BMW E39 - Lilliput Bezel

**Bimmerstyle** · 09-24-2006, 01:19 AM

Hi, On popular demand: The worklog of my bezel:

First of all. This is not for the faint of hearted. A little knowledge of these things is prefered when you start. Otherwise you might end up with a wrecked lilliput...

Things you need:

A lilliput/newision touchscreen

An old type one piece E39 radio. These are rare but worth nothing so if you find one you can't pay a lot of money for it. I had mine still laying around so that was easy.

Other things needed:

Insulation foam,
A piece of cardboard,
A blade from an iron saw,
Masking tape,
A polyester set,
A pair of scissors
A Dremel tool
A Fiberdisc
A can of mastic (I hope this is the right word, I meen the stuff you use on a car when there is a dent),
Diverse grid sanding paper,
Prefered is someone who has sanded mastic before,
Patience!

I started with unscrewing the front of the radio and removing the buttons. The just snap out.

With masking tape I covered up all the holes for the buttons and taped a piece of cardboard behind the frame.

I sprayed some insulation foam there were normaly the wood grane cover is. This is easy to shape.

With a saw-blade I shaped the model of the bezel. At the bottom you see the lucky strike I just finished.

Looks good.

Over this I put the polyester. (for those who wonder, it's a Passat)

On the back I also put a lot of polyester. Is has to be strong when it's finished.

Removed the lower section of the screenframe to make it fit.

With a dremel I made the hole for the screen.

Cutting the polyester to fit the bezel

Applying the resina.

WIth a Fiberdisc and some 80 grid sanding paper I created the rough shape.

On this I apllied the mastic and on the picture my friend Jaenen is sanding it with a 150 grid paper. He does this kinda stuff for a living so I let him do it. This way it has to come out good.

**Bimmerstyle** · 09-24-2006, 01:22 AM

Continued:

A test fit after the first layer of mastic

Applying a new layer

Sanding it again with a 80 and 150 grid paper

Applying the basecoat and sanding it with a 600 grid paper

Applying the finishing colour. I used matte black from a spray can and let it dry a lot between very light coats on a hot summer day, this gives it a little bit of structure like the original dashboard

The dashboard appart. Removing the radio and the MID display is easy. Removing the frame where they are in is NOT! I had to unscrew the entire lower section of the dash and the instrument cluster!

Another test fit. Starts to look good!

Screwing the screen on the front frame, cutting the rear frame to match the front, taping the buttons on the back of the screen, putting the original radio buttons back in the radio frame and this is what it looked like.
On the back side I also glued some plastic pieces. They hold the leds for the illuminated buttons

And this is what it looks like once finished and put in the car!

**kraft** · 09-24-2006, 05:06 AM

Nice work

This is just what i was looking for my E39.

Couldn't it be possible to take the fingerprint of the old radio faceplate instead and make it with resin or don't know what ?

**Bimmerstyle** · 09-26-2006, 12:10 AM

I guess this is possible. But this seems pretty difficult to do I think. I think it's easier the way I did it. Not? Why would you wanna do it that way. Is there a special reason for it?

**kraft** · 09-26-2006, 02:06 PM

Well i'm conservative with cars even if i'm not a collector lol

I like when a thing can be rolled back without any kind of "damage" even if in your case it's a very very nice "damage"

I looked on ebay but didn't found any old bmw radio out of order to build my own bezel and to be honest i'm a bit reluctuant to accept the idea to kill the one i have in my car

**Bimmerstyle** · 09-27-2006, 12:38 AM

I understand your point of view. I wouldn't do it either if I had no other radio to replace the screen with when I sell the car. In my case, the radio I took apart was the one that was in the car when I bought it. I replaced this one very soon with a (very exclusive) Business CD/MP3 unit from an X5. They are the same. So this one I still have for putting back in the car when I sell it.

Problem is: when you want the screen the same way I did it you will have to take apart a radio anyway for obtaining the buttons. So I guess there's only one way and thats finding one.

I don't know how the situation is in France but in Belgium there are a lot of BMW "junkyards" where they take apart damaged cars and there you can find an old type radio like this one very cheap. Maybe try something like that?

**kraft** · 09-27-2006, 06:16 AM

That's a good idean i will check the junkyards in Belgium as i have to cross your country while driving to Germany on saturday. Original buttons are not really mandatory for me as i plan to use a jog/push button instead...well this is what i plan

**kraft** · 11-01-2006, 05:56 AM

Finally after looking in junkyards and ebay, i changed my plans, junkyard : didn't found a single car.
Ebay, there is war there for stock gps screens raising up to 160 € for a dead screen.
Paying between 50 € up to much more for a radio i won't use is something a bit too expensive for plastic faceplate. So no option remains, i bought some black plexiglass that can be shaped with warm air if needed. I just started dismantling the

dashboard

**kraft** · 11-01-2006, 11:04 AM

rhaaaa this radio is probably glued or something, i can't extract it from the dashboard and anyway if i even extract it without breaking it, i will lose my board computer. I'm wondering if btw it wouldn't mess everything with the car's electronics...seems to be time to sold this marvellous car with which i waste my time