portabuddy

Well its been a while, a good long while and i couldnt find my old post?, So since its been over a year why dont i get ppl up to speed...

I have a 2006 honda civic Si, I started this projuct a long time a go and cleaning out my shed gave me a new lease on the project, this is the secind time im rebuilding the bezel, the first time something fell from the raftres in my shed and smashed it and the second time was 2 weeks ago when my dad cairlessly piled 30 lb of weaight ontop of feam with a thin layr or epoxy on it... CRACK!, Oh well i didnt like it anyway

components

bezel(2 of them)---------------------------$60
plastic epoxy------------------------------$40
SSF Glass and glaze-----------------------$40
10.2" widescreen touch lcd-----------------$440 shipped
epia via sp13000 mobo---------------------$109 shipped
M2-ATX 160 w PS-------------------------$40 w/mobo
300GB Seagate Barracuda 16Mb cach-------$110
1Gb Corsair pc3200 Ram--------------------$70
Panasonic UJ-845-B usb cd/dvd reads/wrights anything-$160 got ***-RAPPED on duties and taxes($80)
radio Xtreme usb fm tuner------------------$80 shipped
ati usb tv tuner----------------------------existing
Holux 213 SiRF III GPS Receiver usb---------$50 shipped
mini usb Keyboard--------------------------$15
2 night vision 2MP web cams----------------$60
OBDII reader a ELM327 can bus usb one-----$152 shipped
12" 2500watt sub--------------------------$have
2 600watt amps----------------------------$have
1 1000watt amp, and one 300watt amp?????-$also have but not useing here i dont think
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sub total $1411 lol


this is the car,



and the dash, before the chopping.



and one of the dashes that i bought with a example of the work that i needed to do, the red indicates posable dc locations, after further looking i needed to chop the hole bigger and it needs to come out the top at some angle?





Here are some progress shots of the bezzel as i cut it away...






the wires are to position the screen inplace so that there is no glare from my windows, i now have the cars windows tinted BLACK, all of them and yes i have been pulled over numours times...





here are some shots from the first day i got my 10'screen, I ripped right into it and fabed up my suriget screen so i wouldnt damage this one.

__________________

portabuddy

ok well some more recent shots, i started by useing a glinding cookie and cleaning up the screen bezel, once it was all clean i glued the glass panel back on...

I took some pink foam from homedepot and used normal elmers school glue to bond the pieces together i taped them together stacked some beer boxed on it and left it for a week to dry, once it was set i used a coaping saw and a large sharp knife to fit the foam to the bezel, once it was pieced together i did a rough cut with rasor bladesa a rasp, knifes and 40 grit sand paper to rough out a shape...

this is what that looked like... the angel is set in place with the epoxy at the botom...


this is a shot my bro got of me sanding...
I'm still in my work scrubs, nice day to wear a black shirt eh?




And smothed up with some 120 grit paper and some rasors, the Final product will look like this, and if your wondering why im spending so much time since i will just be covering it up with epoxy anyway well it only took 30 min to an hour to get to this point...


that void on the right hand side will be filled with a flap the pivots up to reveal 2 USB ports and a audio in port for mp3 players...


I got some plasticene from a craft store to fill in the voids left by the meeting of the vertical and horizontal pieces... then once it was patched i befan mixing and appling the 2 part epoxy, i chose to use Hard plastic epoxt to prevent cracking in winterm as it is the same consistancy as the material that the bezel is made of...



And its all covered...

__________________

portabuddy

FYI i was useing a bamboo squire to mix the stuff ans a rasor to apply it, and getting it all over my hands...

But this is only 1/8"-1/16" thick, so i needed to waight for it to set(5 min) and chip the back clean to realy apply the stuff for strength, i used clay shapeing tools for that(like a sharp wire loop on a stick)





And the under coating brining the total thickness to around 1/4"




Remember kids always wear your mask when sanding..., i was coughing up pink foam the next day...




whatcha think so far?

__________________

portabuddy

Ok and i have finished little parts to the projects like making a external antenna for my WiFi, by adding a 7Db gain antenna and my gps for external use...


