hiding the head unit

[puttster]

I'm building a console that will have a piece of 1/4" ply holding the head
unit. The wood extends about 7" down from the dash and is about 10" wide.
To hide the unit I was going to recess it and keep the cut-out piece to
cover the hole. However, I see now that the knob is so big I would have to
recess the unit too deeply.

My backup plan is to leave the unit loose for the taking because the console
is going to end up being way more valuable than the radio.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

[Mister.Lull]

Also, I personally keep my head units loose (not screwed down) like
you're describing. One of the times my deck was stolen, it was screwed
in pretty tight (I remember doing it, thinking that any thief would be
all ****ed off and/or not be able to get the deck, and being very proud
of myself). You know what happened? The mother****er that stole that
deck split my goddamn dashboard with a crowbar!! After that, I decided
that no deck was worth a whole new dash - so I don't tighten mine down
anymore. If they want it, they'll take it - and I'd rather there were
less collateral damage.
~Mister.Lull
puttster wrote:
> I'm building a console that will have a piece of 1/4" ply holding the head
> unit. The wood extends about 7" down from the dash and is about 10" wide.
> To hide the unit I was going to recess it and keep the cut-out piece to
> cover the hole. However, I see now that the knob is so big I would have to
> recess the unit too deeply.
>
> My backup plan is to leave the unit loose for the taking because the console
> is going to end up being way more valuable than the radio.
>
> Does anyone have any other ideas?

[[email protected]]

Mister.Lull wrote:
> Also, I personally keep my head units loose (not screwed down) like
> you're describing. One of the times my deck was stolen, it was screwed
> in pretty tight (I remember doing it, thinking that any thief would be
> all ****ed off and/or not be able to get the deck, and being very proud
> of myself). You know what happened? The mother****er that stole that
> deck split my goddamn dashboard with a crowbar!! After that, I decided
> that no deck was worth a whole new dash - so I don't tighten mine down
> anymore. If they want it, they'll take it - and I'd rather there were
> less collateral damage.

I stuck a head unit behind a cupholder. There is no more cupholder, but
the front is still there and removable to gain access to the headunit.
There are a couple of holes in the cover so the remote control works
and the unit is concelled usually. The factory headunit is clearly
visable and the clock works. You don't usually need to look at a head
unit anyway. My old unit is nothing to look at anyway, but that Pioneer
Premier head unit cost me $450 about 13 years ago. Another $350 for the
CD changer.

greg

> > I'm building a console that will have a piece of 1/4" ply holding the head
> > unit. The wood extends about 7" down from the dash and is about 10" wide.
> > To hide the unit I was going to recess it and keep the cut-out piece to
> > cover the hole. However, I see now that the knob is so big I would have to
> > recess the unit too deeply.
> >
> > My backup plan is to leave the unit loose for the taking because the console
> > is going to end up being way more valuable than the radio.
> >
> > Does anyone have any other ideas?

[bob wald]

I GUESS YOU GUYS NEVER HEARD OF A REMOVABLE FACE ON A UNIT.

[GregS]

In article >, (bob wald) wrote:
>I GUESS YOU GUYS NEVER HEARD OF A REMOVABLE FACE ON A UNIT.

I have one on my Pioneer and Alpine. Who wants to remove anything when you leave the car.
I thought all units had removable fronts. Remember removable head units. Awfull!!

greg

[bob wald]

you dont remove them everytime....
just when in a place thats likely to get robbed.
or at nite.
dont try to make it harder than it is.

[puttster]

idiot.

[Mister.Lull]

Don't let Bob get to you, he's our resident troll... Most people have
gone about blocking (filtering out) his posts, so that they won't be
tempted to give him fodder. The less we respond to him, the better,
and hopefully the sooner he will go away.
~Mister.Lull
puttster wrote:
> idiot.

[bob wald]

all the people that block me are just mad cause i made them look stupid.
which isnt hard to do.lol
LOL......

[RG]

Well .... in this case I don't see where he said anything bad. In fact I
agree with him on this issue. Exactly what is the problem with his opinion
on this ?

