The colour difference between the display, heater control unit and the blanking plates is hardly noticable in normal light, I was quite surprised how well a match I actually had! Camera flash/artificial light brings out these differences. It looks much better in real life!
I've also forgotten to remove the screen's protective covering , the colours will be more vibrant once that's off.
It's a Chinese touchsreen double din unit that does everything bar a cup of coffe!
Radio/CD/DVD/MP3/MP4/USB/Sat Nav/TV/iPod/Rear View Camera/Video out. I can't really remember everything but you get the idea.
It was a big job to fit.
First, I had to know I could get it into the correct position, which meant removing the dash and heater unit from another (standard) 406 at the local breaker's yard (got it out in an hour, not bad going I thought
)I could then decipher how the heater unit works so that I could modify the one in my car.
Then came the point of no return, when I started to cut into mine, big gulp time
Had to remove the glovebox which was a pain as there are screws that are only really accessible with the whole dash out. I got all but two back as it was meant to be, I fitted a bolt rather than a screw where there's a metal bracket behind the glovebox and I had to drill a small inconspicious hole for the lower central most screw that goes into the centre console (some actually have two screws at this position!).
Routing some wires to the rear was fun. I had the reversing camera video feed, reversing camera control line to head unit and another couple of wires for something else (
) that needed to go from front to back. I had to have the car ready for use, with the rear seats back in, to be able to pick up my two daughters in the morning, I was up half of that night! I had to remove all of the lower side trim, the rear seat cushion, parcel shelf, rear window trim and then the rear side panel card as I couldn't get one 'clip' on the rear window trim back into position, this was really annoying.Fixing the cage into position wasn't straightforward either, I had to custom make some brakets and weld them to the universal cage I had. 1mm thin steel is horrible to weld!
Getting the centre console controls to fit wasn't that bad, a belt sander working hard reduced their widths and some gentle modification to the centre console itself was all that was required. It still took ages though and I still want to improve the fit and finish in that respect, I might make my own blanking plates to go next to the display unit.
I also had a chance to re-do and work on some other little things in the areas where I was working, which added to the time taken. Adding the cold air feed to the glovebox is an example of one of the extra things I did, now I can keep my chocolate nice and cool
It was virtually all done in the evenings so it's taken a good few weeks, I have no idea how many hours but it must add up to a lot!
In the end I'm very happy with the unit. It all works (well, all I can try so far anyway, I don't have an iPod!) and I'm very impressed with the sat nav, which was the main reason behind it. The phone functions aren't up to 'Parrot' standards but sufficient for me. At least everything is together in one place now.
If anyone's interested in getting a similar double din unit, I might be able to help out with a good price, I have a contact or two now
What do you think?
Keep up the good work mate..
