[ssinstaller]

The kit has been primered, but it still needs alot of finish work. I don't know if I want ot paint it black, or the same color as my car. I have another trim piece, with the hole for the factroy LCD filled in, but I didn't have at work to take pictures. The radio is not mounted with the sleeve, its actually mounted to the stock radio brackets.

Let me know what you think.

 

[vaBooM]

Looks good so far.

I was debating if I was gonna paint mine as well. If I do, I will paint the trim around the HVAC controls as well. Vinyl wouldnt look 100% right in this case, and definately not the textured ABS spray (truck bedliner).

vB

 

[holeydonut]

Ummm... what is the "kit" that you refer to?

Did you fabricate this piece yourself... or has a manufacturer released the piece?

 

[Bieser]

Ummm... what is the "kit" that you refer to?

Did you fabricate this piece yourself... or has a manufacturer released the piece?

I am actually DYING to know where this kit came from. Ive got close to $2000 worth of audio gear just SITTING in my room ever since I bought this car.

If someone could perhaps make me one....cough cough, wink wink....then I could perhaps pay them......The word PLEASE comes to mind about a million times.

 

[ssinstaller]

It isn't a kit you can purchase. I had to destroy my stock radio faceplate to make this one(the first pic).

I spent about $25.00 in materials, and about 3 hours to get it to this point, If you sent me the faceplate and metal brackets off your stock radio, I could probably make you a kit ready to be primed/painted for ~$100.00, If you wanted it painted black(profesionally painted at a bodyshop), it would run you ~$180.00.


Chris

 

[Bieser]

well damn....thats not going to work. Unfortunately this car is leased. Damn restrictions!

 

[crzyone01]

No need to destroy the head units face plate at all. Just wrap the head units face plate in some saran wrap, then 1 layer of aluminium foil, and then fiberglass 1-2 layers, let it dry, then fiberglass like a s.o.b. as many layers as you want on the back and while some of the layers are drying glass 2 brackets on the back to screw the HU into. It sounds much more complicated than it really is, just a little time and like $10 in materials and oyu have a cusotm face plate you can amaze your friends with and the beginnings to a wonderful skill you cna create anything you want with . Hopefully I'll have a small write-up on the process with some pictures to go along with the horrible writing within about 1-2 weeks on another site which will remain unmentioned.

- Phil Rogers

 

[vaBooM]

It isn't a kit you can purchase. I had to destroy my stock radio faceplate to make this one(the first pic).

I spent about $25.00 in materials, and about 3 hours to get it to this point, If you sent me the faceplate and metal brackets off your stock radio, I could probably make you a kit ready to be primed/painted for ~$100.00, If you wanted it painted black(profesionally painted at a bodyshop), it would run you ~$180.00.


Chris

Is the front face glass'd or straight body filler?

vB

 

[ssinstaller]

I thought about using fiberglass, but after looking at how complex the curves of the faceplate, and about 10 minutes of trying to get the knobs off(with out marring the finish), I gave up on that idea. I also think it's going to be very difficult mount the bottom of a fiberglass kit.
I never plan on putting the factory radio back in, so this was the fastest way for me to make a kit that I knew would fit well, and mount very solidly.

Here's some pics of the next addition to my system.(just need to swap out the current tv for on that's got 5.1 output)

 

[ssinstaller]

Is the front face glass'd or straight body filler?
vB

I wanted to make sure the cutout for the radio would be perfect, so I bonded part of an AMI chrysler dash kit to the factory faceplate with duramix, then used filler to smooth and shape the front. I would have liked to use duramix for the whole face, but it doesn't sand vey well.

 

[trvale]

Why are you putting speakers on your dash?!

 

[ssinstaller]

Why are you putting speakers on your dash?!

