The Preface:

Honestly the main thing that prompted this whole mess was my alpine stereo and the fact that it was a little more difficult then I would have liked to view the screen from the stock location. I had (am am actually looking for some more) del sol seats which most of you know lowers you about 2 inches into the car... so I wanted to see if I could drop the headunit a few inches, and instead of taking the easy way out and using the pocket behind the cupholders, I broke out the dremel, a bunch of backstraps, and some patients... Check it

We all know what the stock setup looks like (this is from my late 98 sedan)


Here is the altered dash in my 96 Coupe (DX model) - and yes the car is still torn apart, my alarm, with all the options will take about 12 hours to install.


A close-up of the fully functional HVAC controls and cupholder...


And finally, a crappy picture of the main section. Sorry bout the flash, all these pics were taken at night in a not-so-well-lit-garage.


Lemme know what you think.

 

to bad you couldnt have a piece of tinited
plexi glass for the vafc so when you wanted
to mess with the buttens you could push it
open and durring the day no one would see it
but at night you could since its transparant..
looks really good though the way you have it!! very clean

 

Nice work.

 

i really like the heater controls down there but i think you can do better with the VAFC. maybe cut another plate and make more of a flush mounted look. just to do something about the cord, it just doesnt look good when visable, but overall

 

looks good! I love this little stuff- true "custimizations" to your taste and your function

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .:s h a w n D:. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">to bad you couldnt have a piece of tinited
plexi glass for the vafc so when you wanted
to mess with the buttens you could push it
open and durring the day no one would see it
but at night you could since its transparant..
looks really good though the way you have it!! very clean</TD></TR></TABLE>
any more info on this....

looks good.....glad you got rid of the pos cluster

 

Yea, the VAFC is still a work in progress. I was honestly getting a little burnt out on the process, so I just screwed it (from the back) into a blank DIN plate. I removed two of the factory screws from the back of the VAFC (diagonal from each other) and screwed then through the back of that DIN blank. It's not going anywhere. And I've actually got some smoked plexi sitting in the garage, I just haven't figured out exactly what I want to do with it yet. I like the idea of making a cover panel though, There's a ton of room behind the VAFC (the old stereo spot) so I could prolly hook up a linear actuator and have the plexi cover lift up and back into the dash with the push of a small (concealed?) button... We'll see what I'm 'feeling'

 

i read your sig, if you are looking to sell the F4 hit me up

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by atisvt99 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yea, the VAFC is still a work in progress. I was honestly getting a little burnt out on the process, so I just screwed it (from the back) into a blank DIN plate. I removed two of the factory screws from the back of the VAFC (diagonal from each other) and screwed then through the back of that DIN blank. It's not going anywhere. And I've actually got some smoked plexi sitting in the garage, I just haven't figured out exactly what I want to do with it yet. I like the idea of making a cover panel though, There's a ton of room behind the VAFC (the old stereo spot) so I could prolly hook up a linear actuator and have the plexi cover lift up and back into the dash with the push of a small (concealed?) button... We'll see what I'm 'feeling' </TD></TR></TABLE>

sounds good......is there a way to cover the vafc like the factory clock.....you know like the flip up cover...i think thats what the guy at the top was talking about...that would be bad ***.....

 

i cant remember exactally how the jaguars did it but if you ever get a chace to sit inside one .. start messaing around with the dash pieces .. my mom use to have one and everything in that car was a "pushopen" operation.. you could probably get like little magnets on the corners and use the magnets to hold the cover in place. that would be pretty easy and less modding

 

how is your hot/cold cable working? does it feel tough to pull and push?

 

hmm not sure if im really feelin the climate control on the bottom there but whatever...to each their own good job though. how long did that take ? always have respect for peoples own style. wish i knew how to re-locate and re-wire stuff.

 

i've been wanting to do that with my climate control, but never knew how to do it? care to explain the steps on it? was the heater cable long enough to re-route down there? how did u pry the trimmings off the original climate control, was it hard? any info's would help, peace!

 

nice work man

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboDANDEE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i've been wanting to do that with my climate control, but never knew how to do it? care to explain the steps on it? was the heater cable long enough to re-route down there? how did u pry the trimmings off the original climate control, was it hard? any info's would help, peace!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I'd like to know too! What materials did you have to buy and where? Thanks.
oh yeah...great job by the way!

 

I'll do a full write-up this coming week... While I'm getting paid to sit at the computer.

Real quick though, the heater cable was actually to long and I had to shorten it by about 6 inches. Then re-form the little loop at the end. It has the same amount of tension as before... when it was sitting about 18 inches higher.

 

thanx man, let me know when u get that write up cause i barely check out this part of H-T.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .:s h a w n D:. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">to bad you couldnt have a piece of tinited
plexi glass for the vafc so when you wanted
to mess with the buttens you could push it
open and durring the day no one would see it
but at night you could since its transparant..
looks really good though the way you have it!! very clean</TD></TR></TABLE>

any pics of this???????

 

I don't think it's been done yet... on a honda anyways. We're in the creative-thinking process now.

 

thats a real nice customization of the center console
i think its very clean and well done

 

Thanks for all the comments, questions, and compliments guys. Like I said, I'll do a decent write-up on Monday or there abouts...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mugen85r &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

any pics of this???????</TD></TR></TABLE>

i dont have any .. i just made it up off the top of my head?? neat idea i guess

 

Looks good but it's a step away from being really clean and professional looking. That step would be flush mounting the VAFC. It's super easy ands makes all the difference. I put mine where you put your HVAC controls. Looks aight though... Personally I would have left the HVAC in place an put VAFC down below... Which do YOU use more?

 

Great work!

Looks professional to me!

I like where you relocated your climate controls to, still accessable

 

im feeling it.

look into doing the smoked plexi for the vafc. that would just be an awesome mod.

I bet we will see alot of this on HT now that you've done it... looks great!