Stereo bezel rework - need some suggestions

[cybermob2]

well i'm currently working on a carputer setup for my alero, and here's what i'm doing.

itx mobo,PSU in glove box (custom case) w/cooling ducts.

7" touchscreen LCD in original stereo location (glassed in)

stereo relocated to below HVAC controls

slim DVD integrated b/t HVAC + stereo

here's a pic with the stereo now relocated to beneath the HVAC controls and glassed in.

but here's the question. how should i integrate the stereo bezel into the center console? i would normally glass it in, but its too difficult/impossible to remove either component after doing so. any ideas for what to do? looks like ass right now... really need to do something, but either was its gonna be difficult to fiberglass. anyone have some wise experiences with this?

i was thinking lay down the entire area of the center console that will be blended with tin foil, then lay in some structural plastic pieces to get the general shape i want, lay a layer of fleece down over that and start shaping with fiberglass. then when its all done up, take the bezel out, peel the foil off, and put back together. that way it will be blended pretty nice and still be 2 pieces.

all ideas welcome...

http://img27.photobucket.com/albums/v80/cybermob2/dash1.jpg

[blueyezalero]

Someone else had put in a "carputer" on here but I forget who? They had pics, maybe you could do a search and look at the pics they posted.

[Aleromaster]

yeah originally I was going to do something similarr. My radio bezel looked exactly like yours. Then I filled in the cup holder area of the shifter cover with foam and carved it following the curves up the front than just glassed it in. I was going to carve out the foam after I had gotten 2 layers done so I could mold in some switches but I ened up messing up the hvac panel and while trying to figure out how to fix it I came up with a much better solution. BTW just so you know if your going to use a lilliput you won't be able to keep the buttons with out moving the HVAC down.

[Americangirl]

Originally posted by Aleromaster@Mar 24 2004, 12:21 AM
yeah originally I was going to do something similarr. My radio bezel looked exactly like yours. Then I filled in the cup holder area of the shifter cover with foam and carved it following the curves up the front than just glassed it in. I was going to carve out the foam after I had gotten 2 layers done so I could mold in some switches but I ened up messing up the hvac panel and while trying to figure out how to fix it I came up with a much better solution. BTW just so you know if your going to use a lilliput you won't be able to keep the buttons with out moving the HVAC down.
Agreed. I am doing the same exact thing, almost finished so I will post some pics.

[Green Eyed Monster]

how did you mold the plastic like that?????? :blink:

[cybermob2]

@aleromaster - storm on mp3car said the lilliput will fit in upside down, just gonna lose the buttons. no modding necessary. i'm going to prefit it as best the lilliput will fit, then shape the bezel as it is (leaving screen recessed) so that i don't have to destroy the LCD housing cause i will be changing cars within a year anyway. in fact the stereo bezel isn't the original - just a dirty junk yard part for $10... so when i change cars i can switch everything back to original.

oh, and the foam idea is a great one... i will definately try that one... i'm going to build in the radio supports (ghetto rigged now) into the bezel too so i can hopefully do one piece design for it.

@green eyed monster - fiberglass. took my alpine install kit bezel (rectangular) and hacked the car's bezel to make it fit... ducted taped in rough position... fiberglassed over top and then painted with flat black texture paint.


@americangirl - i'd like to see your pics... post em.

[Aleromaster]

yeah I originally tried mounting it upside down and could not figure out how he did it. The upper clips got in the way. I thionk maybe he had cut them. I didn't want to have to use software to flip the screen because I was also going to be using the video inputs for an xbox. By the way you also need a 90 degree adapter for the video usb to fit it in the dash. I started working on a mount today that will bolt in most any recent GM car like the radio would with out having to do any mods. Unfortunatly I havn't figured out how to save the buttons as well with the new design.

[Green Eyed Monster]

ok thanks.... :thumbsup:

[cybermob2]

i pm'd storm on mp3car... he said he was able to get it to fit upside down w/o cutting anything... it doesn't fit with the clips there... so he just tilted it back a little (i can't notice it in hsi pics).

i'll have a better idea of what i want to do when i get my lilliput in a few weeks.

btw... mp3car.com rules. lilliput shipped for $240.

i'm also contemplating the whole computer-in-the-glovebox idea. i'm worried about heat. the hard drive (laptop) is gonna be alot of it, as is the power supply and cpu. i'm thinking i'm gonna build a fan into the side of the glove compartment - there's plenty of room, be pretty quiet up in there.