I have the panasonic CQ-VD7500U which uses a 4.1 downmix, so the vocals that should play from the center are mixed between the FL and FR speakers. Because I don't have perfect imaging the vocals tend to move around on the dash depending on the tone. So I'm swapping to the CQ-VD7700U which has 5.1 DTS sound, this will fix the imaging problem when watching movies, but I have to add the cener channel for it to work.

 

[vaBooM]

Is the front face glass'd or straight body filler?
vB

I wanted to make sure the cutout for the radio would be perfect, so I bonded part of an AMI chrysler dash kit to the factory faceplate with duramix, then used filler to smooth and shape the front. I would have liked to use duramix for the whole face, but it doesn't sand vey well.

I had a feeling you used a kit from somewhere. I couldnt see making the drop in with straight filler.

I would use Rage or Lime body filler. Sands well and has a little less consistancy than Bondo or typical body fillers. Its runny, only really used for the final step just before priming and painting.

vB

 

[nerotiX]

that is the sickest shit ive ever seen.

youve got some crazy skills i wish i had.

 

[darkside3]

soo what do you have two O.E.M decks laying around becuase the speakers were not in the first pics with the flip out screen and then you have a pic of the speakers and no flip out with the stock deck.... did you ever get better pics of your 19" rims?

:roll:

 

[holeydonut]

I'm a bit confused about your skepticism regarding his photos.... Are you saying those are fakes, or not his photos?

I don't see why he's taking pictures on his cell phone instead of using a normal digi-cam. With all that electronic stuff I figure ssinstaller would have a digi-cam

 

[ssinstaller]

soo what do you have two O.E.M decks laying around becuase the speakers were not in the first pics with the flip out screen and then you have a pic of the speakers and no flip out with the stock deck.... did you ever get better pics of your 19" rims?

:roll:

I have uploaded some better pics of the stereo install into the gallery.

ABOUT THE RIMS: JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE/HAVE NOT SEEN/CANT AFFORD 19" RIMS, DOESN'T MEAN THAT THEY DON'T FIT ON THE MZ3 I'VE POSTED PLENTY OF PICS OF THE RIMS, BUT JUST FOR YOU I'LL POST A COUPLE OF VERY LARGE PICS OF MY 19" RIMS THAT ARE ON MY MZ3. I'LL BE SURE TO HAVE SOME FORM OF MEASURING TAPE/RULER IN THE PIC SO THAT YOU CAN CORRECTLY JUDGE THE SIZE O.K..

 

[M3-GT]

soo what do you have two O.E.M decks laying around becuase the speakers were not in the first pics with the flip out screen and then you have a pic of the speakers and no flip out with the stock deck.... did you ever get better pics of your 19" rims?

:roll:

I have uploaded some better pics of the stereo install into the gallery.

ABOUT THE RIMS: JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE/HAVE NOT SEEN/CANT AFFORD 19" RIMS, DOESN'T MEAN THAT THEY DON'T FIT ON THE MZ3 I'VE POSTED PLENTY OF PICS OF THE RIMS, BUT JUST FOR YOU I'LL POST A COUPLE OF VERY LARGE PICS OF MY 19" RIMS THAT ARE ON MY MZ3. I'LL BE SURE TO HAVE SOME FORM OF MEASURING TAPE/RULER IN THE PIC SO THAT YOU CAN CORRECTLY JUDGE THE SIZE O.K..

Why don't you just ignore the guy.

 

[ssinstaller]

Why don't you just ignore the guy.

I don't seek him out or whore his posts to cause arguements, and I will not let him do so to mine. His post added nothing constructive to the discussion in this topic. Had he provided some useful information, even criticism, that added to the discusion, I would have ignored his reply.(As I did to his post in the original topic abuot my rims) I'm sure he'll have another comment about my post, but I will give him some VERY lagre pics of the rims tomorrow; mabey then he'll give up.


Chris

 

[M3-GT]

Well if you want to take your time prooving your point to this guy it's your right not in this thread though.

PM him the HUGE pictures. We don't need that on the forum. thx.