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hey guys, I just posted this today over at mp3car.com, but I thought I would share my first CarPC attempt here with everyone. Overall I am very pleased with the install.

My girlfriend just picked up an 04 325ci and my daily driver died a few weeks before that, so it I decided to buy her 01 Honda Civic Sedan. I also have a 93 3000GT, but I am trying to keep the miles off of it right now.

My main goal for this install was to have all of my music available (32,000+ obsessively organized MP3s), GPS, WIFI, bluetooth (to connect my cingular 8125), and the ability to view video.

My other goal was to keep the car extremely low key, I don't want my **** stolen and I wanted it to look as stock as possible.

The car.

I apologize in advance for the shitty picture quality. My Sony took a dump a few months ago and I am using some old POS.

The build:

I called honda and ordered the 01 coupe tweeter sail panels. I shaved them to fit the kicker tweeters before I realized the panels were not the same size as the sedan version (my fault for not reading more on here). Rather than waste days trying to fabricate matching new panels, I installed the tweeters in the doors along with the 6" mids and a sheet or two of dynomat. The speaker locations were not my first choice, but they sound good and they look pretty stock in person. Plus, I have installed q-logic kick panels before in my ex's Eclipse and they were the most annoying things EVER. It was impossible to not kick the **** out of them all day.

Tweeters:


The hardest part...fabricating a new bezel to hold the Xenarc 7" touch screen. I used the somewhat hard to find double din Metra radio kit. I believe the part number is 99-7865 for reference. I picked one up on ebay and had it shipped for $18.

I took the Xenarc screen apart and started cutting down the front bezel to fit behind the Metra bezel. You have to really cut the Xenarc bezel down. Once that was done and test fitted into the dash, I epoxied the two plastic bezels together. I used a 15 min epoxy from Advanced Auto Parts. Be sure to scuff up the plastic up a little with sandpaper and clean it off good before going to town with the epoxy. Once that was dry, I use Gorilla Glue everywhere I could and went to bed. After reading over turbocad6's "How To Make A Factory Bezel" thread, I stopped by a local auto body supply shop and picked up an expensive 3M automix plastic repair kit (the one on the right). This ran me $40. It smells like ***, but then again you should wear a mask when messing around with any of this crap.



Anyways, I used the 3M stuff to hide the seam between the two glued together bezels. I probably sanded/primed/painted the thing at least 30 times and it took about 4 days to complete (maybe a couple hours a day while doing other things). Its not perfect, but its as close as I can get without better tools. Everyone who has seen it thinks its perfect, im just picky. I apologize for not having any pictures of the process, but here is the final result. I think it looks a lot better in person. Also, the entire panel is sticking out a little at the top, I didnt want to secure it in place yet.



Next, I installed both Eclipse Amps. They were both about the same size, actually they may have been the exact same size. I put the Mono XA1000 under the driver's seat and the Eclipse XA2000 under the passenger's. I plan on raising them a little off the floor. I had to trim the civic's plastic air cond/heat tube things under the seats slightly. I wanted to make sure they were well out of sight and wouldn't be kicked if I ever have anyone sitting in the back (not that I probably ever will).


No, I am not worried about heat. I realize people freak out about heat issues with amps. I am not running the equipment hard and from past person experience with amps, I dont think I will have any problems.

I ran 4 gauge power from the battery, through the firewall, around the pass side kick panel, then under the pass seat. There, it hits a distribution block and i am running 8 gauge to the amp under that seat, over to the amp under the drivers seat and down the pass side to the trunk to the inverter (inverter is just temporary).

Here is a shot of the amps, with the seats slid all the way to the front.


And another of the XA1000


I decided not to go with any rear speakers. It was weird at first not having the rear fill, but like a lot people will tell you, you dont need it when you have good speakers up front.

The next thing I did was install the USB wifi antenna thing and the GPS unit. I wanted to keep these items out of sight, but I also wanted them to work well and not be blocked by a ton of metal and glass. I decided to take the easy route and I climbed into my trunk. I checked out the rear deck and noticed the speaker grills were plastic. I took a sharp knife and cut a slit in the pass side rear speaker and slid my Garmin 18 puck on top of the speaker (but below the plastic rear deck girlls) and taped the speaker back together.

