///Marty Posted November 6, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2008 Cheers dicky. Have already done the cutting part. Just in the process of making the filler piece. Have taken loads of pics so will do my next update when the heater box is all back together. Managed to bag a 2nd hand Dremel on fleabay which is making things much easier. Re: the heater. You can either just disconnect the control arm and lose the duct in the passenger footwell, or do a mod the the arm or flap to retain full useage. Just researching a couple of different methods of doing it at the moment before i decide which way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windy Posted November 6, 2008 Report Share Posted November 6, 2008 Looking forward to more photos from either of you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicky Posted November 7, 2008 Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 Re: the heater. You can either just disconnect the control arm and lose the duct in the passenger footwell, or do a mod the the arm or flap to retain full useage. Just researching a couple of different methods of doing it at the moment before i decide which way to go. Mate I tried to mod the arm but I think this is only possible on LHD cars I opened the duct fully by just removing the flap and then the air is always going down there which I couldn't see a problem with Mine has worked a treat since no problem with the way the AC works or blowers at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 Yeah, i have found the same. I have seen another way of doing it where you move the mountin points for the arms further down o the bottom of both flaps, and then cut and seal the left hand flap so that it can fold back on itself when the flap opens, and goes back straight when the flap closes. Might end up doing what you've done though as it sounds like a major ball ache. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 Its finally arrived! Took three weeks despite paying extra for express shipping but the quality looks excellent! Can't wait to get stuck into the next stage now! Update to follow as soon as i have completed the next stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clubsport_chris Posted November 13, 2008 Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 Oh this is gonna look the nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz 330 Cs Posted November 13, 2008 Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 Yeah it will do ! Needs to be damn HOT looking after all the Hours & Hard Graft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 Yeah i hope it will. To be fair i've probably only spent about 5-6 hrs on it so far, and some of that was swapping the centre compartment for one with an armrest. I'm just trying to do half an hour on it as and when i get chance but i reckon another hour or two and phase one will be complete. My components have arrived now so researching into wiring them and the subs up at the minute. - Big up to dicky for all his advice so far. You da man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 Meant to ask mate when you modded your carrier as above, is there a reason you took the bottom section out? I've been offereing it up and it looks like it wouldn't foul anywhere from what i can make out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicky Posted November 13, 2008 Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 Thank goodness its here God only knows why I cut the bottom off , I guess I needed it for clearance? But if you don't need the clearance you could leave it but i don't think it makes much difference Come on I expect it all done my Sunday evening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Don't know about Sunday dude but will definately get it doen as soon as poss. I'm getting sick of driving round with a feckin great hole in my dash! Don't think i'l need to cut it, will see when it comes to the crunch. shabir 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicky Posted November 23, 2008 Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 Well done that man, nice little write up on the centre console, and as you say the ipod fits in there a treat I see there car is taking you on, as you have cut it all around I see it has got its own back on your thumb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 I see there car is taking you on, as you have cut it all around I see it has got its own back on your thumb It did indeed. ALso got nice slice down my finger from making up a pice of steel to fill the opening on the heater box! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Ok, the scary stuff is now done and here are the pics and write up. Had my first day off in i don't know how long yeterday so i neglected to tell the missus and spent the whole day working on the car. First step in modifying the heater box is to remove the plastic panel that forms the front of the box. There are about 8 spring clips around the sides and bottom that secure it to the main box. Whip them out and unplug all the wires that are clipped to the panel. There is also a thermostat which passes through the panel and sits in the void behind above the heater: Once the panel is off you will have something like this: The yellowish piece of plastic you can see is the control arm for the internal flaps that open up the vents to the foot wells. I have done massive amounts of research into this and found a number of different solutions for modifying this arm to retain use of the passenger footwell but all of these solutions have been carried out on LHD cars. I did come up with an idea to solve the problem - by cutting the locators off each flap, swapping them over and mounting them lower down the flaps to clear the bottom of the new box but to be quite honest it would be a massive amount of work and at this point i just wanted to get the unit in. The top part of the heater box can then be cut out. Initially i was started to do this with a pair of snips, however doing the cut along the back wall proved to be virtually impossible and i started looking round for a dremel. Managed to bag a second hand one on ebay for a few squid, and i have to say it was the best decision i made during the whole installation. There are lots of little bits that need to be shaved, adjusted, modded and the dremel proved to be the perfect tool for the job: The front part of the panel can also be cut, as i was kind of learning as i went, i just went for it and cut right the way across. My advise to anyone doing this mod having read this would be to leave the right hand part of the panel and top of the heater box in situ as it just made more work for me: The next part was quite time consuming, but i thought it was worth spending time on this bit as get it wrong and you will have hot air from your heater box leaking into the void behind the double din and causing the unit to overheat. As i said, i have done a lot of research on this, and come across a number of different techniques for this part. Most people tend to cut pieces of plastic and then plastic weld them into the opening. I have to say i've never had a go at plastic welding and didn't have any equipment to do it so decided to go with steel as i we use a lot of it for my company and had loads lying around, along with cutting discs and rivets etc. I started off making a cardboard template: Then transferred this design onto a pice of steel and got cutting and bending: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 As it turned out, this original design was tweaked and changed to overcome problems and create clearances. My initial steel piece that i made fouled the back of the unit when i test fitted it so unfortunately i had to cut the left side off it: I then made a small extension to give the additional clearance required and attatched this to the original fill piece. I could have started the whole thing again but i was just concious of the fact that this is the only daylight hours i've had to spend on the install and it may well be christmas before i get another day off: The newly extended piece was then test fitted and adjusted a little more to get the fit as best as physically possible - this is quite difficult as the original