So I just got my JDM double din installed with a head unit. A week before that I bought a full set up and was about to pull the trigger on the metra kit and then realized how terrible it really was.

So What I did was removed the Metra kit from the order and bought the rest of the wiring and head unit.

I get a call from the shop today and they tell me the head unit does not fit the JDM kit opening. If you look at the pic, theres a good 1/2" gap right underneath the head unit. You can see they were able to frame it up nicely with material from another vehicle which matched very well.

I was wondering if any other owners of the JDM kit ran into this problem too. The double din fitting VERY tightly on the sides and there being a gap on the top and/or bottom.



heres a pic of the extra piece they installed to close the gap on the bottom, its high lighted in red...and now the head unit is actually isnt flush with the JDM framing, its pushed inward, which bugs the *** out of me. Not the shops fault in any way. They did their best to fix the big gap on the bottom which that succeeded.

 

Yes, they're common, so common they're both in the Double Din Install FAQ under the "Common problems and how to avoid them" section.

The gap is unavoidable, some radios come with trim rings because a lot of cars have non-standard openings, but not all. But i is something so common that an installer shouldn't have even mentioned it as an issue.

If it's sitting inset, that is the fault of the installer. All it takes is to drill a few new holes in the radio cage so the radio sits further forward (or backward, or angled right, depending on the situation)

Basically they were too lazy to do this:



To achieve this: