Following are the images from creating the final mounting brackets. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view and don’t forget to check out the demo video at the bottom.

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The biggest challenge in creating permanent mounts was for the LCD. There are at least a dozen different ways you could successfully do it, but I choose to sandwich the LCD’s own bezel around a wooden mount that I would fabricate. The first step was opening the LCD case. The only immediately negative side of this approach was that your warranty voids upon opening the case, but God hates a coward. Remove the 4 corner screws and the black mounting bracket’s 4 screws and you’re in.

Project Table of Contents
1) Pre-Installation planning
2) Electrical Installation
3) Final mounts & demo video

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The inside of the LCD was fairly compact and allowed good clearance around the front case’s screw holes.

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I took measurements of the case and drew up a paper template to test fit prior to creating the wood bracket. You can see the 4 “arms” with holes that would attach to the metal frame of the car’s center console.

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Because the tolerances were close I needed to be pretty accurate, so I test fit several times and continued to revise the CAD drawing of the mount. You can see how the mount template comes inside the outer border of the LCD case and allows the screws to secure the mount to the LCD. I took the original LCD screws to the hardware store and matched their thread count with longer versions of the same size screw. This allowed for the extra width of the wood mount.

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After holding up the paper template of the LCD and head unit to the car’s center console frame it was clear some of the cross members had to go. There were two, and only the lower one was going to be in the way of the head unit. They are attached with four rivets, so I drilled the rivets until they gave way. Tough angle, but doable.

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Life is a lesson, you learn it when you’re through. Or so says the Bizkit. In this case I learned the hard way that ABS plastic (the same stuff aftermarket car stereo mounts are made from) is a pain to work with. I stopped at my local Tap Plastics store and purchased a 1/4 inch sheet from which to make my LCD and head unit mounts. With my paper templates finalized I began cutting the plastic with a jig saw. Immediately the plastic melted and despite my best efforts I wasn’t able to cut it cleanly, at least with the tools I had on hand. With more time, I suggest researching different plastics to find one that’s easier to work with.

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So instead I bought a 1/4 inch sheet of pressed 4 layer birch. Not only does it not melt into goo while cutting, but it has the necessary strength, and would be much easier to trim and drill as needed later. I considered the effect moisture would have on wood, but with the air as dry as it is where I live I considered any moisture issues to be negligible, short of being submersed in water after The Big One hits. Now came the tricky part - drilling the holes for the LCD case screws. There wasn’t much room for error so I took it slow and pulled it off after lots of trimming the inner edges of the wood mount with a dremel.

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Speaking of my close personal friend the dremel, it was only after a lot of dremel - test fit - dremel, that it fit nice and snug onto the center console frame. Mix, stir, and repeat these steps for the head unit mount.

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Final test fitting now with the LCD sandwiching the new wood mounting bracket. Because of the increased LCD thickness do to the wood mount, I needed to cut out a bit of the LCD backing to provide clearance for the cables. The dremel again receives the Tool of the Year award.

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Finally that “sandwich” term I’ve been using might make some sense.

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This mount method will provide a strong, vibration free mount for the LCD. Also the guts of the LCD fit nicely in the rear of the center console stack while pushing the front of the LCD out towards you about 3/4 of an inch.

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And there you have it. You’ll notice the HVAC unit has an opening at the bottom waiting anxiously.

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The LCD and the head unit protrude from the dash about the same amount.

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A quick power on test. 5 points if you can tell what’s wrong with this picture. …it was really, really late.

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The HVAC needed just a bit of trimming. And I drilled two new holes in the metal frame of the center console and simply screwed in the HVAC controls under the head unit.

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Oh yeah, the other downer with a wood mount was that it needed a surface of some kind. Even after the final outer dash bezel is completed you’ll see some of the these mounting brackets. I was in search of a thin, textured plastic material. Staples answered with a report cover and spray adhesive.

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At first this idea proved to be pure genius. It was cheap and easy to cut and glue to my wood mounts. However, now having it installed for a month or so the spray adhesive has started to give way due to the flux in temperatures inside the car.

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Although it did look damn good when first applied.

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It’s a shame it may eventually have to be replaced with something else, but for the mean time it’s being held in by the screws used to mount the wood brackets to the metal center console.

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The big piece missing now is the final outer bezel. That will obviously cover up all the screws and the seam between the head unit and the LCD.

Demo Video

Here’s a 7 minute video of the current features in action.

Still to come
- Windows Vista and GPS software installation
- Syncing script to home music library
- Final outer bezel

Project Table of Contents
1) Pre-Installation planning
2) Electrical Installation
3) Final mounts & demo video