Rower Posted June 30, 2009 Report Share Posted June 30, 2009 I missed a few pics along the way but you can get the idea. Basically, I gutted my broken head unit and put all the necessary contents from a portable dvd player with aux video input, into it. I'm running a 12V digital tv, over the air, converter box for tv. My main motivation was to have the local weather radar which is channel 6.2 in south florida. What I did: I took off the face of the stock head unit and cut out the center section to just leave the frame. I don't have a pic of just the frame but you can see it in this old picture of when I had it in my 850. The face of the frame was not flat so I sanded it down till it was. Then came the fun part.. I took a flat piece of glass and waxed it. I started with some rain-x and then put a couple coats of some random turtle wax I found in the garage. I left all the residue on the glass. Then I mixed up some polyester resin and pored it onto the glass. I put the fiberglass matting on top and made sure it was saturated. Then I put the gutted radio with plastic frame on the fiberglass and put some extra resin around the edges. I let it dry but not completely. While it was still a little bit soft, I slowly pulled away the whole piece from the glass. I let it dry hard and the next day trimmed it up a bit. When you take apart an LCD screen, it has a metal frame that the glass and reflectors go in. I took that frame and put it on the backside of the fiberglass with some resin. This would not only hold the actual LCD but give me a good guide to shape the frame. Once it dried, I cut out the excess and sanded down to the metal frame. I also cut the excess of the outside of the frame and sanded it down using the floor of my garage as a sanding surface to get a nice straight edge. I had some pinholes of where there was bubbles in the resin so I used some of the blue bondo to fill everything in. After several sessions of sanding and priming, I was happy with the finish. I used flat black spray pain that is a fair match for the interior. I realized that I wanted to be able to pull it out of the dash easily and the best way would be to use the system that the stock radio comes with. It took some courage but I was able to cuz the frame with a dremel and a hack saw blade to get some rectangular holes. Some more paint and sanding to get it to look good. Here is a photo of what the inside looks like: Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out and the total cost was about $20. I wanted to keep a stock look but figure if you want it to look real cool, you could do the same thing using carbon fiber instead of fiberglass and use clear epoxy for finishing instead of paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serge Posted June 30, 2009 Report Share Posted June 30, 2009 Good work! It looks very similar to my setup (gutting a stock radio). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HtownTurboBrick Posted June 30, 2009 Report Share Posted June 30, 2009 Good job, looks great. I'd like to be able to do something similar once i get around to doing my carputer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prezman26 Posted June 30, 2009 Report Share Posted June 30, 2009 thats really cool dude! all you need now is a blu-ray player in there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Y L E Posted June 30, 2009 Report Share Posted June 30, 2009 nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naughty33W Posted July 1, 2009 Report Share Posted July 1, 2009 very impressive , i planned on using the space from the stock head unit to drop in an aftermarket one that would leave me alot of space for gauges , i WAS going to fab a plate for the new head unit and gauges but now i think i'll use the outer frame as you did , then i'll only need to fab a center plate with 1 rectangular hole and 3 round ones , good right up and pictures , +9999999 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prasamin Posted July 1, 2009 Report Share Posted July 1, 2009 good work on a mad budget! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boost_Junky Posted July 2, 2009 Report Share Posted July 2, 2009 (says in a beavis and butthead voice) I will do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronD81 Posted July 2, 2009 Report Share Posted July 2, 2009 How do you switch inputs? I see a head unit in the glove box, is that where it's permanently mounted? Do you have the sound from the DVD/TV running through the head unit? Where did you buy a digital 12v tv tuner for $20? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rower Posted July 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2009 How do you switch inputs? I see a head unit in the glove box, is that where it's permanently mounted? Do you have the sound from the DVD/TV running through the head unit? Where did you buy a digital 12v tv tuner for $20? Yeah, the head unit is mounted in the glove and I have the TV tuner going into the Aux input. I usually drive with the glove open and control the radio with its remote. Right now I have the TV Tuner sitting under the passenger seat until I find a place to hide it. At that point I'll take the IR sensor off the board and move it to a place where the TV remote can see it. I'd like to find some sort of switching box so I can have different inputs for video like a back-up camera, dvd player and maybe a video ipod. It should be noted that right now I'm using rabbit ears flush against the windshield close to the headliner for antenna. They work great when you are sitting still but if you are moving, especially in residential areas, the picture breaks up. I haven't found anything online as to whats the best antenna for a car and I don't want to put one of those Crocodile Dundee boomerangs on the trunk. The TV tuner only cost me $.01. There is a $40 government coupon and at Compusa they had a 12V tuner for $40.01. It was the DVD player (LCD) that cost me like $17 on ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volvo Hun S 70 Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Very nice job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilled man Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 faptaculer B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyCarIsRed Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Thats just a hacked player or did you sorce a new screen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurgerBob Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnloves850's Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 was that really the only pic you had of that hahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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