Vinny 2001

4 years, 3 bezels (2 and a repair), and 2 radios later I think i can finally call this done.

I ran into some issues and in retrospect they were really from things the previous owner had done. When I bought my vette, it did not have the stock radio in it, it had a single DIN Sony and it looked terrible. 1.5 DIN radios were hard to find and the only one I could locate at the time was a used Alpine. Today I can find a couple more.

So went to Dennis at DD Mods and purchased a decent package including bezel (can't say enough good about Dennis). First thing I found, both tabs were broke on the top of my bezel and the clips that would hold them were broken off anyway. It looks like the single DIN adapter was holding everything in place. Wen installing the DD radio, getting the position right was hard enough but the bezel would never stay put (also found the screw next to the lighter missing along with the nut on the tab that holds it, more on this later).

So during the install my frustration took hold and I screwed the bezel to the radio mounting frame. It worked but looked crappy even with caps on the screws. So in trying to remedy this, i broke it in half removing it...enter bezel #2.

This was a bit easier to install and I had it almost perfect (lots of almosts in this saga). A couple of months after the install i noticed a crack forming around the radio at the lower right corner. Dennis was great and fixed if without any charge, how many vendors would do that?

So I got it back and install was going well. Had the radio just about perfect and was working with the positioning and the screen just flashed...gave me a sick felling. Trying to play it off I button everything up (radio still not quite right) and yep, radio doesn't work!

It was a Clarion NX602 which i really liked and they are no longer made. After searching around I purchased a Clarion NX605. It's nice and has good sound. So this weekend I get to installing it and it wasn't sitting in quite right so after about 4 hours I took a break figuring i would probably not get back to it for a couple of weeks..again!. Later I had a thought on placing the bezel and while testing found the little tab for the screw next to the lighter was interfering with the bezel. Moved that a little and things just went together.

Now I think it is good. If it wasn't for the mounting slots for the tabs at the top this would probably look pretty perfect.

A lot of people suggested i go to an installer. yeh, maybe that would have worked out better, or faster anyway. I had a blast working in this and feel great about it. Next up is upgrading the entire sound system.

Now if i could only figure out how to fix those mounting tab slots...

Vinny 2001

Note: I see the crack starting to return at the lower right corner. I think I can probably re-spray the bezel and it would be OK. not entirely certain why it formed, thinking there was some pressure on it when tightened down. While i had it out, i installed the USB port in the spot where the lighter was.

You can see at the top left where the bezel should be up further, probably close to 1/4 inch.

Working on filling in the screw hole next tot he USB port to clean it up.