7 inch Double Din (chinese brand) install write-up with DIY bezel modification

[hmr1979]

This is a short write up for a cheap no-name Chinese brand aftermarket double din radio/gps/dvd swap. This is specifically for a 7 inch flip down screen. This application would apply for all 2006 to 2008 with premium sound (non-infinity speakers [platinum edition] but mp3 player with 6 disc changer and amplified subwoofer). 2009 and up would be different with a different bezel with different aftermarket parts I would assume.

These 7 inch double dins will not fit (plug and play) with the aftermarket Metra 95-7320 double din bezel kit for our Sonatas. The height the screen is bigger than the opening on the Metra. The 6.2 inch screens often found on Keenwood, Pioneer etc, however, will fit just perfectly. Hence you will need to do modification on the double din bezel. You will need to shave off about 1/8 inch from the bottom horizontal piece.I chose bottom because that's the least noticeable view. I went on to attach the metra kit and the two oem trim pieces (hazard light button trim + passenger seatbelt light trim). I used plastic weld to fill in the separation/slit, sanded it and painted the pieces to make it appear as one flush trim. **Because of this modification, the placement of the metra kit (where the plastic screws in the dvd player itself) has to be altered obviously as the final trim pieces is molded into one solid trim.** I will show how I did that.

Because I am using a few pics, I have decided to divide this into sections in chronological steps: Step 1: Oem Radio removal - Step 2: Aftermarket GPS antenna wiring placement - Rear view camera wiring to trunk. Step 3: Aftermarket unit wiring harness assembly with Scosche HY05B wiring harness - Unit fitment into Sonata double din housing - adjustment for gaps - and test unit for proper operation, for grounding noise. Step 4 (the most time consuming): Bezel modification; plastic weld, sand, and paint. Step 5: Re-assembly

This thread is NOT a review of this particular product. I have only had it for two months, and the bulk of the reason why name brands are way more expensive than these is because they use better components and simply... their last longer. Therefore, I can't comment on this unit's longevity as it is new. Features wise, I am very very pleased so far. I offered the ebay seller $180 and they accepted. It came with a free camera and free shipping from China. Some of the features that ultimately made me chose this particular one is because:
1. Back lit led screen ( hd screen - for double dins that is - I think 800*480)
2. Gps, rds radio,
3. Rear view camera input with reverse detection
4. ipod connection, SD slots for multimedia stuff, and USD input (up to 8 gb) - Does not take portable hard drive however on the USD port.
5. Most importantly, dual zone (so you can have multiple applications running at the same time (i.e. listen to radio while in gps function) as well as left/right independent outputs for backseat headrest for a later mod.

There are a million double dins on ebay, I simply had certain features that I wanted and chose this one based on that.

If this is something you are interested in purchasing, below is the link for the ebay item.

Car Double 2 DIN 7" Navigation GPS CD DVD Player Radio iPod Camera USB SD BT H01 | eBay

I am sure you are asking why 7 inch slide down panel when the 6.2's will fit with out any modifications. For me, it was a matter of personal preference on how clean the 7 inch panels looked in the end. I prefer the flat, knob-less design and I find it more symmetrical and cleaner. But this is just my opinion. It was more work, but I am pleased with the result.

STEP 1: OEM RADIO REMOVAL

Before you even do any of the steps below, you will please need to unplug the negative post of your battery under the hood. This way you don't short out anything during wire installation process.

Now, tools needed for step 1 are: Car audio trim removal kit ($7 from harbor freight). Many other major retailers will have these at around the same price. Just never use a metal flat screw driver by any means. If it's not angled tip and it is metal, you will leave a nice scratch or dent. For this step you will also need a short and regular size Philips head screw driver.


A) Loacte two screws when you open glove compartment; you will be looking towards the top of compartment. Take those two out with your philips head. A short one is better so you have room; if you don't simply squeeze the glove compartment sides and slide it all the way down as if you will be changing the cabin air filter.


Remove the long carbon figer trim. I used trim remover, placed the top lip of the trim remover behind as much as possible and I pulled towards me. The main one to get out is the far right first. That is held by a clip similar to the small white ones, but they are metal and do not fall off.


C) Start to pry off little by little uncliping each small tongue held by the white clips (some lay vertical some horizontal). Some will fall off, some will stay neatly at the hole which you can carefully pull off with a needle nose pliers.


