Thread: 2000 Pontiac Trans Am carputer install

Great job!! I have been wanting a trans am since I borrowed my uncles 2000 for a few weeks while he was out of town. Great cars and you have an awesome install!

Originally Posted by 1stbird

Hey Snootch,
Love the install! I've got a "new" 2001 Formula and just love the idea of a carputer! What kind of software are you using?
I got CarShell from Alti (you are my [computer] god now! What an awsome piece of software! No carputer yet, but I have tried it out on my desktop!) I've read about Road Runner, but where do you get it from? Is this a shell like CarShell or is this for navigation (GPS)?
Still would like to know what software you are using. It looks AWSOME! BTW, have you guys ever heard about "Realise Voice"? It lets you speak commands into your computer, rather than using your mouse or keyboard! Wouldn't it a powertrip to be able to "tell" your computer to "Open WinAmp" (or whatever) rather than having to push a button?!? My mind is racing with all of the possibilities! K.I.T.T. car, here we come!

1stbird



2001 Firebird Formula
Purchased 8/19/2005

LS1
6 Speed (M6)
Ram Air Hood (Dealer Installed)
Ram Air Box (Dealer Installed)
K&N Air Filter
CAGS Eliminator
DRL Disable

Black on Black
No T-Tops
GM Factory Bra
Pilot Motorsports Shiftknob
Pilot Motorsports Pedal Covers

"My old lady left me and took my Firebird the other day. Damn, I miss that car!"

Glad to see someone else with a Firebird wants to install a PC!

The frontend software i'm using is roadrunner, available here: http://guino.home.insightbb.com/roadrunner.html

I suggest downloading it, and playing around with it, to get a feel for what it can do; which is a lot. RR is skinnable, and many members of this board make skins for it. GPS is one of the features I plan to add, but currently RR manages 19.3Gb of MP3's, a dozen movies, and XM radio for me. I suggest taking a look into the RR section on this board at Software & Software Development>Front Ends>Roadrunner. There are several other free frontends available as well. If I did not need the naitive XM radio support that is integrated into RR, I would probably use Centrafuse. Everything i've done to my car (PC wise) I've learned on these forums. Thanks for your compliments, and
Good Luck!

BTW: for everyone else reading carshell is not a frontend in its current state.

It is a shell like explorer.

Originally Posted by Gearhead61

I'm very impressed Snootch! Always wanted a good ole' american muscle car like that.

Would you mind going into a little bit more detail about that hood you created for your screen? I'd like to do one for my 7" Xenarc when I can afford it.

Sure, The stock bezel around the radio is made of ABS plastic, so I just built upon it with strips of some 1/8" ABS sheet I bought from McMaster-Carr. I cut out the cross-piece between the radio and A/C using a jigsaw. Then I glued three ABS strips about 2" x 10" together in a sandwich using the ABS shavings/Acetone mix solvent adhesive. Once i got the "sandwich" made, I heated up one end using a heat gun to get it to curve at a 90 degree angle. Then I alignrd that corner I made with the top corner of the bezel. I then measured the distance across the top, and heated up the ABS to make the other top corner. Once I did this, I had this strip of ABS "sandwich" with 90 degree bends at either end, with a shape that resembles a staple when viewed from the side. I then glued it to the bezel using several applications of the ABS glue. Then I started shaping the edge of the hood using a orbital sander with 120 grit paper. Once I had it sanded to shape (which took a lot of work) I used the ABS glue as a filler, filling in small imperfections and seams. Then I sanded those spots smooth. I did this about 3 or 4 times until all the seams and big imperfections were filled in. Then I still had small pinholes which I filled using body filler "Icing". Then I sanded it again, and making sure it was smooth, sprayed it with Dupli-Color adhesion promoter, then 15 minutes later a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum black textured finish paint. I ground the mounting posts off of the backside, and used epoxy to attach four wide strips of velcro to the back.