Prep for Double Din dash replacement

depronman

depronman

A2OC Donor
I have been busy all weekend preparing my recently acquired double Din Dash for fitting to the A2 hopefully next week.

I came across a problem which I was half anticipating, it would appear that Audi never did a double Din dash with none climate, so as my TDI is none climate (rotary heater controls) I needed to fit these in to the lower bay of the double Din dash, sounds simply but was a right PITA
After much head scratching, measuring and re measuring I figured out that the only way was to remove the heater controls mounting lugs, all four of them, and then make up new mounting lugs.
Also the heater control face panel had to be reshaped to fit the curve at the bottom of the dash, once this was done and the mounting lugs sawed off, some measuring done and top brackets where fabricated from 2mm PCB board and attached to the heater control panel with a self tapping screw in the top corner and attached to the dash using the existing mounting screws that locate the cage into the dash.
That left the lower part of the heater controls flapping in the wind, so a couple of 3D printed brackets where designed and printed to attach to the cage.

With that done (took 1/2 a day) the new head unit was put in place and measured up for mounting brackets.
I designed a couple of brackets for each side and 3D printed them, the first one was not quite right, so a mode to the model and printed another which was spot on. That just left a couple of 3D printed plates to hold the head unit in place (the 2 brackets on each side means that it is really secure, so the plates are simply holding it into the aluminium cage)

That just left a facia to make, again 3D printed, but had to be in 4 pieces and glued together as it was 10mm to big for the bed of my 3D printer, once glued together a light sanding, primed and sprayed mate black.

With it all assembled it looks great, everything lines up perfectly, head unit is very secure and I will have a very up to date 7" touch screen that does FM radio, Music / films / pictures from both TF card and USB pen drive, Blue Tooth for music and the phone and Sat Nav, plus a rear view parking camera.
I am still working out the best place to mount the rear view camera, it needs an 18.5mm Dia hole, one idea is in the rear bumper, but it would be vulnerable to damage, another is to 3D print a mount for under the rear spoiler which would be safer and hopefully would keep the road muck away from it.

All being well the dash swap will take place next weekend, I will update the thread once the dash is in with some pictures of the finished product.

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Great work there and well done , could you mount the camera with the rear brake light assembly inside the tailgate, if the camera can see through the tinted glass or if not in the tailgate rear panel between the number plate lights , above the number plate area ... Im Removing the AC in one of my projects , less weight and load on the engine, I did not realise there was no non AC double din dashes and good to see what youv done as imagine ile be doing something like this myself as ile also be using my alpine doubledin headunit.
 
When you're cutting and shaping plastic, or repairing damage, don't forget that really great product, "Q-bond"!

David
 
JIGSAW said:
Great work there and well done , could you mount the camera with the rear brake light assembly inside the tailgate, if the camera can see through the tinted glass or if not in the tailgate rear panel between the number plate lights , above the number plate area ... Im Removing the AC in one of my projects , less weight and load on the engine, I did not realise there was no non AC double din dashes and good to see what youv done as imagine ile be doing something like this myself as ile also be using my alpine doubledin headunit.
Click to expand...

I will be trying the camera mounted inside and looking through the glass of the tail gate (this was ans still is my preferred option). I had also considered in the tailgate above the number plate. The slight issue with both of these is that wiring needs to be run from the light cluster (to pick up the reversing light 12V feed) through the tail gate rubber trunking into the tailgate to the camera, this is not a big problem in the grand scheme of things, so I think I am more likely to go down this route then mount the camera somewhere on the fixed body shell e,g, the rear bumper

I was not know for sure before I started that the double din dash option was only supplied with 'climate', but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense (higher spec audio = 2Din dash = car must have climate). So I have done the ground work for you, there are two major parts to relating the manual heater controls into the lower bay on the 2Din dash -
1)cut of the mounting lugs (4 off) from the heater control panel, and make up new mounts, top ones are L shaped and could be made from 2mm thick aluminium sheet, PCB board or even steel sheet, if it helps I can take a photo of the ones I made and add some dimension to aid fabrication.
2)the lower mounts are 3D printed, I can provide these at cost, about £5 for the pair including delivery

Cheers,
 
A2Steve said:
Some great work there. Great to see something original.
Click to expand...

It was one of those things that once you started you know you have to see it through, it was just amazing how much time it consumed.
One think that would annoy the hell out of me would be a head unit that was not rigidly mounted and therefore rattles / creaked etc, it would just get to my OCD as I hate rattles in cars

The parts are now designed so if anyone else if going to 'tread this path' then I am as always more than happy to supply 3D printed parts at cost price

Cheers,
 
DJ 190 said:
When you're cutting and shaping plastic, or repairing damage, don't forget that really great product, "Q-bond"!

David
Click to expand...