[Aleromaster]

Oh you got in on that group buy huh? What mother board wil you be using. I had converted my glove box into a comp cas so to say. It worked great. I had no problems with heat and I was running a celeron 1ghz proccesor on a full size mobo. I ened up cutting a hole and installing a fan. Unfortunatly in my final testing the mother board started to smoke. The guy at comp usa said my power supply was putting out 12v where it should of only been doing 3 or something like that. I'm going to be geting a mini itx now and I'm going to switch it to the center consol storage as it sucks not having a glove box and trying to stuff all my maps and stuff in the center consol.

[cybermob2]

master-

here's what i got so far...

VIA Epia V10000 (1ghz)
256 PC133 RAM
8.1gb 2.5" HDD
Slim DVD
PW-70a PSU


i too am going the glove box route... i was concerned about heat as well. so far i've built a plexiglass case matching the inside contour of the box, got a case fan on top that goes through a matching hole in the top of the glove box. port panel is to the left, minimizing cable lengths and what not.

the hard drive isn't gonna fit in the case (HDD is 12mm, not 9.5mm as i had thought) so thats just gonna hang underneath for now i guess. slim DVD mounts inside, but don't have it yet.

what PSU were you running? standard ATX PSU might not like unregulated 12Vin? i'm using the PW70a, which doesn't regulate 12V, but accepts like 9-16Vin. i'm using all laptop parts (5V) so i shouldn't ahve a problem there. only concerned about the mobo handling dirty voltage. we'll see i guess.

yeah the groupbuy on the lilliput was a deal i couldn't pass up... shipping keeps getting delayed though....

pic of case so far....

[Aleromaster]

Case looks good. The power supply I was using was the one from teh case that I had stripped the mother board out of. Its was about 2 years old. I waqs going to be running it off an inverter till I was able to afford an opus but now that I have to replace teh mobo looks like that stage of the prodject will be on hold. I think you setup will work fine with the heat. My proccesor was a celeron 666hz overclocked to 1 ghz with a full size 160gig 7200rpm hard drive mounted directly above it and the internal temps never got above 106 which was only 3 degrees more than what I used to get in the original case the mobo was in.

[cybermob2]

got the case all mounted, just waiting for my screen!

i hate the quality of camera phones btw...

[Aleromaster]

Looks good man

[johny_boy32]

looks damn good

[Aleromaster]

Hey man, as soon as I get a chance to get on my roomates computer (laptop has no serial port) I will connect my phone to it and upload some poics of How I set up my screen. In my opinion its looks great. The way I have it now is temperary as I will be getting a peice of alluminum milled exactly how I have it now.

[Aleromaster]

OK the pictures suck but here's what I did. I made the frame out of wood but I am getting the same thing milled out of aluminum.

[Aleromaster]

the first one was running a winamp visualization. This one is running MediaCar with the Olds skin

[cybermob2]

sweetness...

now... what did you end up doing exactly to get it (lilliput?) to fit? HVAC looks like same position.

at this point i'm thinking about going with a custom face plate/bezel to mount the LCD guts to the factory stereo mount holes. i will probably scrounge around for some aluminum scrap and CNC it at school.


but at any rate... looks pimp.

i got all my stuff either here or in the mail now (except for lilliput, STILL waiting).

been playin around with routis GPS and mediacar, and i'm tellin ya its gonna be pretty slick.

currently molding PC into the glovebox.

[Voodosoup]

I'd like to know how you did it too. I'm thinking putting my lilliput there is my best option along with relocating the stereo down below.

Looks nice.

[Aleromaster]

OK I will take a picture of it when I pull the bezel off which will be in the next couple days (as soon as I can find my LED's). Be warned though it is very crude. It is just basicly a 1/4" thick piece of plywood painted black with an opening cut to the size of the actualy display area. the wood fits in snug between the 4 snaps that hold the bezel to the dash. I then drilled a small hole in each of the snaps and the lcd and wood are held in by twist ties ( the kind that come with garbage bags) criss crossing each other. I then used more twist ties to hold the rear part of the monitor, case and all, to the bezel by attaching it to the twist ties holding the lcd. Like I said it is very crude but it looks decent for now. I have software on my computer, I beleive its E Machines Shop, that alows you to design parts in a cadd type enviroment then you email the file to a company and they can mill the part out of almost any type of material. Im in the proses of designing a new mount. I'm either going to have it made out of abs or alluminum, haven't decided yet.

[cybermob2]

did you have to hack the interior plastic (that the HU screws into) in order for the case to clear it?

did you have to move your HVAC at all? what happened to wanting to retain the buttons?

