Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I'm going to attempt to keep a picture chronicle of my install, and I'll post pics as I progress.

Anyway, just to recap what I have and what I'm going to have:

Right now I've got a Kenwood PS907 flush mounted into the dash. Diamond components in home made kick panels, and a pair of Oz 300L 12" subs. I've got a Kicker ZR240 for the highs and a ZR600 for the subs.

What's going in is a JVC SH909 deck, JVC KVDV7 dvd player, Nesa 7" 16:9 LCD screen, one pair of Audiosource EQTs, new kick panels, and a single 12" Brahma instead of the pair of Oz subs.

The install plan:

The deck will sit in the stock location. The DVD player is going where the center heater vents are in the dash. The monitor is going above the heater controls, in an enclosure that'll look like it was stock.

The eq's are going into the back seat.

I haven't figured out what I'm doing with the sub & amps yet.

So anyway, on to the picture. I spent all day today (~6 hours) on this single piece. This is going to be the housing for the LCD monitor. It's going to go right above the heater controls. I started with a spare console, and cut it down to what you see here.


So far I've cut the divider bar out of the trim plate, and trimmed the back so that it's all even. I trimmed the bottom down so that it mates to the top of the stock console. Unfortunately, I ran into an unexpected snag. Believe it or not, the console and the trim plate are tapered slightly. The trim ring is approximately 3/16" narrower at the top than the bottom. Because of that, my top plate is wider than the bottom one where they meet. I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to handle it, but considering what GM quality control looks like, I don't think this is going to prevent it from looking stock.

My next step is going to be shortening the piece. I need to shorten it approximately one inch. My dilemma is how I want to cut it. Because of the texture on the front of the piece, any kind of attempt to cut it and smooth it back together will be ovbious. I think I'm going to keep the splice as high up as I can, because that'll be the least noticable area.

Once it's done, it'll conform to the shape of the dash behind it, and will be cut to fit around the cig lighter/defroster pod.

My attempt is to stuff all this crap into the car and make it look stock, or at least what stock would look like if GM had 7" screens and DVD players back then.

As I make more progress I'll keep posting.

joezero

Haha, I beat you to it! J/K Sounds like quite a setup you'll have there Jim, good luck. IMHO, where you're putting is the closest to a factory location as you can get. I was surprised at how ordinary my dash still looked after the install of the screen and EQ. I was hoping for custom but everybody keeps saying "wow, that looks factory"

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

Its about damm time you got started.

transam305

now that's sweet!:hail:

Huckster's '84 TA

Looking good.

I like your set-up there joezero.

joezero

Thanks, I'll try and get some pics during the day so I don't have to use the flash (I took those at like 9 p.m. last night).



O.k., I've got new pics up on my website www.geocities.com/jcargile2001

hydric

wow, thats sweetness in motion.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Here's another update (no pic though).

I spent another 3 hours on the trim plate tonight. I sat there for a while trying to figure out how to cut it down and have it still look right. Finally I decided on a technique that minimizes the amount of piecing within the textured area. I'll snap a pic tomorrow and upload it. I still don't know if it's going to work or not, but I guess there's only one way to find out.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Another update, this time with pics.

This pic shows the cut-down plate in the two pieces. In order to minimize the viewable cut, I cut at the seam in the corner, vertical up through the texture, then horizontal along the edge. Doing it this way allowed me to have minimal modification to the textured area.

Here it is glued together:

The left side came out almost perfect. The right side isn't so perfect, and I haven't figured out what I want to do about it yet. The pieces you see sticking up are extra pieces that I glued to the back so I could line up the top piece better. Right after I took this last pic, I dropped it, so I'll be reglueing the left side again tomorrow.

I also need to glue together some scrap and see if there's a way for me to make some texture from scratch, because the right side is off enough that I need to sand the surface.

joezero

Looking good Jim, have you thought about maybe trying some of that spray texture?

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I've used that stuff before. It looks fine from a distance, but I want the exact same texture that GM used on these panels. I could have made a new piece from flat stock ABS, but the texture isn't close enough to make me happy. I have a bad feeling that I'm going to have to make a mold of the texture, and make a piece from the mold to press into the body filler as it's curing. Fun fun.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Is anybody actually reading these or am I just posting this for no good reason?

I'm not getting much feedback, which in itself doesn't bother me, but if nobody is really getting any benefit from this, I'm not going to keep doing the daily updates. If anybody is actually following this ongoing saga, let me know and I'll keep making the updates.

Anyway... on with the update.

I reglued the top piece, then made some filler pieces to fill the gap where the center bar was cut out. After I sand it more, I'm going to have to use a little filler to smooth it perfectly.



I trimmed the center part so that it sits even and took a pic of it as it sits now:



I put the monitor into the cradle that comes with it, and set it behind the trim plate. This is how it's going to sit when it's finished:



I like this pic. It gives me a good idea of what the finished product will look like, and I'm pretty happy so far.

Justins86bird

Good work. Where did you get the Nesa monitor from and how much?

Huckster's '84 TA

Looking really good. Keep on with the updates, I like seeing people's progress, it gives me inspiration.

MartyMcFly

Yeah me too.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Justin, I dealer-accomodated the Nesa monitor when I worked at the Stereo Shop in Rochester. They probably still sell them, and they cost a lot less than the brand name stuff, and so far I'm just as happy with the video quality.

Since people are actually reading this, I'll continue.

here's a picture of the trim ring in the newly shortened housing:


I made a cardboard template of the trim plate and started hacking on it until it fit around the cig lighter pod.


If you set it over the trim plate, you see that a LOT of the trim plate has to be cut:


This is almost too much to cut. It goes right to the edge of the front plate. I already glued another piece on the housing so that I can cut most of it away and still have strength. Before I cut anything I'm going to examine my spare dash board to see what the backside of the cig housing looks like. It might look better if I cut the dash instead of the tv pod.

SinthetikIroc

iTrader: (1)

dont kno if anyone stated this yet, or if u tried it and it didnt work. but if the top is smaller than the bottom. you could almost flip the top peice upside down

or would that not work?

i had a simaler idea but mine was gonna be the screen would come down from the heater vent thats above the radio. so when its in the closed position it looks completly stock and nobody knows you have a screen in your car. kind of an anti theft setup.

Timz2882

iTrader: (1)

Hey with out having to cut alot off of the trim piece. can u take a dremal tool and cut the thickness out of the dash where that extra part of trim be? like if u just cut there where you can slide the trim piece in and everything will be flush and u wont need to modify the trim piece anymore.

i was goin to say the same thing but wasnt sure if Jim had already figured that one out. but i was goin to say the same thing about flipping the trim piece up side down becuz then they would be flush.

admrlam

Dude, DEFINETELY keep updating. Ive been following it regularly. What size screen was it again? **nevermind, i read it again. I think thats why i believe ill be able to fit mine in the spare GTA digi dash i have and you couldnt, that one looks bigger than what i was planning, but i cant recall.

Ive got my spare dash all set to hack up, but i cant afford my screen, nor can i afford to move my car here to work on it, LOL.

Looks sweet though. Are you actually going to USE the NESA trim plate in there like that, or glass it in so the new dash piece IS the trim ring. I saw a few on carsound.com like that, they looked good. Yours looks great so far, cant wait to see more.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I did think about turning the piece over, but that would have made life more difficult in the long run. If you look at the trim plate, it maintains the same inset angle as the radio portion of the stock trim plate. This was a feature I wanted to keep, and if I turned the plate over, keeping that would have been difficult.

Intitially I thought about having the monitor swing down from the heater vents just like you planned on, but once I started positioning it up there I realized that there just isn't enough depth to have the monitor sit up in there, and swing down to a position I would be happy with. It would have required some very complicated mechanisms that are beyond my abilities.