- RG

"Mister.Lull" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Don't let Bob get to you, he's our resident troll... Most people have
> gone about blocking (filtering out) his posts, so that they won't be
> tempted to give him fodder. The less we respond to him, the better,
> and hopefully the sooner he will go away.
> ~Mister.Lull
> puttster wrote:
>> idiot.
>

[RG]

And what may your opinion be on the issue .... whoever you are.

- RG

"puttster" > wrote in message
...
> idiot.
>
>

[puttster]

ahh. ok, thanks and sorry for throwing it a crumb.

"Mister.Lull" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Don't let Bob get to you, he's our resident troll... Most people have
> gone about blocking (filtering out) his posts, so that they won't be
> tempted to give him fodder. The less we respond to him, the better,
> and hopefully the sooner he will go away.
> ~Mister.Lull
> puttster wrote:
> > idiot.
>

[metal_flowboard]

puttster wrote:
> I'm building a console that will have a piece of 1/4" ply holding the head
> unit. The wood extends about 7" down from the dash and is about 10" wide.
> To hide the unit I was going to recess it and keep the cut-out piece to
> cover the hole. However, I see now that the knob is so big I would have to
> recess the unit too deeply.
>
> My backup plan is to leave the unit loose for the taking because the console
> is going to end up being way more valuable than the radio.
>
> Does anyone have any other ideas?


couldnt you just use the piece you already have, and just router bits
of it?

[puttster]

"metal_flowboard" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> puttster wrote:
> > I'm building a console that will have a piece of 1/4" ply holding the
head
> > unit. The wood extends about 7" down from the dash and is about 10"
wide.
> > To hide the unit I was going to recess it and keep the cut-out piece to
> > cover the hole. However, I see now that the knob is so big I would have
to
> > recess the unit too deeply.
> >
> > My backup plan is to leave the unit loose for the taking because the
console
> > is going to end up being way more valuable than the radio.
> >
> > Does anyone have any other ideas?
>
>
> couldnt you just use the piece you already have, and just router bits
> of it?
>

Do you mean recess the radio slightly and still use the cut-out to cobver it
but cut a hole in it for the knob to fit through?

[Mister.Lull]

I think rather than cutting a hole for the knob, he means make a
'shallow' spot in the piece of wood for the knob. That way the
outside's still flush, but there's room for the knob. That way you can
still use the same wood you used to make the enclosure.
The problem with this is that you're using 1/4 inch plywood, right?
I don't think that it'll be any easy task shallowing out 1/4 inch
plywood and still making it pleasant to look at... Personally I
wouldn't be working with plywood at all, but that's because I don't
care for it to begin with. The fact that you've chosen to work with
this material makes me assume that you're either comfortable working
with it, or that you had it lying around and didn't give much thought
to what else (if anything) you might make this enclosure out of.
Sorry. That's not the point here, is it?
Moving back to helping you...
How are you covering/finishing this plywood deck extension? Is it to
be painted or covered in something? What if you "stylized" the covor
to accomodate the knob? What if you did something funny, like make a
'fake' faceplate for a stereo out of the covor piece (like a child
painted a picture of a stereo) and incorporated the actual knob into
it? Or instead how about you make the covor plate a little more
3-dimensional by making part of it protrude out to make space for the
head unit - either part of the covor, or the whole thing?
There are a multitude of ways you can make this work. You are limited
by the materials you can/choose to work with, your skill with said
materials, and your imagination.
~Mister.Lull
puttster wrote:
> "metal_flowboard" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
> >
> > puttster wrote:
> > > I'm building a console that will have a piece of 1/4" ply holding the
> head
> > > unit. The wood extends about 7" down from the dash and is about 10"
> wide.
> > > To hide the unit I was going to recess it and keep the cut-out piece to
> > > cover the hole. However, I see now that the knob is so big I would have
> to
> > > recess the unit too deeply.
> > >
> > > My backup plan is to leave the unit loose for the taking because the
> console
> > > is going to end up being way more valuable than the radio.
> > >
> > > Does anyone have any other ideas?
> >
> >
> > couldnt you just use the piece you already have, and just router bits
> > of it?
> >
>
> Do you mean recess the radio slightly and still use the cut-out to cobver it
> but cut a hole in it for the knob to fit through?

