Building Navman Into The Dash

[Astro Bear]

As above, has anyone tried to build in a Navman into the dash of their line?

I'm curious to know if it can be done. Would look good to see it built in, giving the impression it is a 'stock' feature.

[BIT SUS]

As above, has anyone tried to build in a Navman into the dash of their line?

I'm curious to know if it can be done. Would look good to see it built in, giving the impression it is a 'stock' feature.

Navmans don't like being enclosed in anything. The LCD screens get too warm, from being in the sun too long, or not being able to "breathe", and the matrix touch-screens and the internal battery start having a hissy fit.

The other issue you would encounter is, there will be limited GPS signal strength when the Navman is mounted out of LOS (line of sight). External antennas are available, but are unsightly and expensive.

IMHO, its not worth the hassle.

Nigel.

[proRB88]

sup brothern

One of my mates built a Navman into the dash of his R33 GTS-T...well more like the ashtray, fit really snug in there and didnt look half bad, me personally i like the custom look more. I have built already 2 cars with enclosed portable GPS units, one with a TOM TOM, and the most resent is a Garmin, fiberglassed into the A-piller, and they have worked fine. Here is what it can look like.

My 2 cents: unless you can do it yourself don't worry about it coz any custom fabricator will charge an arm and a leg, so much checking that everything lines up and works with everything else, then re-checking, and glassing, and bogging, and sanding, that the man hrs get ridicules,

But anyway here are some photos of the 2 I have built let me know what you think, I hope this helps with your question!

P.S.

If it is in the dash you might have to go to Dicksmith or tandy and but a external antenna for the GPS so it can pick up on satellites, key word is might, some have enough power to pick them up through a dash.

regards,

Vlad

Edited January 18, 2010 by proRB88

[Craig SLO33]

sup brothern

One of my mates built a Navman into the dash of his R33 GTS-T...well more like the ashtray, fit really snug in there and didnt look half bad, me personally i like the custom look more. I have built already 2 cars with enclosed portable GPS units, one with a TOM TOM, and the most resent is a Garmin, fiberglassed into the A-piller, and they have worked fine. Here is what it can look like.

My 2 cents: unless you can do it yourself don't worry about it coz any custom fabricator will charge an arm and a leg, so much checking that everything lines up and works with everything else, then re-checking, and glassing, and bogging, and sanding, that the man hrs get ridicules,

But anyway here are some photos of the 2 I have built let me know what you think, I hope this helps with your question!

P.S.

If it is in the dash you might have to go to Dicksmith or tandy and but a external antenna for the GPS so it can pick up on satellites, key word is might, some have enough power to pick them up through a dash.

regards,

Vlad

hey mate that looks really good,.Im pretty sure in W.A that would be a defect issue,,looks gd but,nice job,,,

[proRB88]

hey mate that looks really good,.Im pretty sure in W.A that would be a defect issue,,looks gd but,nice job,,,

I dont know if it is a Defect on the gold Coast but if it is its easily un-bolted

thanx for the feed back

[shanusr33]

the nav unit i'll be installing next should look pretty stock as it'll be on the 7inch screen on the head unit of the audio system.

the poineers have a fairly new system that on start up allows you to select on the touch screen 3 options, navigation/multimedia/phone all built in.

my alternative, is use my 7inch screen i have, and alpine (probably others as well but the rest of my system's alpine so i'll stick with them) sells the bluetooth kit to match up, but they also sell the nav set up too. It plugs into the back of your head unit, and the portable system can be hidden away permanently behind dash, or in the glove box. i'm putting it in the glove box because when you unplug it from the portable unit it will go into my daily car. when you plug it in, it charges itself, and the screen on the unit in the glove box goes black and the signal throws to your head unit. hope that makes sense.

look around, if you have the dollars consider upgrading to any number of incredible units on offer atm, i think this will be the way to go moving forward.

[getyayayaout]

i work for a major electrical retailer and i see far too many of the gps units fail to have the confidence to fabricate one into your car. and you'll get bored with it..

[Sean W]

yeah i did this around christmas last year! I bought a navman c60. Didnt get it as good as id like but imo looks quite good, need to finish it up soon.

I took out the ashtray and cigarette lighter completely and cut the panel so the hole left by ashtray was now centred and to a rectangle larger then the unit. Then i used sections of foam to make a kind of outline in 3d of where i wanted the unit. I stuck these together with silicon / sikaflex kind of stuff as it quite quick to dry but also gives some vibration absorbance to the backing of it. Layered body filler in stages and lots of time with a mini rotary tool sanding. Sprayed black. Matte black in a can is quite simialr colour to r33 dash imo. Took the power supply for the GPS and wired it to 12v accessories off the back of the cd player and earthed it with a spade clip and a bolt on the metal of body just there. Tip here is solder the wires to the two terminals of the cigarette lighter power supply plug that came with the navman instead of hacking up wiring. The unit will then be charging whenever key is acc or on. Then drilled a hole in bottom of the panel and pushed the power plug through, plug in gps to its new home and voila. Car is at the mechanics atm but i should be going in the next few days and can take pics if youd like. I encased half the depth of the unit, and at a slight angle, so 3/4 of the thickness of the unit is in the dash at the bottom but only half the thickness at the top, so the on/off/reset switch at the top of the unit is still reachable when the unit is in the dash.

-Gps signal is fine

- regarding heat i shaped the enclosure so the unit has a few mm behind it and vents at the side. this also allows you to hear the speech from the speaker in the back of the unit.

- gear stick covers maybe bottom left 20% of the screen when in 5th.

- if you dont havea mini rotary tool, buy one. 25 bucks from bunnings. I still stuffed around for about 10-12 hours doing this and thats with a rotary tool.

- i use bog instead of fibreglass for ease of use when needing to sand and reshape, price, availability and my skill level (very low with fibreglass, slightly better with filler)

Sorry for the long winded post but hope it gives you an idea! jsut have a go and do it, its a cheap panel to replace from a wrecked car if youre not happy in the end..

[Sean W]