2003 P71- Cop Car Install

Hello everyone, I am a noob to this whole install thing, however, I have been looking at the forums now for awhile, so I hope that I will be able to put together an acceptable project. I want to install a CarPC in my 2003 Crown Victoria P71, a retired cop car. Below you will find a few pictures of the car, as well as two wiring diagrams that I have developed as a guide. I will be posting pictures of my progress so far tomorrow. If anyone has any comments or questions, please shoot. I have built a custom center console, which I have embedded a screen into. I plan on putting a layer of bondo over the console, before i carpet the sides, and lay brushed aluminum over the top. After that is done it will be fiberglassed into the dash (the part of the install I am dreading the most). I also have a Pioneer D3 (navigation/DVD) unit in the dash opening where the stock radio went. It is only a 1.5 din radio opening, so it took a little fabrication to get the 2 din pioneer in, but I did, although there is still much to be done to make it look clean. I will post more tomorrow. :laser:

Moved to Worklogs.

You ain't got much to show off there, save for the wiring diagram. ;)

So here are some pics of my work in progress... The center console I will be covering in bondo in the next few days in preparation for the fiberglass and carpet covering. I will also be covering the top with aluminum. I will be running an old laptop, Pentium M, to the computer screen in the center console, and will also be running video out from my D3 to the computer screen for movie playback while the navigation system is in use. The pictures in the trunk are of the box I made to contain the 3 amps (4 channel and 2 Sub) and the computer. There is a fake floor which I will be mounting the amps/ computer to, and then the wires will go underneath to give is a more clean look. I have added 5 computer fans in the box to give it air, I hope that will be enough. The box will then be covered in carpet, so it will not be all that visible to those who do not know it exists. The antennas on top are my 2 GPS (one for D3 one for computer) and Sat radio, I will be fabricating a cover for them out of fiberglass as well. If anyone has done something similar to this type of antenna covering, please let me know what happened in terms of reception. The last picture is of the speakers that I mounted in the grill for the PA system. Any comments, especially in regards to tips on fiberglass, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading. :high5:

That looks good. I would get a fixed mount antenna that can make use of your hole on the roof. I have a Crown Vic too (Aero) and I have a hockey puck style low profile GPS antenna that completely covers the hole. Of course it would require you to drop the headliner to attach it properly, it will keep out elements, etc.

I almost did a setup like yours when I had bucket seats but I decided to put leather bench seats instead to make my car look LESS like a police vehicle. Not to mention there isnt that huge gap in the middle anymore.

I have a 2004 P71, I wimped out and decided to go the laptop route instead of so much custom car PC stuff. I like where you are going with all that though, keep posting your progress as some of that may help us other Crown Vic people.

I used a Jotto Desk, then just ordered a LIND DC powersupply for the Dell D600 I am putting in there.

I would still like to replace the head unit with something that at least has aux input, etc. Has anyone used a combo of a laptop, and souped up head unit together?

Vaughn

nice work. looks like it will be a good project to work on.

Any updates?