heater box does not run in at right angles and also the slight angle of the dash means that the head unit does not fit into this void at 90 degrees, it is rotated slightly so that the screen faces the driver: Once i was happy with the fit and the location, the fill piece was sealed to the original box using heat proof silicone: and when this had been allowed time to cure, i followed dicky's advice and re-inforced everything in gaffa tape: The next major job was to modify the existing carrier to accept the new double din head unit. Again during my research i had seen a lot of different solutions to this from people glueing pices of wood to the HU to using bendy strips of metal with holes drilled all over the place. This was my solution. Firstly i offered up the Mybimmer.net bezel to the carrier to see which bits needed to go and which could stay: Here is the carrier in standard form: And with the centre section removed to allow space for the double din: I attatched the bezel temporarily so i could get an idea on where the HU needed to be mounted: I used another pice of steel to centre the unit, and to allow some height and angle adjustment. This was riveted into the OE carrier meaning it is going nowhere: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 The HU was offered up to the new carrier and the positions marked so that i could screw into the original security locations on the HU: Initially i tried to use the original screws that came with the HU but the thickness of the steel was making it difficult to get a good fixing. I countersunk the holes to try and gain a little more thread but still wasn't happy so in the end i got some longer screws and used spacer washers to stop the screws going in too far and damaging the electrical components inside the unit: Next i needed to run in the wiring for the various add ons for the unit. Ipod adptor had already been run into the centre console earlier, which meant i just need to protect the control unit and hide it away behind the dash. I used the old piece of foam backed carpet i removed from the centre console and carved out the shape of the control box in the foam. This was then tucked away in a little void near the glove box. The foam/carpet protect the unit and stop it from making an annoying rattle when you go over bumps. (found this out the first time i installed one of these with my old HU): The bluetooth control unit was tucked down to the left hand side of the centre console and the wiring tucked away to the side of the heater box: There were a few locations i looked at for the GPS antenna. There is a factory location under the rear parcel shelf, i alos looked into mounting it next to the light sensor at the front of the dash but i didn't want it to be visible unless absolutley necessary. In the end i decided to mount it under the grill under the bonnet. I made sure it has clear line of sight through the grill: And ran the wiring back through the bulkhead behind the air conditioning unit. To access this you drop the small glovebox to the right of the steering wheel out of the way and your in: With all the wiring in place, i hooked everything up, put the HU and carrier into the opening and tested everything to make sure it was all working: Amazingly the only thing that wasn't working straight away was the ipod connection. A bit of fault finding revealed i'd forgotten to earth the control unit and five mins later it was all up and running: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 I fitted the carrier and HU properley and started to put everything back together. I re-fitted the bezel to check that everything was still in line and that the motorized screen didn't fowl the bezel in any way: Happy with the fitment i started to re-fit all the trim. The carbon cube pieces went back, along with the air con relocation unit, carbon cube gear surround and sound deadening, gaitor and gear knob. I'd had a play about with the unit, set up my bluetooth connection to my phone, set up the GPS and had a play about with the Ipod. Everything is working perfectly and i have to say although it was hard work and a bit nail biting cutting into the car, the finished reslut is all worth it. ^^^^^CLICKY FOR VIDEO^^^^^ That is phase one of the ICE install well and truely finished. AFter christmas i will begin phase 2 which will consist of these little goodies: Obviously i'l take more photos and update the thread as and when but for now i'm one happy bunny. Comments good or bad welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz 330 Cs Posted November 30, 2008 Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Im green with Envy ! Top Job Dude ...looking really good , i sooo want a screen in mine ! Damn Smart . Great pics too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay. Posted November 30, 2008 Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Nice one Marty, propper effort gone into that. Well done fella bet your well chuffed with it all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicky Posted November 30, 2008 Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Mate That is an excellent write up not to mention how good that unit looks in the dash you must be well pleased Good work mate, I think you have made me want to change mine again now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Im green with Envy ! Top Job Dude ...looking really good , i sooo want a screen in mine ! Damn Smart . Great pics too Cheers Daz. I can highly recommend it. I still haven't quite got my head round everything yet but i'm getting there - didn't realise until today that it is voice activated too. Nice one Marty, propper effort gone into that. Well done fella bet your well chuffed with it all Cheers Jamie, It was hard work and there were a couple of points when i was worried i'd bitten off more i can chew but like the angel eyes, i reckon once you've done one, you could do another in half the time. I didn't keep a check on time really but i reckon including yeterday it took about 15hrs including swapping all the relocation unit and centre armrest over. Mate That is an excellent write up not to mention how good that unit looks in the dash you must be well pleased Good work mate, I think you have made me want to change mine again now Thanks buddy. I have to say it was your installation that inspired me to go for it. Before i saw yours i thought it would be far easier to just go for the single din motorised screen but after i saw yours i just thought i have to have that in my life. Have you seen the new pioneer range? ........... Some really nice stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted November 30, 2008 Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Look sweet as mate, really neat. Looking forward to seeing it for real soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicky Posted November 30, 2008 Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Thanks buddy. I have to say it was your installation that inspired me to go for it. Before i saw yours i thought it would be far easier to just go for the single din motorised screen but after i saw yours i just thought i have to have that in my life. Have you seen the new pioneer range? ........... Some really nice stuff. Yeah there are some nice screens there, I will have to go and have a look and a play with them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///Marty Posted November 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Look sweet as mate, really neat. Looking forward to seeing it for real soon. Yes mate, we'll have to sort out a meet in the new year. I have to see the rimmage! You done the angel eyes yet? Yeah there are some nice screens there, I will have to go and have a look and a play with them Play away my friend. Just don't take your credit card unless you have permission to buy! The new software looks pretty amazing, but it's like 3k so i'l stick with mine til the prices get more reasonable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted November 30, 2008 Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 Kind of done the angel eyes, just havent got round to putting the lights back in the car yet as its not on the road at the mo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
