Has anyone done a HUD install on a C5 that didn't have it originally?

 

Its fairly straight forward. If you have a HUD compatible IPC, you just need the HUD, harness, and left IPC buttons.

YES, you have to pull the dash and cluster.

There are several forum post on the entire process. Its not all that difficult!

 

The guy had a cluster projector and bezel, but no harness. I saw a thread on another site where a guy was making harnesses for about $35 but the link to his site was busted.

 

If you want to see what is involved, send me a PM with your e-mail address. I'll forward you some Word files that talks about the process.

 

Here is a thread all about it.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...d-install.html

 

I used the harness from the old IPC (non-hud) and the one from the new IPC (also non-hud) and made the 11 pin harness in two parts. They're just connectors on a .100 pin spacing so pretty common. I used my belt sander to take off the extra pins from the connector. Some wires needed rearranged as I recall. It wasn't difficult. Just finesse the little pin gizmos out of the connector by gently lifting the plastic holding tab. You can also order the wiring parts from Newark Electronics if need be.

For the dash cutout I used a very sharp utility knife and VERY carefully cut through the hard plastic material (whatever the name is for it). On the underside of the dash pad you'll see where they have essentially a cutout waiting to get cut out. The basic shape was obvious on mine and the hard material, whatever it was, was thin at the areas where you need to cut so it cut rather easy, but again, be careful not to slip with the knife. I drilled the holes on location for the plastic bosses to come through the dash pad. If memory serves, I had to slightly open the hole some more in order to get the shroud of the hud bezel to fully seat in the dash pad. Once done though, it fit like GM did it.

Once I had all the screws in that bezel the dash was much stronger again. It felt a little weak while I had the hole in there with no support. Be careful with it in that state. I keep saying "Hole" but it really is a U shape as shown in the pic below (stolen from the thread referenced above)

Thinking back, I drilled the holes first and then used the bezel as my template for cutting the top soft portion of the dash. I used NO JB Weld. In the thread above they show two photos that I would say are going to do you a dis-service (In spite of the fact you need them) and here they are.




I bought my HUD setup from Gene Cully. Brand new, with a new bezel. And it was dirt cheap (imo). If you got that one, the bezel does not resemble this thing they are showing here. Mine has a shroud that fits down through the hole you cut, and you DO NOT cut where they show the lines to cut. I cut a little bit inside that and left the other material where those holes are shown so my plastic bosses fit down through the 4 holes I drilled. The shroud as I recall extends down from the bezel about 1/2 - maybe 5/8". That is the only area that needs cut out, the rest sits on top of the dash pad.

Where they used JB Weld, mine used screws.

Once that's in place, screws with flat washers (which you need to provide) will get screwed into 4 long round bosses sticking down from the bezel and through the dash pad. With careful drilling of the 4 holes, those will fit really nice and you'll have the ability to make pen lines inside the hole when the bezel is on so you know to cut say another 1/16" outside the pen line to perfectly fit your bezel. (This line is on top of the dash now)

At that point you will very carefully trim tiny shavings off that hole till the bezel fits down through the hole perfect. Put the screws in and your bezel install is done.

I wrapped tape around the shank of a small drill bit so I could drive it with my fingers and "drilled" the holes for the projector mounting screws by hand. Even a right angle drill would not fit under the windshield of my car to drill them and I wanted them straight. That stuff drills like bread crust so no problem there.

Good luck with the install. Post up any specific questions and I'll try to answer them if I can. If you get into the job and would like some help in real-time, PM me a phone number and I'd be happy to answer whatever I can while you have the car open.

 

I installed the HUD on my 2000 Hardtop about 10 years ago. I purchased a complete set-up from a Forum member here. It included the cluster, projector, harness, and a "perfect" dash with the bezel installed. It turned out that my cluster was already HUD capable however.

When the items arrived, the "perfect" dash had 2-3 of the attaching tabs broken. I decided to just transfer the bezel from the bad dash to my perfect dash. Installation went fine, but within a few weeks the bezel had cracked in 2 or 3 places. Clearly sitting in the sun on the dash had take a toll on it. It probably would have been fine had I not disturbed it by transferring it. I had to order a new bezel and remove the dash once again to install it.

Moral of the story is, don't try to reuse an old bezel. A new one is just too cheap to chance it.

Two years later I did have to fix the projector as the mirror had dropped. It was a pretty easy fix and probably inevitable over time as the hinge pin that breaks is plastic. Since they're not making new projectors, you might want to check to see if the mod for the dropped mirror has been made before installing your used projector. The instructions for this mod were included in the Tech Tips pull-down above if you want to see what that is all about.

Good luck... GUSTO