Project boxster head unit.

Vince

Vince

Vince

Man of Honour
Joined
30 Oct 2003
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Today I went about starting to fit a new radio into the boxster, the current radio is the single din cdr22 with bose sound system. I thought this would be pretty simple to remove and refit a double din replacement unit, so started breaking the dash down.



Once I had removed the current unit and the dash section which holds the stereo and climate control I realise that there is no cage as such holding in the current unit but the plastic in the dash section is split into two single din sections seperated by molded plastic. On top of that the screw holes that hold the climate control and stereo in place also block locating the new head unit.

Next up I realise that the becker unit has iso connections two of which are standard fit and will fit straight into the ISO connection shown below.



The rest...



...are a mystery. Or were until I just looked at the manual, it appears that I have the connections sorted for most. Socket c1, the yellow one has 5 pins, these are line out front and rear both left and right, socket c2, the green one is, according to the book, a special connection for porsche cd changer. c3 is divided between telephone controls and again 5 pins for the changer.

I get it, so start looking at the outputs on my new cheapo head unit



Sure enough I have outputs for socket c1, appart from af earth. However I have no idea how to connect up the changer so guess i will have to lose this unless anybody knows some magic?

For now I have decided to put the dash back together and have a look to see what is available online to help me, not wanting to destroy the car and the resale value I want to be able to put it back to stock so am going to need a new facia to modify.

There are a few available online such as this one on ebay:


The next thing to worry about is that you need a facia to surround the head unit once fitted as the hole is quite a bit bigger than a double din unit, so i see if porsche do one and it appears they don't. I have looked online and the ones you can buy on ebay leave big gaps once installed which I think look bad so I think I am going to plastidip the new dash section and create and plasticoat a new bezel to surround the new head unit.

I was hoping for a quick job what I think I now have is a new project.
 
Sorry mate, I'm a little confused.

Where are the climate controls going to go?

All I see is a single din head unit there, Which you could replace with a single din after market unit.
 
ahh good question, if you have a look in the picture below there are two storage sections under the climate control/head unit:



I am going to relocate the climate control there and wire the gps antenia into the alarm area in the center top section of the dash.
 
You have your work cut out here lol,

The climate is going to have some kind of facia fabricated from scratch to look anything but very odd down there, You also have to find a way of securing it in place.

Up the top end with the new head unit you are going to end up having to cut the mounting points out to fit the new unit...

I'd re think the whole plan myself, You would have been better off with a single din unit with screen pop out, But even then it's going to cover the climate when in use I guess.
 
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That looks bloody terrible to me lol.

You need to get some facia bits made up I guess and work out how to mount the climate.
 
ZG002 said:
You have your work cut out here lol,

The climate is going to have some kind of facia fabricated from scratch to look anything but very odd down there, You also have to find a way of securing it in place.

Up the top end with the new head unit you are going to end up having to cut the mounting points out to fit the new unit...

I'd re think the whole plan myself, You would have been better off with a single din unit with screen pop out, But even then it's going to cover the climate when in use I guess.
Click to expand...

The climate has removable brackets and porsche do a facia as they locate it in the same position when fitting a car with the double din nav unit they do. the only thing that they dont do is a facia for non porsche double din units.
 
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[TW]Fox;20379002 said:
If you are going to all this effort isn't it better than the end result isn't a cheap Chinese nav unit?
Click to expand...

Thats the plan. I am going to get the dash all mocked up and get the gps located and change the unit later on down the line. I am very aware that the unit is a cheap unit and that there are much better units out there but I also know that I have a possible few months without pay coming up so wanted to get this in place and change it some time next year.

The reason being is that my current unit keeps crashing and freezing which means I have to keep pulling a fuse to reset.

edit: also if I get the conversion right this time around, when I replace the unit, which i will, the job will be much easier as I would have already modified what I need to on the dash. I wish I could warrant 1k on a head unit but right now I just can't.
 
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Aquired a new dash section today, £20 from the scrappies and am picking it up at the weekend. Also found a company called essex styling who do a cage and fitting kit. All I need to buy now is some car body filler or fiberglass, some black spray and a couple of cans of plasti dip.

Can't wait to get stuck into this, will update this as I am going :)
 
From memory you have several different connection plug standards along with different mouse voltages, for example last time i looked i can't power an Audi OEM mouse from my Pioneer unit.

You can buy a limited amount of adapters but i'm not sure what they convert from / to, if i was you i'd look into this before you route the mouse into a hard to remove place!

Also i'd like to this the mouse which comes with a more expensive unit will offer better nav performance.
 
I am routing the mouse into this section:



under the plastic cover there is just enough room for the mouse and wiring it in is not too bad a job.

in other news I have located the cover that I need to relocate the climate control, called up opc guildford who were very helpful and gave me a part number. Googled it and design 911 do the part for a whopping £3.36.

Total costs so far arn't crazy.

£20 for a new dash centre section.
£30 for a cage and brackets.
£3.36 to relocate the climate control.
£12.99 for a fibreglass kit to make my radio surround.

£220 for the nav unit.
 
Would it not be easier to make the headunit surround out of a sheet of perspex rather than trying to faf on with fibreglass? Just measure up and cut out the required shape, work out how to mount it to your dash, and then spray it with black plasticote :)
 
dale1uk said:
Would it not be easier to make the headunit surround out of a sheet of perspex rather than trying to faf on with fibreglass? Just measure up and cut out the required shape, work out how to mount it to your dash, and then spray it with black plasticote :)
Click to expand...

Must admit that this is a bit of an as it comes method. I wanted it to look fairly oem so can use the fibre to fill the gaps etc... I guess a decent car filler could do the same job... I have no idea of the best method or material but do know what I want to achieve.
 
Took a trip over to porsche east london and not only did I get to oogle the 918 Spyder:



*Drools*

But I also picked up this little baby for £3.36+ vat... bargain!



Not only that but the helpful bloke there has even ordered me a new key (apart from the blade) for a massive £21+vat. Double bargain!
 
Right I’m not sure anybody is still reading this but I started so I’m going to finish. Saturday I had some work to do so after I finished at about half 1 I set about my missions to pick up the remaining parts needed to get the head unit into the boxster. First up I went down to the scrap yard and removed a centre dash section from a 996.

Next up a visit to the company that I found on ebay, I grabbed the surround and cage and matched the surround up to the centre console, and well… you can see that it might fit but it clearly isn’t flush with the rest of the dash, but the plastic is a decent match and I might be able to get something to work. So I head home, its late, we are meant to be going to a party but I cut out some of the dash section with my hot knife without taking any pictures.

Fast forward to today and I once again have a client to visit before I can get anything going, but after being out on the road for a bit and having a chat with a mate it dawned on me that what I needed to make this work was better tools, or at least some tools. As good as the hot knife is for cutting away chunky sections of plastic it’s no match for a multi tool at finishing and getting in to those tricky areas, after a quick google I noticed that argos of all people were doing an offer on a dremel like device, for £40 you get a hand held power tool with all these attachments:

(I do believe that this offer also comes complete with a 45 minute wait in store)

So a little further in and I once again couldn’t get cracking because of a visit the in-laws, but with the half hour or so I have spent on it today, it currently looks like this:

Depending on how it turns out there might well be no need to spray the dash. If I continue to take my time and not abuse any of the plastic I should be able to end up with something that doesn’t look utter rubbish…
 
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