relocating radio

[dproberts05]

I'm not much of a car audio expert but after removing my radio to place guages in that area the lack of tunes has gotten to me. Has anyone ever installed an aftermarket radio/cd player in another location, I really would like to keep my guages where they. Or possibly just a cd changer? Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. Thanks, Dan

 

[souljasmooth]

I havent done this in any Turbo Buicks, but have done it many times before in other cars. It is real simple. Just buy the aftermarket harness for the car, and extend each wire off of the harness to your new location. Thats about it. Let me know if you need any further help.

 

[The_Six]

I would mount one of these in the glove box they come with a remote control that is wounted in a 2 1/6 hole so it is the same size as most gages you can also get an exstended cable so that it could be mounted in the trunk.

Boss Audio MR1640W - MR1640W - BoatersWorld.com

 

[souljasmooth]

I would mount one of these in the glove box they come with a remote control that is wounted in a 2 1/6 hole so it is the same size as most gages you can also get an exstended cable so that it could be mounted in the trunk.

Boss Audio MR1640W - MR1640W - BoatersWorld.com

Why would you want to put a Marine headunit in your car? Especially a Boss Audio marine headunit.

I would stay away from Boss Audio period.

 

[The_Six]

Alpine and clarion make one like this as well I was just giving an example of one he could use. I’m not boss fan ether but I have one of the clarion units on my boat and it sounds great. Just dint know what his budget was you can drop 1k for one of these if you want too just giving him options my clarion unit has a black remote so it would match a GN nicely.
The reason you would use a marine head unit is he can put it any ware he wants in the glove box under the dash in the trunk the idea is the head unit is hiden ou of the way and the remote is monuted next to his gages in the spot the radio once was.
what do you think about one of the sony or JBL units on that web site I would like to use one of the JBL with satalite radio and 6 disk changers in my blazer that I have set up for trail riding.

 

[wagon]

SECRETAUDIO.COM

Click on Secret Audio. It looks like they are redesigning it, so you may have to wait a bit.

 

[03FatBoy]

+1 on secretaudio (Custom Autosound)

 

[dproberts05]

thanks

Thanks to everyone for the input so far, I've started this project and will post up pictures of the progress soon to see what you think.:biggrin:

Dan

 

[sykegn]

if you wanted to do something slick and did not car about an actual "radio"
you could integrate an ipod or other mp3 player and just mount a small 4 channel amp in the trunk. there are plenty of docking options available if you are a little creative.

 

[dproberts05]

progress and install

Alright, I've installed a head unit in place that I had laying in the garage and thought I'd show some progress pictures. First off I had to lengthen an adapter harness to reach the glove box, I ended up make it a little long but it worked out fine. This took some time, a lot of patience, and a couple burns from the soldering iron.:biggrin: After that I moved on to getting the unit to fit in the glove box. This did involve some "cutting" which I've made a point never to do on my car before, so purists beware. The cutting was of the metal support piece that the glove box hinge is secured. Although there seems to be plenty of support without it there I plan to use a piece of flat stock in place of the stamped piece that had to be removed. Also the glove box was cut to make room (obviously). It's not 100% finished there are still a couple of small things I plan to do. One thing you will notice in the closeup of the unit installed on the left it is open and unsightly. I plan to cut a piece of plexi to contour the glove box and paint it matte black to cover the area. The opening and closing work perfectly and there is no hinderance to functions of the unit. It did take alot of test fitting and repetition to get everything just right. I'm sure this can be perfected beyond what I've done so everyone post up there thoughts or suggestions. Pictures are below
Dan

 

[dproberts05]

More pictures

more pictures

 

[dproberts05]

pic

Not sure how that engine pic got in there, but that doesn't have anything to do with the install.

 

[turbobuick1]

Hey that's pretty cool, I had always thought about doing something like that to keep my stock Gm unit still installed in place. Good work! Does the remote work with the glovebox closed?

 

[BandAid]

Did you ever think of the center councel,so that when you open it up it is staring you in the face,,face plate would be facing ceiling....just a thought..

you could always go with one of them CPU stereos,and mount a touch screen to your visor and then flip it down to select songs..

 

[dproberts05]

radio

The unit doesn't have a remote, so I wouldn't know if it would work or not but I'm going to guess not since most of them are infrared. As far as mounting it in the center console I did think about that and it is not deep enough, also I never used the glove box so now it serves a purpose. Basically since the only reason I wanted it in there was to have the radio going I didn't feel like dishing out money for some fancy setup. I'll need that for gas and alky.

 

[Sixcylsurprise]

Thats pretty slick,i like it...I am looking for a solution to retain my factory AM radio in my lightweight T.Am radio with power antenna(factory)....weird.....

 

[Just One 87]

Very clean install, as a matter of fact those gauges look realllllly clean in there too. I did the same thing in my 64 impala ss and that was something I'd never regret. Always nice to have the original radio there

On all my cars I run an aux and control the songs through my ipod, on the GN however i can't think of a very clean place to run the cable if the headunit is mounted in the glove, any ideas on that one?

 

[dproberts05]

cables

The head unit I installed has a rca jacks on the back for an input. I ran a cable under the carpet along the firewall to the center console, then under the console to the compartment area in the center console....and its ipod ready. Never will be seen.

 

[dproberts05]

ipod

Also forgot to mention volume can be adjusted via ipod in the center console.