Hey everyone,

I'd given up on replacing my stereo in my 'vette because of the massive amount of work that will go into pulling out all of the bose stuff and running new wires and getting speakers/amp/sub put into the car in some fashion that still looks nice, not necessarily stock, but nice...

I've come to the point where I'm done with the stock system, mine had the enhanced bose sound, but I want more goodies in there. I've had the car for over 2 and a half years and it's time for something cool.

I found a nice Touch Screen LCD, and some good components , but i'm curious about what others have done with their cars. I've seen a few posts from CARPC people, but none with a touch-screen like that.

It's 4 and 1/4" in height and about 6 and 3/4" wide. This will replace the stock head-unit, so the width is fine, but the height is a bit too far. The opening in the dash is almost exactly 4" so I'll have to do "something" to the lower side of that to get it to fit. I don't really want to affect how the A/C controls are, so I want to take it off the bottom.

One way I thought I could do it would be to dremel a bit of the bottom and put it in at an angle. I'm just curious about how many people have tried to fit a screen like this in and what works/doesn't work with the layout.

I'd planned on putting the computer guts in the storage thing, either where the jack is, or where the ABS controler. I have no problem removing the jack.

One final question that I have is, can I use the bose speakers with a CarPC or should I just pull 'em and put in an amp, new speakers, and a sub? The amount of necessary modifications will just change the amount of time before I do this, I'm patient and technically competent, but I'm also buying a house so a lot of my money is going away for that purpose.

Any input is greatly appreciated,
Mike

 

a lot is possible with the rgith knowledge and patience, here is a link to what the c5s with the touch screens

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...34&forum_id=20

Its do-able. whether you just cut it. or cut and relocate the plastic borders like some others have with epoxy, refinishing the textures to make it look all stock. amazing stuff these guys are doin

 

I just finished putting in a 7inch motorized unit in my 92. I think our interior is pretty much the same. I dont have pics of it yet, but when I do I'll send them to you.

First of all I have to say that of all the car installs I've ever done....this one was a challange. But it was a learning process and I'm glad to have done it.

1. Yes, there might be some cutting you may have to do. If there is, its very minimul and I'd be happy to walk you through it.

2. Please trust me on this one!!! Get rid of the Bose and run new wire!!! It's not hard and you'll thank yourself for it later. I've gone the other route with the inline connecter and was not happy with results.

3. Take your time with this project. Its not a 1-2hr. project. Plan on leaving a weekend open to do this.

Thats all I can think of at the moment...any questions don't hesitate to ask.

 

thats basically what everytouchscreen that we use looks like, it jsut doesn't have the case. i suggest getting one with a case ifyou're going to be doing a custom 'molded in' install. the case will give you propper mounting tabs and a clean opening with straight edges. look into the lilliput 7" ts. they aren't as wide as the xenarcs (like i have)

that could work, just mount it there temporarly for a weekend and drive around. see how the light reflects off of it. it could make the screen useless if the reflections are bad enough

The componenets you choose were good, what i have, for the most part. but do yourself a favor and get a slim/slot loading dvd drive... much cooler and you wont have to worry about breaking that tray or centering the cd on the tray before you close it. it'll be much safer.

and i agree, scrap the bose system completely.. much cleaner and better sound and less headaches.


i started in jan 2005. still not done

 

The 7" wide screen just barely fits into the head-unit area. Wouldn't having the extra case around it cause more cutting and relocation? The screen has somewhat of a border around it that will end up behind the sides, top and bottom of the plastic around the headunit... I figured the case would only be helpful if I was going to mount it oustide of the dash.


That seems like a great idea because i can try it at different angles to see if angling it up would cause the rear window to show up in the reflection. I have a black interior so it shouldn't be too bad, but it's a good idea to check it out ahead of time.

Do you know if there are any touch-screens that are cause less glare?


Also, the slot loading DVD player makes more sense. I never thought about how hard it will be to load that kind of DVD player while driving.

Thanks for the suggestions.
Mike

 

well, you're going to have to end up hacking up the dash anyways, so whats a little more cutting :-). do you have pictures so we can maybe make some suggestions (since i'm not familiar with the c4 interior). You may have to cut deeper into the stock surround but it could mean a cleaner and more solid install. It's hard to say though until we get deeper into this.

as far as i know, all the touchscreens cause glare. the best thing to do is fine the brightest screen you can afford. the xenarcs are available with an upgraded cfl backlight that makes them easier to see during the day. i have a stock xenarc (about the same brightness as the one you linked to) right now and with the top down (during the day) it's very hard to see until i shade it a bit with my hand. (this will hopefully be solved when i upgrade the backlights) you may want that option available to you too...so look keep that in mind. the touchscreen knocks down the brightness by about 100 cd/m²

 

Do these touch-screens have the old laptop effect of when you look at them from anything but dead-on, they get darker and blurry?

