Started last night after I bought a Dremel 3000 and a kit. MAN I should have bought one of these YEARS ago! anywho, I got everything cut up and slapped some bondo on it to cure overnight. Sped a few hours today sanding and accidently gouging the bezel, so more bondo. yay.

A little bit about this. I used this tablet in my last ride. It's an 8.3" LG Gpad. I picked it up on Ebay for $70. Comes with android 4.4.4 and works flawlessly with Tasker to mimick a Real car radio. key-on: tablet turns on. Key-off: Tablet turns off. Well the screen anyway, It lasts about 3 weeks in standby so no need to fully turn it off.

Since it's 8.3" it wont fit in a landscape orientation, so I opted for portrait. This means cutting the radio AND shifter bezels. I screwed and super glued the bezels together. They will be 1 unit now. Filled in the gaps, unused holes with bondo. Was able to snag a JDM A/C controller for $160 off of a member here. Works great, and cheaper than I expected! Only thing that sucks is the gray Dual button since my buttons were all gray. oh well.

Here's where I'm at right now. Torn between a wrap or paint. A wrap would make minor blemishes 10X easier to hide.
Depending on how my amp likes the tablet being an un-grounded input source, I do have an Alpine CDA-9885 I will install in the Nav DVD slot. (Unless I find a 9887, I REALLY want a 9887 for it's audio processor)
A Joycon android compatible steering wheel control unit is in the plans too.

 

I'm excited to see this project come to fruition. Thanks for the goals post. Let's see what you meet!

 

Looking good! Can't wait to see the finished piece. Did you happen to see the one I made? Also has gauges molded in.

 

Thanks! I did a test fit. need to trim something on the bottom that's preventing the shifter bezel from snapping in place. man it's a bitch trying to install everything as 1 big unit. stupid radio bezel design...
I'm getting ungodly feedback trying to run the tablet to my alpine amp through factory wires. Tomorrow my 9885 will find a new home in the dvd slot and I'll run RCA's all the way back (might hot-wire it to run without a faceplate). needed a pre-amp boost anyway. Oh joy, I get to take the back seat out again -_-
I've decided on a vinyl wrap. Don't know if I'll go with a pattern or not. Tons of weird contours on the bezel, might skew the patterns weirdly. But the wrap will save tons of time in fine sanding and filling in the little pores. Plus I really don't have anywhere to paint it with the weather right now.

 

saw that one a while back. looks good!. I have a nav screen up top. Eventually that will get replaced with a phablet and will be dedicated to google maps and an obd2 reader so I get real-time engine info like water temp, oil temp, volts... all the stuff the dash doesn't really show in full detail. Maybe if I'm lucky it will read tire pressure!

 

I'm going to see if I can grab a JL Audio MBT-RX locally and slap that right onto the amp. should solve my feedback issues.

 

That's basically what mines does. It's mostly for show but I run spotify on it sometimes. Also has its own phone # lol. Get familiar with Tasker as well. Mine powers on and off with the car and auto launches everything.

 

For the audio, does that tablet support a USB audio device via USB OTG? That'll let you bypass the headphone jack completely for much greater audio fidelity.

The tablet I put in the factory navigation location gets little use, just because of the pain of switching audio sources. It's just easier to run everything from my Galaxy Note 4. One of these days I'll remove the 6" tablet and just put the mount for the Note 4 in its place.

 

Im not 100% sure mine supports otg, but i figured it all out this morning. I had to use my ground loop isolator without it wired to the cars ground to kill off the distortion. (Weird eh?) Only major problem is it doesnt get SUPER loud, but a pre-amp booster might help later on. I have a video uploading on YT right now I'll link it when its done.
DigitalDevient- i actually am using tasker on my tablet. Along with StayAlive to keep the screen on. Tablet is rooted on ofw.

 

Heres the video. Found out why my bezel wouldnt snap in place, it needed to flex more. I'll grab some epoxy and fill the cracks while its installed so it keeps its form. Also bought a 20"x50" roll of vinyl wrap for $5 shipped on ebay . Should be here by christmas.

 

I run slimkat rom with tasker and xposed installer for all the little tweaks and mini hacks for Google hangouts over 4G instead of wifi and a few others.

 

Yea I'm also running xposed so I could control more of the tablet through tasker. It's also on the Verizon 4g network, so I get google maps pretty much anywhere I go. I was looking into custom roms, but I dont really need them. This does everything I want it to. I dont want to make it more simplified, and I dont want it to look like a car radio. Having it load up my music app and press the play button is all I need.

 

Quick 4 AM update! I replaced the nav dvd unit and temporarily mounted my NVX EQ/digital sound processor. Right now it's still just stereo output through the oem wires back to the amp. The eq presented a little bit of feedback, as expected, but you can't hear it when the engine is running. Later on I will probably run 6 rca cables back so I have fader and sub controls and I will mount the EQ to the dash piece and fill in the gap. For now it works great as an input booster and I can tweak the sound better than the tablet.

 

'notha update! I have feedback from the blower fans and power mirrors. not a bunch, but it's building up. everything is chassis ground. the ground wire on the harness adapter didn't even work, so I assume everything factory was chassis ground. Couple options- I can install a tiny sealed lead-acid battery next to the car battery and run everything through a 30 amp relay so it's switched and on it's own circuit, or get away from the 3.5mm to rca cable on the tablet and run a digital sound processor from the tablets usb cable. Spent way more than I should have on Christmas, so I gotta wait before I toss another $50 into something that *may* work. hopefully I get cash for Christmas this year lol
But even with all that you dont hear any feedback when the music is playing. It'll suffice for now.

 

Always run a relay and isolated ground. Had the same issues when doing mine.