Bowman AstroLine Radio

[jcarpio]

Hi all,

I've got a '72 911T with a Bowman AstroLine Radio and I wanted to know if anyone knew if this was orginal equipment or not. I don't have my COA so I don't know the official story. It sure looks like it belongs there! I can't find much online about this brand, or this model either. Ideally, it would have an AUX jack in the back so I can plug my iPod in, provided of course that someone has built a cable to do such a thing for this radio.

Thanks in advance,

Jorge

[pwd72s]

I doubt a Bowman radio was standard...here's a website you can visit that covers what was supplied for each model year.
http://www.nosubstitute.org/911/radio/default.asp

[kenikh]

Can we see pics anyway?

[reed]

I'm almost certain no Boman radios were supplied by the factory. They were a fairly low-end radio similar to today's Audiovox. My guess is perhaps some were dealer-installed if the car didn't come with a factory unit and the buyer didn't want to spend the money for a Blaupunkt or Becker.

I have seen them on a few early 911s, mostly on cars from California which makes sense since I think Boman was a California company.

[jcarpio]

Here's a pic. The antenna, a PO CB antenna, is installed on the right hand fender which doesn't seem correct to me so perhaps it was also dealer installed...gotta replace that at some point too.

[72targa]

Looks to be a nice period piece with an interesting story...I'd leave it as is!

[garygrasso]

I have the same model Boman radio in my 73S Targa that I just bought (in California) ......I've never heard of or seen a Boman radio before- anyone else have one??

[rst73]

Back then alot of the cars that came in had radio delete. When I started with Don Burns Porsche/Audi in 72 most of the cars we got were radio delete. At the time Porsche didn't offer stereo and the Southern California customers wanted stereo. I took my hole saw to many a 911 and 914 door panel. Bowman was the middle of the road radio offered by most So Cal dealers and I installed a lot of them.
Hope this helps.

All the best!
Roger Grago
R Gruppe #27
Early 911 Registry member since 1999

[billm]

My 73S has a Bowman Astrosonix 2000-MPX. It was dealer installed. My COA shows leaving the factory w/o radio. Back in '73 the dealer manager was very proud that they could install stereo without cutting the car. They used the in-dash speaker for one channel and surface mounted another speaker on the rear shelf for the other channel. I have since done away with the rear speaker so I'm getting only one channel now with the in-dash speaker. Any ideas how to provide both channels? Am I harming the radio to have no load on one channel? I have turned the balance control all the way to the remaining speaker.