I lost two in total. They will be tight, but if you are patient they will pop off. Do not just use your hands and just yank the whole thing off. I am sure it could break.


D) Once the long trim is off, loacte the two screws that holds the hazard button and passenger seatbelt light trim. Unscrew those two. The top part of these trim is held by a tongue with the same white clips. Hence, you will need to use trim remover and place it on in between the slit and pry it open. These came off easily during my experience.


E) Unclip hazard light assembly by the small harness (push clip and comes off) and then proceed to push the two clips in the picture below and finally push the entire assembly away from the panel. It may be a little hard, I had to really push hard. As long as the pins are pushed, you will be ok.


F) The passenger seatbelt light module simply unscrews from the back after you unplug its small wire harness.



G) Now all the screws are exposed that holds the oem radio in place. Take all 7 of them marked in picture. They are all Philips head. Later you will see you will not need to use every hole. Depending on your fitment; I only used two screws to secure new double din - I will later explain why. The oem radio will only have two things that needs unplugged in the back: 1. main wiring harness and 2. the radio antenna.

[hmr1979]

H) Once the radio is out, the next logical thing for me to do is run the wires for GPS antenna and prep the rear view camera video RCA cable and detection wire. I assume you can place the GPS wire where you want, but found the right hand corner of the dash to be the easiest.


I) Place the gps antenna module where you want it to be on the dash. They usually come with a flat surface so I used double-sided tape. Run the wires in between the crease with a trim remover, it's a tight fit but it fits and hides the wire nicely. Open the oval panel between door and glove compartment. Get a coat hanger and untwist it to make a straight line and attach the tip of the gps wire with a small tape to the coat hanger. Fish the wire from the hole marked with arrow on picture until you reach the back of double din housing. You can kneel with your door open and you will see where it will end up towards the back of the radio.


J) If you are doing rear view camera, now is the time to run your camera wire. I ran mine on this same side.Running the wire from front to trunk can be done in a couple of different ways and I won't dwell on it, but I simply ran mine from the glove compartment panel, fished it down to floor board. Pry the floor board (sonata sign on running board) off. This holds a bunch of wires. Place it in there and do the same for back door until you are back seat. Place with trim removal in between the seat until you reach inside trunk. You may fold it down for easy access and use your trim remover. I will leave instructions for either key hole camera mod or regular mount camera for another thread as I don't think a lot of users are actually using this.

[hmr1979]

Items needed for this steps are: 1. double din unit 2. HY05B wiring harness 3. optional soldering kit 4. electrical tape 5. optional cramp tools and heating tools if you are using cramp/heat sink connectors

Now you are ready to open your unit and start connecting wires from unit to the aftermarket HY05B harness. HY05B wiring harness is about 13 bucks on ebay. The double din came pretty well packaged from Fed Ex international. Unit seemed to be brand new with all the proper packaging, also came with a camera and all necessary wires for that.




Depending on your unit, wires will vary. But it's pretty straight forward when you match the HY05B wires with the double din's set of wires. Most are color coordinated, but some are not. You just have to read which one matches. Not all of the wires will be used depending on your application.

K) Now, simply solder, or twist/tape or use twist/butt plugs to attach the set of wires. They are usually in these clumps: 1) Power to battery/ yellows, grounds/black, illumination/orange usually (so the unit can dim when the headlights are on and so that the buttons can light up as well at night 2) Speaker outs - left and right for each of the four speakers - They are usually color coordinated with same color for each speaker but with a thin black or white line within the same color to differentiate the + and -. 3) Some will have a small set for steering wheel control (usually just two; a + and -). Mine was like this because it has that feature. I did not get a steering wheel control adapter though, that will be for another day. I am trying to see how much I like this unit first and see how long it lasts.

* Make sure the blue/white wire, which powers the stock amp, is connected to ACC wire. This way you will get sound and it only comes on when car is running. If not connected properly, you won't get any sound at all, or if put in the battery wire directly, you will drain it out as it will always be on even when car is not on*


Depending on your unit, you will have extra female cables to connect. What I used were 1) IPOD control 2) rear view camera input, and 3) camera detect cable; this allows the camera to mute the system and turn on camera when the car is in reverse. You attach the corresponding thin wire at the other end to the back up light's positive (orange /hot wire).

