1990 Celica GT - New Install

HereFishyFishy · 06-29-2003, 04:44 PM

Project Name: MP3 Celica
Car: 1990 Celica GT Hatchback
Engine: 4 cyl. 5SFE 2.2L

Basic Stereo Information:
Hifonics ZX8000 5 ch. amp, Sony X-Plod 10" sub, .6 cu. ft. sealed enclosure

cont...

HereFishyFishy · 06-29-2003, 04:49 PM

Carputer: AMD Athlon 1.1 GHz
Case: El Cheapo (working on a custom enclosure soon)
Power: Opus 150w DC-DC PS
Storage: 40 GB
Sound: Creative SB Live! value into amp

Information Sources:
no webpage for the car yet, coming soon though

Pictures:

Before:

Center dash piece:

Making the brackets:

2 brackets on LCD screen:

cont...

HereFishyFishy · 06-29-2003, 04:54 PM

mounted from behind:

mounted from front:

mounted & working (mmm...food!!):

final product:

Y'all let me know what you think. This is probably going to be a temporary install until I can mess around with some fiberglass and build a more stealthy look, but as for now I'm happy with the way it turned out. It's surprisingly solid for the way it's mounted. Absolutely NO movement while driving or using the touchscreen!

Phil

Charliey · 06-29-2003, 05:10 PM

Looks good (even though its temporary).

With some fiberglass it could look really amazing.

frodobaggins · 06-29-2003, 05:27 PM

yes, you have a really good start to do some fiberglass work there

HereFishyFishy · 07-29-2003, 09:50 AM

Update (07/29/2003): I had to install a switch up front to turn my GPS receiver on and off. For some reason the computer wouldn't boot with the GPS plugged in, so I had to turn the car on & wait for the PC to boot, then walk to the hatch & plug the GPS in = NOT FUN! All of that might be fixed now that I got my power issues worked out, we'll test it this afternoon & see. I'll be building a box in my hatch to hide the PC components & get that huge case out of there. With that I hope to add a solar powered fan to circulate some air 24/7 through the enclosure. It's amazing how addicting this stuff is & how big of a hole it can burn in your wallet if you don't watch out!

Phil

nthai · 07-29-2003, 10:14 AM

Nice job installing the monitor. Very creative.

btw, have you thought about paint the monitor black to match with your dash?

I'll paint mine soon. The silver doesn't match well with my dash.

Thai

HereFishyFishy · 07-29-2003, 10:31 AM

Actually, I never did think about painting it black, though it wouldn't be that bad of an idea. Eventually I hope to fiberglass the whole thing in & the trim color wouldn't matter then. The black instead of silver would also help hide the monitor from anybody walking by the car, esp. once I get my windows tinted.

Phil

stkdidy ntshidy · 07-30-2003, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by HereFishyFishy
Update (07/29/2003): It's amazing how addicting this stuff is & how big of a hole it can burn in your wallet if you don't watch out!

Phil

omg you have no idea
ive burnt 2500 on a system and im just about to get going on the fun stuff...
look in my info for what im after...hopin itll be less than 1000$...

HereFishyFishy · 07-30-2003, 09:38 AM

Good luck keeping that under 1k! I've spent just over 2k with the stuff I have installed. Of course that includes the amp & subwoofer, so it's not just computer components, but it's still expensive. What are you planning on doing with the smoke machine? I can think of a few ideas

, but it's not something I would have ever thought about putting in a car!

stkdidy ntshidy · 07-30-2003, 01:47 PM

im thinkin it will be 400ish for a screen, 300ish for a basic computer setup, 100ish for a power inverter, 100ish for a good smoke machine, and less than 100 for supplies/wiring/brackets/etc ...i hope i hope i hope

at first i thought, "gee, wouldn't it be a cool safety device to hook a smoke machine into my alarm, that way if someone pulled a gun on me and made me give up my keys i could press a lil button that would start the smoke machine 5 min later, and fill the car with smoke so that it couldn't be driven, even with the windows down." but then i got a better idea, "wow it would look cool to have smoke pouring from under my car along with the underbody neon lights that are already down there...that would be a cool thingy to show off"
there are more ideas of course, and i like em all cuz ive never seen a smoke machine in a daily driven car, or any car for that matter.

EBJUSTIN · 08-06-2003, 01:38 PM

HereFishyFishy

nice job on the zenarc install. I have a 93 celica and the same screen...you've given me some ideas for mounting the screen. Do you have any issues with the viewing angle of the screen? Did you modify the radio bezel (I don't what it's called..the black plastic piece the goes around the radio from the shifter to the bottom of the vents).

HereFishyFishy · 08-07-2003, 08:05 AM

Nah...the viewing angle is great at night & most times during the day. The only time I have a problem is when the sun is right on it or when there's a bad glare...then you have to lean over and down a bit to be able to read stuff, you can still see where the icons (bigger stuff) are from a driving position though. And when watching video's it's better to be centered or reclined so you don't get that bleed out stuff because of the angle.

The Bezel is still how it was stock...I didn't want to modify anything until I got a new one from the junkyard to play around with. Those clips basically just hug the back of the bezel above the clips that hold the bezel in...you'll see what I'm talking about if you look at the pics up there! The screen is almost the perfect height for this! I just had to chop some of my clips down partially so they wouldn't hit the bezel's clips when I folded them over.

I wish you luck on your installation. It was a lot easier then I thought to mount the screen, but I'm also not going to keep it like that forever I don't think. I want to go for a flush install, but that's coming much later as school is about to start up again. A word of advice: I have an 800w RMS AMP & the 150w opus installed in my car & it ran great for a few weeks, but yesterday I did a lot of idling while playing around & when I started my car up last night to show the system to my friend's dad the PC wouldn't come on. The Opus volt. reg. kicked in because my battery was down under 12v so it looks like an alternator upgrade might be needed. Or maybe I need a new battery since mine is a little old.

Phil

eventmac · 08-10-2003, 03:37 PM

how do you use such a small touchscreen? No probs touching such small controls to get mp3s etc playing??

HereFishyFishy · 08-10-2003, 07:17 PM

Not really...at first it was hard to use because I wasn't sure where everything was (tiny stuff), but now that I'm accustomed with it it's not that much of a problem. Little things like minimizing or closing windows can be tough at times. I use Media Engine right now & the controls are plenty big enough to touch with your finger. I also use 4am music console & that works good for full albums I have in mp3 since I touch the album cover & get to select from the songs. It too is easy to use with your fingers. Anything really tiny I use a small plastic touch pen & lately I've just thrown winamp on random with all of my songs loaded and sit the USB keyboard in my lap...it has volume controls at the top & 'z' & 'b' for previous & next selections respectively. This way I can change songs w/o using the touchscreen at all.

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