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Many of you already know about my stealth touchscreen install into the dash. The first install was only 25% completed to the way I wanted it. My main goal for most of my projects on the S2000 was to keep the car looking visibly stock/OEM on the exterior and interior (except the badging and gauge pillar pod)
The first phase was a manual slide rail that dropped the screen out of the center air vents, I got the idea from webestore's concept, I also purchased his touchscreen to do this.
The big problems that I ran into with the manual drop setup were:
1. The slide rail ended up hitting the headunit frame and scratched it (as you can see in the pics above)
2. The screen would drop down after a few miles of vibration and rest on the closed radio door.
3. The screen would drop with the radio door open and block the headunit face and sometimes even dropped and hit a cd/dvd on eject.
4. The screen would drop and hit the headunit face when it was opened.
With the screen dropped all the way out, it's very easy to see and operate.
The other problem with any other type of slide operation is the limited space when the base of the screen rests on the open radio door. Moving the base of the screen up even 1/4" would begin to cut off visibility of maps/movies. This also presented a problem with attaching a plate to the base of the screen so that it would be completely concealed in the air vents when it was pushed up as the back of the plate would rest on the open door pushing the screen up about 1/2" into the dash.
So, phase 2 has started.
Complete removal of the dash. The entire slide rail assembly is being redesigned to incorporate a dual slide rail mechanism that will be run my a dual actuator worm gear assembly. The new slide tray will bring the face of the screen 1/4" outward at the top, allowing for a further drop at the base and increased visibility of the screens output. A spring loaded blank plate will be fabricated onto the dash that will open with the pressure of the screen being pushed down. When the screen goes back up, the blank plate will close into the vents leaving a stock appearance to the vents.
The other obstacle that I'm running into is the limited space of the dash for actuators and the tray. A complete re-route of the stock climate control air vents is going to be fabricated so that all of the heating/cooling functions will remain operational, even the center vent. Right now, finding actuators that will fit into an 8mm space is the big problem.
I will keep posting the progress of this project with pictures as it moves along.
The shop that did my screen/NAV install, did a similar setup for another S owner using an actuator out of the center of the dash to pop straight up, I have some details and pics. Hope this helps!
NAV Touchscreen Project
