hutacars

I have, quite possibly, _the_ worst car for this. All I know is I do not want the screen mounted on top of the dashboard. I have never used bondo before, but I suppose I could learn. Right now, I'm considering a motorized screen, but I haven't heard such great things about those, and I don't find them very attractive. If someone knows of one that works well and reliably please let me know. Below is a stock photo of my car's dashboard.



I'm thinking of either a motorized screen in the single-DIN slot, or maybe fabbing it in and moving the vents... somewhere. An absolute last resort would be to put the screen where the dashboard box is (it's much too low to see well). Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you!

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Jistari

That looks like a tough one :-)

But since you asked, and opinions are free:

1) Use a non motorized Xenarc !DT 700 ? If you mount it where the single din opening is conventionaly (upright), its gonna block the two center AC vents. This may or may not be a bad thing as the current "high brightness" one that I have does get pretty hot on hot days.
The benefit being that you avoid all the "motorized" hassels. Its manual, works well and isnt gonna break under normal use.
Im not sure if ther is a way to mount one upside down and flip the video image, but if there was you would be good to go.

2) Delete the two center AC vents ? The bottom outermost left and right corner of the two vent openings (in other words the area that would be inside a rectangle drawn around both vents) appears to be about the right size and location for a screen. It appears that that entire bezel that the vents are in is one piece. You could square off the opening to fit a 7" screen and cut back and reroute the AC going to those vents with flexible tubing redirecting it to come out elsewhere. You could add a vent that would blow directly at you, or just redirect them to blow down and come out from under the dash. Yes, not as effective as they are now, but they still would work. And the work required to fit a rectangular screen in that space wouldnt involve much (if any) contour fabbing, you might be able to trim it to the point that required not additional work.

3) Move the heat/ac controls either

Down, might be able to fit the unit as is into the dash just below where it sits now by trimming the sides of the opening.

or

Up, would require you pulling the actuators off the original unit and mounting them in a smaller faceplate that would fit in the single din opening. You would have to do new lables for the faceplate transferring any info off the original plate to maintain the same functionality.
Just an idea.

I wanted to keep the factory head unit in my car and the space directly below (where I would like the screen to be) already contained the heat/ac controls.
I wound up moving the heat/ac controls down and used the 700 IDT.
Worked for me, Im happy with the set up.


Well, photobucket is being tempermental I was gonna post what I did. Ill check tomorrow and see if it is available and post a shot.

Good luck with your install

__________________
PDP1170/TRS80/Atari800XL/Amiga500/286/486/P2/P4/C2D still a newb (but an old newb, been doing this a while) working my way up to "Complete Newb"

hutacars

That's certainly a possibility. I don't mind it blocking the vents, so long as it can be easily moved out of the way when necessary.


I don't know about mounting it upside down (I installed the current stereo and while I didn't pay too much attention, I think it would require me to fab new brackets to mount it upside down (not a big deal)), but I know Windows will let me to rotate the screen in ninety-degree increments, so at least that's covered.


Again a possibility... but as you mentioned, it's still difficult to find a location to move them to where they can still be functional and don't require a lot of fabbing. Also, I read in another thread that moving controls is the easy part; moving vents is a whole other story. Right now, I know that there's just a big opening behind the vents that fills up with cool air when the A/C is on, and I don't know how I would reroute that with plastic tubing


A possibility, but the area with the A/C controls is recessed, whereas the upper panel is not. I would have to likely cut a chunk out of the upper bezel to make it fit.


As stated, I heard this isn't too hard to do, but I would likely move them somewhere completely out of the way, such as into that storage compartment in the dashboard or into the center console.


Excellent, thank you very much!


Thanks again!

trader007

i would move the radio down to where the dash drawer is... and put a slide out screen where your radio is now. i need a partner in crime for diy slide out lcd's anyway... so get on it.

hutacars

I don't need the radio, so the plan is to put the computer (a Mac Mini) in the dash box, and I'll have enough room to put CDs and stuff on top of it. It's just the screen that I'm having trouble with .

trader007

ok i get what youre doing.

like i said then, get on it
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/fabr...s-monitor.html

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/fabr...-warranty.html

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/work...cd-budget.html

for a quick reference picture- this is what you can do for very cheap if you have enough patience. its not the finished item yet of course http://files.getdropbox.com/u/587032/IMG_1783.JPG

http://files.getdropbox.com/u/587032/IMG_1779.JPG

hutacars

Unfortunately, I can't quite yet. It's not quite my car yet. Right now it's my dad's car, but he'll be replacing it with a Prius in the coming weeks, and pass the old Corolla on to me. The only reason I'm accepting it at all is because it's free, but it's a piece of crap otherwise, if I'm honest :S

Jistari

Stock:

[IMG][/IMG]

Heat/AC moved down, screen added.

[IMG][/IMG]

Open

[IMG][/IMG]

__________________
PDP1170/TRS80/Atari800XL/Amiga500/286/486/P2/P4/C2D still a newb (but an old newb, been doing this a while) working my way up to "Complete Newb"

MP3Car.com

 

hutacars

Okay, it's officially my car now. The mechanic is going over it to make sure it's sound, and once it's been inspected I'll order parts and start work (and a worklog). I've come to the realization that it is a 10-year-old car, and there is really no need to make it look perfect, so I'm just gonna go with Jistari's first idea. Thanks Jistari

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