TV's in the head rest

[hitinhard08]

I was gonna put tvs in the head rest of my 98 XLT and i was wondering what would be about the cost or is it to hard to do my self......Please help me thanks
Hitnhard08

 

[Black Magic]

I have them in mine. I did the work my self. Very easy with the right screens. Pice to have it done should be arround $400-600 each maby less anymore. Check out my home page to see more info.

 

[white_1999XLT]

I have a set of headrest TV's that I want to install into my '99 XLT, but here's my problem I have the bucket seats with the (SAB)side impact airbags with no built on headrest. Is it possible to cut my holes into the back of the seats myself, or do I need to completely remove the seats & put new ones that have headrests already.

 

[aaronajb1981]

It is possible, I have dont them before in an excursion (buckets with no seperate headrest). You will just have to fab some mounts for in the seat. the ones i did had metal to mount to. I just had wood spacers, mount the shroud to that, pull the material to the inside of the shroud and staple it, and press the monitor into the shroud (will be a tight fit. Otherwise you will have to put the material on the outside of the shroud like above and make it look good on your own.

 

[white_1999XLT]

RE: Seats in the headrest???Well sort of :/

OK, my next question is if I cut into the back of the seat...being that it has the airbag in the seat. How far from the the airbag do I cut, & will this make it go off? Also, feeling around (just pushing in on the back of the seat to feel where things are) it seems there is a metal brace inside the top of the seat....is there anything inside of that other than foam like a part of the airbag or something??? I know these questions might sound dumb but I am coming from a 2006 Lincoln Navi Ultimate that I had done up with 4 TV's
(15" Flipdown, Two 7" Headrest, & a 7" In-dash Touchscreen) which I had professionally installed. Now thanks to our lovely economy I'm down sizing to my Recently purchased '99 XLT,:bsnicker: so everything I had in my Navi I gutted myself & am now trying to put into my Explorer... Any & all help is very appreciated as I'm sure this is not going to be my only problem getting all those TV's in there :scratch:

 

[aaronajb1981]

Here is what i would do. remove the seat from the truck. on a bench unhook the seat cover at the hinge point. its usually a plastic "j" channel the entire width of the seat. Run your arm up the back of the seat and feel for anything in the area that you want to mount them. Once you figure your ok cut the material (much smaller than whats needed). and hope the install goes great. Most smaller ma-pa type shops will only charge about 50 to 100 per headrest to install.

 

[white_1999XLT]

Here is what i would do. remove the seat from the truck. on a bench unhook the seat cover at the hinge point. its usually a plastic "j" channel the entire width of the seat. Run your arm up the back of the seat and feel for anything in the area that you want to mount them. Once you figure your ok cut the material (much smaller than whats needed). and hope the install goes great. Most smaller ma-pa type shops will only charge about 50 to 100 per headrest to install.

OK..I'll give it a try & assuming all goes well post some pics later on

 

[edgea1286]

i put 2 7in screens in mine and it came out great for my first time, the only thing it cost me was the cost of 2 screens and some rca's i got the 2 screens brand new from a guy on craigslist and paid 75 bucks for them.

the only problem i ran into was the shroud (plastic frame) was a little too big for my headrests and the corner of it comes right up to the end of the headrest. if it was about 1/4in bigger then it would hang over a little bit.

also the book said to just thread thhe screw into the foam and it will stay, no it wont, a little pull and it popped out. so i cut a small peice of 1/8in plywood and tucked it behing the steel brace bars and screwed it to that.
then got a coat hanger and pulled the wires through the top like that, tucked under the center counsel and ran the rca's under there to the back f my pioneer D3. all done

 

[aaronajb1981]

He has a 99 where the headrest is built into the seat back. its not seperate like in your 03.

 

[Joe Dirt]

I took these at the junkyard this weekend- remembered your thread...

This is the metal inside of the seats...

 

[white_1999XLT]

I took these at the junkyard this weekend- remembered your thread...

This is the metal inside of the seats...

Thanks 4 the pics, it gives me a little insite...I haven't quite tried to tackle it yet...I've been modifying the front to fit my 6" Pioneer in dash touch screen & my mids & highs....It seems the factory hole for the original double din stereo is smaller than what I needed to fit my headunit, so I had to cut some plastic from around where it needs to fit. Now I'm just trying to sucure it..B/C the bolt patter to secure the factory headunit doesn't line up.......I'm just having all kinds of fun trying to get everything from my '06 Navi into this '99 XLT :

 

[white_1999XLT]

First of all thanks a ton for all the advice, pics, & help aaronajb1981 & Joe Dirt, I finally had a chance to tackle it & it came out perfect thanks to your help, It was a bit of a project for me being a newbie so I figured I would post some pics for anyone else that may want to attempt this.I took several pics just to be as through as possible.
Step 1- Disconnect both of your battery terminals just to be sure your airbag is getting no power to it.
Step 2- Disconect the power seat & airbag plugs(if you have side airbags in your seats) from the seat & then remove the seat (its held down by 4-10mm bolts & a #50 torx screw for the seatbelt.) P.S. - the airbag plug is the yellow 1

Step 3-Once the seat is completely out you locate that "j" channel across the bottom of the seat back as aaronajb1981 pointed out earlier, & then pop it off. ( I used a small screw drive & just started at one end & slid it across until the entire thing was seperated

Step 4-After seperating the "j" channel that holds on the top seat upolstery, carefully stick your hand up the seat back while looking, & you should find a zipper pouch on the side. This is where your airbag is, to remove the upolstery from the seat frame you must un zip that pouch, & dont worry the bag won't come flying out...you will see this in my pic's. Once you've unzipped the entire pouch (just like a jacket, where none of the zipper sides are touching, top to bottom) you can start gently pulling off the seat, padding & all so that all thats left is a seat frame.(yes you have too remove the padding with the leather, b/c it's stiched together)

The rest on the next post

 

[white_1999XLT]

I've shown a picture of the airbag so you know where to be carefull when you are removing the seat.
Step- 5As you can see there is a metal bar running across the top of the seat frame where I planned on putting the TV, so I had to fabricate it a little, & by that I mean totally remove it.

Step-6Once you have removed the bar & you see where everything is, put the padding & upolstery back on. Don't forget to zip the pouch back around the airbag gently.
Step-7Once the seat is put back together you should have a idea of where the frame of the seat run's, which is what I am going to use as a support to screw the TV into. Now you need to trace you tv backing to get an idea as to where you need to cut.

Step-8 After you make your cuts, you then drill your holes for the TV bracket, & run your wires for the TV.

Next the finished product

 

[white_1999XLT]

Step-9Next screw in the bracket & wire up the TV, & snap it in place.

Remember, don't forget to clean under the seat as you don't get the oppertunity do do like this very often.
Step-10Put the seat back in & connect all of your wires & your good to go.

Next Project......Putting the 15" flip-down monitor in the roof with my sunroof...FUNHeres a sneak peak: