keep stock look but add additional HU?

keep stock look but add additional HU?

Im trying to keep the stock look of the dash but am curious is the a way to mount an additional HU below the AC controls and still keep those swing doors for the slots to keep the stock look. If i can keep both working by splitting the wires it would be a bonus but i would settle for the new HU to work only. Anybody know how to do this/ any special kits to get?

why would u wanna do tha? U can mount one in the compartment, maybe keep the door if u push the deck in enuff...

if you are looking at it from the standpoint of theft. its not really gonna help. and its gonna take a lot of time and effort to cut the box off behind either door and i doubt anyone will do it gor you

What I did was to mount my headunit, a JVC Kamelieon in the stock location but inset about an inch, then I took the faceplate piece from the stock unit and cut off the bottom three plastic pegs. I then mounted some magnets on the stock faceplate piece, and put some small metal brackets in the hole where it goes, now I have a removable cover for the compartment. And no wories of anyone knowing about my headunit (thus implying amps, subs, eq etc)

Scott

That's really smart

Can you post pictures please??

yeah i wanna see pix too. maybe i'll do it

to tell you the truth I dont really care about theft just wanted to keep the clean stock look. I did add the brushed aluminum dash kit and think it would look a little odd with the radio replaced. I think what i will do is by the instalation kit and paint it silver to match the dash kit and the radio is already silver so it should look pretty good. The sad part is the only reason I am doing this is to allow me to hook my ipod up to the car. I do have an itrip (FM modulator) but have quickly learned when you drive 10 miles a new stations seem to appear on stations that were clear before and cause distortion. So my only other option is to put another HU in the car run RCA cables from the cd changer plugs of the head unit to where the console is and put a rca to 1/8 headphone jack converter on and plug in the ipod. So much work for just wanting to listen to the ipod in the car with good quality. At least the headunit i have laying around has mp3 capabilities.

oh ok, i thought maybe u wanted a better HU but didnt wanna get the wrong kind of attention

Yep... this is why I don't bother with aftermarket stereo anymore. I've had two cars stolen and stripped. One was stripped to the bare frame. A car sure seems much different without an engine, seats, doors, wheels, engine... High fidelity? I would pay for a Mark Levinson/Toyota-Lexus inspired system on my car since no one is willing to steal factory radios... and the fidelity is quite good for a factory system, otherwise you have to get one of those alarm systems that essentially marries oneself to the car to protect all of your aftermarket stereo equipment. I don't need the extra stress of wondering if someone is breaking into my car for my stereo! I have enough stress at work!

yeah thats an added benefit and i wish i could stay stock. hopefully anyone looking to steal stereos will know which ones are worth what. Cause mine is worth next to nothing...under 80 at least. its a walmart special. although pretty nice for the money. props to jenson for bringing great interface for mp3 really cheap.

Most IDIOTS **cant stress the word idiot enough** are stupid pothead kids looking for crack money. they dont know shit bout what is worth what. if its not stock, they'll take it. believe me, the assholes who stole my last car were kids, did a really sloppy job eventhough they had 4 days to take everything appart.... :roll:

fortunetly im in a very low crime area and dont really have to stress this too much. Only worried the few days a year that I go to a hockey game or concert in milwaukee.

Well, there really are two kinds of thieves. One is what I like to call the smash-and-grab artist. They break into your car looking to steal stereos, money, whatever they can grab. The others are professional car thieves. These guys are usually pros and are looking for the entire car. The big-buck stereo system is just and added benefit. They take the car to a chop-shop or as of more recent ship your car to eastern-bloc countries (well that's what happens to Euro-imports). The professional car thief doesn't care that you have an alarm system. I had a Clifford alarm system with an Immobilizer when I lived in Boston. Most off-street parking is expensive and often in alleyways. I parked my car in it's spot and the next morning it was gone! The thieves most-likely towed it away while the alarm was sounding... oh well!

lol, thats good, but be on the look out, u can never be too careful, learned that the hard way

I'll post some pics soon, I was hesitant as well about putting an aftermarket stereo in my car, after seeing almost everyone I know put weeks of time into installing and tweaking there car stereo just to have it stolen really makes me hesitant. I almost converted the deck to have line out, so I could use it as my H.U. with my amps. This was the only solution I could find that would save my car from getting the stereo stolen, otherwise its just a matter of time. In my experience if you have a aftermarket CD player without the faceplate your car will still get broken in to so they can check for subs/amps etc... Atleast thats how it works around where I live..

