Okay, today curiousity got the better of me.

I pulled off the knobs and face plate of the ancient shaft-model phillips casette deck in my L Bug. Behind it was the original shaft-type radio surround, uncut. Behind that was a shaft radio bracket through which the radio was fixed. With the bracket removed, the hole in the dash was roughly single din sized.

I have a modern Kenwood single DIN head unit here (MOFSET, Plays MP3, 4xRCA's etc) that a mate recently removed from a Barina he was getting rid of. But he didn't get the cradle for it.

If I were to put a modern head unit in my L, what would be the best way to mount it? Should I use the cradle or should it be bolted in place somehow, like in many Japanese cars?

One of my pet hates is loose, squeaky head units. So any advice is appreciated.

Thanks again,
Brett.

If i put another music system in i am just going to put a FM tuner in and plug my ipod into it

Well the hole there is SLIGHTLY smaller than single din unfortunately.

I never really mounted mine, I just made the hole so it was a tight squeeze, I then used hot glue around it in the storage compartment and it doesn't move one bit. Of course my beetle isn't registered so I cant tell you how it handles on the roads.

keep the orig what eva that is n mount up your new single din in the glovebox
easier to hide n no ugly cutting up a good dash
cheers h

It's an L bug, so it has a plastic dash.

Also it looks like the only thing I will need to cut the removable face plate part. Not the actual dash itself.

But I do prefer the look of a shaft-model radio in an older car, and it's less likely to be stolen. I also have a nice (for it's day) shaft model Kenwood tape player that will interface to a CD stacker. It used to be in my Moke.

Lbugs can be a pain in the arse to get a headunit securely mouinted too

has it still got the original plastic radio plate like this?



Ive filed a couple of them out before to take DIN cradels
but the weight of the radio swinging off those pissy little clips they tend to rattle and move abit

its not hard to make an aluminium plate that secures the headunit this is what i have presently but im in the process at the moment of making up a whole new dash section which will be more like the original, so stay tuned

Joel,

It has a cover plate a bit like your first pic, but it has been moulded with holes for a shaft model radio, presumably the original one (now long gone). The plastic clips on the one in your picture are either now missing or were never there. I would need to remove it again to check. The clamping force of the shafts on the radio, tightened down over a floating bracket inside the dash and the plate on the outside is currently keeping the radio in place. Well, sort of...

See how in the photo, once that plastic cover plate is removed, there is some "meat" in the dash above and below the hole? I thought maybe I could anchor the cradle in that somehow, and then tidy up the exposed edges with some kind of cover. Hmm, maybe a plate like you suggested would be good, with the original cover plate modified to fit over the top and keep everything tidy. Yes, I like that idea.

When I fitted my head unit to my L bug I bought a kit which contained 5 or 6 plastic surrounds, one of which fitted the unit I used and it slotted in firmly just using the U-shaped bracket clip which is screwed to the firewall. This kit was from a local Car Audio shop. This head unit I bought off ebay and is only a fm radio but has front SD card slot and USB socket.

I just filed out my original face plate, then the cradle fitted in OK with a bracket to the back of the dash. I only have an FM radio/CD player, but it looks fine I reckon, although it is a few years old now.

I like your dash and cosole Jeff, but how do you get to the fuse box?

Today I had to pull out the fascia below the speedo to put the hazzard switch in the right way up, and also retrieve the headlight switch, which had unexpectedly fallen down inside.

I decided to pull the radio as well, while I was at it.

This is what I had in the dash. The metal plate on the front was floating loose behind the dash, held in place by the clamping force of the shafts.



THis is what was under the knobs and faceplate of the radio. It looks like the faceplate for the original radio. The clips on the rear had been filed flat.



No turining back now, so I retrieved the Kenwood CD player for a trial fit. In my box of stereo bits, I had these brackets from a Toyota.



They seemed to be roughly right for my intended purpose, so I drilled the holes in the dash and wired in the radio. There was already a permanent live feed there, but no ign on feed, so I tapped into the fuse box for that. After soldering all the connections I discovered the radio did not work!!

I had another one though - a Pioneer unit. I bought this one at a swap meet for my Moke. I guess the Moke will keep the old radio for a while longer.



The brackets fitted well and the new radio was securely mounted. All I had to do was modify the old faceplate to fit around the CD player and hide the ugly edges, fit the CD faceplate surround and I'm done. Then I discovered the CD surround would not fit with the faceplate there. The CD player needs to be mounted another 1-2mm out of the dash to allow everything to clip into place. On well, a little task for the near future.

I'm not sure if dealer fitted radios came with a different radio panel or not
of all the Lbugs i've owned most where missing it completely and the ones that werent just had a blank filed out to fit a radio

except my yellow one, it never had a radio fitted in its life

heres the blank radio panel from it and one thats been filed out for a DIN cradel

is yours like that at the back?

Joel,

Other than the holes, mine was just like your uncut one originally on the back. Someone before me had filed the whole thing flat on the back, but you could still see faint stubs of where the clips and tabs used to be.

Cheers,