Thread: Need help with a project (NY tri-state area)

Hello everyone... lurked around for a while but now I need something, so of course I'm gonna step out for a second...

I picked up a new Nissan Maxima 3.5 SL a couple of months ago, so of course the first thing that comes to mind is to hack it up and put a PC in there...

For those unfamiliar with the interior, here's a shot of what it looks like:


watch out, full size image is almost 2MB

The "info screen" in the center cannot be used for anything other than what Nissan intended for... clock, radio/climate info, mileage, etc. -- so before you think about it, using *it* is out of the question...

What I HAVE seen done is people move the info screen to the bottom of the dash itself and mount a screen from Alpine or some other head unit touchscreen in its place. THIS is where I want to mount a touchscreen LCD for a computer.

A couple of examples:

http://www.viguera.net/images/maxima/info-1.jpg

http://www.viguera.net/images/maxima/info-2.jpg

I have no interest in spending $1500 on an aftermarket head unit that plays DVDs and does navigation, when the same (and much more) can be achieved by a Car PC for a fraction of the price. My obvious problem being that I want it to look as professional as possible.

And that brings me here...

First off I need a monitor that fits there. As you can see, there's a plastic bezel around the screen itself. I do not know if this can be removed, but I can probably find out (hopefully not the hard way ). The dimensions of the screen are about 6-6.5" wide and 3" tall. You can see there's about 1 1/2" worth of bezel on each side, making the opening 8" wide overall. I'm sure there's also another 1" worth of vertical clearance once the screen is removed, making the opening about 4" tall.

Obviously I can measure this again and take notes this time to make sure...

So I need some ideas and probably some professional help to get this going... the plan is to jam a mini-itx box in the glove box and connect it to the screen. I'd need to find a touchscreen that fits within those dimensions, or have somebody make some sort of mount/bezel that would make it fit.

Is there anyone around the NorthEast (NY/CT preferred) that works with fiberglass and can make this happen? Sure I could do it, but I'm too lazy for it... Local to me would be best, since test-fittings and stuff can be done quickly and as often as necessary.

Thanks a lot... and rest assured that if I ever get this finished I'll post plenty of pictures of everything...

And of course, I don't expect anybody to work for free... if you're a pro (or just "good" ) and you're in the area, let me know and we'll talk numbers.

Thanks...