Thread: grayvader's 2005 Ford F150 Supercrew FX4 -- Pride of the Empire :)

At first I thought about putting in one of the motorized lcd screens that fit in a single DIN opening. Then I could leave my head unit (currently a Kenwood with a Music Keg) in the car to drive the speakers. Before getting anywhere I decided that I just didn't like that idea -- I wanted something that looked more OEM. So, I started researching LCD screens and all the pluses and minues associated with them. I really hated the way most washed out in the sunlight. Finally, after doing some digging I found the guys at fpd displays around the time they decided to do one-off type enhancements for LCDs. I'd already found an 8.4" panel with a brightness enhancement (which I started doing my dash fab with), but knew that wouldn't really help in the sunliught so I found a fairly inexpensive 8.4" TV from Hong Kong with exactly the same panel as the one i already had. Sent it to FPD and the added the transflective enhancement and the touchscreen. Now I had the right display and none of my work toward fab'ing the dash would go to waste.

Here's where I started, a stock bezel for a 2005 F150 (with center console feature)

I didn't have any kind of housing (of much value) to start my fab or integrate into to the bezel so I figured out a way to do something from scratch. I started with a piece of MDF that cut to the exact dimensions of my screen. Then I traced the viewable area onto the MDF. Sanded down the bezel (oh how I hated to sand off that pretty faux carbon fiber thermoform) and glued the MDF into the bezel with some 90sec epoxy. This gave me a base to build up the areas for a clean look.
Here's the bezel with MDF and you can see where I blackened in the areas to cover up:

So, now I had a jig. What to use to fill in the gaps...
I work at a place that always has scraps of... well, plastic thrown away so I collected all kinds of it. I ended up finding some stuff (mostly PC ABS) that had decent curves and straight edges so I started cutting it up and placing it in the jig to test for clean lines. I used the poxy weld material (with kevlar additive) that so many have recommened. That stuff works great as adhesive and filler (with micro balloons). I eventually came up with something. Here are three pics of it in process.
Pic one is some of the parts glued in -- you can see i actually glued to the MDF. Why not? Easy enough to separate the MDF -- Epoxy pulls the MDF top layer right off.
Pics 2 and 3 are the same, just different views, after I poxy welded all the piece in and sanded like hell to smooth out. This is kinda rough shot one.

So, now I had a decent opening for the display. Mow I needed somwhere to mount the DVC920 -- it's the little controller that interfaces to the actual DSP box that does the dolby decode (and other digital conversion). It basically controls fade/balance/volume and a couple other sound field tweaks.
Anyway, I digress. You can find more about the Clarion stuff here:
Clarion DVC920 and DVH940 digital processor combo

So, I decided to use the area of the dash bezel that had previously had just a lighter. It's the area at the bottom you can see in my first post of the stock bezel.

Not too many in process shots of what I did, but everything fit pretty well after I filled in the rounded edges with some spare plastic and poxy weld and of course, sanded the crap out of the bottom part of the opening.

First pic is the rough shot -- i was using primer and sanding a lot. word to the wise -- make sure your primer and top coat are compatible. Turns out SEM top coat and Krylon plastic primer are not. I ordered some SEM primer after that fiasco.

Second shot -- the whole bezel in Krylon primer. I had to sand all that crap off at least a couple times

Third shot is of the bezel after all the painting issues had been solved. It's pretty much done -- I just have to mount the screen.

Here's what the bezel looks like with my LCD installed. I had to fab us some brackets on the back side of the bezel -- not much to look at but gets the job done. There are also 2 screws that take advantage of the holes in the lcd. Also used poxy weld to make little mount plates that i drilled to screw into.
The picture even shows off the nice fingerprints and smudges that will be the bane of my whole install.

Oh, and the left upper side of the opening looks a bit off. In practice, i hope it doesn't bother me too much or I'll have to build it up and sand like hell again That can come MUCH l8r.

Hopefully in the near future I'll have the other parts in it. Like AC controls.

Edit: A bit more info...
I did have to completely remove the LCD from its original housing. All I left was the back plastic of the housing because it gave me something to mount the LCD controller board and inverter to.

I actually removed the passenger airbag light -- it's completely gone. I just took a regular 12V red LED (with integrated resistor) and stuck the pins into the factor wiring harness. I had to do that because the truck can sense when the airbag LED is unplugged and it lights up the airbag indicator on the dash cluster.
Anyway, with the plastic/LED housing gone, there was just enough room to add some plastic bezel material to the top and bottom and still fit the visible area of the screen. For the sides there was tons of opening for the visible area. However, with my screen, there was a good bit of area that isn't visible. I ended up having to trim some of the inner dash (the part that actually holds the bezel in). It wasn't so much that it impacted the mounting of the bezel.
To attach my screen to the bezel, I used the same epoxy as my build up and glued some tabs to hold the screen.

Here's a shot of it all put back together ready to go into the truck:

The great thing about the new F150 style is all the room behind the center console. Here's a pic with my old Kenwood HU and the Music Keg mounted in the bottom of the open area.

So, with all that room, I figure -- just put the PC in there.
I figured the mini-ITX form factor was the way to go so I assumed that FF for all my measurements.
The 6.5" width of an ITX board is just a bit more narrow than the opening in the truck.
I took a bunch of measurements and figured in the min size for all the components I wanted.
Now, the ashtray opening (no longer an ashtray since the Kenwood music keg install) seemed the perfect area for the PC to be accessed. I figured the height of the opening and decided that would be the front -- not enough volume when that height and width and depth were calculated so i figured -- make it L shaped. Here we go with what I started and ended with as I made some foam board models. Started with an L, ended at a T shape:

Now that I had a model I placed some of the parts to make sure that there was enough volume.

I bough some .063 aluminum and a metal brake (or is it break?) to bend it. Used mostly pop rivets (and a little poxy weld) to hold it all together.

Here's a few shots of the progression. I guess I forgot pics between 1 and 2. Lots of folding and cutting aluminum. I also painted it black -- not sure why, especially since the got banged to hell shoving it into the truck.
Pic 3 is the PC all done. You can see the harness I made to supply power and all the other i/o.

One day, maybe I can better describe all of what's in this thing.