I have not come across Q-Bond before, just googled it, I get the same results with thin or medium Cyno as the glue and backing powder as the filler (when needed). If bonding / repairing ABS plastics I tend to make up a slurry using bits of the removed ABS melted in Acetone, you can then 'plastic weld' as the acetone melts the original ABS and provides a very good bond, as strong as the original ABS if done correctly. I tend to use this process if I need to glue together 3D printed parts that I have made from ABS.

Cheers,
 
spike said:
Craigyb's thread on fitting a reversing camera may provide some alternative ideas on camera mounting - http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?20797-Reverse-camera-project&p=159086#post159086

Cheers Spike
Click to expand...

Thanks Spike, I have had a read on the thread, the camera I bought needs an 18.5mm Dia hole, so if I was going to mount in a similar place I would need to drill an hole above the number plate. I not totally happy with doing this so I will be trying the camera looking through the rear tail gate glass first, I may try it under the spoiler through the glass, if this does not work I'm thinking to 3D print a custom mount to attach under the spoiler as this will give a camera position nearer to the top of the number plate. So many choices.

Cheers,
 
Love this thread and project of yours. Great to see it coming together nicely. Sorry if you have wrote this down before but what is the head unit you are using?

For years in have been using Kenwood double DIN units with Garmin sat nav in them, but the problem is they have cost me in the region of £800 . Recently having checked the recent offerings it is good to see that resolutions, stability and feature set have improved and sometimes surpassed that of Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood, etc. While being in the £200-£300 bracket.

On one hand I hate the look of third party stereos (usually single DIN flashly looking ones), but feel subtle double din units look totally acceptable. It would be great to install a RNS-E but in practicality I'm not sure they are the best.

So yeah, sorry for the ramble but your one looks like a Chinese one but nice and subtle in look. It would be nice to know the full spec.

Keep up the good work !

Euan

Sent from my iRULU_V3 using Tapatalk
 
here is the ebay link to the head unit, it is a generic Chinese double din head unit, the part numbers appears to be 7021G

The G refers to it having Satnav
The same basic unit as been around a couple of years and they have gradually added features, the latest ans greatest is the 7021G
It cost be £58 delivered from the uk

I also bought a camera for the rear view which was £6 delivered, so all in all not a lot of expense on the electronics




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131895695660?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

cheers
 
OK the double din dash swap was completed on Saturday with a very big thankyou to Akeel who drove over to my place and helped me to get the old single din dash out and the new double din dash in.
I would like to say it was straight forward, but it was a right pain to get it back in, mainly because a bracket near the passenger side airbag got on the wrong side of the aitbag mount, this was preventing the dash going forward.

Below are some pictures taken tonight of the head unit in it's various modes in the new dash with its 3D printed sorround

I have to admit I am very chuffed with the way it as all worked out, especially with the fact that there is no std fit of manual heater controls into the double din dash

The Rear view camera is also installed inside the car looking through the tail gate glass, it is mounted in a 3D printed custom mount which is attached with velcro to the top of the tail gate lower trim panel, the resulting view from the camera is excellent, I will take some pictures when it is light outside as in the dark the view from the camera is OK, but a bit grainy, in daylight it is crystal clear
It did take me most of Sunday to rout the cable for the camera and the GPS receiver, getting the cable through the rubber tube at the top of the tailgate was a complete nightmare, lots of fairly liquid and patience got the wire though after first poking a wire rod through then pulling a cord and finally the cable.

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Looking great Paul , would you like to sell me your double din dash please

Sent from my HTC One A9 using Tapatalk
 
Hi Paul, I'd be very interested in a 3d printed surround for my own project. I want to put a double-din in my A2, but am struggling to find a good (any at all) surround. How does yours fit?
 
err let me think about that question, yes thought, but answer is no :)

however if you get hold of a 2din dash I will give you a hand to fit it
 
I mounted the new head unit such that the facia panel would site around the front section of the head unit facia, this means that the facia fits over the front part of the head unit and then bottoms out onto the recess of the facia. The outside of the facia then is a snug fit to the left and right sides and the top and bottom

I had to print the facia in 4 parts as it was slightly too large for the bed of my 3D printer

send me some dimension and I will design a facia for you, shouldn't cost more than £15 maybe a bit cheaper depending on complexity.
I sprayed mine using some matt black spray paint from Lidl, it is a near perfect match for the Audi soft touch, it was a great accidental find

Cheers,
 
depronman said:
I mounted the new head unit such that the facia panel would site around the front section of the head unit facia, this means that the facia fits over the front part of the head unit and then bottoms out onto the recess of the facia. The outside of the facia then is a snug fit to the left and right sides and the top and bottom

I had to print the facia in 4 parts as it was slightly too large for the bed of my 3D printer

send me some dimension and I will design a facia for you, shouldn't cost more than £15 maybe a bit cheaper depending on complexity.
I sprayed mine using some matt black spray paint from Lidl, it is a near perfect match for the Audi soft touch, it was a great accidental find

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Great, thanks for that. I haven't actually bought the unit yet (or even the A2), but I'll let you know as soon as its done.
 
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