[Aleromaster]

I did have to hack some of the plastic to get the screen in there originally. It was to alow the hvac controls to move down. I had to remove the top 2 screw tabs from the contol unit its self and remove the lower clip sockets for the bezel in the dash it self. In order to keep the buttons on the lilliput you have no choice but to move the hvac controls if your fiberglassing. I mesed up horibly by sanding to much and ended up sanding off the icons for the selector switch. I really would like to retain the buttons. I keep the important ones I needed by rewireing then to the switch panel that I made in the cup holder plus I also relocated the IR sensor so I could use the remote if I needed the other buttons at all. If I can get the front bezel for thelilliput out of the ruined stereo bezel and find an other radio bezel than i'm just going to send it to a guy I know who is a pro just to make sure this one doesn't get messed up.

[Aleromaster]

Man I talk to much

[King Asoka]

looks great guys!!!

[cybermob2]

soemtimes i just wish we had double DINs. lol.

just waiting for my screen! (and some drive adapters)

http://img27.photobucket.com/albums/v80/cybermob2/box-front.jpg
http://img27.photobucket.com/albums/v80/cybermob2/box-side.jpg

[Voodosoup]

Very nice install in the glovebox. That looks sweet!

[jonez]

Yeah that will hide away nicely. Will look good when you get it all done.

[Aleromaster]

you did yours exactly how I had originally done mine. Heres an Idea, since your case is plexi, put some leds bleow the little window you have showing in the front and wire them in to the glove box light switch so when the glove box is open it glows

[sound_xtreme]

for the bezel, i molded it all in one peice, then i cut it where the bottom of the cd player would sit so it was 2 pieces. kinda hard to explain, ill try to get some pics sometime. i did most of mine with plastic welding. my bracket for the tv was plastic welded out of plexiglass, did not have to cut or change any of the dash to fit it in, i actually used the stock holes to screw it in I just used longer screws. i'd take pics of it, but when the poop got stolen they just yanked that out and it broke. i think when i redo it i am going to take the tv apart and mold the casing into the bezel. that way they cant steal it without bunnying it up pretty bad.

[Storm]

I think it's fun that you build this kind of setup.
(Just remember who had the first Aleromod.com carputer, LOL!)

Now I have my mobo mounted to the right of the glovebox. I have the HDD mounted in the glovecompartment. As mentioned before in this post I have the lilliput upsidedown in the HU-hole. Using a program called pivot pro to rotate the picture.

I had as a demand to not cut anything in the car (there are no Aleros in the junkyards in Sweden). But I have a new Idea. I saw that IKEA has a key cabinet http://www.ikea-usa.com/webapp/wcs/stores/...productId=11091 (http://www.ikea-usa.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=12&langId=-1&catalogId=10101&productId=11091)
This would be perfect as case. I'm thinking of mounting it either under the passanger seat, in the centreconsol or in fron it the centreconsol. Or maybe I will put the case where I now have the mobo.

The reason I will get a case is that I think it will help me get rid of enoying sound during startup.
But I will let this setup get a chance first by grounding everything good.

My setup:
Epia M1000
256Mb ram
120Gb Seagate 8Mb HDD
Bu-303 GPS
DLink Usb radio
Philips Aurilium 5.1 external Usb sound
Lilliput TFT
touchscreen

software:
windows 2000lite
MediaCar (Yes I have the Olds skin)
Destinator (The only navapp I use)
Mappoint 2004
Autoroute 2004

[Green Eyed Monster]

Awesome.... :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[cybermob2]

i'm tellin you... this project is MUCH more involved than any other thing i've tried doing (that includes a 18' scale lighthouse).

i'm attacking the wiring today. i'm finally gonna get my drive adapters and some power and atx extensions today, so i'll get it all setup and ready for my monitor.

i have 2 LEDS (HDD + power) already next to the button.

and actually, the glove box light comes on and lights it up when its open! just plain yellow, but i'm surely gonna mess w/it just as soon as i get it working right.

still to get installed: GPS unit and lilliput!

[Aleromaster]

I finally got my computer today. All I have left to do is modify the case for my remote panel and to get power for my lilliput and its going in the car. The car is all wired and waiting. I also got my new alarm coming in tomarrow so that another thing I'm going to wire. I'm also going to be useing one of the 3 aux channels as a remote turn on so I can turn it on in the house to download new music or movies.

[niral622]

(Just remember who had the first Aleromod.com carputer, LOL!)

I know I will :thumbsup: :D

[johny_boy32]

you guys have it going on...i'm really anxious to see the final product.

[cybermob2]

STORM:

i figured out a problem. lilliput is not (from what i've read) going to turn on when i turn on the car (autostart w/power).

did you mod your lilliput or what did you do since your buttons are hidden? or does your remote still work?