This is a great spot, its completely outa sight, it has an almost direct view right out the back window and it was super easy. I didnt have to take the back seats out and remove the rear speakers or deal with any of that "ish". I did the same thing to the drivers side speaker and stuck the wifi antenna thing in there. Here is how it looks:


You cant see either of them and thats exactly what I was going for and they both work great.

The last thing I need to do yet is work on the trunk. I started fabricating a fiberglass subwoofer enclosure this weekend. Will update when I make more progress.


Here are some pics of the screen in action. Im running a custom skin I am working on right now. I loved how clean centrafuse looked, but I wanted the flexibility road runner offered, so I am calling this skin "reFused" as of right now.





Here is another shot of the screen. I might have to take new pics to get a better shot of it. This camera does not do it justice and that white line is just a reflection.



Open to all comments, good or bad. Also, like to say thanks to those who have contributed DIY guides and other helpful information. They really helped me out for this project.

Thanks,
Justin

 
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Damn man, thats a really clean install. for eclipse

 
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Lookin good, welcome to the carputer club.

 
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looks good man, i'd hate to be sitting behind u tho hehe

 
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looks good.

 
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Looks good. Any plans to maybe bondo the radio kit with the bezel to make a more integrated look?

 
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Don't use bondo, that's what I did and while it looks good in the pics I posted, it's starting to look pretty lumpy now. I'm still working on my second bezel, using fg to do it right.

 
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thanks guys for the comments. Im not sure i understand this comment:

"Looks good. Any plans to maybe bondo the radio kit with the bezel to make a more integrated look?"

The two bezels (radio kit and LCD bezel) are bonded together using epoxy and then the 3M Automix was used to fill over the seam and mold the two together. Maybe its hard to see in the pictures?

Like TeLLy was saying, you wouldnt want to use bondo for something like this. The 3M Automix is more like a plastic when it dries. I will be removing the screen this week to get out a 'fuzzy' that got sandwiched between the LCD and the touch screen panel, I will take a few up close pics then.

So im at dunkin doughnuts this morning and this kid is unloading his delivery trailer thing. I am in the drive-thru line beside him and the dumbass knocks the crate/pallet thing into my car.



The worst part was that he was an *** about the whole thing. He tried to act like he didnt even know he did it. Story of my life. Grrr.

 
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i missed it. wheres the pc? lol

looks good

and i think he ment bondo the new adaptor for the screen u made to the ac controls (or fg/plastic it in)

 
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that sucks about the side of your car, but at least you were there and he didn't have the chance to just drive off and leave your car jacked up. Hope you get it fixed fast man....

 
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Crap, can you resize the huge pictures? I spent more time horizontally scrolling then actually reading what you did!!

Looks good from what I saw. I'm a little worried about having all that stuff chilling in such an excessible location- right under the seat, and a huge screen right in the dash... any plans to make a cover for it that hides it? Maybe its just the area I live in, but your window would be all over the parking garage floor within the first week of being here.

Sux about the side of your car... I had a chick back into my front bumper in my parking garage, I left a note, and she put it back on my car after writing "**** OFF" on it... what a bitch.

 
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That is a clean install, ill send you the link to what I installed also, pretty much near the same set up but all through pioneer. About how much were you set back on this?

 
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That sucks man, i hope you got her plate #. As far as the "huge pictures", sorry about that, mp3car's forum resizes them automatically. I think you need to stop spending money on your car and buy a bigger monitor and run a high resolution .

I dont know if I will cover the LCD or how I would without making it obvious, the windows are tinted and I may bolt down the amps here soon. I am also going to look into getting an alarm when I am all done. You better rob me now before I get around to that!

The screen looks pretty stock, especially when you look through the tint. The car also looks just like any other stock civic (besides that huge F'ing dent now , so hopefully that will help keep people away. I work/live in decent areas, but i know **** happens regardless.

