[Wombat]

Originally Posted by LP_Stealth

Hey there, Nice setup so far the only thing keeping me from doing this very thing is well money and trying to find a way to make the screen fit nicely. I feel you have solved problem number 2. Do you mind sharing some secrets?

1) how does the screen actually mount to that front cover?
are there clips on the back or screw holes........ (mind sharing a picture of the back?)

As soon as I get back home, I can snap some pictures of the back for you, but here's a little step-by-step on how I did it.

First thing I did was completely disassemble the LCD touchscreen so that the front faceplate of the LCD screen was free.

Next, I took our stock radio bezel (trim piece) and rough cut an opening to fit the LCD faceplate (the 7" Lilliput LCD face plate is slightly larger than a double DIN radio, which is why I needed to cut the opening larger).

Next, I set the LCD touchscreen into the radio bezel so that the left and right hand sides were flush with each other. The problem with this was that, now, the bottom and top of the LCD faceplate sat about an eight inch higher than the radio bezel. My solution to this was to build up the radio bezel using an epoxy and then sand it smooth later.

Before I began to apply the epoxy to the front face, I put it everywhere I could on the back face to secure the LCD faceplate to the radio bezel. The epoxy I used is called QuikPlastik. There are definitely some cheaper alternatives (someone on the mp3car.com forums said Wal-Mart sells a similar product), but I was told this was the best for strong adhesion and a smooth finish. I can definitely attest to both of those...this stuff worked great as long as you let it dry overnight before sanding. It bonded to the plastic on both the LCD faceplate and the radio bezel as if it were superglue. It doesn't bond right away and has about a 30 minute working time, which is great to smooth it all out to make the sanding process easier. I will post a picture of the back as soon as I get home.

2) What are all the buttons for other that the initial screen setup and are they relocatable?
as in are they on a ribbon cable of some sort so they could be hidden behind the display or are they necessary?

There is a button for power on/off, AV input, volume up, down, and mute, and menu. Don't be fooled, though...the volume buttons are for controlling the crappy internal speaker that is on the screen, not for controlling the PC volume (although I'm sure some modification could be made to do that). They are on a ribbon cable and can be easily relocated if you wish. I guess as long as you have the power on/off button remotely mounted, the rest aren't really necessary after the initial setup.

3) what was your starting point? Plexiglas or a metal sheet behind there?

No sheet metal or plexiglas anywhere. My starting point was to rip apart the LCD and figure out how I could fuse it together with the stock radio bezel to make it look like a factory install.

4) does it just sit in there? or does it clip in like the stock piece?

It uses the stock radio bezel with the stock clips. The clips will need to be slightly modified, which I haven't gotten around to. I'll also need to take out some material from the center console as soon as I reassemble the LCD screen as it currently won't fit in the console opening, but we're looking at maybe 10 minutes worth of dremel work.

Thanks if you answer these that is a real work of art IMO (well after you get out the imperfections)

Thank you for your kind words. I've put a ton of hours into the faceplate alone, but it's also my first time doing anything like this. I'm sure I could speed along the process if I were to do it again. The most annoying thing was waiting for the epoxy to dry before I could start sanding it.