after-market nav theft prevention?

[flight1001]

hi guys,

i am going to be installing a pioneer avic-z110bt soon into my 08 altima coupe

i am wondering if anyone has come up with a method to cover up the nav unit with some sort of fake faceplate lol

or any ideas of what i should do to be able to hide my nav unit well?

thanks

[AppleBonker]

I don't know that anyone has done anything other than tinting windows. I can't think of much of a cover that would work well with the way these are mounted either.

Car alarm?

[iammai]

I have thought about buying these.......

http://www.brycefastener.com/

I would also look into insurance. If you have full coverage your stereo might be covered. If not getting extra coverage for your stereo would probably be really cheap.

[Infinite-T]

Having worked in law enforcement prior to my current occupation as an electrician I know that thieves are always looking for the quickest easiest grab. Every second they spend fiddling is one more second they could get caught. So anything extra you can do to make it harder to get to/remove is handy. Those tamper screws my help. However, with many pieces in our cars being made of plastic these days, it isnt uncommon for units to actually be ripped out of a dash. I have seen it many times and it sort of happened to me about 6 years ago... They busted the dash up a bit and broke some of the plastic retainers in the dash, but they didnt get the deck out! I had made a metal strap out of HVAC strapping that wrapped around the back of the unit and bolted to the frame on either end. You would actually have to get to it from the rear to unbolt the strap!

Anyway, when I was a teenager my best bud and I used to restore old Z cars and sell them, and keep some for ourselves. We did all kinds of crazy mods using steel plates, straps, tamper screws and such. In fact my friend cut a thin sheet metal skirt to put around the mounting bracket with jagged cut flanges on it....lol. Needless to say none of our decks were ever sucsessfully stolen from any of the cars we ever did, and almost every one of them was broken into at least once.

I, like I imagine the rest of you, like hot cars. The matter of fact is, that is what thieves look for too. No matter what you tint, debadge, etc. They see a sexy rig sitting there with tinted glass, shiny wheels, and a slick custom paint job, chances are pretty good there is some sweet gear inside. Some decks have a password lock on them. Like if the deck sences it lost power, you have to input a password to get it going again. But this wont keep it from being stolen from your car!

My advice as a former officer is try to park in a secure area as much as possible. Always near a light if you can. Keep you car locked (obviously) and dont leave valuables in it.. especialy those GPS units that just suction cup to your window. Any additional installation security you do helps, strap things down good etc. Sounds like common scence stuff but you would be surprised how many reports we got where people didnt lock there cars, left a laptop sitting on the seat, left a window/sunroof/top down, or half a$$ instalations with gear just sitting in the open and not srapped down.

A cool idea would be. If there was a way to record your GPS units serial number with some service or something. If it gets stolen, you report it to the service. If someone else powers it up and starts using it... they can track the serial number and tell the cops exactly where the unit is.. doesn't seem like that would be to hard to do?!

Anyway, that is my 2 cents worth..actually, that was pretty long so i guess maybe 10 cents?

[kevin67]

honestly i dont care what you install in your car if a person wants somthing out of it there going to get it. Most alarms systems still give a window of 1 min to steal something out of your car. Nothing is theft proof. Im a mechanic and also a locksmith and i have seen even the most expensive cars with low jack stolen. All the thief needs is a flatbed tow truck and saw good by to your car. disabling a car alarm system is to easy for a thief that knows about cars. However tinted windows help hide your car interior so thief keep on guessing if there is any thing worth stealing. also a Clifford alarm with the loudest siren and proximity sensors are pretty good anti theft componets to the average thief. Like i said before any one that knows about cars is going to find a way in regardless of the anti-theft devices. For example your house has dead bolt locks and a house alarm system. to the average thief is soon as they break in and here the alarm they get scared and run off. Now the thief that knows about alarm systems knows they have a good 1-2 mins to grab what then can and make a run for it son nothing out there is full proof. however if your worried about the radio you have in your car now and dont want to buy a after market alarm which i highly dont recommend as it will void your warrenty then post a pic of your your radio installed in your car and i will see if i can come up with a way to hid the unit from prying eyes. Im a Porsche and Audi tech and i also im a Porsche Fabricator im always designing and making after-market upgrades for the Porsche car line so maybe i can help .

[Vital]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dummy-Secu...b99bf

pics belong to johhnir3volution

[shortys408]

didn't know i could buy one. I spent hours making one. I also have one of those kensington laptop locks attached to the vent of my head unit and wrapped around a metal part of the car behind the dash that can not be broken. Im sure the thieve could get it by bending hte vent on the head unit or using a bolt cutter, but these things would take a bit of extra time to do.