I picked up an Alpine Type R (SWR-1042D) on my lunch today, I might dick around with that fiberglass enclosure tonight. Probably overkill for what I need. I guess I will need to break out the dynamat.



oh and about Bondo'ing the radio kit to the main panel, thanks for clarifying that, i didnt know what he was asking. I like the way it looks now, i have seen others who have bondo'd theirs together, just not feeling it. I think this looks how it would if it was a stock option.

 
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You could modify the existing screen bezel and get some double din deck like the SE deck, cut it up so its just the face, and retro the fit into the rescessed screen bezel that you currently have, so you can just pop it in and out whenever you feel like you need to.

Btw, I'm on my laptop and allready running high res. I'm **** outta luck I guess, or you could post the resized image links from the other site *nudge*

OR... for hiding the screen... you could go and make a flip screen kind of like the navi has... heres a pic w/ it up

 
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nice. resize the pics so they're no more than 600 pixels wide. that way people don't have to scroll their screens to see the whole pic.

 
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looks great man, welcome to the carputer club .

 
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So what I meant about integrating the screen, did you plan on using fiberglass or bondo, to fill in the space/gap between the radio kit and climate bezel to make the entire thing look like a single piece.

 
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Cool, I have a similar setup in my Civic with the Xenarc. Why don't you have rear speakers? You'll notice a huge difference. When I was in mid install, I only have 2 speakers running and it drove me crazy before I got the 5.1 audio running on my M10000.

Oh and you'll quickly find out you don't want all your songs in your car. I ripped all my CD to my computer a year ago and put them all in my car. I spend more time skipping songs than listening to songs. I'm redoing an entirely new playlist with just specific songs now.

And also, no need to mess around with the speakers for a place to put the GPS receiver, I put my Holux 213 here.

 
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looks great, how come you didnt just use the factory double din piece that comes with 05 civic SE?

 
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"Oh and you'll quickly find out you don't want all your songs in your car"

I disagree completely. This was the main reason I wanted to do the install. I had 200GB of organized music that I couldn't take with me. If all I wanted was my "favorites" playlist, I would have bought a damn ipod and saved myself 2 grand. Don't get me wrong, I obviously don't listen to all of it, but I love that its there. I hardly ever listen to an entire song before I switch to something else anyways. I just like that when im in the mood to hear that "one" song thats stuck in my head, its available to me. Plus, I love when people get in and go "ya, but do you have "xxxxx" song" and I touch 3 buttons and it starts playing.

I also dont miss having rear speakers at this point, plus its a little bit harder to hide a nice size 4 channel amp.

I am at work right now, so the pic of your GPS isnt showing up, but I will check it out when I get home. Dex, I realize we see things differently, maybe I will change my mind after a few months? Do you have any other pics of your current setup?

gearbox - I looked and looked to see if any of the years came with anything I could use like that, I didnt know any of them came from the factory with a double din bezel. I think it worked out well, the way I did it. I would consider checking into how much this bezel would cost from Honda though if I would do it again.

I dont plan to fill the gap between the radio trim and the climate bezel. It doesnt bother me at all. Maybe I will change my mind down the road.

I am almost finished with the fiberglass enclosure for my Alpine Type-R, will take pics and upload today.

Thanks for the comments guys,
Justin

 
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My hosting service is down, the pictures will show up when I get it sorted out.

 
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There we go!

 
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hey were did u put ur cpu for ur carputer.... im doing alot of research on it rite now because it seems like a project id love to tackle n challenge myself.

from what i can conclude so car, ur cpu chasis could be in one of those eclips amp things? cuz ive seen a few cpu chasis that looks like that.

sorry for the noob question. im still learning

 
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Where did you run your amp power through the firewall? I've looked too many times on my '01 sedan. Any insight would be greatly apreciated. Thanks.

 
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theres a spot right above the brake pedal. you may need to drill it tho idk. see where theres a rubber flap that pulls out.

 
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Please, please rewrite this so people can read it. Then I'll work with you.

 
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Do I know something about the Civic that Gearbox doesn't? Duhhhhhhhh.............duh duhhhhhhhhhhhh..........I see the shining light above me.............just kidding buddy. There's a rubber grommet by the passenger's feet. I jammed a screwdriver through it and then poked the wire through.

 
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Awesome. Thanks for the heads up. Sorry to get off topic.