Anyone ever done anything different with their Head Units?

[Shilakadaddy 0]

Wanting to hide my head unit really, due to the fact that someone messed up my door trying to break into my car a little while ago (presumably to steal my HU). Since then I've taken my HU out and now I just have a big hole in my dash and no music :(

What I really wanna do is hide my HU behind something that looks standard...

 

Has anyone else ever done anything different to their HU - maybe nothing like mentioned above, I'm just interested to see. PICS PICS PICS :D

 

Chris

[Shilakadaddy 0]

also anyone know where I could get sheets of plastic that look like the standard plasic in the dash? that kinda grey black textured stuff?

[Henny 0]

also anyone know where I could get sheets of plastic that look like the standard plasic in the dash? that kinda grey black textured stuff?

 

Scrap yard mate! Just find any old VW (Passat's probably your best bet) and cut a chunk of dashboard out so you can use that when you get home.... 8)

 

You could mount the head unit in the glove box pretty easily... take out the light and you can run the cables through the hole without hacking the glovebox up either... 8) I've installed DVD players and CD multichangers in gloveboxes before using some industrial velcro to hold it in with no problems and the advantage that you can sell the car with no dodgy looking holes in the golvebox... 8)

[24V Renshaw 0]

Fit a TT dash then you can flip down the little cover! :) 8)

[yalan 0]

you can get little blanking plates from Halfords. IIRC they are textured and the exact right size for the aperature. Sold for those people who don't want a stereo at all but don't want a gaping hole.

 

When I was at uni I had my HU bolted down in the glovebox (in my golf). Then took an Alpine remote apart and put the IR transmitter inside the glovebox & the controls out by the gearstick. You could still control the major features with the glovebox lid closed.

 

Left the standard slot empty too. Who's going to want to break into a car without any stereo at all!

 

Unfortunately no pics...... wasn't alot to see really!

[yalan 0]

or you could cut au a crappy old HU and make a fake face to put on top........ I don't think ANYONE would be able to tell my HU isn't actually a 1994 bottom of the range Panasonic cassette deck!

[gibber 0]

following on from Yalan, you could do 3 fake dials (a pic of oil press, volts and amps) stuck on so it doesnt look like its just a blanking plate covering ya stereo.

 

Mite do that my self haha! :lol:

[coolrado 0]

try getting this months total car audio there is a guy in there who has put the face of his head unit in the sun visor and the head unit in the glove box there are adapter leads availiable to do that 8)

[ben16v 0]

thats buzzing!!!! 8) :shock: 8)

[Shilakadaddy 0]

buzzing... now theres a word I haven't heard for a long time :D

 

I've thought about the TT flip down thing, it looks really nice (on the TT dash) but think on the standard C dash would look a but out of place... oh and I don't really have the money to do a TT dash conversion... yet :wink:

 

I think I'm going to check out those blanking plates... and then do as Henny suggested and mount it in the glove box (... although now everyone knows my genius plan :roll: lol) Although I'm wondering if the dash will look kinda bare..?

 

Anyone ever done anything else different to the dash (other than G60Renshaw) just while we're here with a kinda related topic :) TV's mounted etc.?

[ben16v 0]

as someone said before put dials in place of stez, if relocated

 

 

 

(old skool!) 8)

[coolrado 0]

i cut the ash tray and lighter socket out on mine to fit the pop out screen in(not much point having an ash tray if i dont smoke)

[chrishill 0]

not much point having an ash tray if i dont smoke

 

I put sweets in mine! :)

 

Might sound like an obvious suggestion, but what about a HU with a removable front? much less appealing to an oportunist theif if they're going to have to get a new face for the unit they just stole.

[Shilakadaddy 0]

I would buy a head unit with a detatchable front... however mine would only sell for £90 and then I'd have to spend £200 on one thats the same (cos I like it) but has a removable front. Its upsetting how little stuffs worth after buying it :(

[Dilated 0]

I'd go with what Yalan said. My friend had a kenwood touch screen head unit in his Pug206, and he carefully butchered the standard crappy stereo (they are a strange moulded-into-the-dash shape) and glued the front of it onto the front of the tv, so when it closed it fitted flush and looked standard. Was a well trick little mod =}

If you go the route of hiding it with fake gauges etc and trying to show you have no stereo in at all, any decent thief would be very curious as to what isn't standard on the car and/or what might be in the glovebox. Show them a standard shitty stereo and they won't look twice.

[pablo_vr6 0]

buy a nakamichi - noone will nick that :D

[Kevin Bacon 5]

LOL. No one will nick a Nakamichi because unless you know what it is, it looks very plain and boring. Duller than a factory unit in fact, but then facias that are pleasing to the eye has never been Nakamichi's strong point!

 

Alpine's F1 status is the Daddy (Nakamichi's sister company,) though, and that *would* be nicked. Hand picked Ultra-Low tolerance Burr-Brown DACs (only 1 in every 90 to 100 DACS make the grade for F1!) and digital time alignment plus all manner of swanky gadgets, including voice activation for everything.

 

Pioneer's P77MP is the affordable HU of choice at the moment though, MOSFET output stages, those Burr-Brown DACs again, 3 x 6.5V preouts and tonnes of features and all for around £240!

 

K

[Rado16v 0]

buy a nakamichi - noone will nick that :D

 

oi, leave my nak alone. Got enough abuse from Alex already :D

[pablo_vr6 0]

lol lads I had one at one stage too dont worry.

 

for a value HU tho I went for the pioneer p9400. it has TA/Xovers/eq and all that but also it can auto eq with the supplied mic so saves a lot of hassle when you change something and it actually does a good job. basically the unit is the successor of the P99/P1 and isnt a kick in the arse off the P9 (well it is but without spending £1500).

 

At £450 it isnt the cheapest but the autoeq makes it invaluable in my eyes.

 

btw halfords also used to sell fake air vents to stick over a HU. not bad but a little crude.

 

-pablo

[dinkus 10]

See I'm all for good audio and I've got rather a tasty hi-fi at home, but I don't see the point in getting super low distortion amps in your car. Yeah ok, don't get any old crap, but seriously, you're going to DRIVE the car and get wind/road/tyre noise booming through your lovely undistorted audio.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah I know what you mean mate, but ICE is like modding in general. Once you start, you can't stop! You overcome noise by using dynamat and sound deadening materials, which benefits the whole car refinement wise, aswell as the sound quality.

 

You can never achieve the perfect sound in a car due to the noisy environment but you can get a damned good sound, and that's what most of us try to achieve and when you're stuck in traffic jams everyday, it's helps bide the time!

[pablo_vr6 0]

put it loud enough then you cant hear the road noise :D

[Shilakadaddy 0]

I just love the feeling of bass, the way it vibrates the whole car when you have a loud enough systems :) I got kinda addicted to it after one of my mates (!!extreme boy racer warning here!!) put a sony Xplod Sub in his 1.0l Corsa (sorry for putting that image in your heads) lol - it was pathetic but got me hooked.

 

In my last car I had a resonant engineering XXX12 sub and 35.1d amp (about 1500W RMS). I had to sell that to raise cash for the C, but I've got some more, so I'm looking to get a Directed 2400d (2400W RMS) and 2 Resonant Engineering subs - not sure which ones yet. :twisted:

 

Can't Wait :mrgreen:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Careful you don't shake the petrol tank off your car with all that bass!

 

I did that in an old Peugeot 106. I had a JBL 15" sub in the boot and it shook the petrol pump loose and fell off the car. Quality engineering!