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Old 07-13-2004, 10:11 AM   #1
gork
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Amarillo, TX
Vehicle: BMW E46 M3
Posts: 655
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HOWTO: Building a removable LCD screen bezel and mount

Below is a writeup I have been refining on people who unsuspectingly PM me about my screen bezel and get back a novella. It has helped a number of people build bezels so far, and I think it's in good enough shape to be generally useful as a tutorial on how such a thing can be built for other cars. The same methods I used are going to be very similar in any car, and the end result is a screen that you can access easily for maintenance without disassembling your entire dash. This kind of mount may not work in all cars, but should work in anything with about a double-DIN.

First, if you want to build a bezel yourself, make sure you keep in mind that it will take a LONG time. It took me over 40 working hours to build my bezel. If you hack it out in a couple of hours/days, you're just not going to get a good result unless you have done it a hundred times. I had never done anything like this before, but I am good at building things and working with tools, so you can probably get a good estimate of it taking your longer than 40 hours or less than 40 hours based on your own skills and experience. Anyone can do this if you have enough patience and motivation. Just think of it as working with play-dough that hardens into rock 5 minutes after you take it out of the can. You can always file it down and you can always build it back up if you don't get it right the first time.

BUY OR BORROW A RESPIRATOR WITH A FILTER BEFORE WORKING WITH BONDO OR FIBERGLASS. YOU DO NOT WANT TO BREATHE RESIN FUMES, FIBERGLASS DUST, OR PLASTIC PARTICLES. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. A DUST MASK IS NOT AN ADEQUATE FILTER!

The way I constructed my bezel was to take the front half of the LCD monitor housing off of the LCD and spray some of that spray-in foam insulation around it. I then carved it to a rough shape like I wanted it to end up that would fit into the place in the dash where the radio and climate controls were.





Next, I put a layer of fiberglass-reinforced bondo over this.




I then rough filed the fiberglass bondo to shape.


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