Double DIN head units

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Can you get someone/use a dremel to do this with the cassette cover on your new walnut trim?

This looks half decent, not amazing but ok. If you could get add some oem faux buttons and cut them in to the left and right to fill the space it would be pretty darn good.

(or get the man with the lazer device here on to cut it perfectly?)

Or just pop them off an existing bezel and glue them on carefully? :D

Edit: added the crack pot attempt in paint to show what I am talking about.
 
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I can't think of anything more ridiculous than sticking fake buttons on the side to make it look like an OEM nav system.

I don't want the OEM Nav system and neither do I want to pretend I have it, either. I'm quite happy with how the Bezel looks given the huge amount of additional functionality I'll gain.

I will of course draw your attention to the OP..

I think we've finally reached a point where it can be done without looking totally horrendous (Though opinions on this side of things are not required thanks very much)
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I'm after advice on the units themselves :)
 
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scousegit said:
I always thought double din units looked iffy in a E39 due to the fascia/ bezel ?
not the actual unit itself.


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I actually don't think that looks too bad, which surprised me as normally these after market adapters look pretty awful. :eek:

Regarding the 2 options though, as mentioned unless your using decent after market speakers, I doubt you'll notice any difference between the 2.
 
Lucero said:
really? in the old days, if you wanted your HU to have permanent power (even without the keys in the ignition) you just moved the switched live to permanent feed. That would keep the HU on regardless of what you were doing with the car (starting it, etc). I guess older cars had less draw back then?
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My 23 year old Manta has the HU on a permanent live feed and I still suffer reset on cranking.

Which is annoying because it takes a VERY long time to reboot and read from USB (never timed it but it must be 20 - 30 seconds), it's the only thing I dislike about the HU.
 
I was looking at something similar for my new Alfa, where fortunately they fit a lot better. I liked the look of this http://www.car-vision.co.uk/alfa-ro...07-2010-gps-oem-replacement-media-system.html however was put off by the iGo navigation. The interface looks great though, and they've done a fantastic job of making sure it really fits in with the remainder of the car interior.

For someone who clearly loves the car so much for what it is, I can't help but think that this is a step too far away from the original look of the car. The screen itself is ok, but the bezel, the buttons, that replacement surround just look too different. For me it would transform what is a near perfectly maintained original car into something that looks far more used. I might be reading you incorrectly, but 6 - 12 months in I think that regret would start to outweigh the functionality of the system - a compromise too far.
 
ganesh said:
Do it yourself, fitting headunits is the easiest job ever.
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I'm sure I can fit it but I don't really want to rip off the panels to do the cabling. I WILL destroy something.
[TW]Fox;19955110 said:
Crikey, you make me look daft, I'll need at least 6 weeks more research before clicking buy :eek:
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:) I went to the shop and bought it for £910. I was close to upgrading my speakers and getting a sub but that can wait for another month :)
 
Interesting views re: the units re-booting on engine start, the Pioneer DEH-2220UB in my Scania used to do this on engine start which was a pain, also, at a lot of places when un-loading we have to hand in our keys - meaning no radio, so, I've wired mine to a constant live and it now no longer powers off on engine start and I can have my music / radio whilst I sit waiting in my keyless vehicle.

Whilst I am no auto-electrician, I'd imagine a similar compromise could be found with most cars?
 
How much do you really want an oem look?

Get your wood trim sorted.
Drive your car to a product designer (Yellow Pages/Internet)
Tell them what you want. Give them a specification. Let him/her take dimensions.
They will design and manufacture a single piece injection moulded fascia / integrated ICE that will look OEM as long as you provide them with the head unit.

A few years ago my group at university paid £100 to a PhD student in London Southbank to make a mock-up of a small engineering model - it looked fantastic and OEM. That was mates rates as one of the guys in my project group knew the PhD student. My point is, there are ways of making this look brilliant. How you do it is obviously up to you, but I'd really consider a cheap designer to engineer me a single piece injection moulded fascia model, with the wood trim attached.
 
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paradigm said:
I'd retrofit the BMW nav and be done with it tbh. Granted you don't get full postcode search, but the 4-5 digit search was good enough for me, and a recent map disc is all you need to have decent european-wide routing.
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Agreed. It works very well at navigating in the UK and across Europe, and still has a lot of data on it (I.e. info on hotels/attractions). The lack of postcode search has never bothered me.

Mine is coupled with Bluetooth and Intravee, and I couldn't ask for more of the Integrated OEM system.

Howard said:
Can you get any DI-NOC stuff that could make the bezel look a bit more integrated?
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If you must go for the bezel, do this.
 
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