Hello guys,
I thought I had to share this part of my audio upgrade (never finished…)
So after my leather dashboard few months ago, I found out a carbon set on ebay.
Not very good condition but I wanted to try the color combo.
And I was surprise how I liked it, more than I expected, except that I had to deal with the GPS hole since I've made the three gauges conversion before.
On my 8 I decided to upgrade to garmin GPS, worked pretty well.
But I always thought a phone could be really cool here, for full map access/music/etc, but at that time size was an issue.
I tried an ipad mini for a while, but it really looked odd.

Then the iphone 6 went out!
The 6 width matched the hole height.
The 6+ is even better since its display is exactly the hole size.
But then it meant to be fixed behind the panel, and stay in the car… I wanted to use it as my phone so I kept only the 6 for easy swap.
After few research I found this: soundmanca
I originally wanted to replicate it with fiberglass myself, even bought a dummy, but well I didn't want to loose time and these guys did it right.
So I just ordered one, it's not cheap but it's also almost ready to go.




It's just cut & glued behind the panel, covered in suede, cable under the console to the armrest for power and connection to my amps, so really easy for everyday. I just have this pic now where it's in, but it's super easy to plug/unplug, 2 sec only!
The 6 is kind of big for a phone, but it is so cool to have this perfect UI for everything in the car.
I use actually leechtunes to play music, fully customizable app that uses 1/2/3 finger taps/swipes for all options.
So you don't even need to look at the screen!

This install is not finished yet, for now I'm still playing w/ different DAC.
I'll also have to fill the side holes, probably with a broken GPS unit to keep it clean and OEM, or maybe a custom passive preamp/knob instead of the bulky remote here (anybody with a spare?).

Cheers!

 

Haha ok big success here

Well, anybody with a broken gps display for sale?
I know it's rare...

 

Just one pic without the phone, not sure I was clear enough:



The principle here:




And slide left to plug it.
Still some work to do, this was more to get the feeling before spending more time.
I just found an old GPS display so I'll update later.
The idea: cut & adapt the two button modules of the unit to fill the holes, maybe replace the 4way joystick with a volume knob from a basic pre amp but not sure at all.
So iphone in dash > lightning to glovebox > istreamer DAC (for now) > USB power in glovebox & RCA out back in the dash to preamp > RCA through console to the trunk.
If anybody shows interest I could post few things about my system in the trunk.

 

A little update on this, finally got a display unit for cheap.
Took out the internals, placed iphone slide case instead, installed a preamp knob, etc as I planned.
I'm surprised it worked!
Look much nicer than before, but I may go for a black knob later, or maybe the same than the headunit if I can find one.

 

That's a great solution, but you have to get rid of that silver knob that looks like it came off an electric cooker.

 

Haha yeah, and paint the "push-enter" behind.
But it's a nice feeling with its weight and grip.
Just checked used radio on eBay for the knob, about $100!
Anybody with a broken one?