10.2" Touchscreen in dash

**Auspants** · 08-30-2010, 07:15 AM

Evening,

I hoping to get some pointers and thoughts on my install. I have sourced the components for the carputer including a 10.2" touch screen that I want to install into my 99 Legnum. I sourced a second hand console piece and have trimmed it to size, trimmed the bezel of the monitor to size and have glued and bondo'd it to one piece. The pics below show the cutting, 1st bondo and sand back and where I am at the moment.

Console cut

Bezel

All three pieces

Part glue, part chewing gum, part tape

2nd layer of bondo

Back

Current

So I have at least one more layer of bondo to apply as per the last image to sort some of those larger depressions. I also have to cut and fit the climate controls into the space below the buttons but im less concerned about that part.

A couple of people have expressed concern about the bezel/console one piece eventually cracking and I am somewhat concerned about this. As fun as it is to have a crack at this i don't really fancy doing it again.

I have applied a liberal amount of araldite along the back where the bondo meets the plastic but aside from that is there anything I can do to minimize the risk of cracking? Starting again with fibreglass is not something i'd like to consider just yet.

I plan on using some strong double sided tape to stick the monitor to the bezel, and then possibly (depending on how heavy the screen feels, and how much space there is behind it) brace the back of the monitor.

Thanks in advance

rob.

**hailrazer** · 08-30-2010, 06:13 PM

On the back side scrape most of the bondo off the plastic bezel piece and the dash piece. Then get black Abs cement from Lowes. (Comes in a can with blue label in the plumbing area).

Now lay the piece face down and using a small Popsicle type stick apply the abs cement over the area where the two plastics meet. Apply a very liberal amount over the entire area, nice and thick. Let it dry for several days.

What it will do is actually melt and bond the two plastics together making for a nice welded like surface.

After it is nice and dry I would remove the bondo from the front and use bumper epoxy instead. It is more flexible and less prone to cracking. Sand and paint it just like bondo.

This is what I use.

http://www.urethanesupply.com/mm5/me...ct_Code=2020-T

http://www.urethanesupply.com/mm5/me...ct_Code=2000-T

Hardset Filler for the major gap areas. Flex Filler for the final coat to fill the small depressions. Then if necessary you can use spot putty bondo to finish it out.