You can do mine next, Luke

 

Luke your work and the level of care you put into that truck are a constant inspiration for what I am doing to my truck thank you and keep doing what you're doing.

 

Your truck is awesome! The dash pad is really nice. You've done a really nice job!

 

Thanks guys for the compliments, appreciated as always.

Here is a brief post on what I had to do in order to fit a double-din radio in the dash. It is possible to do, but not very easy or straightforward. If I had known how complicated it would be before-hand, I might not have tried.

There are two reasons I wanted a double-din radio: A) I can use the screen for my backup camera and that saves me having to put another device on the dash, B) most single-din aftermarket radios these days are very flashy and have a million buttons and lights, which would look off in an old truck. Although a big screen is of course out of place in a truck from the 80s, oddly it blends in a bit better than some other radios (depending on which one you get), because it is very plain.

The radio I chose is the JVC KW-AV60BT. That specific model has been superseded since but the new versions are about the same. It has all the features I want plus it looks very plain (when the screen is off) which I liked.

To actually get it to fit, I discovered I would need to modify the heater duct for clearance. The photos below show my first attempt, and you can see I cut a clearance into the duct, but not all the way back. I discovered this wasn't enough, and I had to redo it and cut the recess all the way to the back of the duct, but I didn't take any pictures of that.

 

The radio came with a metal bracket into which the radio unit slides. In modern cars, this metal bracket would fit into the dash opening like a glove and be secured with screws or tabs that are present in modern cars. No such thing exists in our trucks of course. I pondered this for a long time but decided to secure the bracket to the radio bezel.

Because of the location of the radio on the bezel, I really needed to use one of the delete bezels. Theoretically there is a delete in woodgrain but I have never actually seen one in person or for sale, but I did source a few in the black "carbon fiber" style. These are not too hard to come by, thankfully as I ruined a few before I got it right.

People may think I have a fetish for Amazing Goop, but in some cases it is really the only glue that will suffice. I used it again here of course, along with some fiberglass tape and plastic triangles for support. There is almost no surface contact-area between the metal bracket and the bezel, so the glue needed to bond to the sides of each. Surprisingly the final result is quite sturdy.

(The green stuff is sticky felt to keep the bezel from squeeking.)

 

Of course, the plastic radio bezel can't hold the weight of the radio in such a configuration, no matter how sturdy my glue job. But in fact it doesn't have to, the bracket is simply to position the radio in place, the actual weight of the unit rests on the metal cross-bar that runs inside the dash a few inches back from the bezel.

But other than that, the radio isn't secured in any other way. The bezel keeps it moving and the weight rests on the bar. It would seem flimsy but with a few strategically-placed pieces of foam the whole thing is quite snug and doesn't rattle.

 

The only downside, cosmetically, is that the radio is not centered vertically in the bezel, but as you can see, is actually lower down than you would think it should go. But this was necessary both to squeeze under the air duct on top (even with the cutout piece), and also so it can rest on the cross-bar.

However this isn't too noticeable in person, there is so much black on the dash it all sort of blends in.

 

It looks great! Nice job.

I didn't read your whole project thread (sorry) - is there some detail that describes what you did with your dash pad cover?

 

Luke - That is amazing. I've been trying to figure out how to get a backup camera screen in the truck, and you may have shown me how. The downside is that I don't get the classic radio I wanted. Hmmmm.......

One thought I'd had was to put the backup screen in the ash tray. Or, in a mini-console like you built below the dash. Or, in place of the clock and its buttons. Did you consider anything like that? In other words, what other options did you think of and reject?

 

Lucky for you, I didn't even start talking about the dash pad until 1 page ago. See this link for the start. If you have any other questions, just ask.

 

If the radio had not worked out, my next best plan was to use a dedicated screen and mount it on top of the dash pad. There is actually quite a bit of room on top of our dashes which is helped by the fact our windshields are nearly vertical.

I probably would have gone with a system like this: RVS-770613. Their screen is 7" diagonal and I think it could have sat on the dash just fine. Downside to that of course, is the invitation for theft.

But the other reason I wanted to avoid that is because I may end up putting a screen on my dash anyway for sat-nav, and I didn't want two screens up there! The sat-nav is likely to be a phone though, mounted with a suction cup to the screen.

Anyway, for what it's worth I did use the RearViewSafety brand backup camera ( , that's the Amazon link because it has more reviews). I also installed their splitter (RVS-501N) so I can mount a second camera later on top of the camper.

For now though I just have the one camera, mounted underneath the rear bumper. It works well as a second rear-view "mirror" (I can view the video while driving), and it would work well as a trailer-hitch cam. But because it doesn't look down on the bumper like a traditional backup cam would on a van for example, it isn't terribly useful for backing into tight spaces. For that I still use the wing mirrors.

 

By the way, speaking of navigation, some radios also have sat-nav built in, or like mine, are somewhat compatible with certain phone apps. My radio theoretically can display the Apple navigation app on the screen, but I don't have an Apple phone, don't want an Apple phone, and wouldn't use Apple nav if I did. However, I must admit most things are geared towards iPhone compatibility.

So anyway, just a thought, but theoretically you might be able to get navigation and rear-view all in one screen (along with whatever else the radio can display on that screen).

For myself I have found it very useful to download and read carefully through the manuals of all the devices I selected before buying them, to be sure they would be compatible with each other and that they would do what I actually wanted. Even so I'm still amazed anything works in my truck at all, but surprisingly so far most of it has. I just tested this weekend the CB and Ham radios, both of which feed into my stereo. All work!

 

Ok, thanks. But, in your thinking you gave me another idea - I wonder if anyone has an app for a backup camera? Some way to use Facetime and view the video on the iPhone. But, a dedicated screen would be better and there are many times I don't pull the phone out of my pocket.

Anyway, thanks for the tips.

 

That is an interesting idea. I have not done a lot of research on that but the thought crossed my mind as well. What I can say is if you do want to read about it, there are a lot of photographers that want to use their phone as a monitor to frame their photos, so I have seen conversations about this in the photo forums. What I recall is that for the most part, manufacturers have not made it easy to get video into the phone...

If someone figures it out I'd be interested to hear about it though. I could think of lots of uses for it.

 

I can see this iPad mini, which is getting pretty long-in-the-tooth, used as a backup screen. But, that would invite theft.