Installing HUD into non HUD vehicle.

Thanks that's very good of you

 

Excellent! I think that you may have set a new benchmark in how-to guides!

 

Some conventions must exist in a civilised world otherwise communication would be more complex than need be and we’d be getting lost all the time

 

So decided to do this with my VF2, followed Cam-ralph's guide and is working like factory. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on another crash pad so I didn't have to cut up the original unit in the car so made the swap a little easier. I also managed to get a couple of terminals from another fuse box to make up the loom for the HUD so I didn't need to cut any wiring up, so was able to re-pin the fuse box in the dash for power and illumination of the switch

 

The windscreen has a very thin interlaminated transparent foil on which the HUD is displayed, which is why it is visible in all lighting, including extremely bright outback light. The HUD is on all the time in my VF, while the main display on the instruments is set to economy scale.

 

^ During a pleasant country drive, few unfortunate owners will have their windscreens damaged by a passing truck throwing a rock
Luckily the owners will have a no excess windscreen claim available to call upon

Obviously they'd use a HUD windscreen making their HUD modification complete

PS: above is just a little sarcasm as i'm not advocating fraud. Likley it's something the insurance company would noticed when a HUD screen in used in a non HUD vehicle. Probably a mod the owners should notify their insurance company about.

Oh, the interlaminated layer is tapered around the hud area as i understand it as it supposedly helps to reduce double image in some way..

 

After looking at @Cam-ralph 's excellent step-by-step guide I'm so glad my Calais V came with HUD as standard...

 

Mmmmm, looks simple enough








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The HUD requires a lot of support and feed through instruments e.g. switching (HUD UP/DOWN (position), Paging, Brightness etc.). I imagine the cost and intensive work, together with the attendant risk of something not going quite right to plan, would be prohibitive against simply going out and buying a car with HUD as a standard feature! It is also self-defeating if you do not have the requisite windscreen to properly support the HUD -- it will likely be indistinct/fuzzed in its display.

Windscreens are no drama. Your insurer will know about the windscreen specifics, and the HUD's part in the bigger picture -- believe me, they know the models inside and out. I would not bother with the cost and effort of putting in a HUD in a vehicle that does not have the infrastructure in place; I reckon the insurer would most likely take a dim view of the idea too.

Windscreens are replaced same-for-same, not substituted. If the car has a HUD then the windscreen must be of the type that supports that. I certainly have full windscreen cover on my policy and have had that for years and years; without it, a replacement windscreen, for any car, can be a bugger-all unwanted expense when travelling (my last break was in November 2005; since then I've been around Australia 3 times (in my previous VZ) without mishap, save for the usual stone chips.

 

Cost wise for me to do this was under $250 and a close to 4.5 hrs of time. Last time I had to do a windscreen in a car under insurance was my wife's last year and had to inform them at the time the car had a rain sensor to make sure the correct 1 was fitted. Yes there is a slight doubling of the image from the HUD unit but in my eyes is very minor and in the week I've driven the car now I hardly notice it.

 

Initial part of my post was related to sudden increase in widscreen claims by a bunch of HUD retrofitters and intended to be a little sacrastic. I've updated the post with bold just to highlight such.

As for the effort and cost, well people buy what they can afford at the time. Later, picking up parts from a written off vehicle isn't costly and many enjoy such little car projects. Some also feel staying with teh car they know is better than selling and buying something with an unknown quality about it (just for a simple to add feature).

I do think it's an interesting little weekend project (if you are well organised) and well worth the effort for the tinkerers amougst us. Something best topped off by replacing the widscreen with a HUD variant. Just be sure to keep all receipts and let your insurer know of the mod (no reason for them to frown upon it). Then if/when you have a smashed windscreen, your insurer will replace it with the appropriate HUD variant without dramas.

 

...and a bonus that by 2016 even the humble SV6 (black editions initially & then eventually all SV6s) scored it as well.

 

Oops wrong car

 

Eugh-! Looks like a Mafia hit-job...

 

You are a legend! THANK YOU!