Thread: 2006 VW Passat - MP3VW #2

Old pc would fit in the glove box in the new passat, but the case would not, so I had to bend up a new one. Pro tip: Pay attention to the details. I actually built the acrylic top in reverse first, and had to reverse all the bends. I had everything marked properly, but removed the notes when I finally went to use the heat gun.

So to get the bend, first built a template to test fit and then build over (also proof I can still figure out how to get the angle needed in my head at 2 in the morning after working a 65 hour week):


Then cut a bit of acrylic to size:


Then form:


Case should have been quite clean, but due to the doubling of all the bends (not to mention I had been up for 20 hours by the time it was done) added some blemishes. Good enough to be hidden in the glovebox most of the time.

Also bought two dash kits for my car, as running screenless for a while, I figured I'd run the dash kit where the factory stereo went with two pockets (each kit coming with one pocket). Turns out the pockets aren't 1 DIN, they're more like .75 din. So instead I created a blanking plate out of the dual single DIN faceplate. Little plexi and the interior surface of a black binder, and I have a decent looking product:






Also got the goodies in the mail for relocating my head unit on Wednesday. Unfortunately, haven't had time to do anything with them:


Edit:
B6 Passat dash looks like this:

Hacked out a portion of the rear of the CD Changer slot and got the head unit to fit. Just need to measure out the locations of the mounting screws.


Also put the ir repeater eye in the dash kit. Thinned out the material in the dash kit so the ir receiver could sit close to flush to the front to achieve a wide angle of use out of it, not sure I went far enough, but should be a good start:


Finally created the worlds longest stereo adapter harness. Plugs into the factory harness in the center of the dash and will connect to the head unit that will be in the glove compartment. Modeled the length of the adapter harness of the existing harness for the cd changer, so shouldn't have any problems putting the glove box back in.


Still need to pick up some hardware to tap the battery/ground, led's and led holders, and a switch for turning the pc on/off. As much as I want to start using the new stereo in the car, I don't want to put it in and button the car back up only to have to pull it apart next weekend to run wires for the pc (both power and control).

Worked on it a bit this weekend and got the stereo mounted in the cd changer recess and got the glove box put back together, so we have something that looks like this:


Now you see it


Now you dont:


And a closer look at the pc (woo acorn nuts):


Now I need to start pulling wires, fused +12vdc from the battery (through the firewall), find some metal under the dash to ground to, cat5 for control signals (pwr led/pwr switch), plumb the lead for the IR repeater, and finally hook up the audio.

You might reconsider the Cat5 wire -- it's solid core, and you really want stranded wire for mobile installations. It'll work, but it could fracture somewhere down the road . . .

It'll actually be a cat5 patch cable, so it'll be stranded, but I've used (and continue to use) solid core 22 and 24 ga wire for fine connections for the past and have actually had what they're attached (crimped or soldered) to fail first. If I was going to put it in the accordion boot in one of the doors, I'd definately want stranded, but for simple static point to point, solid core won't have any problems (and the old car had sport suspension and was running 205/40 profile tires, so not the smoothest ride ). Thanks for the input though .

Hey Nick lookin good, who needs a glove box anyway??? Still not runnin a screen, Im sure we can fit the 15" in there somewhere!!!! Cant wait to check it out at the meet.
Aron

Originally Posted by boomintrac

Hey Nick lookin good, who needs a glove box anyway??? Still not runnin a screen, Im sure we can fit the 15" in there somewhere!!!! Cant wait to check it out at the meet.
Aron

Hopefully there will be a screen by the time we start having meets again. But I suppose we'll have to see, as there are a lot of other stuff that needs to be done to the car too (coil-overs, wheels, chip, downpipe+test pipe, etc).

It'll actually be a cat5 patch cable, so it'll be stranded.

I cut into a Cat5 patch cable I have, and, sure enough, it's stranded. So I'll be using it like you are: power switch, reset switch, LED indicators.

Thanks for the tip . . .

MP3Dub, looks very nice. These pics are like deja vu for me as I have your exact vehicle and went through this. I'm on my 3rd different setup and have finally attained something that I'm happy with. Yours looks really nice... I really wanted to get my pc to fit in the glovebox but couldn't make it happen with what I have. I also hacked up the back of the cd changer receptacle to accomodate my aftermarket HU, no biggie, just cheap plastic, and whoever buys the car from me eventually will be none the wiser since the CD changer will be reinstalled and will work fine (unless they happen to be a car pc/aftermarket audio enthusiast that is!) I've got the Dynaudio system in there and it sounds awesome: I've got my soundcard running into a small Sonic Tio PCI amp, and out of that directly into the Dynaudio amp, and the sound is unbeatable. I love it.

One question for you: have you hooked up your Euro antenna adapter yet? I am getting really bad reception with mine. So much so that I'm only listening to satellite radio b/c the reception on AM/FM is unbearable (I'm using the ADS/Silabs USB stick with a modded antenna receptacle to take the male motorola plug from the adapter). The only think I can think of is that my adapter is faulty, or I've got the blue power wire hooked up wrong. I've currently got it connected to the "Power Antenna" wire of my aftermarket harness (similar to your C2R-VW piece). I'm thinking I should try running it to a dedicated 12v output wire instead. And the fact that one of the two antenna plugs that goes into the back of the factory radio is left unused, doesn't make me feel like the aftermarket reception has the potential to be all that great.