I plan on not touching any part of my cars harnesses as to not void and waranties, i dont want to get screwd over by honda if they get touchy, so i will be useing a seperate amps that i have kicking around my house, may aswell use them...

__________________

incudie

Wow very impressive. I'll be watching this one for sure. Which night vision cameras are you planning on using?

portabuddy

they are generic cams but their picture quality looks realy good I also ordered 200 IR leds to add to the front and back or of the car.

__________________

portabuddy

today when i got home i popped out the fake glass screen -the one that i cut just so that the tiny tiny bezel didn't get deformed- this took over an hour, this is because i had just hot-glued the glass in there about 2 weeks ago and it was still plenty strong. i cut at it with razors and then finally prying on it from the front with a fine metal putty-knife, the screen popped out.

I wasn't in the clear yet i needed to cut the glue away ans strip it out with a tiny pair of needle nose pliers. almost two hours later i was almost done, I say almost because when i test fitted the screen it turns out that i needed to trim some of the epoxy for it to sit right, some had seeped under the glass when i molded it...

I also needed to trim a little plastic piece that formed the bottom of the bezel and the frame, it was sticking out a bit and i trimmed it down with a pair of nippers., that way i could slide the screen from the bottom (the only way possible), when i was forming the side piece that i will later cut vent holes into i noticed that there is no way to install the screen due to the cramped space and my wacky geometry... But it fits well now.


I applied more epoxy to the inside approaching the the front on the top, next with the screen installed i will be able to tell where my CD burner will go, i got a slot load snipper slim drive, it does everything but blue-ray and HD-DVD...

the drive will be removable (just in-case) and when the CD is ejected it will pop straight up with the words facing you.



All i have to do is sand, apply more epoxy, sand, epoxy, sand, filler, sand, cut holes for the cd, make 4 buttons, mount Ir receptors for radio/screen/TV and make them look good, then filler, sand, primer, sand, primer, sand, paint, clear, sand, buff and I'm done... E.T. for compilation is in one month... OK two...


BTW the computer is really stable, i have been using it as my computer for the last year, and I almost love it too much to put it in my car so i might get a faster one and put that in it...


WHERE ARE ALL THE GEN 8 CIVIC OWNERS???, Oh I guess im the only one here now eh?

__________________

kleicl

nice can you upload some more shots.

incudie

haha I can see it now... some guy is watching a Caltran camera and sees 200 lights shining from a Civic racing down the freeway =P

Once my PC is in (and funds are more readily available) I would like to put at lease a couple cams in along with a mic.

portabuddy

Ir led's are bairly visable, they are workin in a light spectrum that we cannot see, i plan on putting 150 in the front and 50-100 in the back, I got the strongest ones i could (of course ), the downside to heveing the lights on my car is if cops are useing lidar(lezer radar) the leds give it more acuracy , the plus side is that i can make them pulse useing a varable resistor and a 555timer circut and make them work like a green light device.

Ever notice that there are little black sensors with little hoods ontop of the lights at intercections?, well those are Ir recivers that catch pulses from firetrucks that change the lights green when one comes through the intersection, Its a $50 fine if your cought with a device that messes with the trafic light...


kleicl, the problem with the progress is that i need to wait a day or so fot the epoxy to fully harden, if you like i can put up shots of my antenna mod?

__________________

portabuddy

I want the best reception so i got a 8db gain antenna and began to think on how to make a internal antenna external... i stole a external gps/gsm antenna from work ment for a volvo truck(aprox. $300) and gutted it, Im going to mount it on my roof later. the gsm works on a 1.1GHz and wifi works on 2GHz so i had to scrap that antenna, and i bought the holox usb gps mouse off ebay, since i couldnt get the one built into the original volvo unit to work that had to go too. there was a bunch of circutry in there that was pretty useless, lol.

