Just finished today's project before I went out on the town with the G/F. After seing some dash installs on ProSport's site with a single DIN sized radio coupled with some guages on the 2nd DIN space I was inspired to go ahead with this little project. Originally I just wanted to mount these guages but seing the pics and having my Kenwood MP-928 HU laying around I decided to purchase the Metra Kit with wiring harness from Crutchfield and take a swing at this custom install.

The radio fit perfectly on the lower side with the Double Din ISO mounts included with the kit (I didn't use the DIN bracket that usually just clips on, I bolted the radio to the brackets included with the kit with no problems). I purchased a piece of black textured acrylic to cover up the top DIN space and use it to mount the guages (wich are 52mm btw). The double din sized trim piece included with the kit was used. I had to trim the kit at the top, past the trim piece and into the base itself, to make space for the top of the guage pod's curve, basically a little patience, an artistic touch with the dremel and some Contact Cement and you get this:





These are just preliminary pics for the FitFreakers with my crapy celphone camera after I got home a few minutes ago.

I gotta clean my car tomorrow and I'll take better pics with my Nikon D50. I also have to detach the guages and rotate the pods around to perfect the angle they face and their orientation, its still a bit off. The visibility of the guages in this position is PERFECT and I think it looks a million times better than having random pods bolted to the top of the dash.

 

Wow! Nice job. I'm looking forward to the new photos, and agree with you that the gauges and your placement look much better than pods stuck on top of the dash.

 

Looks pretty clean.

On a side note, pods on a dash don't look bad at all if u take the time 2 make it a clean install. check out minez. same prosport gauges:

 

Great job looks awesome. I love that clean look. SWEET.


GD3blaze07'

 

niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

Love the idea, just think it would look cleaner with smaller gauges

 

Actually those are 52mm. Don't know if there are smaller guages but they would be pretty hard to read, these you kind of have to focus on them a bit to read them.

In all reality if I hadn't used the angle elbows you could fit 3 guages with less modifications than this required.

 

is the guages mounted in a pod panel or is it just a custom install in some plastic?

 

where can i get the metra dash kit... ive been looking all over ( maybe the wrong places) still cant find it... and by the way that look neat +1

 

I got the Metra Kit at Crutchfield: Car Audio, Home Theater, Speakers, Home Electronics Just select your car in their car selector, add any of the headunits offered that fit and you'll see the metra kit added on the shopping cart. Just open it in a new window, empty the cart and add the mounting kit alone. I bought it along with the wiring harness and antenna adapter. About $80 with shipping for everything. If you buy a headunit they offer the metra kit for $25 instead of $50.

The guages were mounted on a custom cut plastic sheet with the little elbow pods that the guages include and some contact cement. You can get a sheet of this plastic at any major sound center, crutchfield also sells some of this stuff. Just meassure twice, cut once with the radio moked up in the kit.

 

i know this thread is old, but i didnt feel like starting a new one...
is the kit on crutchfield a true metra kit? i thought they went for over a hundred bucks. i got a "good offer" on a metra kit and was thinking of doing a GB til i saw that price... whats the deal?

 

hey im pretty sure crutchfield's are NOT metra-
but ive purchased 7 different orders from them- 6 were headunits lol
i havent had a problem with anything from them

 

Yes, it is the Metra kit. It said so on the little panflet the kit included when I purchased mine. Perfect color match and everything. Good quality.

 

Is there room to fit 3 gauges, or is it not a true double din? I have a 3 gauge panel made for a dbl din but it dousn't look much bigger than this one... what size gauges are you using?

 

Yes you CAN fit 3 guages in this kit with less modification than I did if you lay them flat against the face of the kit. With the angled elbows I used (wich were included with these guages) I could only fit 2 of them and I had to trim the top part of the bezel because the pods are actually larger than the guages themselves.

These are 52mm guages btw...

 

Okay cool. So if i got a metra, i could fit a single din head unit and 3 52mm gauges w/o any other modification, yes? sweeet! Im getting boost, A/F, and oil pressure Cobalt Autometers next week

 

where did you get that piece of plastic to fit the guages on

 

I got the piece of plastic from my local car audio store. Its regular ol' textured black plastic and I trimmed it with a dremel.

 

Did you get those pics yet?