Sorry about the venting,,.... I'll post some pics soon,...

Scott

Very true. I agree with you 100% there. That's why I don't bother with aftermarket stereo stuff anymore. Now, if I had no deductible on glass, I might consider it. I'd only install aftermarket stereo stuff if I lived in the sticks.

About 10 years ago I drove a 84 Toyota pickup. Was going around the backside of a building by where I worked after a hard rain, and went thru a puddle. Something in the puddle blew the tire, VERY quickly, like it was flat 50 feet after. So I had to leave the truck in their parking lot.

I had a Nakamichi cassette deck in it, which was DIN mount (side screws). Had Boston Acoustic seperates, with the tweets mounted on the dash, which I'd taken apart and put the screws in from underneath.

Somone busted my passenger window (side towards the woods by the lot). They pulled the little knob off the deck, and figured out that's not how it was mounted. So they grabbed the side of the console and just started RIPPING it upwards toward the deck. Still didn't work, so they went after the speakers. They couldn't figure out how the tweets were mounted, so they just grabbed them and busted them off the dash, leaving them in peices laying in the footwells, and big holes in the dash.

Guess they were pissed they got nothing for stereo, so they took the knob from the deck (had to order from Japan to get that replaced), and stole my tool kit.

I replaced my deck knob, dash, center console plastic, window, tire (T/A radial), speakers, and tool kit from that little fun time. Insurance didn't help, I had only liability on it.

Alarms are prety much useless as far as scaring people away, nobody pays attention when one is going off as long as the thief just acts like it's his vehicle when someone looks over. I put a "pain generator" in this car, it's a incredibly loud peizo under the dash. Set it off once just to check it out...it lives up to it's name. I'll be able to track whomever broke in by the trail of blood from his ears. Know it won't stop everyone, but it makes me feel better knowing they at least suffered a bit for their deviance.

Yeah... then the idiot who breaks into your car, sues you, the place that installed it and the manufacturer of the pain generator for hearing loss.... Only in America can this happen.

sad but true!

thats about how it works too. At least I pretty much live in the sticks, well pretty close to it. Cars dont get stripped here they only get smashed and grabbed and thats usually only if its known that the car has a system in it. So I guess I really wont worry about it too much. Its not like I live in LA or something.

West Bend, WI... any relationship to the people that make those percolating coffee makers? I remember my parents had one of those coffee pots made by "West Bend" in the 70's...

I did get an offer from an investment banking firm (right out of college) called BC Ziegler. I know that was located in West Bend, WI. Still there? No offense, but I couldn't commit myself to a small town when I graduated from college... especially coming from Boston.

Its funny that you mention BC ziegler and West bend company (makers of coffee makers) I just worked on both those jobs at work today(i work at a printing company in prepress). BC ziegler used to be two doors down from my moms old ceramic shop. And my mom used to work at the West Bend company, makers of the coffe makers(located 3 blocks from BC zeigler) West bend company was sold to regalware so there is no plant in west bend anymore. (regalware is located in Hartford wisconsin like 15 miles from west bend.)

I agree with not wanting to commit to the small town. The only reason I did was that I was sick of traffic driving to school in milwaukee, and they offered me more money then I could find in a big city, suprisingly. So it is nice haveing a 12 minute commute to west bend for work.

When i lived at home we had two parking spots and the end of the driveway near the street about 100 feet from our house. my car 98 Cavalier Z24 loaded with everything including Subs Speakers and amps. but stock CD Plalyer. look at my cardomain second page to see pics of my setup. My windows were tinted and all you could see was the stock radio not the hidden stuff. . My brother had a 99 X-treme with a fancy head unit and system. It cost about 5K+ he also had a alarm with a bright light but they new what to do. they cleaned out everything and left mine sitting there. on my way to work in the morning i noticed the rear window was broken from them prying out the rear custom inclosure. but the alarm was still blinking. They knew what to get and how to do it fast. they also broke into it again 6 months later after everything was replaced in front of work this time just setting off the alarm during the day on a busy street. no one said anything. And after that he learned his lesson. he still has the truck but it looks stock on the front and i believe that helps out a great deal if you dont have a aftermarket head unit then they probibly think you dont anything else. just my opinion i am going to do an entire system one day but somehow work around the stock headunit. my car gets enough attention with the tint muffler and rims dont need anymore.

hehe, tell me about it. i didnt even have any visible signs of aftermarket radio's on my car yet it still got ganked and stripped for everything i had added to it....