It took a lot of work but I modified the Center console of my vehicle to accept a 2 DIN in dash radio. I need to touch up the paint a little but it looks nice. I have the base model so I had less switches to move (No heated seats). I am not sure I could have done it if I had the heated seat switches.

 

Good job. It does look like it needs some cleanup.

 

Hey buddy, looks great to me, did you buy the dash/panels/fascias for the jobs or did you cut and modify it yourself? I am trying to do this myself and would appreciaite your help THANKS

 

I picked up a spare front piece and ash tray area before I took on that challenge. This was incase I screwed up during the process. I picked it up for cheap by emailing a guy that owned a crashed crossfire on ebay.

Below are a few notes if you decide to do this.

If you have heated seats, This will be much more difficult and you probably will not have room to move the buttons.

- Recreating the correct holes for the hazard buttons & other buttons was most difficult. I tried using a dremel tool but it looked sloppy. I had to over size the holes, create a wax mold of the current button holes (melted candle worked) and fill in the gap with a liquid epoxy on the new piece (I used a plumber epoxy).

- I also pickedup a dual DIN installation kit. I cut the front Crossfire piece and epoxied in the front piece from the DIN Kit. I then sanded it down until it looked like 1 piece.

- When relocating the buttons, you want to reuse the existing structure "clips" that are on the crossfire front piece. This is will require careful dremel work to take it off the back of the crossfire piece and glue it on the lower area where the ash tray currently is.

 

I added some more pics of when I was installing it in my user gallery. Take a look.

 

Nice job. Few random things.... if your car painted or wrapped flat black? And judging by your picture you work/live in the Villa Park area?

 

good eye, It is a vinyl wrap. I had it done at xtreme graphics in villa park and that is where the photo was taken, I live about 30 minutes from there.

 

Hi buddy,

So sorry for the delay,

internet went down over here, the joys of living out in the sticks haha!

Thanks for getting back to me so quick, taken a lot of that information on board so far,

I have started the work, I basically taken the radio out, the coin holder, the cigarette lighter and the middle thing in between them.

I moved the cigarette lighter in the glove box so its nice and hidden.

A big problem is those 7 buttons I got, they are all on the same circuit panel/switch, is there anyway you know of separating them or am I stuck in having to have them in a row of 7 like that? I took the car to a car electronics shop and they said they can't separate them (the sounds of it was that it as too big of a job for him) and he said I cant even get new buttons, perhaps round ones as the cutting new holes wouldn't be so hard.

How did you actually get the panels to look like they are one piece? I hear people of using fibreglass, p38 etc.

Thanks again for your help,

Will be posting pix once I got something good to show

 

Looks great.

 

Not sure what you mean by make it look like all one panel. As for modifying the buttons. If you have the electric seats you probably cant modify the buttons. My car did not have the electric seats. If you take out the few small screws on the long bar that holds the buttons in place you can actually take out all the buttons.

My reccomendation would be to relocate all the buttons down to the ashtray portion if possible. I just modified the the front portion of the ashtray area. To get it to look nice i first made a mold from melting a wax candle over the old holes. I then cut holes in the ash tray piece. All the front pieces all came off. Anywhere I screweed up cutting I filled in with a plumbers metal that I picked up at Home Depot. Its a putty that can fill in holes with and then sand down once it hardens.


I may have some spare parts if something goes wrong.

 

Well the way you have done it is that it looks like the entire dash fascia console came like that so well done to you there

I am so tempted just to get you to do mine and pay you for it!!! I am not the best with things like this, only the electrics can I do right.

I was going to get this all done properly at the car shop but they said it will look tacky/ won't look perfect and was quite hesitant in doing it, so I kind of refuse to give money to a company who can't be bothered to do the job right even when being paid lol.

I still can't even get the buttons out even when taking the screws out, do I need to give it a really good pull? Worried I will break it :S Also there are 3 tiny very screws underneath the back of the switches but can't get to them as they're covered by the switches.

Sorry for asking you everything, just good to know someone is cool enough to help. I really appreciate your help so far

What spares do you have?

 

Attached are some more pictures to help you out and a picture of all the spare parts I have. Since you have the heated seats it may be better to try and move all the buttons below as is. I contemplated doing this also. You would just have to

1. cut off the bottom portion of the console with the buttons in it
2. cut the same hole in the ash tray area to remount it
3. use a material the smooth out the countour

Just a thought.

Center Console How to.pdf
Spare Parts.JPG

 

Hi mtbikersd, thank you for all your help so far. I have been away to Canada for the past month hence the delay. I have actually decided not to go ahead with the work myself as such. I am too heavy handed and worry I will make more damage than good. I have removed everything from the dash except the a/c and vents. My old man has said he will be making a double din unit for me- it keeps him busy It will be made from wood but after a good paint job it should look really neat. He has all the parts now and is making it as we speak, now just the long wait for the new dash and of course shopping for a good 2 din