2000 Honda Civic Dash LCD intigration

pcmofo · 02-28-2006, 05:02 PM

Hey every I have been reading these forums for a while but FINALLY decided to sign up and post my current project. I have a black 4 door 2000 Honda Civic. I am installing a car pc in it and am currently in the process of intigrating the 7" lilliput LCD into the dash so that it looks factory.

Here is the dash as it looks pre-modded

and here is the mock up of what it might look like when I am done

I plan on cutting the 2 pieces to fit into eachother then using apoxy to join them together. After that Bondo will be used to remake the curves of the dash so that the curved dash and the strait lcd fit nicely together.

I have been taking lots of pics of the process along the way I just have to get them on my website so I can post them here

Check out my web site for the full pc project log.

da me la nalga · 02-28-2006, 05:37 PM

ur going to have to relocate you rear defroster controls which i can tell u is a pain in the *** cuz i did it in my girls car but it came out rather nice

It looks good so far hope to see the finished product soon.

Cris · 02-28-2006, 06:16 PM

There are quite a few Civic install around here, so you should have plenty of inspiration.

pcmofo · 03-01-2006, 12:03 PM

The first thing I did was to remove the black plastic dash piece from the dash, this required removing a ton of other dash pieces but I finally got it off. Now my car looks like someone stole my stereo lol.

After some test fitting I realized that the LCD and dash wernt going to fit nicely together.

So the next thing I did was cut the crap out of the dash untill the screen fit

Once it fit I used 5min Apoxy to secure the 2 pieces together and checked and rechecked as it was drying to make sure that the pieces were strait and level.

After the glue had really hardened overnight I realized that the buttons on the lilliput curve upward... and since I hacked the LCD allready to auto power on I figured I did not need any of the controls. I may add a power and source button later or I may just cut a hole for the IR sensor.

I had no choice but to dremmel the crap out of the front of the lcd.

After I did that I realized I had huge gaps that I had to turn into one smooth curve and it was never going to work. Luckly when I opened the bondo I found pieces of wire mesh that I could use to fill the gaps. I used some hot glue to secure them.

pcmofo · 03-01-2006, 12:13 PM

After I got the wire mesh on the dash was ready for some bondo. I fought with the bondo sanding and adding layer after layer untill I created a new bottom curve and got it to meet up nicely with the top curve. It took a hell of a lot of sanding to create a nice even curve.

I will spare you all the repetave bondo pictures and skip to where I have the bondo spotting putty applyed and test fitting everything to make sure it all still fits together

Here is the front... you can see just below the front of where the lcd is tiny plastic pieces poking through the bondo and a little bit of wire mesh. The bondo sands much easier than either of them so they would end up as high spots when I sanded. The only solution was to grind the crap out of them creating a trench to fill up with bondo and sand smooth.

Also the entire right side had to have a huge layer of bondo on it to reset the curve from the top right to the bottom right so that where the bondo meets the plastic is not visiable.

this picture shows the back with the back of the lcd screwed in and the metal mounting brackets in place. This is a good thing because I can still bolt the screen to my dash and its now virtually impossiable to steal.

Now that the surface is near perfectly smooth I just have to laydown a bunch of primer and flat black paint. I dont plan on using any protective coat because it will make the paint glossy and I want it to look like flat black plastic as it was before.

Any comments or ideas on the buttons or where I should relocate the 4 button ac unit I removed from the bottom of the dash?

Cris · 03-01-2006, 12:35 PM

Looks pretty good.

I hope that mesh will be strong enough though...
Why don't you relocate the screen buttons, and put the climate buttons a little lower than they were?

pcmofo · 03-01-2006, 03:04 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Cris

Looks pretty good.

I hope that mesh will be strong enough though...
Why don't you relocate the screen buttons, and put the climate buttons a little lower than they were?

I would but there is just no room. If I put the buttons anywhere near where they were I will have to cut up the back of the lcd lid as well thus potentially exposing the insides. as of now when I put it all back together the lcd will still be sealed in the dash. it will also be really hard to cut a perfect hole for the buttons to paint and sand again and figue out a way to attach it to the inside.

The mesh should be plenty strong enough to hold everything together. I did lots of thin layers of bondo so It should all hold together well. I plan on mounting an extra USB port near the e break instead of in the dash. I just need to figure out a place to mount the slim DVD drive. I was going to put it under the lcd but there is a chunk of metal it would hit inside the dash even though it would fit nicely in the front.

(

Have any more good ideas?

Cris · 03-01-2006, 06:38 PM

In the first pic, where the phone chager is looks like a good spot (dpending on what's behind it though) for an optical drive. Thos buttons would look good in there too. Or maybe near the shifter...

pcmofo · 03-02-2006, 12:55 PM

I have a snow day today woohoo! hopefully I will get some painting done. I am taking my car to get the oil changed etc for my spring break trip to Virginia Beach! I am hoping that I can get the dash finished by then... I was hoping to get the pc installed but I dont know that its going to happen before saturday.

I found a great deal on e bay on a external cd drive case for only 15$ where as everyone else was selling them for like $80!! so I will have to pick up one of those.

Right now I am also working on a custom wireing harness to connect the screen to the computer as well as the usb hub and accesories. TIme for some more painting!

pcmofo · 03-14-2006, 06:09 PM

Well I am back from spring break and workin on my car again. I have lots more of the dash done. As soon as I get home from school I can upload new pics!

bosstone74 · 03-14-2006, 06:26 PM

I'll take a pic of mine and post it!

bosstone74 · 03-14-2006, 11:19 PM

KE4NYV · 03-14-2006, 11:38 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by pcmofo

Well I am back from spring break and workin on my car again. I have lots more of the dash done. As soon as I get home from school I can upload new pics!

How was VB? (my hometown)

pcmofo · 03-15-2006, 03:08 PM

Virgina Beach was sweet. Not as nice as it is in the summer but a hell of a lot better than being home for the week.

Anyway I have pics of the priming and sanding. I added bondo tons of times since the last pictures to make the curves blend together and make everything smooth.

Here is the dash ready to be primed.

Yeay! its starting to look like one piece!

I sanded and primed maybe 5-6 coats before I switched over to flat black.
This picture is after 6 coats of black done in 3-4 very light layers 5-10 minutes apart.

This is after sanding with 2000 grit paper.

Scratch remover was used to buff out the tiny scratches left by the sand paper making a super smooth finish.

I wanted a flat black look but after the scratch remover it just looked smooth and dull so I had no choice but to put some NuFinish car polish on it to bring out the black color and take away the haze.

So there you have it... I will put more pics up later of the finished dash with the screen installed and it all installed in the car though it wont work yet because the computer isnt installed yet.

Sonicxtacy02 · 03-15-2006, 03:54 PM

good luck with the bondo over the mesh not cracking. avoid bumps in the road!

User Name		Remember Me?
Password