L) Once you have connected all the cables, you can place the unit inside the housing and connect the following: 1. Main oem wire harness to to the unit's harness (plug and play male to female now) 2. the GPS antenna that we fished through top of glove box (auto gps antennas usually screws in like a tv coaxial cable) and 3) radio antenna, you simply push this in (apparently there are more than one size for radio antennas, they have adapters all over, but ours is pretty standard so you shouldn't run into this issue. Mine fit. 4) If you have rear view camera and if you are using additional features - like rear outs for back seat head rest etc...you can connect these cables as well now. You can slide the unit in place when all these are done.

M) Ideally you want to test the unit now before you even think about re-assembling or even before securing the unit to the frame with the screws. Re-attach the battery cable back and turn on the car and see if everything works ok. If everything works as it should, then you can proceed. On my particular one, I tested Radio (rds function), CD. DVD, MP3 on SD, USB stick, GPS (I used my own software - Primo2 and it works flawlessly with this unit), Bluetooth pairing with your phone, Reverse camera detection and camera quality etc...All seemed to work just fine.

[hmr1979]

For this step you will need: 1) Pliers 2) Metra double din kit 3) Mounting screws for the brackets (double din package will have these)
From here on out comes minor modifications to the Metra trim kit and I had to stray away from conventional manner to mount the unit. As I mentioned before, 7 inch double dins are overall slightly taller than the 6.2 height. The outside perimeter of the screen is about 1/8 of an inch or more too big (top to bottom - left to right fit perfect). Ideally the entire bezel fits over the unit and are secured with screws... like in this drawing below.


But I am mounting the double din in a different way. So now what I have to do is simply find where to screw the mounting brackets and then shave off part of metra bracket. The goal is have to have the unit set in place but have the front panel be manually placed afterwards instead of it being attached to the brackets.

N) To find the correct spot to screw the mounting brackets, simply take out the double din and set both oem radio and new unit at the end of a table side by side and align where the ears of the brackets match. When you find this point, you can screw it in. And remember the mounting holes used on the new unit and as well as the placement of the bracket.

This picture below shows the original way to attach the bracket to the face plate.


The red line shows where I cut it. The bracket is still mounted to the actual unit, however, the face plate is no longer attached to the bracket like it's shown on the above picture. I cut it because I found out that after I modified the bezel, it started buckling and bending in some areas when I secured it with the screws at the side trim pieces. This is because when I shaved off parts of it, it was not as sturdy. This created uneven small gaps which were very tiny but it bothered me. So I bought another metra kit for 10 bucks and did a more precise cut on the bottom horizontal part.I also did this because it was the best possible way to adjust the gaps when I mount the face plate over the screen in the end process.

O) Cutting the bracket is easy and because no one will see it, you don't need to make a fancy straight cut. Simply cut it with sharp pliers, you can take chuncks out. Take little pieces at a time. Afterwards, you can screw the brackets to the unit as originally planned and you can slide the unit in. Do not secure anything yet with screws. Now you can put the face plate which is now modified and shaved off at the bottom. You can now see if there are any gaps, and because there will be some play that you can adjust right to left. You can properly adjust before you finally secure the unit with screws.

Here is a picture of the bracket cut and attached to unit.


Here is a picture when the unit is mounted and ready to be adjusted for gaps. It's trial and error; if you put the face plate on with the side trims and and close it and see if everything lines up with even gaps all the way around.

[hmr1979]

Tools needed for this step are: 1) JB Weld brand - Plastic weld putty ($5 at Home Depot) 2) Fine sander ($3 from Wal Mart) 3) Alcohol to rub on plastic to clean and degrease it before paint 5) Exacto knife or any fine cutting blade will do for hazard light painting step and 4) Paint (I chose Rostoleum hammered for multi surface - any would probably do fine as long as it bonds.

P) Shaving the metra kit is challenging because you want it to be a straight line. You can probably do this one of several ways, but I used a drummel kit and sanded it little by little as perfect as my hands could.

I used masking tape to guide me on a straight line. I measured and use masking tape (because it's straight) as my guide. I know not to shave off any lower then the tip of tape. It worked pretty well. Because the drummel has a small circular head the, corners were tricky. There is no way to make it a perfect 90 degrees so mine has a slight curved edge in the two bottom corners.