I also found when I set the monitor into place, that having it tilted back slightly provided me with a much better picture than having it perfectly vertical.

If I had the monitor swing down, it would have taken all of the space in that vent area, and left me with nowhere to mount my DVD player except in a double-din configuration with the cd player. I didn't want to do that because it would be too hard to maintain a stock appearance when all of the components are covered. Add all of these things together and it became apparent that having it swing down from the center vents wasn't the best plan for me.

Now I'm just trying to find a paint to spray these plastic pieces that I'm happy with. 2 weeks ago I ordered some SEM paint at a local Dr. Vinyl, and when I got home with my paint today, I pulled their Dr. Vinyl labels off to find that those jerk offs sold me 2 cans of BUMPER paint, not plastic trim paint.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I'm not glassing anything. I've got a couple sheets of black ABS here to work with, but since the monitor has a silver ring that matched my dvd player and cd player, and the fact that the monitor case is pretty well integrated into the monitor, I don't want to hack it. The Nesa came with a trim piece that the monitor snaps into (I believe it's their headrest kit), which is what it's sitting in in the pic above. Since that abs matches the dash well, I'll probably just use it. Another idea that I'm toying with is to machine some aluminum rings to fill the space around the monitor, cd player and dvd player, but I don't know how much I'll like that.

FLYNLOW92rs

iTrader: (53)

Nice work, can't wait to see the finished product......:hail:

Keep the updates comming......

I really like your plan, it would be nice to see a TV in a location that looks as though it were stock.....

SinthetikIroc

iTrader: (1)

i was gonna work on this with my buddy. he works for some custom audio/video place out in saugas ma i beleive. but we were gonna rig somethng nice up and what not. and have a ps2 mounted in the dash in a manner that also looked stock.

TransAm12sec

Now thats lots of time well spent.

joezero, very sweet!

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Here's some more pics of the progress. I sat there for an hour on saturday trying to decide whether I wanted to cut the trim plate or the cig lighter pod. Finally I decided to cut the trim plate because I couldn't think of a good way to attach everything if I cut the lighter pod. Before I changed my mind I hacked the trim plate:


Before I can cut the mounting panel behind the trim plate, I need to stiffen it up. I glued some side panels into place that will serve to be supports for the pieces that connect the monitor housing to the mounting panel.

I positioned the monitor housing to the trim plate and hot glued it temporarily. I re-attached it to the mounting panel, then hot glued some pieces into place to hold the monitor housing to the mounting panel. That's this pic:


After that, I cut & bent some abs pieces that were glued into place to permanently mount the monitor housing to the mounting panel. After it all dried I put the trim panel on and things didn't line up right, so I ripped it all out and started over tonight. So far I'm happy with the fit, but I had to take a few intermediate steps, so it won't be finished until tomorrow. Once that portion is finished, then I'll have a piece that's rigid enough to handle being cut to form to the cig lighter pod, and I'll be able to start cutting the main dash for clearance, and putting the side panel onto the mounting panel so that it conforms to the dash properly.

Here's a pic of the trim plate just sitting in place without the mounting panel behind it:


It's coming slowly, but since I can't build boxes in an hour either, I didn't expect this to be done in a day.

TransAm12sec

Seems like alot of work just to cut a panel.

joezero

Who was it that said that again? Maybe you should call him up and ask him to do it Of course he didn't use any glue so you may just have to use scotch tape for it to be done in an hour, but hey what do you expect? hehe, j/k

It's looking really good Jim. Is there going to be a side panel that goes on it too? I'm still debating whether it's worth the time to fabricate one or not. What adhesive are you using to hold everything together?

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

There's a lot more to it than that, chief. I figured my pictures would make that clear.

Joezero, there's definately going to be a side panel that fills the space. The ABS I have is just a little bit thicker than the stock piece, so I'll be able to radius the edge, glue it into place, and wind up with the same type of build-out that the stock panel uses. When I trimmed this down originally I trimmed it at that line, so that I could build it back out with minimal work.

