Cutting Dash For CD Player???

[bgbchevy]

I got a weird idea here. Is there any way you could rig up a "trap door: system to install a custom cd player. What I was thinking was taking an ashtray and removing its inner ash bin. Then you could make what was the front part of the ashtray, into a hinged door that would hide a cd player. I believe the opening is abot 1 1/2(+/-) inches larger than a cd.

Does anyone know of a way this could be done useing current products that are on the market????

What do yall think???

ok ... futher devoloping the thought... Could you use one of Custom Autosound's Correct fit CD Controllers to operate a seprate Single CD player (is there such a thing)?

[Stano]

I hacked my dash and didn't even put my stereo in there. Actually I cut mine for a billet guage pod my buddy made for me and since I shaved my heater I put my detachable face Alpine in the heater control hole and made a couple rubber gaskets on each side to save the heater control hole in case I ever decide to put it back in. And I could always put another radio hole back in cause I am body man. I also have a A/C dash I could swap over too so I am not worried about a little chopin. Anything can be fixed.

[too many]

Ive been thinking about a CD in my next project. (A 67 4x4) . I personally dont like the looks of any of the "replacement radios" Ive seen . They should have designed the faces of them to look closer to original style.
Has anyone ever mounted an aftermarket radio /cd under the dash , and used a repo. tissue dispenser for the cover? The dispensers were common in a lot of 60s cars as a dealer installed option. They mounted to the bottom of the dash and hinged sideways to put a box of tissues in it. One may have to modify it to make it tip down for convience?

ANY BRAIN STORMS ON THIS???

[Longhorn Man]

I've seen that tissue thing done...wish i woulda taken notes though.

[StingRay]

Let me see we have members hacking up frames, filling door handles or upgrading to new stuff, frenching antenna's, hacking off rocker panels so they can go lower, adding fuel filler doors for rear mounted tanks and then welding the old hole shut, hacking up firewalls to convert them to a/c, filling fire walls, chopping tops, filling tailgates and relocating handles, etc, etc. Cut it if you want to(Now if it was a super rare optioned truck I would have reconsider that remark).Dremel tools are great, air hack saws are neat, tin snips have their place and a nibbler might be good as well. I use them all. The Dremel is a sure thing with the least potential for damage. Measure twice and cut once. And like it's been said it's easier to make the hole bigger than it is to make it smaller. If you change your mind later it can be fixed with a welder or a replacement dash can be grafted in complete once the windshield is out. Not cheap or fast though!

I don't regret it for a second.

[Pont]

Here's a pic of the tool I used to open my dash for my CD player. Works slick...............

[Pont]

and a close up of the cutting head.

[Low68]

Thanks Pont.

Hey next time someone post a topic like this let just post a link to the 20 other ones that are already on the board. It would save time and he would get all the same responses. Just an idea.

[XXL]

Originally posted by Pont
Here's a pic of the tool I used to open my dash for my CD player. Works slick...............

Argh argh argh... I use the Binford 8000...



It makes short work out of metal. Problem #1-- it's expensive (especially compared to Pont's Scrap Shack tool), and problem #2-- the little crescent shaped pieces it creates are downright deadly.

BTW, if you decide to go with a nibbler of any sort, get an old speaker magnet and wrap it in some plastic grocery bags. You can clean up real fast this way. When you're done, just reverse the plastic bags and pull them away from the magnet.

Kenneth

[stknrdr2]

I cut mine, using a sawzall and a very fine blade, very carefully.

Now, heres my .02 on the whole to cut or not to cut thing (as if anyone cares). I cut mine, and I did it because this truck was my dads when it was new, and I drug it out of a field to restore it out of nostalgia. It was something I always wanted to do.
This was a family-farm truck for many years, and needless to say there wasnt much left, the only original piece on that truck right now is the frame, one door (miraculously enough) the transfercase and tranny (which are on thier way out) the steering column and other odds and ends. I didnt build this truck to be a number matching piece of perfection that i would one day sell for tens of thousands of dollars, I built it for me, and to pass on to my kids, and to continue to enjoy the truck I learned to drive in. The original am-fm radio was shot, as was the speaker. Believe me, cutting my dash only enhanced the value of my truck, because the only person to whom it is valuable is me. Its a $10,000 truck with or without the cut dash - and I like the fine new rockford fosgate stereo that lives there now.

On the other hand, I am going to one of these days restore an all original numbers matcher exactly to factory specs, just for the fun of it......and I wouldnt cut that one in a million years. I wouldnt lift it either, or change gear ratios, or inject it or or or.........

[barn9]

CUSTOM AUTOSOUND makes stereos to fit our trucks without mutilation of the dash. I have one of theirs with AM/FM cassette, digital clock, station memory, etc., and CD is available also. I also have factory air, and the stereo fit and installed with no problems. It has the bowtie emblazened on the trim, and looks as if it came in the truck, I love it! IMO, it looks much better than some of the ricer-lookin' things I've seen sticking out of hacked up dashes, and I mean MUCH BETTER!!
I'm not picking on anyone here guys, this is just a pet peeve of mine.

[O'l Buck]

I used my air cut off tool to cut my dash in the old cab, then I did this for the "new" cab......getting tired of it though, thinking about doing surgury on the dash again.