here are some pics I took of the console without it installed in the car since I see lots of posts about the work involved.

 

That looks very nice!

 

this is definately the one to mimmic if you're not going to move the ac controls down!

 

Ok I wa cut short n my first post this morning. here is the work involved.

here is the link to the post where I had the unit in the dash.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...d1&forum_id=20

I had to bend down some of the stock metal frame that was in the dash for the original stereo so the AVIC D1 fit.

To do this, I drilled several little holes in the crease of the metal to weaken the bends. next I used the claw end of a hammer. a some what smaller hammer then the norm. this allowed me to grab the back of the metal and bend it out of the way so the avic fits in the stock slot.
I also had to remove the upper tabs, all I needed was a set of pylers and yanked em out.

next I test fit the AVIC. it fit. but you will need to mod the antenna lead adapter(A piece you need to buy to install the cars antenna into the pioneer unit) to clear the back of the dash.

I built mounting plates out of sheet metal. mounted the D1 as it fit in the slot naturally, and began to mod the dash piece to fit the D1.

Next was to mod the dash piece to fit the D1. I decided to buy a used piece from the forum rather then wreck my original. the piece I got was pretty beat up and cracked already so I had nothing to lose.

I cut out something like 1" from the top of the dash piece radio opening. I used a cheapy soldering iron to melt right through it.
Then I opened the bottom using a course file..

I cleaned up the openeing with a file, then sand paper, and rounded the edges at the same time. I am sure a dremel would help this a lot. I could not find mine and did it all using my hand tools.

Then I place the D1 in the dash, put the dash cover over it, and superglued in 2 pieces of plastic on the sides to close down the opening to fit the AVIC D1 perfecly. I had this plastic laying around forever, so thats what I used. I think radio shack sells some black plastic boxes that can be cut up and will work just as well.
I only did like 2 drops of superglue on the plastic to hold it.

Next I made a paste of ABS plastic goop.
I picked up a piece of ABS pipe from home depot or where ever, drilled holes into it. when I drilled the hole it made a plastic shaving spiral piece. I put those shavings in a beer bottle and added some acetone. it makes a nice nasty black abs goop.

I filled the back of the dash pieces with the ABS goop, behind those plastic pieces I glued in.
once set, I ran a bead of goop down the front sides and pushed it in with my finger. once it was kinda set, I used my finger to shape the corners and make the goop do what I wanted.
I waited a night for it to dry and hand sanded it to shape.

I went back in after it was set, and taped a piece of cardbosrd over the top of the bottom divider which was like 1/8 and inch thick and very skinny. I filled the back side of the bottom piece with the abs goop to basically create a triangle shape to give the bottom divider a bit more stability and a bit better of a look below the bottom of the D1 face.
This took a few tries as the ABS goop dries and forms pits and bubbles, which have to be refilled once it dries. then you sand it flat and more bubbles/pits are exposed, and you have to fill more pits. this went on for a little while till I got em all sanded and filled.

That is pretty much it.
I chose to paint my dash piece with rubber paint, as I did not want to send it out to be fixed up for texturing etc. I sprayed several sparce coats, to try and make my own texture effect to blend the stock textured pieces into the sanded flat pieces. I think it worked well. I just dont know how well the paint will hold up over time.

as a side note. I found it easy to remove the stock paint with acetone poured into a rag, and wiped onto the dash piece. I hda to remove all the coating to fix some cracks, and to clean up what was already peeling. the rag with acetone removed the paint, and did not cause any damage to the textured finish that simulates the leather look.

 

just to add a few tips to what bill had written... which is great. the acetone will break down the abs a lot so you dont need a lot of it. If you make a thinner mixture it'll take a lot longer to cure.. a couple of days even, but the upside is that it doesn't have as many bubbles. (but plan on taking a while to do it that way) I would suggest using the thicker sludge to build up the area and the thinner sludge to give it the final coat you are going to sand down.

another thing make sure you sand any paint off in the areas you want the sludge to stick. this isn't as much of a problem with our dashes but if you had painted your dash prior to this or if you used a primer then found that you needed some more sludge to fill in some holes.

any car stereo shop will sell the textured abs sheets, but it'll be pretty expensive... like $15 for a 9x9 piece. I opted for the non textured kind and got a large 12x18 piece (i think) for about $6 from www.mcmastercarr.com I highly recommend these guys, they have just about everything a tinker'er would need and they are super fast with shihpping. I've ordered multiple times without a problem


hey bill, you should ad this to the c5 faq

 

looks great! nice.

 

do you know how to bypass the gyro sensor in the avic-d1, having to stop to put in addresses is getting annoying.