[cybermob2]

and aleromaster -

where are your pics!?!?


update: computer is running on the desk!


oh, and if anyone knows how to make winamp stop skipping while i'm scrolling web pages or moving windows let me know!

[Steve03TropicTeal]

Originally posted by cybermob2@Apr 13 2004, 10:39 AM
and aleromaster -

where are your pics!?!?


update: computer is running on the desk!


oh, and if anyone knows how to make winamp stop skipping while i'm scrolling web pages or moving windows let me know!
get a faster PC :)

or up winamp's priority so it will take priority over other taks your pc is doing.
however, doing this will cause your scrolls and window changes to slow down.

, its under settings somwhere, i dont use winamp cuz it bogs ur system down.

[Aleromaster]

Originally posted by cybermob2@Apr 13 2004, 10:39 AM
and aleromaster -

where are your pics!?!?


update: computer is running on the desk!


oh, and if anyone knows how to make winamp stop skipping while i'm scrolling web pages or moving windows let me know!
Well I have mine completely installed and running and labeled as version .8. I need to buy a few things and get something milled to replace my temp screen bezsel but i've run out of free time since I started atg teh dealership. I work 8:30a to 9p everyday since i'm new. My Camera phone will not take any good enough of a quality pic to show good detail so I have to finnish off the film in my camera. I have thursday off so I plan on detailing the car so i'll finish off the film then and post pics once developed.

[cybermob2]

any progress yet master? i'm still waitin for those pics!

@G# @%^^ that gay group buy. for some EFFED up reason the effing canadian post didn't pick up the package that got dropped of 4/14 until 4/21. ridiculous.

and now my laptop drive crapped out. won't power up. dammit.

now i'm contemplating just getting an ITPS and running 3.5" drive. pisses me off.

[Aleromaster]

Yeah sorry they have me working from 8 am to 9 pm everyday so I have no timeto go drop the film off for divelopment. Anyone with a digital camera live in the Plant city Florida area wanna take some pics? :P

[cybermob2]

got my lilliput! finally!


just gotta sort out a problem - the stupid thing wont run while the engine is on. oh well i'll figure it out.

master what exactly are you running?

[Aleromaster]

lilliput and a hp e pc. I have the lilliput wired of the hdd power supply since I acidently fried teh lilliput ps.

[cybermob2]

oops. fried my pw70-a i believe.

had everything running awesome. auto startup and auto shutdown worked flawlessly.

routis GPS software is the bomb, works very VERY nicely, and you can't beat having 6gb of mp3 on call at all times.

what PSU are you running?

[Aleromaster]

The hp epc is a tiny comp that has its own built in dc psu. all you do is feed it 19v dc. I used one of those laptop ps adapters of ebay for $20 to supply power and it works great. The whold comp fits under the passenger seat. after I get a dvd slim drive I will tear apart the case and build it a little smaller and move the drive to the center consol.

[wy3134]

Wow looks good to everyone doing this....i would love to do something like this but I dont think I have the patience enough with electronics and all, perhaps someone can post a rough how to on a basic carputer?

[Pacho]

For those TV's that everyone put in the HU DIN panel, how much did they cost and what are the best kinds to buy?

[cybermob2]

master- checked e-pc prices on ebay... around 150-200 complete is not a bad deal at all. you figure you get decent speed (1-2ghz), 20gb, 256, slim CD and a DC-DC power supply you're pretty much set to go.

the most widely used screens are either lilliputs or xenarcs, of the 7" widescreen variety. most ppl dont have room for much more than 7" (ie the alero) so it works well. lilli and xenarc both have nice lcd/touchscreen packages that work well. you can do alot more if you have crafty touchscreen/lcd experience.

they run about $250-$500, the xenarcs running higher than lilliputs.


i've finally got mine running, haven't mounted the lcd yet, and have to replace some diodes i burned out while soldering too long.

[Aleromaster]

Originally posted by cybermob2@May 10 2004, 10:17 PM
master- checked e-pc prices on ebay... around 150-200 complete is not a bad deal at all. you figure you get decent speed (1-2ghz), 20gb, 256, slim CD and a DC-DC power supply you're pretty much set to go.

the most widely used screens are either lilliputs or xenarcs, of the 7" widescreen variety. most ppl dont have room for much more than 7" (ie the alero) so it works well. lilli and xenarc both have nice lcd/touchscreen packages that work well. you can do alot more if you have crafty touchscreen/lcd experience.

they run about $250-$500, the xenarcs running higher than lilliputs.


i've finally got mine running, haven't mounted the lcd yet, and have to replace some diodes i burned out while soldering too long.
yeah the prices are good and there small, bout the size of a phone book. and they stand up to all kinds of abuse.