Hey everyone,

I was bored this weekend and decided to take on a project I've been meaning to try. My stock dash was sitting in my closet collecting dust. I always wondered what the measurements would be if I just cut/dremmel out the stock button holes and would it be doubleDIN compliant.

The answer:

MAYBE!!!!!!

Read on...

 

Ok. Here's the stock dash and how it originally appears.





231683-stockdash.jpg

 

I drew my pen line to reach the edges of all the buttons to make a square. The almost exact measurements is 6 7/8 - 7" horizontally and 4 3/8" vertically.

I did a little research of many aftermarket HU's, both singleDIN and doubleDIN. Most decks are roughly 7" x 2 1/4" for single DIN. The doubleDIN are roughly double the height of the singleDIn decks.

You see where I'm going with this in terms of a "MAYBE" answer???




231687-measurements.jpg

 

Ok, next was to dremmel out the faceplate along my pen line. I didn't cut at my pen line b/c I didn't want rough edges RIGHT at the border and I didn't want to risk scratching the paint with my dremmel in case it skipped from the cut line.





231690-postdremmel.jpg

 

Next I masked the dash for the sanding. I got my dremmel, attached the sander thingy and sanded along the pen line. Since I knew I would have to extend the horizontal measurement to fit 7", I wasn't as careful (but of course i was). The vertical measurement was another story.

See.....you don't want to extend the vertical cut/sand more than needed as you will widen your doubleDIN vertical GAP. You will understand this more with the next pictures.



231693-maskeddash.jpg

 

After sanding, I had a leftover blank bracket I got from J's and fit it in the DIN space. I had to sand a tiny bit more horizontally to make it fit well. The pen lines on the masking tape indicated by the red arrows is the lower edge of the blank bracket.



231695-blankbracket.jpg

 

Then, I moved the blank bracket down to the what would be the bottom DIN of the doubleDIN. Again, indicated with the blue arrows are the lower edges of the upper DIN.

THERE IS A ~1/8" GAP!!! CRAP!

Now you understand why you have to careful and not sand more than needed on the vertical cut....

The gap is not much and most install crews should be able to cover the 1/8" gap with a trim piece or some ABS plastic fabrication.....

BUT, you would still need to buy the v35 AC controller from J's!!!! $220

My next "research" will be to take my stock ACC/CD changer/radio integrated IC board to an EE and see if you can dissect/cut the IC board and still have a functional AC controller. We'll see, they maybe still hope that people will not need the japan v35 parts!!!! I'll keep everyone posted...





231697-DIn gap.jpg

 

I didn't have any single or double DIN decks lying around my house so I don't know how it they would fit in this cut-out space. If anyone wants to send/give me their decks, I can try them out. lol

Anyone want to buy this piece? It might be a collector's item someday....lol lol



docron1 aka joepaniolo


231699-residual faceplate.jpg

 

BTW, this was the first project I used my new shiny Dremmel. I love it, the rotary tool is cool and cutting sh*t is always awesome!

 

That's pretty impressive, good work. I'd be way too scared to attempt anything like that!

2004 Diamond Graphite Infiniti G35 Sedan
Z Intake Tube
5% Tint
ZAINO

 

I actually thought about this..... BUT if I ever sold the car, I'd throw that old crap back in there so I wouldn't have to spend $$$$$$$ and more $$$$$$ to buy all my stuff again. Otherwise, it's just junk - you can use that stuff in another car anyway (the base stuff)..... so that's why I don't plan to destroy it. But hey - like you said, I have a dremmel too, and destroying and cutting stuff IS very cool...... yeah yeah yeah.. huh huh huh huh.....

--Bamadog

 

Bama,

If you buy a new car, by that time there will be more cool stereo/nav/dvd stuff to buy. I had a top-o-da-line alpine AI NET deck and Cd changer in my last truck. I left all that stuff in there. I wouldn't have planned to put that old stuff in my G anyway. So, when I get my new spacemobile in 3-4 years (ok maybe more), I would just simply plan on getting all new stereo stuff anyway. Oh well, its like buying a PC, you always need to update it with the lastest and newest gadgets, right?

 

One more thing.....

The stock BOSE stereo crap will probably bring you a lower trade-in or bluebook value anyway......lmao

 

TRUE DAT! Good point.