Another Double Din Question

[peter-pa31]

I have been reading through all of the posts dealing with installations of double din nav units. I am contemplating installing the AVIC-D1 in my 04 C4S. From some of the pictures that I have seen, it is clearly possible to do a very clean looking install of this unit.

It seems from the posts I have read that while there is room for a double din, there will potentially be extra space. Is my understanding correct? If this is the case, are there any spacers available that would correctly fill this space, or alternatively, are there any companies that can fabricate the appropriate spacer?

[navin in KC]

You are up against a HUGE challenge here.

The problem is that your car has a "MOST" fiberoptic audio system which means that you'll have to change all of your speakers and amps.

I think that the spacer (that fits around the head unit) that you'll need to have made will be the easy part.

I'm having a system put in sometime soon (maybe this week) which is an Eclipse AVN head unit with all new amps and speakers with a bluetooth phone kit, but the price of it is absolutely ridiculous.

[peter-pa31]

I will have to change the amp, but I believe that the stock speakers will work. I will eventually want to change them as well as they are fairly low quality. I am aware of the MOST issues, but that aside, before I start ripping stuff out, I want to make sure that I will end up with a clean install.

[dvdude]

I will have to change the amp, but I believe that the stock speakers will work. I will eventually want to change them as well as they are fairly low quality. I am aware of the MOST issues, but that aside, before I start ripping stuff out, I want to make sure that I will end up with a clean install.

I can confirm that fit isn't really an issue. I had the Kenwood installed not too long ago and I think the shop created a custom bezel because it's a perfect fit, one piece and shows NO metal. I'd take photo's to prove it except that the same shop failed to put back the firewall grommet properly and the car is now in the service dept having the interior removed and everything dried out! Hope the first shop's liability insurance is paid up if it comes to that!

Which I hope it doesn't - the guy running the place seems decent enough and the dealer has a good working relationship with them so I'm prepared to accept one screw-up. Anyway, these are my problems....

In my case, the Nav 'puter was installed under the HU in the top position of the bottom section, the AC controls moved down to the bottom position of the bottom section. The CD holder and Bin are in the garage, with everything needed to convert back to stock 'cause some Porsche people insist on that (for when I come to part with the car) It looks perfect! I promise photo's when I get my car back. I'm certain you shouldn't have any issues with using the stock speakers, they are passive after all so MOST doesn't come into it.

Edited December 19, 2005 by dvdude

[peter-pa31]

I guess my question is how hard is it to fabricate a custom bezel? With the appropriate measurements I guess it is just a case of cutting out a piece of plastic to the correct size and creating some mechanism to attach it.

The installation shops clearly have experience doing this, but it is not something that I have attempted. Does anyone have advice on this sort of effort? I have some simple questions like:

• where can I get the best matching plastic
  
• what is the best means of fastening the bezel
  

Any other input would be appreciated!

Pete

[Dharn55]

All that work and your not replacing the speakers. I can tell you that the speakers are the weakest link in the whole system. I am still running my stock head unit and amp (I will be replacing the amp soon) but replaced the dash speakers with Focal 100KP's and the door units with Focal 136KP midrange. This made all the difference in the world. The stock speakers are trash. If you are going to spend the money, REPLACE THE SPEAKER!!!

[peter-pa31]

I certainly intend to replace the speakers, but my first goal is to get a nav system in the car.

[Beretta]

I guess my question is how hard is it to fabricate a custom bezel? With the appropriate measurements I guess it is just a case of cutting out a piece of plastic to the correct size and creating some mechanism to attach it.

The installation shops clearly have experience doing this, but it is not something that I have attempted. Does anyone have advice on this sort of effort? I have some simple questions like:

• where can I get the best matching plastic
  
• what is the best means of fastening the bezel
  

Any other input would be appreciated!

Pete

Its not that hard to fabricate a custom bezel. You probably saw my post regarding installation of a Double DIN Eclipse AVN unit into my 2k 996. I ended up taking 2 parts of a bezel designed for another unit and sticking them together with a glue gun. Next, I used body filler to cover the entire bezel and then sanded it down until it was smooth. This also fully integrated and covered both pieces of plastic making one solid piece of material. Then painting (and sanding) and painting (and sanding) until it was perfect. I dont think it would be very hard to even start with a piece of cardboard instead of plastic cut to the specifications you need and then build it up the same way but my installer already had a bezel from another unit that was close in size and lots of the cheap black plastic laying around.

It took a few nights, but the result was almost perfect. I am about a 2 on the handiness scale by the way. Anyone with some talent for working with their hands or more patience could make one pefect I'd think. One of the challenges is finding a way to keep it mounted, which for me was solved by a perfect fit and making it relatively 'thick' so as to stay seated around the unit. To answer your questions directly, I think the best matching material doesn't really matter since your going to be covering it with fibreglas or bondo and painting it anyway it doesn't really matter. That being said, using the closest thing you can find is the easiest. (another Double DIN ring cut and sized with another ring, or with just matte or even pebbled black plastic.

Best way of fastening under the circumstances is and making it the perfect size in width to fit snugly around the hole, and also thick enough that it wont flex and will seat firmly against the AVIC unit. Again the perfect fit is key.

By using bondo and sanding this can be accomplished fairly easily. If you screw up, just sand it down and then lay another layer of bondo or FG on top and start again. You could even build it up and then lay fibreglas fabric as the last layer and make it look very close to carbon fibre if you wanted.

This will sound stupid, but for the perfect spacers for my unit, I duct taped two old cd cases back to back and put it under the AVIC unit. Sized it perfectly within the opening. Dealer wanted 300 to fab something custom so I thought I'd mess around with it first to see if I cound find something that would do.

Took about 5 min.

[peter-pa31]

Thanks for the advice, Beretta.

I have the unit installed and working. The install is complete except for the completion of the fabrication of the bezel. I am using the bezel that came with the unit, so this leaves only a small gap ~1/2" at the bottom that requires filling. I will look into your technique. I may also let the shop that I bought the gear from fabricate it for me.

I like your idea of using CD cases to support the unit. I used flexible metal strap to "suspend" the unit from the top of the support. The unit seems to be rock solid, and like your solution, there is minimal cost.

I like the NAV capabilities of the AVIC D1. The touch screen is very good. I also installed the Sirius and Ipod interfaces. While they both work well, the interfaces are poor at best. From what I can tell from the manual, the XM interface is much better.

All in all, a huge improvement over the stock equipment. Since this car is my daily driver, I really appreciate the integration of all of the A/V and NAV capabilities.

Pete