One thing that I'm worried about now though is just how far the trim plate is going to stick out from the dash at the top. If you look in my last pic, you can see that the trim plate rests up against the top of the dash. My mounting panel is at least an inch deep at the top. It looks like I may have to hack the dash more than I thought to make it look right.

MartyMcFly

Looks Good, Jim!
btw, are those Focals in your kicks? How are they?

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

:rockon: Lookin good Jim. Deff. keep posting lotsa pic's

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

No, they are diamond components. They are the M components but with Hex tweeters. They sound like *** in those kicks though. I need to take a mold of those kicks and make a new set that's hollow. There's so little airspace for the mids that the midrange is very thick sounding.

DISTURBthePEACE

I have a question for you...are you gonna fill up the screw holes or leave them there? It looks like your project is coming along great and you have spent your time well. Definatelly keep with the updates, now that I have suscribed to this thread, I'll keep up with it daily...after next week, goin to mexico on a senior trip . But I'll be sure to keep updated thru your updates .

KlayBuRn

Jim, you interested in that 190 amp alternator at all? i bought a C5 and dont need it at all...

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Klay, If the price is right I'm interrested. I'm fairly broke, but I do need a bigger alternator. PM me or IM me and we'll chat.

Disturb, I'm only going to fill the screw hole on the lower left corner because that one has been cut right through. The one on the right will remain, and I plan to add the screw hole to the top right in order to maintain a stock look. I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do about a screw hole on the top left.

Skatepunk60

Wow Jim that looks great man, i can wait to see the finished product.

As for the top left screw hole, you could probably leave that out an still look stock, theres not too much room and it might look crowded w/ one in there
just a suggestion

DISTURBthePEACE

It doesnt look like there are any screw holes in the top part of your panel....am I seeing things?

joezero

There aren't. If you look at the first few pics he had to cut down the trim panel so it would fit the screen. The top screws were in the portion that was removed. Not that Jim will have any problem adding new ones and making them look like the factory ones.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I explained all that in my last reply that you must have missed.

Anyway... another update from the weekend.

I wanted to permanently attach the monitor case to the frame. I put the trim plate into place, got the monitor case where I wanted it, and hot glued them together. This kept the frame in place so that I could hot glue 3 pieces to attach the monitor case to the frame. Here it is attached in this pic:


Once positioned where I wanted, I used plastic epoxy to attach some larger pieces to keep it all together, and I trimmed down the final piece to fit where necessary:


Here it is with the trim plate in place:


I also decided to take a break and install my new JVC deck. Check post Part 2 for that.

FyreLance

Jim, it's looking GREAT... giving me inspiration for when I do my LCD installation.. keep updating!

FLYNLOW92rs

iTrader: (53)

Any updates, Jim?

MartyMcFly

Jim, are you going to Thirdgen Nationals? I really want to see your IROC.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

No updates to speak of. Life and other projects are taking all my time. I replaced the crap dash kit in my Vette with a better one that includes a nice little map pocket, but other than that I haven't done any car stereo stuff lately.

I'm not going to the thirdgen nationals. I am going to the GM Nationals at Carlisle next week, but I won't be taking the IROC. That car doesn't leave the garage unless I know where I'm going that that I can park it safely.

polishdevil

good work on the IROC, why are you wasting ur time with the vette? i thought u didn't like it. do you think something like this could be done with a gta digital dash?

Dave

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I still drive the vette every day, so getting rid of the crap-*** dash kit that was in there was something I wanted to do. I don't hate the car, I just haven't gotten used to the fact that I'm making 5 years worth of payments on something that I don't like as much as the IROC.

The GTA digital dash really has a lot less space available. If I were to do an install like this in my GTA, I think I'd mount a smaller LCD where the information panel is, and then either build an interface to display the information from that panel onto the LCD, or more likely, just relocate that panel to somewhere else. Building an interface to display that info on the LCD would be cool, but I'd be worried about burn-in on the screen.