My new in-dash Nav unit

[Chills]

Here it is. I installed it by myself with technical assistance from board members and Crutchfield. This was my first car stereo install, and it went quite well. The part that took the longest was fabricating a faceplate for the nav unit, which is a Pioneer AVIC-D3.

I have the Bose speakers, and this unit makes the music sound so much better than the CR-220.

What do you guys think?

Before:



After:

[spark00]

that's freaking awesome!!! i wonder if i can move my heating unit to lower compartment to do the same. did u need any special brackets and wiring?

[Chills]

Thanks, Spark. I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

As for your AC unit move, I've seen numerous threads on the board about it. I'm sure there is a way, but it might be pretty hard. I got lucky enough to have cup holders.

[blinkwatt]

What did you do with the old cupholders?

[Travis]

Good Job!

How is the screen when the top is down?

I was looking at the same model (price starting to come down) but had heard the screen was hard to see with the top down.

[SD987]

That's really outstanding. The faceplate is obviously key, and it looks like you did a nice job. What did you fabricate it from? I'm contemplating installing the same or similar Pioneer unit myself, but not sure how long I'll be keeping this car. What does it offer for iPod integration, a jack input?

[Chills]

blinkwatt: I kept the old cup holders and head unit. I always plan to keep my cars a long time, but situations change, and if I decided to sell my Boxster then I'd like to put it back to stock.

Travis: Thanks. My fiance and I drove around on Saturday with the top down. The screen is easy to read, even in direct sunlight. I had polarized Oakleys on and I could read the screen, but it was easier to see if I tilted my head so I wasn't looking through my sunglasses.

SD987: Much appreciated. I built the faceplate from the frame that came with the AVIC and a car stereo kit from Pep Boys. I went there and found the biggest one I could to use for raw material, and that ended up being the kit for GM trucks. I cut apart the faceplate in the kit with a Dremel and fitted it to my Boxster. It isn't perfect, but it looks quite good.

The iPod jack input is standard for all iPods on sale now (mini, video, nano). I ran the cable under the rear console and have the iPod in my rear box. I didn't need to drill because the cable fits in the space between the lid and the rear of the box. The iPod integration is seemless. You control the iPod with the headunit, and the touchscreen has all of the buttons of the regular iPod. You can even watch videos (not while driving) from your iPod.

[Chills]

Oh, and the great thing is that if I want to put it back to stock I can in minimal time. The harness Crutchfield sent plugs directly into the one in the Boxster. The only thing I had to cut was the middle plastic piece between the OEM headunit and the cup holders. If I return the car to stock I can replace that piece, but it isn't really visible anyway.

[Pilot2519j]

Looks fantastic! Super job. Should do a simple list of steps for the installation. I commend your effort for a job even a professional would envy.

[ray986s]

That looks good chills, onother thinh you can do is with the scraps of the plastic trim that you fabricated, take a strip on epoxy or super glue another piece to the back of your trim to cover the gap above the trim you made. To really blend in it prep it for paint and paint it all the same color to look like one plastic piece. Also I forgot to tell you that we also put in a rear speakers that I powered from the head unit, it really puts a great staging to the system.

As far as the ipod, I did the same but I ran the wire under the center console and dremelled out a small notch at the corner of the plastic piece under the storage, ran the wire through it and then I purchased an cheap ipod holder at target that is small enough to mount inside the armrest. This way the ipod does not bounce around and sits nicely in there. The mounting kit cost me less than 10 bucks but more importantly protects it in place. Good job!

[Chills]

Thanks Pilot. I will try to write something up this weekend.

Ray: Yeah I totally need to fill in the small gap at the top of my faceplate. I'm going to shop around a little more to see if I can find something. It's not a big gap, and you can barely see it when sitting in the car, but I know it's there and I want a perfect factory look.

[clb0099]

did by chance get the radio from crutchfield and if so did they give any instructions on how to fabricate the trim around the radio. I think it looks great the only think i might suggest is that you paint the vents,console ,door handles, etc... either the exterior of the car or maybe black then everything would look the same.

[FIG]

Great Install Chills

attention to detail.....I likey

[der Geist]

That looks REALLY GREAT. I was thinking about getting the exact same model but I cheaped out and got the Garmin 360 instead. Glad I did too because once you get used to them you want one in all your vehicles.

[Chills]

clb0099: Crutchfield didn't send instructions on making a faceplate. I just did my best. I need to do a little more, like close the gap at the top, but I'm pretty stoked I got the sucker in and it works. Don't know about the paint thing. I had the rear console and the first two bottom sections painted the exterior color of the car. It looks odd in those pic because you can't see the rear console. In person it looks pretty sweet.

Thanks FIG.

der GEIST: I want one in my other cars, too. I'll probably get my wife-to-be a portable nav unit like the one you got so we can use it in our other cars. She admitted the nav unit was way cool and wants one too.

[Frank Patrick]

Looks great, nice job.! Any rattles

[rick3000]

It looks really good! You should consider doing the garage door opener hack and put the switch right above the GPS, to fill the gap.

[Chills]

Nope, no rattles. It sits pretty still. I plan on making a stouter bracket for the rear of the headunit, just something a little stronger. I'm not too happy with what I have now.

I want to do the garage door hack, but I'll probably use one of the blank spots on the left of the GPS. The gap is pretty small, maybe 1/16th of an inch. I'm heading over to Lowe's this evening for some house stuff and I'll look around to see if I can find anything.

I'll work on the step-by-step today. My vacation plans got put on hold since my poor fiance got food poisoning on Thursday.... so I'll be in the house for a bit.