this is a pic of the antenna befor the butchery and durring, originaly i was going to have the gps under the dash and i was going to use the antenna for my tv, but im going to intergrate the tv antennas into the side rear windows in the form of de-fogger strips insted.(going all the way around the window)





here is a pic of the antennas still put together


here is a pic of the antenna with the rubber boot taken off, the antenna is junk and the boot i used to make the indoor a outdoor. also note the thickness differance, the original is 2mm thick and the new one is 12mm thick, thats a bit of a differnce, i ended up scooping the excess rubber by drilling it out with progresivly bigger bits since the sidewall was quite thick.


and here is a nice Pic of the inside with all the useless junk, at this point i decided that the mouse dosn't doing to fit inside eaven with everything removed. so i had a choice modift the antenna housing or tare apart the gps mouse...



...
..
.
I chose the mouse. HA HA HA FUN!@$#&^
I went midevil on it can opener stiyle..... OH YA! THATS RIGHT I'M NUTZ


FYI this is what it looks on the inside


well I'm all in so lets keep on destroying, i cant use the threads on the old antenna so i need to gently "extract" the new ones, *CRACK*
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/atta...7_1024x680.jpg

I drilled the old threads out and drilled through the brass to the exact outside diamiter of the new one.


and crazy glued it into place


this hurt me very much, but i had to do it to get it through the nut thing for mounting.


also on the right you can see the new antenna all done and squezed on. this was VERY HARD since i had to stretch the rubber over the antenna, so i greased it up with some nice syn. axle grease i had laying around, this greased everything so i got some spray adhesive used on carpets sprayed my handa and my brother sprayed hus this have us enough traction to slip it over. this took over an hour

then i hard plastic epoxied it into place this epoxy dries rock hard and it ensures that this will be water tight eaven though im siliconing EVERYTHING.


TAAA DAAAA all done and siliconed however i siliconed the top and filled the whole thing(the WiFi antenna) up with silicone too...crazy no?



BTW the antenna still flexes at the joint, and all of the close-up shots where esp. hard to take as I dont have a macro lese only a 55mm and a 300mm, so i'm holding the assy. in one hand and the camera with the other trying to zoom, focus and all while holding a magnifying glass to get the close up, lol that was fun. i should get pretty good reception now also considering its hooked up to a usb 200mW WiFi device not the normal 35-100mW that most are, He He.

You can run you can hide but i'll find the "defult", "linksys", "netgear", and "MyWiFiNetwork" of the world, any one who scans for unsecure networks knows exacly what i mean(stupid ppl.)

__________________

2k1Toaster

The other bad part is that now you will have a hoard of mosquitos following your car and trying to suck its blood! They like the IR too.


You would be surprised at least around here. I find so many "linksys" broadcasts but they are encrypted! Its like they had the time and know-how to encrypt, but not to change the name? It just gets my hopes up and squashes them!


Looking good so far btw.

__________________

portabuddy

this i did not think of, your right the bugs will be drawn to the car... Damm you, Oh well some times sacrifices need to be made in the pursuit of cool..., i was going to put them in the lower air dam of the bumper but now im thinking that the upper windsheild would be better, Any thought?


thanks, i just got to sanding it a bit with god ol' 40 grit ...

I was driving around with my laptop and the antenna before i "fixed it design" and useing winC i found a alarmin number of unsicure networks, 3 time that with the small antenna, And even the ones that where secure the passwords where 12345 or user or defult or home?, gowd ppl are dumb, what do you think that no one can use your network but you?, , i will do some more sanding and post later on when i come home from work.

__________________

incudie

Lucky... its a federal crime and 10,000 fine in the US... (yeah a dirty mirt would make me uuber happy to install in my car)... I could deal with a possible 50 dollar fee... but not 10k =(

With the IR I just meant that a lot of cameras are able to see IR. (even though the human eye can not). Just be careful at intersections with Caltran cameras (if those are even in CA).

portabuddy

We only have them in the major cities, i work in a rural area and live in a BIG but urban town, no cams like that to speak of, I dodnt realy know what you ment by Caltran? but now i do :P...

I'm at work now but I'll get some sanding done and take a pic with the screen inthere..., I still have to locate the cd rom...

__________________