Georgia Fiero Club Forum
All Things Fiero => Tech Tips, Tech Questions => Topic started by: LostNotForgotton on June 13, 2013, 12:14:53 pm
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Installing a double DIN GPS/DVD head unit in a Fiero
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Years ago we had a member named Miss-Tress007 who installed one into her car. If I recall, it was up high and replaced the high center vent ducts. I did find one thread on Pennocks but it wasn't specifically about the double din install. It was part of a custom interior. It's the link at the bottom in this thread: http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/123441.html
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Here is my original dash trim.
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I am using an extra dash trim that I have in stock to fabricate this design as 1) I wasn't a 100% sure this will work since I haven
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So Here I fiber glassed the HVAC bezel in place and made a hole for the radio. I bought a Pioneer AVIC-940BT and found that the radio didn't come with a trim bezel. DANG IT! So now I
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I decided to test fit the radio into the dash and see how I would like it. In order to make it fit I did have to (admittedly) cause some acts of violence against a Fiero where I broke out the plastic brackets used to hole the HVAC control panel in place. That whole plastic inside is one piece so there really is no way to remove that section without breaking or cutting it out. I chose the faster and easier route of breaking it off. That said I moved the controls down and placed them in a general location of where I
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Added some body filler to the dash trim to try and clean up small imperfections and attempted to make the edges for the radio as smooth as possible. That proved to be a challenge for me. The body filler would eventually crack and fall off during sanding. A work in progress but so far it seems like this will work out.
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This is a shot of the radio masked up. I had used it to size up the hole for the trim plate as well as to make sure the location of both the radio and the hole in the trim plate lined up perfectly. On a side note I have a battery relocation kit in my car and part of that process was to cut a hole in the spare tire well. I had never thrown that extra piece of plastic away so I decided to use that to fabricate a bracket to hold the HVAC controls in place. I cut it up and fitted it in. You can see that in the picture. I basically cut it to fit the slot and then later drilled holes in to attach it to the existing holes that once held the radio ;)
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I trial fit the trim piece back into the car to see how it fit over the radio and HVAC controls. It looks pretty good. I
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I like where this is going. I have thought about the same thing...specifically swapping the positions of the radio and HVAC controls. But since all my radios are single din it hasn't gone any further than considering the possibilities. I have also thought about the possibilities of moving the HVAC controls to the area where the cigar lighter is (obviously I would have to extend wires and get a custom cable)...this would give even more room for a larger computer screen.
Couple questions:
1. Can I assume you also plan to fab a bracket to hold the radio? I wouldn't trust the "pressed fit" solution long term...especially with the way I drive my cars.
2. Have you verified that the temperature slider still functions freely with it sitting on the bottom like that? Going out of memory, the back of the HVAC controls are quite open and it would be easy to cause binding in the control unit itself.
3. I see in your last pic that the cable for the temp slider is now very visible....will that tuck back up under the dash?
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Thanks, part of me is actually somewhat surprised it
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Look through www.crutchfield.com or www.replacementradios.com I seem to recall that one or the other had aftermarket radio bezels. Crutchfield may even have the bezel for your particular radio.
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Thanks for the recommendation. I will check into those sites and see if I can find anything that will fit. I will also try and work a little more on the dash this week too and post updated pics. 8)
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I
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I was going through my pics and just happen to come across a random pic my GoPro HD took at the autocross which happens to show the radio installed and in primer gray but it also shows what the passenger side ashtray looks like when the iPod is unplugged, the wires tucked in and the lid closed. A nice clean stock look. The drivers side just so happens to be flipped open though. I forgot to take a picture without the iPod so this works out.
