first lets start with an outside picture of my car.
this is the xenarc screen, bezel, and the metra kit. they will unite as one and look nice... hopefully.
this is the bezel and the metra kit, i dont have any pictures of the steps from here to finished. sooo use your imagination i guess hehe.
this is the screen finished and replacing the headunit. the color is a little dark. it matched perfectly in my other car but not this one. i used a black bumper coat spray paint from walmart. i also used a spot filler/primer from there too and it works great. i really recommend it for doing any screen fab work.
the computer will be hidden behind the little part with the grille. there is a ton of space back there. plenty room for the computer. i had to ghetto rig a way to hold it securely in there and i couldnt get pictures but it fits and works.
now for the fun part! figuring out how to get sound from the computer to the speakers. i decided i was going use the stock headunit, speakers, amp, wiring, etc. and just get an aux adapter. the headunit works without the front faceplate on and there is plenty of room to just push it back and fit the screen in front of it. i had to take the whole cage of the headunit apart which was basically just taking out a lot of screws. after the cage was apart it could slide back far enough for the screen to fit in front.
here is a picture of the headunit with the face plate off.
this is the plug that goes out from the headunit to the amp and speakers. the aux adapter has a plug that needs to plug into the left part of this. so i just cut this plug in half with a dremel to get rid of the left part that has no pins and is going to be in the way of the other plug that needs to go in.
this is after i cut the plug in half. the blue plug goes to the car2aux adapter. you can see how they both fit in there at the same time. they each have a tab that clicks in so there are not real loose or anything.
the car2aux adapter will work even if you have an indash cd changer (i do). you just hit the cd button, then hit it again and it will look for an external cd changer. the car2aux adapter emulates an external cd changer and it has a set of rca's that you can hook up to anything.
a problem i came across is that when you turn the car off, then back on, the radio turns down to 10, which isnt very loud. you can kind of fix this by holding down the menu button for 2 seconds, then push the menu button again until you get to on-volume (i think) and use the right turn knob to go to 15 (as high as it will go) and just leave it there. so when you turn the car off, then back on, it will be set at 15. then i just use the computer to adjust the volume after that. 15 with the computer at full blast is pretty loud so it should be good.
another problem i came across was the headunit was working fine with the car2aux but then all of a sudden it would jump to the 6disc in dash changer... i have no idea why it kept doing it so i just unhooked the cd changer (which was one ribon cable that just pulled out) and now it works fine... no idea why, but it works.
here is a picture of the headunit with the 6 disc in dash cd changer take off of it. with the cd changer out of there it is MUCH easier to push it back further. that is the back of the xenarc to the right.
here is what is left of the headunit. it is tipped down and forward so there is more room for the screen. the two white plugs on the bottom are where the face plate plugs in if i ever need to plug it in and change a setting. or the battery dies...
here is a picture of the screen working.
and another.
picture of the cd/dvd slot load in the glove box. i had to dremel out the hole in the back a little so the cables would fit better. i used double sided indoor/outdoor carpet tape to hold it to the top.
this is the rf keyboard. it works great and is small and really light. good range too.
Linear Mode
