s4play

6/6/06

Finally got around to painting the bezel but decided to go black instead of yellow for a more finished look. I wanted the RIO yellow but thought it would not flow that well with the dash. I think black was a good choice.

The radio had some serious clearance issues but we finally got it to sit pretty flush. The best part is that now with the radio recessed, we can see the display even in direct sunlight! The only time it gets washed out is when the sun is directly behind you say during evening traffic. Otherwise the face of the deck tilts and keeping it at 90 degrees works for most occasions. Of course if the top is up this makes no difference.

I made a trip to Radio Shack to pick up some home audio AUX jacks and pirated some of the parts to create my own AUX panel. The front 2 jacks are audio L/R and the last one is for video. Now I can input my digital camera, camcorder, etc for slideshows

The Eclipse AVN also has an Ipod interface so no more using the AUX jacks for Ipod usage. The deck has 30gb to rip music, stores all my NAVI maps and now I never get lost with this handy setup.

Sound wise the Eclipse unit is superb with it's 5 volt output running to an Alpine PDX 4 channel amp. The front channels are 150 watts per channel to my Focal KP2 components and my rear channels are bridged to run a single 10w6v2 subwoofer in a custom enclosure.

This simple setup far exceeds any expectation I may have! Top down driving is super clear and no distortion with the bass very crisp. I'm going to do some more tuning in the upcoming months so stay tuned. Also added Dynamat to all the crucial areas so now it's hush hush like a Benzo!

whatcha guys think?

late,
rick

Before ALL BARE METAL:


AFTER:

PJK3

wowza! nicely done.

what's hiding behind the OEM radio door?

efthimios

Rick that looks so amazing it's not even funny very, very impressed

darkknight1999

Rick that came out very nice. Did you take pictures of how you did it? If you did if you want to do a How-To We can add it to the FAQ section.

Nice work dude

mikes2k

Very nice work! Extremely clean and pleasing to the eye! KUDOS!

My one gripe..since you asked what we thinks ...is your AUX panel. Why not bury the terminals up under the passenger dash/foot area. Thats where mine are...very stealth and not sticking out like that. But all in all a very clean A+ job!

WindchaserS2K

that's just look so nice I really wanted 1 of those I just wondering how much $$$ is cost for a perfect install like that

s4play

Mike, you're absolutely right....originally my plan was to bury it upside down near the passenger footwell but my g/f pointed out that you would have to lean over to find the color of each terminal b4 pluggin each jack in respectively. And once plugged in those 3 plugs would protrude out affecting legroom.

I found out that my magnetic cell phone bracket kinda hides those sockets from view but with the way I arranged it, it's easy to see which color plugs goes where

My g/f sings a lot in the car and we have a Magic Mike that she can plug in whenever she feels like being on American Idol (doubles as a great P/A system sometimes..haha)


6/7/06

*CORRECTION: We ended up using a PAC-SWI_X unit instead of the PAC-ECL unit because to my surprise the Eclispe AVN5495 deck does not have the wired steering wheel controls! Only the lower end 5435 has these direct connection wires!

We mounted the I/R emitter eye up near the dome lights and it fires down into the unit. Works super nicely

I will have some more installation pics posted up later, just been super busy lately...



WindchaserS2K: If you REALLY want to get this done, shoot me a PM and we can talk but you MUST be local - no way this can be done without the car around...haha


late,
rick

s4play

6/12/06:

The pictures will be up shortly but I spent most of this weekend doing a few clean-up things on my TO DO list.

I woke up Saturday morning (6/10) to strip my trunk and apply the Dynamat material. I used 2 sheets of the dynamat to cover the tub and rear trunk area. Hardest part was apply the dynamat evenly since I wanted all the wording to be uniform and straight. Of course none of this will be visible later but I'm just anal like that

I found it works best to poke each of the holes as you work so it won't be a hunt to find the plastic grommet holes afterwards. It definitely helps to remove the rear strut tower brace as well to get the surface covered evenly.

Re-installing the panels and subwoofer was pretty uneventful.

On Sunday 6/11, I finally did the final part of my Dyanamat saga by finishing off the trunklid. JUST AN FYI BUT IMO THE TRUNKLID IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE!

Our s2000 trunks when you knock on them in OEM form sounds like a cheap tin can with a "chink" type sound. Once the dynamat is applied properly - WOW, now my trunklid feels like a solid oak tree when you knock on it. It's quite heavier as well but when I crank my music up the trunklid stays solid as a rock now!

Pics to come shortly but I still have my Eclipse Ipod adapter going on this week.


Rick

s4play

7/17/06: Update firmware on my Eclipse 5495 deck to accept Sirius radio and the Ipod adapter. Finally got it working after figuring out how to get the unit to update itself which took like 15 minutes.

My Ipod now works with the deck and you can do basic track change from the touchscreen unit. Still not sure how to access the different playlists though

Will be taking more pics this weekend but resized some of the earlier ones for easier viewing:

s4play

Stay tuend as we have just started surgery on doing a Pioneer Z1 double din (7") display so will post pics

For those of you who have PM'd me about this install, this is not a JDM install bezel at all.

EVERYTHING is hand fabricated since the JDM bezel will not work with double din radios as the faceplate drops down and pivots. Also notice how we skewed it to the passenger side just so slightly.


regards,
rick