Old Display Setup

The original TFT LCD that I had in my first setup was certainly a cheap solution, but it was not very usable; doing anything that couldn't be done with my IR remote almost invariably meant I had to pull over. What I have now is a Xenarc/GAIN 7" widescreen VGA display with USB touchscreen, mounted in the center console in place of the original cubby/cupholders. This turns out to be a nice spot for the screen; from the driver's seat, the shift knob doesn't obstruct the view of the screen in any gear. One minor note, the color of the section the screen is molded into is not quite as different from the rest of the console as it appears in the picture. It's noticeable, but nowhere near to the bright off-white the camera flash makes it look.

I have also added an anti-glare film to the touchscreen, to help a bit with readability during the day.

The Making Of...

Once I was sure that the display was everything I wanted it to be, I finally started working on getting it permanently installed in the dash. I used a method popularized on the mp3car.com forums, referred to as "ABS sludge". Essentially, you take ABS plastic, dissolve it in acetone, and you get a runny plastic goop that you can squirt where you need it, like glue or body filler, and then you let it dry and it leaves you with ABS plastic again. Well, it leaves you with some less-than perfect ABS plastic, it ends up with small bubbles all through it and it's not quite as strong, but it's still a good process.

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I took a bunch of plastic cases from these old mac floppy drives I had in the basement, and using a drill press and a big bit, made a lot of plastic shavings, which dissolve easier. I put them in a squeeze bottle with acetone to make and dispense the sludge. A squeeze bottle like you'd get for condiments would have been better, but the store I went to didn't carry any so I just went with a dish detergent bottle.

Next, I had to chop up the console to make room for the screen. Then I dismantled the screen so I was only working with the front part of the shell, and tacked it in place with some epoxy, and started applying ABS sludge all around it. I used a piece of flat plastic to cover the large gap at the bottom so I didnt' have to fill it with huge amounts of sludge.

Then I applied some more sludge...

After applying all that sludge, I had to do quite a bit of sanding. Not only did the applied ABS have to be sanded smooth, I also had to sand off all the texture of that section of the console, so the entire area was uniformly smooth for painting. Sanding the console was very tedious.

There it is after a lot of sanding. Now, due to the bubbles and any pits or other imperfections in the ABS application, I had to use bondo on a lot of it to get it all smooth. This was a many-staged process... After sanding as shown above, I applied bondo to any parts of it that looked like they needed it. Then I sanded it down, and did some more touchup with bondo. Then I put down a coat of primer, so that any remaining imperfections could be seen easily.

At that point it wasn't looking bad, but I still had a lot of work to do to it. I ended up doing two more minor applications of bondo, sanding again, doing another coat of primer, lots more sanding, and then a final coat of primer. Then I painted it with a textured paint that was tan in color... It wasn't a great match for my dash, but it was as close as I could find locally, and I didn't really mind that much; I think it looks okay, and if it really bothers me once I've had it installed for a while, I'll take it out and paint it black instead, because black goes with anything.

There are two problems with this installation. First off, my center console is made of polypropylene (PP), and nothing really bonds to it properly. The ABS does not actually stick to it at all. The whole thing is sort of sandwiched by ABS around the edges, and for the most part it works. However, at the two bottom corners of the screen frame where it meets the console, there are cracks, as the console material separates from it when the sides of the console are flexed outward. Unfortunately, this flexing is unavoidable and has to be done to install the console... So for the time being, I am stuck with two small cracks. I have chosen to just live with them, because the kinds of special-purpose adhesive that can bond the materials properly cost a lot of money, and I don't feel it's worth it for these minor cracks.

Second, the ABS sludge shrinks when it hardens. This caused the bottom side of the screen shell to be pulled outward as the plastic dried, giving it a bit of an arc. The front and back of the shell still fit together alright, but there is a gap between the frame and the LCD/touchscreen glass, which is wider in the center. Although that could easily cause dirt and dust to accumulate in the bottom of the screen case, I am not that worried about it yet, and if it becomes a problem I will try shaving down a narrow strip of plastic or foam to fill the gap.

Since the original connector system is pretty poor, and mine's mostly broken anyway, I decided to solder on a VGA connector of my own which will work better for my situation. I followed the pinouts given in a thread on the MP3car forums, after verifying them with a multimeter.

I am powering the screen off the switched 12v (ACC) line from the ignition for the time being. I do not expect the screen to be too heavy a load for that line, and I am hoping that the screen's power supply will be good enough to maintain a clear picture with the unregulated input voltage, but if that becomes an issue I will either add a point-of-load regulator or run yet another wire and power it from the 12v line of the computer's power supply.

Anti-Glare Film

Before I had actually gotten the newly fabbed console/LCD into the car, I found this thread on the mp3car forums talking about anti-glare coatings. I ordered this anti-glare film linked there; although I hadn't yet experienced glare issues, I expected them, and the film seemed very affordable for what it would accomplish. I ordered a half-sheet, twice as big as I needed to cover my screen, because of their minimum order amount, but it turned out to be a good thing that I did.

Installing the film is not very much fun. The instructions they give are good, except they can't quite convey how careful you have to be about dust or lint or anything getting on the film while you try to apply it to the screen. If you get even a speck of dust on the screen while you apply the film, it ends up with a little bubble and it sticks out like a sore thumb. The main thing I missed seeing in the instructions was what to do if something DID get stuck to the film. I made the mistake of trying to use the lint-free cloth they gave me to remove it, but the film pulled all sorts of lint off of it. They say you can simply rinse off the film with water if you get stuff on it, but that you need to squeegee it after if you use tap water. Well, the water didnt do anything to take off the very fine lint from the cloth, nor did I have any good squeegees, so I ended up with blue fuzz as well as big, ugly water spots all over the film. Luckily I had enough to try again, so I threw the first piece away.

The second time, I did it on an empty desk that I first wiped the dust off of, with the screen sitting on a clean cloth, and I wore latex gloves and made sure not to lean over the screen for any reason, so I wouldn't drop hair/etc onto it. I cleaned the screen VERY thoroughly with windex and just generally took my time applying the film. I did end up with a speck of dust under it, but this time instead of the cloth I used the edge of a (clean) credit card to carefully remove it from the bottom of the film, and it worked fine, no residue or damage. And, it all came out fine. Even with my initial screw-up, I still only spent a little over $10 on it, so I don't regret it at all.