CB Installed in Dash with Single Din Radio

[Reklaw]

Here's a picture of the final product.
I posted this in 'Stock' because I'm trying to not really alter anything with my mods.

I had originally got this idea for my Escape back in 2010 after I got my first pop-up camper. The Escape was my wife's daily driver so I wanted to keep things as stock as possible but I wanted the CB for traveling purposes.
The CB is a Cobra 18 WX ST II. I did a lot of looking when I was trying to figure out what to do and discovered that this cb was the height of a single din head unit. I was a poor RadioShack store manager at the time so I bought the Kenwood Head Unit you see in the pick when it was on clearance from the holidays. I also had bought a piece of black ABS I found on Amazon so that I could use it to hide any gaps but never did that because everything fit perfectly in the Escape. I got my Explorer back in September and it didn't have a nice hole to mount everything in so I finally pulled that plastic out and cut a frame to put the 2 pieces in. I didn't like the fit exactly of the first one so I took the time and made a second frame and it fits nicely. The only problem with the single din head unit is that I can't get carplay for my iPhone and the Pioneer head unit that has the motorized 7 inch screen the in the single din form factor does not have HD Radio which I would like. I'm still working on a way to reroute HVAC airflow to locate a CB somewhere else in the dash but I'm not yet seeing any good way to do that.

The CB is not hooked up yet, just in the dash. My next task is to try and fit a CB antenna in the original Explorer radio antenna mount. I already bought the new mount from the dealer, now I need to get under the quarter panel to see exactly how the radio antenna is mounted and see if I can make a hybrid for the CB antenna. If I can do this I will mount it symmetrically on the drivers side and then replace the radio antenna with an identical CB antenna that will pick up FM. My goal is to keep any upgrades as stock as possible.

I'll post pics of the install next.

 

[Reklaw]

I'm sorry, I don't have good pictures like I thought I did but here's what I have.

This is the first 'frame' I had actually made, with a space between the 2 units.

This is the second 'frame' with the radio braket in. If you notice there is no more space between the head unit and CB.

And here's the empty 'frame' lining up with the hole in the dash. (first 'frame' again, sorry)

I think I possibly could have gone out and bought the Scosche dash kit and it may have worked but like I said before, I had the plastic laying around the house from 4 years ago that I never used so I figured why spend any more money.

 

[drdoom]

That's a decent radio, I have the same one in my 97 under a JVC Bluetooth head unit. It's a nice installation in the dash like that.