bemenaker

Back in November, I decided it was time to upgrade the radio in my car. I have followed this movement on and off for years, and decided to jump into it. This weekend, I built the actual computer mounting setup for my car, and next weekend I will be installing it. Here is some pix of what I have done so far:

Let's fit this hub in this ashtray








Mocking up the idea



The hole to put it in












Mounting the controller board for the Lilliput 8 on the back of the screen

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bemenaker

I have two different ideas in mind for mounting the hdd yet. I haven't decided which route I am going to take with that yet. Next weekend I will be doing the actual install. I will post pictures of the final install when it's all done. This whole unit fits very nicely inside the space in the dash, and there is room above and below the unit still. The openness of it will allow plenty of air flow around the system.

Greenbling

Looks like you've got a great start!

bemenaker

Here's some work I've done on the center console so far:


I had to add some 3/16" molding to the inside of the double din space for the screen to be covered properly.



Here's with the USB hub in place




A little bondo to fill the gaps

MeeM

Nice job with the case

I had the exact same idea about mounting a USB hub in my ashtray. It's cool if the ashtray slides out slowly because it give it a hint of style and class

zillacles

Nice, I'm doing my Accord atm, never thought about putting the hub in the ashtray though. I might even do that as well :P

Just wondering if you're going to remove the cigarette lighter bit or if you know how to take it out?

bemenaker

I am going to leave the cig lighter there. To remove it, you have to take the light off the top of it from the back. The outer metal casing you will have to crush in a little to make it smaller that hole and then it pushes through and come out the front. There are two plastic pins on the inside that might snap off, they did when I removed mine. For the metal casing you have to crush in, there should be a small area on top that is cut away some, I bent that small tab down than folded the two edges together there to collapse the radius of the casing to fit it through the hole, the ends don't actually come together just down and in a little. I will post a picture of what I'm talking about when I get to work.



You can see on the top there where I bent it down and brought the two ends of the opening together to decrease the diameter of the outer piece. From there, it will push out the front.


Yeah, those directions, while work, are the hard way, I figured out later, just unscrew the electrode in the back, and the nut behind it, and the whole thing comes out. D'OH!

bemenaker

For the CD-drive mount, I took a piece of aluminum and slotted it for the drive to slide through. I have L brackets that attach the drive to the mount piece for stability.

Here is the bracket by itself.

The drive fits.

The console in place, it still needed trimming at that point obviously.

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bemenaker

I took an update shot on the console last night in between fill, sand, prime rounds. It is getting pretty close to being done.

zillacles

Ah I see, thanks for the pics

I was thinking about mounting my drive up there but as I have fog lights and bumper pole with OEM switches, I didn't have anywhere else to put those switches. Instead I'm removing the LCD screen's controls and putting the drive there instead

bemenaker

I was considering moving my hazards up to the right of the steering wheel. In the black bezel there, that would leave me room to add the lcd's buttons back into the system above my cdrom. But then I figured I can shorten the button board and put it above the cdrom and leave the hazard switch in place. Still haven't decided to go this route yet. If I do, it will be a later on addition. Fog Lights, so that is what the other button location was for, I was thinking about that the other day, but didn't realize they were even an option on that car.

MeeM

This system parallels my system in many ways. But it looks so much more neater than mine because you made the case entirely yourself, whereas I'm using two single-DIN headunit cases. Now I kinda wish I bought my case from blk02si ... oh well.

The console's looking great Can't wait to see it when it's done. I also like the location of the CD drive. I'm still deciding where to put mine :S

bemenaker

Here are the dimensions of the PC frame I built:

The bottom piece is 7 3/8 inches wide, 9 inches long, this allows it to go back far enough to hit to bolts that stick out in the back, and use them for support. I left the bottom and inch wider and folded a half of an inch down on each side to add strength.

The risers come up 2 3/4 inches, could have shortened them but I had the room so left it for air flow.

The top plate is 7 1/4 inches square.

Corrected the bottom sheet's width.

zillacles

I think I might go with the hub in the ashtray idea, but I was wondering where you got that specific hub from because it seems to be a pretty good fit?

bemenaker

I picked it up at Microcenter, it's a mid-western computer store. It is an Inland 7 port usb hub.

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