[metal_flowboard]

Yeah i mean a "shallow spot" as you put it

[Matt Ion]

GregS wrote:
> In article >, (bob wald) wrote:
>
>>I GUESS YOU GUYS NEVER HEARD OF A REMOVABLE FACE ON A UNIT.
>
>
> I have one on my Pioneer and Alpine. Who wants to remove anything when you leave the car.
> I thought all units had removable fronts. Remember removable head units. Awfull!!

I never understood the logic of a removeable faceplate, when replacements are
relatively readily available - when they first appeared, all the decks that had
them were in the $600+ range, and leaving the bulk of a $600 deck behind just
seemed silly...

Back when there were only a couple models of decks with the faceplates, I knew
one guy who had his truck window smashed and JUST the faceplate taken...
obviously by someone who already had a stolen deck.

[puttster]

Thank you all. and esp Mr Lull, yes your protrude idea might work out.
when i shut the engine off I slap the faux cover up there, and cover the
radio, maybe with a *cupholder* or a set of fake rocker switches?

You are right about the ply, my local did not have MDF. But now I see why
no one recommends ply. For one thing it splinters all along the cut and
another, you can glue it all you want but it will only hold as tight as the
top layer of veneer.

As for covering: I have finished the fiberglass shell, which covers the
hump, the firewall and under the dash. And I finished the sides and end cap
(It is for a bench seat galaxie). So I have the two pieces of plywood
fitted in; the lower one for cupholders and the upper (angled) one for the
radio. I didn't think I would get this far so now that I am here I don't
actually have a decent plan for finishing it!

Putts

"Mister.Lull" > wrote in message
ps.com...
> I think rather than cutting a hole for the knob, he means make a
> 'shallow' spot in the piece of wood for the knob. That way the
> outside's still flush, but there's room for the knob. That way you can
> still use the same wood you used to make the enclosure.
> The problem with this is that you're using 1/4 inch plywood, right?
> I don't think that it'll be any easy task shallowing out 1/4 inch
> plywood and still making it pleasant to look at... Personally I
> wouldn't be working with plywood at all, but that's because I don't
> care for it to begin with. The fact that you've chosen to work with
> this material makes me assume that you're either comfortable working
> with it, or that you had it lying around and didn't give much thought
> to what else (if anything) you might make this enclosure out of.
> Sorry. That's not the point here, is it?
> Moving back to helping you...
> How are you covering/finishing this plywood deck extension? Is it to
> be painted or covered in something? What if you "stylized" the covor
> to accomodate the knob? What if you did something funny, like make a
> 'fake' faceplate for a stereo out of the covor piece (like a child
> painted a picture of a stereo) and incorporated the actual knob into
> it? Or instead how about you make the covor plate a little more
> 3-dimensional by making part of it protrude out to make space for the
> head unit - either part of the covor, or the whole thing?
> There are a multitude of ways you can make this work. You are limited
> by the materials you can/choose to work with, your skill with said
> materials, and your imagination.
> ~Mister.Lull
> puttster wrote:
> > "metal_flowboard" > wrote in message
> > ups.com...
> > >
> > > puttster wrote:
> > > > I'm building a console that will have a piece of 1/4" ply holding
the
> > head
> > > > unit. The wood extends about 7" down from the dash and is about 10"
> > wide.
> > > > To hide the unit I was going to recess it and keep the cut-out piece
to
> > > > cover the hole. However, I see now that the knob is so big I would
have
> > to
> > > > recess the unit too deeply.
> > > >
> > > > My backup plan is to leave the unit loose for the taking because the
> > console
> > > > is going to end up being way more valuable than the radio.
> > > >
> > > > Does anyone have any other ideas?
> > >
> > >
> > > couldnt you just use the piece you already have, and just router bits
> > > of it?
> > >
> >
> > Do you mean recess the radio slightly and still use the cut-out to
cobver it
> > but cut a hole in it for the knob to fit through?
>