I know the new laptop screens using TFT Technology are pretty good at left/right, but up/down still get skewed pretty badly.

Mike

 

i dont have any problem with looking at mine from an angle. i guess i'm looking at about a 30 degree angle maybe more.

 

I was only giving the gentlemen an approximate time frame to get the basics of his new system together.
I'm not finished with my system either.....always something new to try, adjust, relocate ect. ect.
Hmmmmm.....I'm having visions of a rear view camera.
Well gotta jam!!! Later!!!!

 

Yeah- the ideas are flooding through my brain right now.

I just ran into something... The screen that I'm looking at only supports 640x480 for it's VGA- it's a wide-screen, but doesn't support the wide-screen resolutions for some reason.

Are there some better screens that'll do the widescreen/touchscreen?

Mike

 

What about pulling out the idiot panel and driving computer switch's? I've been toying with that idea. There would be enough room to install a touch screen there. If you add a incar pc, it could take over the operation of the switch's as well as the idiot panel lights.

 

you can get a phidget usb relay board that will control like 16 relays. or you can control up to 6 or 8 using the parrellel. port and a simple self made relay board (if memory serves me right)

 

The opening for the idiot panel is only about 5" wide and 3" tall, it's much too small for an LCD screen that will act as a touch-screen. If you can find an LCD screen from a PDA that will plug into a computer, that may work, but I don't know where to get the LCDs that are that small.

I was going to leave my panel alone (at least for now) because it's doing what it needs to be doing... Telling me that my Low Tire Pressure Warning System is disabled :-)

If anyone's curious about the C4 interior for '95, I'll throw in a few pictures later today as long as the snow slows down.

Mike

 

that would be helpful

 

Sorry about the no pictures delay.. I was moving into my new place this weekend- lots of stuff going on right now.

I left my camera there so I couldn't pull the pics today.

I'll post them shortly-

I also just found a 12" sub that I have. It's an MTX and it's in a pretty big sub-box right now, but that would take up about 1/2 of the back of my 'vette.

I may sell it to get a 10" sub that will be consealable, but I may find a way to stick it in. I'm not sure yet.

Is it a bad idea to take a sub out of a box that is ported? Will it sound all crappy outside the box?

 

most subs will work ported or sealed.

a ported box will be upwards of 25% bigger than a sealed box, but they are louder, where a sealed box is tighter.

I prefer sealed.

MTX is fair, tho... there are better subs out there.

You are getting into a potentially complex project here... if you were concerned about removing bose, wait until this gets going.

 

Thanks for the info Bogus, I realize how dangerous this is :-) I'm just excited now. I'll let you all know when it turns into frustration.


Here are the pictures....


This is the head unit. It's a bit over 7" wide and just about 4" tall...


Another Angle on the whole area.


Here's the floor speaker on the driver's side. I assume I'll have to do something to it to make it fit a normal speaker. The flash shows you where the speaker and the port hole are.


Here's the rear speaker. I'm not as concerned about these because I can barely hear them as it is. With a sub in there, i doubt they'll affect anything.


Here's a bad angle on the sub box. It's about 2.5" long, 1" tall and about 8" deep (I think). I'm assuming I'll want the ports aimed backwards if I leave it in the box.


Since that middle area has the same style finish (plastic/rubbery substance) I'll probably end up tearing all that off and re-painting it to match the modified stereo surroundings.

If anyone would like a better picture or a picture including tape measure, I can probably get that together pretty quickly.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for the input!
Mike

 

hmmm, i guess you could cut the bottom part under the radio and drop the lower part a half inch or so and fit the screen. this is definately doable. it'll just take a litte fabrication work.

 

A couple of my friends have been playing around with bondo on their interior components in their cars and the results are coming out pretty clean. I'm thinking about just using their technique to re-form the whole area around the head unit.

They cut out enough room for the screen-edge to fit, then put the screen-edge in place and bondo it in, with the screen out. Then they sand it all down and paint it nicely to match the rest of the interior (black for me) and put the screen back in. That way, the screen is held on by the whole middle section so it won't cause any trouble or drift around.

Any other/better ideas that you guys have tried?

 

bondo has never worked for me that well, i've always eventually gotten stress cracks. i'd use melted abs in acetone as your glue/filler and you will have actually 'welded' the plastic together and it makes a stress crack virtually impossible. to fill any minor low spots or pin holes get some glazing/spot putty and sand smooth and you'll have a great final product