb001 wrote: I don't know how the radio bands match up though.

just checked in the user's manual, it says the unit can be set up to receive stations in EU, the US, south america and thailand.

Very nice Garba, I just saw this thread today or I would have replied earlier. You car look very clean as well :)

My Euro-tuned FM radio (as the car came from the UK) works just fine here in North America. I have four speakers, two in the doors and two on the rear luggage cover. The car is quite noisy, oddly I can hear the music better with the roof open. I put a frame from an older Beetle around my radio for a cleaner look but I have to trim it (inside the opening) to fit the 'newer' radio:

Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:17 pm

hopkin wrote: You car look very clean as well :)

Thanks hopkin, it's actually a bit dusty right now. :lol:

I was browsing your pics for inspiration when I was tinkering with my old stereo before finding this one, eventually I found out my dash had been cut quite decently and did not need a surround.

xBigDx408x wrote: Does it have any sort of audio output?

Nope, it's a very basic unit output-wise. It just has the two channels for the built in speakers, it cannot drive other speakers or feed an amp.

Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:53 pm

very nice.

Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:10 pm

Did you change your ashtray to the newer style?

Wed Apr 29, 2015 3:04 am

afaik it's the OE one. my car is one year younger than yours.