TV in my car, well my Maxima!!

[TravisC]

I'm not sure if I should put this here or All Other Models so I'll put it here until someone moves it.

Well I've been working on this for a couple weeks on and off but finally got it installed and it's sweet. I had to fiberglass a piece to hold the TV and the HU. This was the first time I've even tried fiberglassing and I'm pretty impressed on the way it turned out. Let me know what you think.

 

[tommy96XLT]

Thats awsome... Do you have a PS2 or Xbox hooked up yet?

 

[TravisC]

Xbox is on the way. I just plugged it up in the garage but it's going in soon.

 

[tommy96XLT]

Awsome Very nice work I wish that I could do that

 

[mhn3773]

that is sweet..what size is that?

 

[davesexplorer]

nice....

 

[X~FACTOR]

Nice shot of Halo! Good job, man! But to really appreciate it you gotta show us the before shot.

 

[hydroxy]

Lookin good... where are you going to put the xbox and such?

 

[TravisC]

Here are some pictures before, during and after. We made a mold out of some foam I got from a craft shop. We then fiberglassed, bondoed and painted.

 

[TravisC]

More

 

[TravisC]

The Xbox is going in the passenger side floor board. I made a "stand" or whatever for it. It will go all the way to the front and just take away a little leg room. I've got an Audio/Video switch box so I can add more stuff later on. My friends and I are planning a road trip to Florida this summer so I figure we'll bring a long some other stuff to hook up. I'll get some pics of the Xbox install when it's done.

 

[hydroxy]

how did you lay the fiberglass? It looks really nice and smooth. Show us some pics of the xbox holder and exactly where it is going =P

 

[TravisC]

Well the first layer didn't work out they way we wanted it to. I was wanting to lay the cloth then apply the resin but my buddy said it was better to lay the resin then the cloth. I wasn't really set on it but he said he's done it before so I agreed. Like I said the first layer was shadey but the rest went on smooth. I think we made 3 layers and no, I didn't stand on it like the rest of you guys do . There are a few imperfections in the body of it but seeing as how there isn't really a whole lot showing I said it looked good enough and went ahead to paint it. I'll probably take it back out before too long and try to paint it to match my AC vents and the part around my shifter boot. As far as the xbox holder I need to get some carpet and put on it before I show pics because it looks pretty shadey itself . I made it out of wood, I'll try to get that done tomorrow maybe and I'll put some more pics up.

The only thing I don't like about the whole install is the AC controls. As you can tell in the before picture it is a lot higher up and was attached to the stock HU with brackets in the back of it. I sold the HU on ebay and tried to figure out where I was going to put the AC controls. I thought about putting it in the cup holders but I use those way too much to lose them. We were going to put it in the fiberglass piece but there was no way that was happening because it was too big to go where I wanted it. So we cut down the foam and just decided to cut down on the sides of the AC controls and slide it down the console. It's not the best fit in the world but it's not really noticable because of the shifter and how far down it is. It still works and that's the main thing.

EDIT: I've got an FM modulator in there also. It's a Pyle brand (?). It works great and the sound quality is a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I've got a stock Bose system with an stock amp and sub so I don't plan on chaning those out any time soon. It's a Sony Xplod HU, not sure of the model right of the top of my head but it plays MP3s and has a scrolling screen.

 

[hydroxy]

did you use fiberglass mat? And as for putting the resin on first... you just put it where you had it taped off, and laid a piece of cloth over it, then cut out the excess? Sorry for all the questions... I plan on doing something similar to this over the summer so I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about doing it.

 

[TravisC]

I used the Bondo brand fiberglass cloth from WalMart. The first layer was rough like I was saying because we didn't cut the pieces good enough. We had a ton hanging over on the edges. I think the best way to do it is to lay the cloth down, cut it to the size you need then apply the resin onto the cloth. It was a whole lot easier when we did it that way. Either way the cloth is going to soak up the resin so it was a lot easier to hold the cloth where you wanted it then apply the resin. It was harder to apply the cloth on the resin because once it started getting soaked up it was hard to spread the cloth and get it flat. Either way there is going to be some left over on the edges but I just cut it with a straight edge and then sanded it down. We used a hand sander with 80 grit to get it rough. When we got a good shape we used Bondo to get it built up and to smooth it out. I think we used 200 grit and 400 grit sand paper on the bondo to get it nice and smooth.

 

[expo5.0]

i paint the resin on the surface then place the mat then blot the matting with my brush to soak it.

definitely the best way to do it, for minimal sanding. for something as small as you did though, i would have used fiber hair bondo.

 

[TravisC]

i paint the resin on the surface then place the mat then blot the matting with my brush to soak it.

definitely the best way to do it, for minimal sanding. for something as small as you did though, i would have used fiber hair bondo.

I thought laying the resin first was harder. I did blot the mat with my brush but I thouhgt it was harder to get it smooth that way. When we got done the front, which was the flat part that I cut out, it was almost completely flat without sanding. It was the best part of it but I had to cut it out.

About the hair bondo, not sure what that is but I actually fiberglassed the whole thing then cut out the slots for the TV and HU.

 

[tommy96XLT]

Did you buy the resin and cloth at Wal-Mart?

 

[TravisC]

Did you buy the resin and cloth at Wal-Mart?

Sure did, I used about 10-12 sq. ft. of cloth and a almost a whole can of resin, I just can't remember what size can I bought. It wasn't the smallest but I think it was the next one up.

 

[expo5.0]

you probably used about a pint of resin, the way you did it is awesome (and very strong), they don't carry the kitty hair or long strand fiber bondo at walmart, but for what you made you could have virtually fabbed the whole thing from it and it would have been strong enough. I'd have made it with that then laid like 2-3 layers of glass on the back.

it looks great though man!