!!Bondo or Fiberglass Help!!

[ELEmental59437]

I am going to be mounting an LCD screen into the double DIN opening where my radio was. (sold it to a member of this board). My question is whats the best product to use, and how do I do this? I am pretty inclined when it comes to electrical or mechanical mod's but I havent dont anything like this before so I need a little advice. Or a pointing in the correct direction.

I was thinking about getting a double-din to single-din plastic dash kit and cutting and molding onto that. Would I use bondo to do this? or what? Is there a better way of doing this?

Anything would help, thanks.

 

[Kimo]

what you are going to do is, take the plastic housing off the screen. use the front plastic bezel piece and basicly glue it to the dash trim in the position you wish to have it , ie: the depth. it will probably help to use a .5" mdf trim ring to help center and glue the plastic bezel to the dash. with that done sand the lcd bezel and dash bezel w/ 180 grit sand paper where bondo will be bonding to the plastic. after sanding use plastic prep to get rid of silicone mold release leftover or failing that, a healthy amount of alcohol. apply bondo to fill and build to the lcd bezel. use 80 grit to shape, 180 fine shaping, high build primer, 400 grit to smooth, color, clear . good luck dude. with alot of patience and not accepting imperfections, it will come out sweet. i know cause i've done a hundred of these cause i'm a mobile electronics installer, 13 years. if your scared to do the color work, take it to your local body shop and let them shoot the color / clear.

 

[ELEmental59437]

Are you saying to glue the trim directly to the car? or to the DIN kit? I dont want to do any permanent damage to the car as I might sell it down the line.. It sounds like you are saying to glue it to the dash kit.

Also, what kind of material is bondo? Is it more like wood filler? or will it join two plastics if they have rough sanded edges?

you mentioned "silicone mold".. but I couldnt figure out what your talking about.

Thanks for the help on this.. I'm glad someone on here know this stuff.. I hope to tackle this project soon.

 

[1sty]

I think he mean to make a 1/2" MDF mounting bezzle and then glue the plastic ring of the screen to it. You can tape up your dash and then do the other work he mentioned to get the exact fitting and shape without riscking the dash. Then you take it out to do the snading apinting and all that.
Then finish it and pop it back in.

 

[ELEmental59437]

So I am going to

1. make a 1/2" mdf trim ring (as in wood) to make a base for the screen. Glue the plastic frame from the LCD onto it..

2. tape up the dash (do i do this with out without the silver surround on?)

3. Am I making a "snap in" lcd thing basically? How do I mold the bondo to do this? I am so confused...

.... I get the sanding and painting and clear coat part.. and I understand making a wood frame to glue the lcd's plastic onto... but I dont understand how im supposed to attach all that to the car.

 

[1sty]

It depends on what you want to do, The MDF will allow you to make a dash kit of your own of sorts. Also you can recessit or have it stick out more.
I would use the wood to flush in the monitor and to mount it. Basicly you will have 2 peices of wood the first and smaller you are gluing the screen bezzel to the toher is flushing in the bezel as best you can and actualy mounting into the dash.
If you cut the wood good then you won't have to bondo anything in the dash just fill the holes between the screen bezel and wood to make it look like one peice.

This is only my concept and I have not done this before so hopefully Kimo will show back up to help you out a little more with his idea.

 

[ELEmental59437]

Ok I started on the project today because I had time on my hands.. heres how it....

I glued on thin pieces of plexiglass instead of wood because of certain strenght and space issues. The plexiglass really strenghtened the whole face (it was weak because I had to trim it to fit). I will have to mount the plastic and the LCD on as two seperate pieces but I think it will turn out ok. Theres was some things I didnt like about the size of the screen that I had to deal with (7.2" widescreen). I will try and have some pictures tomarrow..

I think this is good practice for when I tackle my custom fiberglass box project. I just need a few pointers on fiberglass before I start that.

If I were to apply this same principal to custom mounting a single DIN cd player in the car, what is the basic process of that?

Thanks guys, I knew I could count on good information from here to get me started.

 

[ELEmental59437]

Wow, I feel like im talking to myself, heres my progress so far. Kinda sloppy but realize it isnt near finished...

/members/ELEmental59437/bondo/front.jpg

/members/ELEmental59437/bondo/back.jpg

 

[ELEmental59437]

Primed test fit: