Head Until In A VT Berlina

[f1ferrari]

Hi All

Firstly let me say what a great site this is and the help provided by all of you is invaluable to people who want to do things themselves. Which leads me to why I am posting.

I have a VT II Berlina and bought a Pioneer DEH-P5750MP and want to install it. Now everything has been done from the splits in the front doors to the 6x9's on the parcel shelf to the cross overs and amps in the boot (as well as the bass canon).

Now my problem is that I cannot get the Pioneer cradle to fit in the hole left in the dash once I removed the Eurovox H/U. It seems to me that the cradle is about a couple of mills wider than the metal "cage" in the VT.

Now I know that I could take that "cage" out and either replace it with the Pioneer cradle or screw the H/U directly to the "cage" but that would mean pulling most of my dash apart which is not what I want to do.

Does anyone here have any suggestions on how to use the Pioneer cradle with the existing "cage" without pulling my dash apart? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Phillip

PS: To make things a little clearer I have included pic's below of what I am try to say above so hopefully that will clear things up a little :yeah:

 

[dephilile]

hi PHILLIP!!! i'm a phil as well

put the pioneer head unit in the cradle that it came with and push the whole thing into the space in your dash. you will probably have to push it in half way down the cage and then once it's all the way in push it up.

i also have that flexing you see in the pioneer head unit cage in my car. are you just looking for a friction fit or did you actually want to screw it in? i just went for a friction fit but some people go to the effort of screwing it in. i believe this requires the removal of all the plastic around the head unit.

hope this helps, i can email you some pictures of mine if you are having trouble workin out what i'm on about


phil

 

[f1ferrari]

Hi Phil

I would prefer for the proper scrrew in sceurity but if I have to I would consider the friction mount as well.

Pic's of yours would be great so that I can see how it comes out. And thanks heaps for your suggestions....

Phillip

:w00t:

 

[StoneX]

People usually get a hammer and gently knock the sides of the stock "cage" out a little bit, others just force the new head unit and cradle in... Both work. I've seen motorised units come in for repair because they've been squashed from the sides in a VT/X install though. 5750 isn't motorised, so you don't have to worry much.

You other option, which is what I stupidly did, is to dismantle the dash, drill the sides of the stock "cage" then screw the head unit into that, then put the dash back together.... Getting the holes in the right spot so that the head unit sits flush with the dash is a prick of a job, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[f1ferrari]

People usually get a hammer and gently knock the sides of the stock "cage" out a little bit

Yeah, that is what I thought to do but before I got the hammer out I thought I would ask here to see if there was any other suggestions.

Your other option, which is what I stupidly did, is to dismantle the dash, drill the sides of the stock "cage" then screw the head unit into that, then put the dash back together.... Getting the holes in the right spot so that the head unit sits flush with the dash is a prick of a job, I wouldn't recommend it.

I thought of doing this but just do not want to pull half my dash apart and I could just imagine what a prick of a job it would be lining up the H/U to be flush.

Thanks for this, feedback "StoneX", its much appreciated. Does any one else have other suggestions as I'll be doing this on the weekend I have time to see what others have done.

 

[Muttley]

Same car, same stereo. Jaycar splits, Pioneer 6x9s (but no sub or amp). Very happy with result. Plenty enough bass for me.

As for the head unit prob, I ended up pulling the dash apart and screwing the HU directly into the mount. It's not trivial and lining it up is tricky. You have to remember to make allowance for the little plastic surround to go on once the dash is back in place. If you mount it in the top, then the thingy sticking out the back goes into the hole at the back so it is just a matter of getting it out the right distance and the front vertically right. Only need 1 screw each side as the back is held in the hole.

At least now it is in there, I am confident it cannot be stolen in a hurry.

For pockets to fill the other hole, I ended up getting a genuine Holden pocket (if in QLD Autobarn in Moss St sell them). I found the cheap ones didn't really sit very well. The genuine ones are a bit wider and I screwed it into the bracket as well. One screw either side from the inside of the pocket. Everything nice and tight. No rattles.

Good luck with the job.

BTW, I still haven't got my power antenna working. Tried all combinations I could find based on the wiring charts and info here. Given up for the moment, but keen to hear if you have any problems. PM me if you like. I used a wiring harness adapter plug to make the wiring easy with a bit of re-routing in and out to accomodate new speakers and splits.

cheers

 

[genIIIbandit]

yep, would have to agree with Muttley, much better fit if u take time to screw the cage in. Its a bit of stuffing around but worth it in the end. I put a coin tray from a mazda 626 1995 model in the gap under the head unit, fitted spot on, got it from wreckers for $5. looks like u got a sick ride from the thumb photo, so go the extra mile, good luck

 

[dephilile]

This isn’t really directed at "f1ferrari" as he has amps already, but if you do screw it in and are just powering the speakers from the head unit I’d advise you to get some RCA’s (1.5m will do) and plug them into the back of the head unit and tuck them away somewhere so that if you do decide to amp up your system in the future you do not have to pull the whole dash apart again to connect the RCA's.

 

[StoneX]

After screwing the head unit in, I think it's a bad idea... If you ever need to change anything or fault find, you need to totally dismantle the dash again. If someone breaks in and cant pull it out of the dash, they usually just smash it out of frustration anyway. Might aswell let your company insurance do their job and replace your stolen items.

Power antenna is simple... It has 3 wires, one is on, one is up, one is down. Set the antenna to full extension before changing head units, then just hook up the ON wire to the head unit's power antenna wire. If you still want up and down controls you will need to get a 3 way switch and wire them to 12v (i think, you'll need to check the circuit diagram).

 

[Tasmaniak]

lol, I challenge anyone to get the HU out in a hurry with oinly the friction fit.

Most theives will give it a pull find it won't move and move on. Not realising that it simply really needs a good pull.

-EDIT- I was in the same mode as StoneX for about 2 years before I realised that there was no harm in just forcing it into the hole.

No point in wasting time with anything else.