Thread: Project CompuMach: 2004 Ford Mustang Mach 1 - Total In-Dash install complete!

Trebuchet: You can have the soundcard wherever you want. I just put mine back there to save space/clutter up front since the space was rather tight. There was another reason but I really dont remember right now lol :P

Haystack: That would be badass. A while back on stangnet someone posted a full 99 interior conversion done on a fox body stang... looked incredible.

is the sound card really necessary? would I be able to use my car stereo without one?

Your install is one of the best I've seen so far, I absolutley love the way you incorporated the Lilliput into the dash. This is exactly what I want to do with my 2002 Mustang, and I have the Lilliput on the way already. I'll look on ebay and try and find a radio trim panel and follow your lead. Or find someone with some fiberglass experience...

The wiring on the Mach system seems crazy to me so far, I'll try and make some calls tomorrow and find the right harnesses so I can output directly from my sound card to the existing amps. Looking on the net and can't seem to find exactly what I need.

Once again - great job! Thanks for taking the time to post your results!

- Dan

Trebuchet: Well if you have no sound card, you can't get sound out of the computer :P If you mean the soundcard I have, you can probably do without it and just use the onboard soundcard on the motherboard. If you're going to keep your pioneer headunit, you can save yourself a headache and just get one stereo-to-rca cable and plug it right into your AUX input on the headunit.

cartdan: thanks! The wiring isn't too bad, just have to figure it out :P look at metraonline.com for wiring harnesses.. find out if you have 2 or 3 amps... shouldn't be too bad. I dont know anything about the '02s wiring, sorry I can't help there. I'm assuming it will be the same as '01.. check on stangnet.com there is a huge article about it in the sound forum on how to use an aftermarket HU (just substitute HU with carputer)...

Pyros,

I think I have the wiring figured out thanks to some internet searching. Turns out I have 2 amps powering my subs now, so I'll have to add a third to power the tweeters, but that's not a big problem.

I got the pc in the mail yesterday and am working on loading up my software while waiting for the touchscreen and other pieces to come in. Initially I'm just going to mount the pc in the trunk and until I get everything finalized, but plan on doing the monitor integration exactly as you did since it looks so sweet. I wanted to make sure of a couple of things though. It looks as though you left a pretty good size gap on the bottom edge of the LCD panel, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Can you verify this and LMK why you did? Airflow maybe?

Also, you mention that you had the radio bezel "dyed" by a bodyshop versus painted. Is this something that you would suggest that I do also instead of just painting it myself? I am no painter, and have no equipment, so if I did it I'd just be spraying it.

I am going to attempt the bondo-glass work myself, although I've never worked with it before. I figure as long as I don't break something I can just sand away my mistakes...

Thanks again...

- Cartdan

So your audio setup is pretty much the same as I have. I just got the harness which provides rca inputs for the 2 factory amps. Ran rca's from the soundcard to the inputs on the harness. Then I ran speaker wire from the amp to the tweeter inputs (which are speaker wire) on the main wiring harness.

Remember with the PC in the trunk you're gonna need a hella long monitor cable to hook up the LCD.

For that gap, I got a piece of thin sheet metal and shaped it to properlly fill that gap. I then epoxied it on and used some bondo to smooth out the edges. Worked awesome and you can't tell there was a gap ever there..

I really have no idea what 'dyed' means. My dad's buddy has a body shop, and he said paint wouldn't be as good as dye for an interior piece. I let him do his thing and it came out awesome...



Dont be afraid with the bondo-glass. Just read up on others experiences and you'll be fine. I had never worked with it either. The key is patience. Prepare for lots and lots of sanding. Remember, after the initial bondo glass, you'll be using regular bondo to smooth everything out. The bondo glass is mainly to hold the lcd in place.

Good luck

-Chris

Pyros - hope I'm not pushing my luck here, but I had a couple more questions for you. I just hate to make any dumb mistakes that could be avoided by drawing from your experience. I've cut out the radio bezel to mount the lilliput screen, and was planning to mount it so that the back of the lilliput face was even with the back of the radio bezel. I figured that making the backs line up flush would make sure that everything was straight and set back far enough so I can shift out of park without bumping into the screen every time. But after looking at it in the car yesterday, I'm afraid that if I mount it there I will run into problems with the body of the lilliput hitting the plastic frame behind the dash (see yellow circle on jpg). I could always cut that out, but don't really want to since it would really complicate mounting anything in the radio slot down the road. Did you run into any problems with the depth? How far back did you mount your lcd into the bezel? Please LMK.

omg it's deja vu.. feels like i'm looking into my dash, except my radio stabilizer bar had some surface flash rust on it.. lol

4v + carputer = sweeeet!