Thread: Carputer on a Budget: 2002 WRX ver. 2.0

not all that many... are you working on your car tomorrow?

Since it's raining here, I was just going to add bondo to my bezel and let it dry while the weather dumps on us. Can't seem to get my hands on the bondo though...

So I guess I'll just post more pics.

Couldn't post earlier for some reason, so here I am again.

By now, I have received the monitor. It was $196 shipped and brand new from ebay. Almost went with an Ex-audio one that was identical except for the labeling, but this came out to be $4 cheaper. I tested it out and played with it for a while. I put it in the hole where it's going in the car and realized it's not going to be as easy as I hoped to get it to fit.

There's very little vertical room in the hole in my dash, so I got this monitor with the buttons on the side so I wouldn't have to modify the screen (too much). Well, it turns out to be too tall still, and too thick. I'll have to cut a piece of the dash behind the screen. So I ordered another dash piece ($51.62-ebay) and waited for it to come before working on the bezel. I also needed an adapter for the vga cable ($8 from local shop). I guess I could take the one in my car out, but then I'd have to drive around without the dash together. Usually that's not a problem, except the hvac controls are there and the weather here lately has been up and down to say the least and I'm using those controls a lot. I'll just have to find something else to work on in the mean time...

Since I have to wait before I can work on the bezel, I will focus on building a case for the computer. I looked around for something I can easily use as a case, instead of building something from scratch. I only had a 14” diameter space to work with because it needs to fit inside the spare tire. It also has to be portable enough to take it back and forth from the car to house for tweaking and modding. Some candidates were an old VCR and a humidifier. I liked the humidifier because it had a big fan on top and vents on the side. But both ended up being a little too big. Nothing I could find was big enough to house the mobo and still be small enough to fit in the tire.

The only alternative was to build it. Since I have scrap MDF left over from other projects, I chose that to start off with. I cut out a roundish shape with a 14” diameter. Then I trimmed 2 sides off so I can fit my fingers between the case and spare tire rim when I want to pull it out. The order of components is: hard drive and psu on the bottom, mobo in the middle, and dvd drive tops it off. I tried making the hd removable but the slot from the original case wouldn’t easily come off. This will have to be changed in a later version. The dvd drive went on top because the tray needed room to move in and out, although I don’t plan on using it too much. I only kept it in case I need to run software from a disc, like some of my mapping ones. Some rubber bushings and stuff were added in some places to dampen vibration, more can be added later if needed (sport suspension + thin walled tires + Mass roads + my driving style = loose fillings + sore neck). Not sure how the computer will perform under these conditions yet.

I regrettably had to go to work in the middle of things. I took too much time looking for something to mount the mother board on, since i didn't want it to sit directly on top of the psu or hd. I ended up using blocks of mdf I cut out.

The next day I picked up where I left off the day before. The mdf blocks weren't working out. They kept splitting when I drove screw into them, even after drilling pilot holes. And they look very crude and not sophisticated at all. Luckily, I had pieces of aluminum left over from other project I could use. All I did was use a vice and a rubber mallet to gently bend the aluminum into brackets. The dvd drive is mount in the same fashion, except higher up. A regular hammer was used a few times to bend the longer pieces. A squaring triangle was used to (try to) keep things square.

That's all folks. I might do some minor changes in the next few weeks, but I waiting until after it's up and running to see how things work out. Below are pics of everything together before I wire things up.

And this is what it looks like with all the wires and the front panel temporarily mounted with a zip tie. I powered it up and ran it for hours (in my living room) and everything's running ok. Since there aren't any walls, air flow is good. and the best part, it fits in the spare tire (I did have some doubts), the lid closes and everthing. The only thing is I need a power cord with a right angle plug to go into the psu. I should have one lying around somewhere. Thanks for visiting. Tune in next time.

After receiving the dash piece I ordered, I could finally concentrate on fabricating a screen bezel. I originally hoped to bolt the monitor inside the dash with a custom made bracket and just lay the dash trim piece over it without using epoxy or bondo. But that plan didn’t work out. So I got do it the traditional way.

I think this will be the hardest part of the build. I really hate sanding things. And to make it look perfect, there has to be a LOT of sanding done. But it HAS to be perfect. This bezel is going to stare at me every time I get into my car, and if there are any imperfections at all, they will drive me crazy.

I started by taking the screen apart. I had to decide what to do with the buttons. I wanted to move them to somewhere below the dash and just have the screen visible, giving that much desired factory look. But because I have the space, I figured it will be easier to just leave them in. It still looks factory (I guess), just not as clean as it would without them. I’ll have the functionality without messing with rewiring (one of my weak points). What do you guys think? I am still divided on this and might change it in later versions.

I took the "dremel" to the dash bezel and removed the side pieces and flattened the back out a little. I forgot to get the before and after shots of the back, sorry.

I had plenty of room horizontally, but was short vertically. The pics show how the hvac controls got in the way. I had to have the screen up high instead of centered like I wanted. I trimmed the top of the dash piece because it blocked the screen a little. I could have cut everything and flush mounted the screen, but I wanted it recessed and angled like the way it is. After getting it where I wanted it, I taped it to hold it in place for epoxy application. After curing for a couple hours, I added bondo (with kitty hair) for added strength. I had a can left over from a previous (abandoned) project.