http://www.centrafuse.com/Screenshots.aspx
So I got the crazy idea of cutting a hole in my dash, relocating the touch screen to my dash and putting a head unit back in. My original hope was to put the computer behind the screen as well but considering the heat from it being in the sun I decided to relocate the computer to the trunk. While I was at it I decided to order a dash overlay kit since mine had finally starting cracking a couple years ago.
Heres the dash overly when it came in.
This is what I started with. I actually put the dash overlay on, not glued yet and it fit really well. I forgot to take a picture before I set it on there. The touchscreen I ordered was a double din and it fit in the opening perfect. I didn't have to mount it or anything. I pushed it in and it fit in snug.
This is what I started with in my trunk. A 10" Alpine Type R (An amazing sub), with an amp for it and a separate amp for my 6.5" alpines all around. Ones mounted on the back of the seat and the other on the back of the sub box.
Before I jumped into fiber glassing I decided to work on something more low key then my dash. I decided to build a sub box to fit into the back corner of the trunk. So I masked off the back corner. I used a LOT.
This is the mold I ended up with.
I didn't put anything on the tape before hand so it ended up taking a long time to get all of this tape off
Fitting a piece of MDF
Fitting the sub and amp
Cut a hole for the sub and fiber glassed the wood to the mold
So I looked at the data sheet and discovered I need 1 cu ft of space for the sub. So I did some measuring and put in an divider. The hole is for the wire mounts.
Here's the top, had to shave some corners down to make it fit right.
To finish it up I carpeted everything. I cut the back down by about half behind the amp, it created a nice pocket where I keep my jumper cables, extra engine belts, and etc.
Not too much to say about the new computer case so I'll just post all of the pictures.
So now comes time for the touch screen in the dash. I just woke up one Saturday and decided to start cutting. I got really close to those wires, happy I was super cautious about how deep I went.
Getting an idea of the angle. A friend suggested to me that I would want it perpendicular to my view since that would limit the amount of glare from the sun. Once I thought about it it made a lot of sense.
Here are the pictures of the building of the frame.
I trimmed the screen frame at an angle
I saw a guy on tv years ago use foam to mold fenders for an old car and decided that could work here. Got it at Michaels.
Trimmed it down a bit more and put fiber glass over it.
I ended up driving around with it like this for a week to see if it blocked the sun out. It did an amazing job.
Got some bondo on it
I forgot to take more pictures after lots more bondo and sanding. I put a lot of paint on this thing. I put about 5 layers of primer, 5 layers of truck bed liner, 5 layers of bbq paint, and another 2 layers of the truck bed liner on it. The liner stuff gave it a good texture and color. I used the bbq paint since this thing will be sitting in the sun a lot, I didn't like the flat black though so I put more of the liner stuff on it since the color matched the dash overlay really well.
I got some bad news about using the car so I decided to steam ahead quick. Originally I wanted to fiberglass the housing to the dash, but after the bad news and thinking about the mess and hours of sanding, and masking everything off to paint it I got a headache. Originally I wasn't concerned about the sides meeting the dash all the way down since It was going to be fiber glassed to the dash, and thus covered. So my new idea needed it to be conform to the dash. I masked everything off and used more bondo.
I then put even more layers of paint on to cover the new bondo work. In the mean time I finally glued down the dash overlay. It turned out really well. I'm a big fan, I think I only paid about $150 for it shipped. Maybe $175.
There still that gap at the base of the screen, I'll do something with it eventually, but for now I like gripping it with my fingers to keep my finger steady when doing s*** on the touch screen. Eventually I may put some buttons there for some hot keys to control windows. I've still got more foam I could use to make a cover for it.
Here's a closer picture to compare the textures and colors. Not too bad if I say so myself, I only went with the bed liner because I happened to still have some. Let me reiterate I put nothing on the dash overlay, its as I received it.
While I got hands free going through Centrafuse for my cell phone, I was not really a fan. It was a third party software that was really buggy. It took me an hour just to get it set up right, and it would not connect a lot, or if I got a call the software would freak out. When I tried streaming music it would only work occasionally. So one of my criteria for a new head unit was bluetooth support. I got a new Alpine CDE-136t if memory serves me. I love the bluetooth streaming on it, playing pandora on my phone while driving never really occurred to me before. One other thing I loved is using the volume control. On the touch screen it was a button I'd have to push a million times, with the head unit the scroll wheel is much better and I missed it greatly. One issue I ran into was that new head units now a days only have an aux input on the front now. I was really surprised and didn't realize til I got home. Well this wouldn't stand so first thing I took the stereo apart. It occurred to me that I'm probably a little nuts for taking a brand new stereo apart before even turning it on.
I got out my handy dandy tester and found out which pins were the 3.5mm jack input, I soldered on my own wires, and put them out the back. I then put on a jack I had in a box of goodies and I was good to go.
Hot glue is your friend
This way I had the carpc going through the aux input and I could still plug something else into the front if need be. I'd just have to mute the carpc.
And my now finished product. I put the mic for the stereo in the left corner of the cubby above the stereo. Doesn't really get in the way.
Phone on my camera sucks, the screen isn't actually that washed out.
And my car at night. Nice thing about Centrafuse is that it darkens the screen at night so it isn't so in your face.
So to recap before and afters.
Before
After
Before
After
And now my rant on my bad news. Congress enacted a new deal where all federal employees that park at a federal facility for more than 60 days a year will have to comply with local emissions standards to park there. My 240 is smog exempt because I'm from a non smog county in Cali, well I'm stationed in Southern Cali. Starting in May I'll have to comply with smog in order to get my car onto base, well I've got an SR and it will never pass the vision inspection. No way around it, even if I tried to cheat the system I have to sign a document saying I'm conforming with local standards. Not worth my career to lie about, especially having a security clearance when a polygraph comes up in the future. So my 240 will no longer be my daily driver after 5 years. Thanks Congress. A bad thing about my base is that the base actually begins miles before the gate so I can't just leave my car outside the gate and bicycle in. No real way around this that I've found.
Overall I think the project turned out will. From start to finish it took 2 months, but half of that I was in training in Ohio. So I'd wager it took me a couple weekends and some nights after work to finish it all. I'd never seen someone put a screen in their dash in a 240 so I thought I could finally do something original. The entire setup works amazingly. Thanks for reading.
..... and whats this about congress takin our freedoms again? i love 'merica but they keep taking our rights away as import owners and its going to far i think..... so what are your plans now that you cant basically use it?