You do nice work ejpreston. The pics in the gallery are a little too dark on my monitor, You wouldn't care to post a 'photoshop' lighened one would you?

Your setup makes me think of putting a third din in my dash, behind the pop out cupholder, with the pop out drawer of the DVD fastend to the cup holder door itself. It would be invisible, and then when you poped the door open, it would just be a tray.
Any way, again, you do nice work
Chris

 

dgoets...Thanks. The screen is a 7in., um, well I don't remember the brand now, but I ended up taking the screen out of its case to make it as thin as possible (all the computer-looking stuff. The DVD drive is actually out of a Pyle brand (yeah, really) mobile DVD/TV tuner player. I took the electronics out of its case as well and vwolla...it all fit in the dash!

ChrisAdams...actually, my Pioneer head unit is in that cup-holder slot, and the DVD drawer is where the cigarette lighter panel is...the panel is attached to the slide-out DVD tray, so it pops out of the dash, then closes like it was never there! I just need to figure out what to cover the round lighter hole with..maybe a small Ford emblem.

If you think that's cool, wait till you see the 14-piece, 0.60 cubic foot subwoofer box I'm making for a 12 inch sub in my truck. This has been one of my greatest challenges because I have a regular cab and don't want to take up a lot of room behind the seats (unlike the system in my Ranger, also in my gallery). So, I ordered pioneers new "shallow mount" sub that is less than 4 inches thick, and well, I will post pictures when it's done.

I will try postinga lightened image for you to see. And thanks everyone for the compliments! I love doing it, and I love helping others get ideas!

 

ej, That looks so nice! It looks like it was professionally installed. I wish it was mine. Good Luck!

 

Ok, I added a lightened (lower quality though) version of that image in my gallery, not sure if it's any better...and I can't figure out how to post the picture in this post. I will be taking some pictures of my truck this weekend so I can get some shots of it now with the leveling kit in. Maybe I can take some more of the screen/DVD setup in the sunlight. Thanks again.

 

That does look good.
I can see in your pics that you put the DVD tray behind the lighter. It looks like you left a hole in the center? How about how the tray pops out. Not sure I get that. I also notice that your dash does not look like mine. That is, I have the lighter, then the popout then the switch for the airbags.

Chris

 

That's the same as mine. The first is the lighter (where the circle is...I took the lighter and it's socket out and trimmed the clips so it no longer holds onto ther dash, it's connected directly to the DVD tray. I don't know what to cover the hole with yet. Second is the CD player/tuner...that is where the cupholders USED to be...I took those out as well to make room for the CD player like you said you thought about doing. The airbag switch is below the CD player (check my gallery again, I will post another picture showing the airbag switch and cubby hole next to it). Make sense now? Nothing is where it used to be in my dash, and I am missing two cup holders now as well (like I need more than two anyways?)

 

I think I see it, the head unit is actually out of the 'cup holder' slightly, thus giving it a photo illusion of being shorter. That was confusing me. Got in now.
Thanks
Chris

 

Yeah, I still need to make some sort of bezel to smooth it all out (break out the fiberglass again!) It's a never-ending project. Thanks again for the nice words. P.S. What kit did you use for the power windows? That's next on my list. Thanks.

 

Yeah, mods and sound mods especially are 'open ended'.
On the power windows, I have messed with the Spal, Kodiak, Colibri, and Hitachi.
The Colibri is a much heavier, somewhat bulkier unit, but works well.
The SPAL and other similar units are very light and easy to position.

The Electric Life ones from http://www.a1electric.com/ are very nice, but they are expensive, at 250 plus shipping, plus switches.
Figure three hundred bucks, when even at list Colibri cost 150. The difference is that most of the ones that are not the Electric Life use the 'spin the shaft' method of running the window up and down.

Down side on the crank ones is that some of them stick up, into the cab, thus you have to cut a hole around the shaft, and use the kit installed caps to cover the holes and make room for the end of the mechanism.

I got a Colibri kit, with switches, on e-bay for next to nothing. Under 50 bucks including buying some other things that I didn't use.
On my truck, the kit fits entirely inside the door, so I used flat discs glued on the door to cover the 5/8 inch holes that removing the handles left. If was doing it again from scratch, I would still use the Colibri kit, but instead of using the included plastic disks to cover the hole, I would mount very small surface mount tweeters, even if I didn't bother to hook them up. Small silver or black tweeters cost about 12-15 bucks and would camouflage the holes nicely. And they would work as tweeters, as when sitting in the cab, you can see both of them, and the still used rule seems to be put tweeters in line of site. As opposed to woofers anywhere at all. Not the perfect place but only about a hands breadth away from the factory mount.
I also added express/up and down to both windows. Not so much lazy, as got used to express down on my other cars.
Anyway not to hijack your thread,
Chris

 

Hey EJ, was looking at your pics very sweet install. As far as the hole where the cig lighter was you could mock up a plug with a cig lighter handle on it for that stealth look.... just an idea

 

Thanks for the info on the electric windows. I sure hate running wires through those door boots though...this would be my third time now! First was for the tweeters in the door triangle where the vent for the driver/passenger window is. Second was for the auto door lock actuators, and now again for the windows! Oh well.

That's a good idea to use the handle part of the cig. lighter to cover the hole. I wonder how heavy that part of it would be, because....dare I give away a secret...that panel is attached to the DVD tray by velcro so I can still take off the dash panel if need be. I will give it a try, thansk for the idea!

 

I hear you on passing the wires, but I did my door locks and windows the same day so it wasn't so bad. With my center mounted switches I only have to pass four wires for locks and windows.

You might try a large button, coat button that is, for the lighter hole.
1.89 for two at a local fabric shop. Here is one I used to cover the hole in the door. It is on crooked, and later I went with bigger black (didn't take time to paint them) disks.
One of these would glue over the hole, and look OK. Wouldn't add more than a gram or two.
The color is off because I had run my greasy thumb over it before taking the picture. There are lots of different colors, and textures. Cheap fast solution.


Chris

 

Another clever idea from Chris. It looks great!

 

Does anyone know how an aftermarket stereo will affect a factory DVD system. Will it still be operable for the DVD System?