HU; Installing in dash

I have seen many people mount their head unit in the slot where the heater controls are at on the dash. Does anyone have theirs mounted there? I need to know what it takes to do it!

Doing this soon myself. All i've read is that there is a metal bracket in the back that needs cut out, the front needs trimmed, and you may have to cut/bend otherwise move an air duct up a little. Good luck!

Done it....no totally complete as there is some more duct moving needed, but it's mounted and I love it...as far as access to it now.

Prepare to spend some time getting all the metal cut out of the way...don't use a rechargable sawz all And get a heat gun for moving the duct up some.

YEAH, THE PERSON THAT HAD MY REG.CAB BEFORE ME, CUT THE DUCT WORK, NOW MY AIR AND HEAT BLOW WHERE EVER IT WANTS. THANK GOD I HAVE ANOTHER HEATER BOX AND MORE DUCT WORK

I figured you guys would say something about the ducts. Would it be possible to just cut the bracket and the front trim piece and mount it in with a spacing kit so I don't have to cut or move the duct? If any of you can actually go into great detail on how to do this, I think it would serve two purposes:

1. I can get my HU in the dash without taking it to a car stereo place
and
2. it can be posted as a techie for other mini truckers?

I think its worthy, and it can only add to more customizing of our trucks!

I'm doing this soon myself. All I have to say is our wiring goes down on the right side in there so be careful when your cutting the metal brackets out that you don't slip and cut em off or you won't have any stereo . Basically all you do is measure the depth of your unit and measure from the top of the cluster (angle a bit) and see how much your going to have to move the duct back/up. Should be too hard just more or less time consuming to get it right. The brackets looks pretty easy to cut, but I wanna make sure nothing else is going to fall off when I cut it .

Good luck.

Dale

Hmmm, okay. Well what tools will I need? Just a sawzall? (electric)

How could I "lock" the HU's basket into the dash? Don't want any thiefs getting away with it by ripping on it!

And how do I "move" the ducts? It has to involve securing it down to its new location somehow, right?

Well, if you get this done before me, you should post up some pics of it and/or PM me!

heres a pic of the head unit installed in my dash, you def need to cut out some of the metal support brackets, and if you plan on keeping your heater, heat up and move the heater duct, im sure with some time and effort you can fabricate a mounting bracket deep enough that you wont have to cut that stuff out, if you are ok with your radio sticking 3" out of your dash, just do it the right way and hack the shit out of it lol, and like someone else said be careful you dont cut any wires, there are a lot of them in that area



and heres a pic of the new housing, still in the same spot, just smoothed the whole panel with fiberglass, mounted my guages, removed the heater and wrapped it in tweed will have installed pics soon when i get the truck back together to sell it

Hmmm, what do you mean by heating up the duct and moving it? Like take a torch to it until its flexible and hold it in position until it cools?

3" huh, haha, okay, thats not gonna work.

Okay, so on the front panel, how do I hack out that lip of plastic?

Do I need to take the dash out to cut these piece or how do I cut these things to make it fit right?

heres mine...hertz i ripped my dash apart for you, you owe me haha
://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c275/bfannin/MVC-023F.://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c275/bfannin/MVC-025F.