Q) Once you have shaved it properly, you can attach the two trim pieces (passenger seat belt and hazard light button). You may super glue these to fit it as straight as possible. As everyone knows, the trim pieces are dark grey and the metra kit is black; hence it's a big mismatch.

Note that this particular pic is just to show the color mis-match - this was before I shave the bottom part off.

Additionally I hate that you can see a big line where the trim pieces meet. So what I decided to do is fill it with plastic weld and sand to flat surface making it appear to be one solid piece. Take the JB weld putty and get the amount you need and mix it with your fingers like play-dough until it changed to a uniform grey color. It's originally blue in the can.


R) Apply the putty when it's finished mixing by your fingers. Fill the creases and smear it over each side. I wished i had smeared mine more. You can always sand it excess in the end. It's not easy to maneuver like play-dough so the directions said you can use a bit of water to make the consistently easier to work with.


S) The key/challenge is to sand the edges off so when you paint it where the edge of the weld will not be visible. In order to do this, you need to sand it off AS FLAT as possible. Also, the main instinct is put it just at the crease to fill the line, but this is wrong; the paint will uncover the line later. You want smear it over each side and then sand off excess




* I learned the hard way that Krylon specifically for plastic did not bond well to our trim pieces even after i sanded...not sure why. Rustoleum rust paint actually worked well. But I finally re-sanded everything and used hammered as it is the best paint to hide imperfection. This is my first paint job for this kind of project so it was ideal for me. *

T) After everything is sanded flat, clean panel with alcohol or de-greaser. Then you paint. I did a few coats an hour intervals as the bottle suggested.

I did about 3 coats and the particular paint I used said it was a primer as well so I didn't bother priming. You can probably fill the crease with a "primer/filler/" that is sandable, however I just really wanted to do the plastic weld. It didn't come out perfect, like most DIY mods, but I am very pleased with the result. Pics are misleading because it is a shiny paint so sometimes the light in my kitchen may put a reflection on the picture, but in real world, it actually looks very clean and uniform. There are some small tiny parts that could have been sanded better.


U) Optional Hazard Light Button Paint: You can leave the hazard light button as is really, but I decided to make it uniform. In order to paint that, you obviously have to mask off the triangle when you paint it. I used a clear scotch tape to mask it off. Use one edge of the tape so that you will only have to do two cuts instead of all three like the picture below. Cut along the edge and leave the triangle scotch piece in place.
I used clear tape so I could see where the line. Be very careful not scratch the piece, just cut the tape, not the surface of the button. It's a little difficult to get it perfectly straight. Matter of trial and error.


V) You can probably just paint over it, but I prepped the surface by actually shaving all the paint off like in the picture below.


W) Paint the button after you properly mask it off

[hmr1979]

The hazard light button is currently drying at the moment and I cannot handle it (as I will need to push it hard back in the panel, I don't want to scratch). I will take high res pics tomorrow when it's day light / bezel mounted over double din and final product. Currently I still have the protective film cover over the screen, in case you're wondering why it looks like that lol

[NUMBER NYC]

Amazing Work. Your ride is looking great

[AGW]

Very impressive.

[hmr1979]

Thanks guys for the compliment. Took some pics of the unit with the trims back on. I have not cliped the carbon fiber back into place yet, it's just sitting on the bars, so the gaps will actually be tighter once I do that. I still have some mods to do before I lock it in place.

But here are some pictures. These are with partial sun hitting it from behind. More expensive units have good anti glare coating on the screen....this is a 200 dollar unit lol hence....glare. But it actually is pretty good.

800 by 480 is very crisp. I used to have a 400 by 240 back in the days and it's a world of difference.

Forgot to put the paint specifics: it came out actually much greyer than black - though the bottle says black. This works out better as it matches the dash pad more.


Trims back on - I used masking tape to put over the tongues where small white clips would go. They hold in place fine and makes it easier to dis-assemble for future. The two main screws hold it together tight and are enough.






Backup camera detects and works well.


The screen folds down fine with very little room. There are screws at the bottoms that should be shaved flush, again, some of the reasons why it's a cheaper unit.

[Voivod]

Nice work!