Car PC

sebbery mentioned making one out of plexi/lexan. I have heard lexan is a poor substance for cases because its not good at letting the heat dissipate, but its easier to work with than other matierals. Depending on where you mount it.. you may not even need a case really, just some kick guards heh

 

sorry, I dont remember the seat fitment, I have power seats so it may not have been me, I can barley fit my hand under mine heh

 

iirc, on the information relocation kit, I think the company was sumitomo.. but its an american distributor. I dont know the name, but I'll ask someone who might rememeber it.

Yeah, i was thinkin plexi. Ive worked with it before, you just need extra fans. I have power seats as well, looking at mounting in the trunk.

I decided to go with Plexi/Acrylic. Using a 60mm Stealth fan for cooling, I'll update soon.

 

On another note, where did you guys tap into for power, ground, accessories (the red/black/white wires from the PSU's). Please be descriptive or point me in the right direction. Thanks!

my power ran straight off the battery, and grounded to the chassis (ground loop may be an issue with this method, cant say for sure) and to feed accessory I tapped the cig lighter + in the dash for the one tha twas in the ashtray.. it only works when the car is on accessory so its the perfect place considering you're in that place like mad setting this all up anyway.

 

I had ground loop, and I played with all kinds of solutions, direct to battery, into power system, into chassis, I eventually had to use a ground loop isolator which fixed all the problems, but at a small cost of sound quality.. as to whether or not it was a noticable difference.. thats up to the listener I suppose as I didn't hear one.

Fair enough. Yeah, I got Jazzy's Aux-In "Pro Kit" that has the ground loop isolator, so I'll be running that. Is there anywhere that could be tapped inside the car for +12v power, so that I don't have to hassle with getting wires through the firewall? It's no biggie, had to do it with the boost gauge, but more time consuming. I saw someone use a fuse-tap on mp3car.com I think, but not really sure how that works...

oddly enough theres not a lot of CONSTANT power in the car, its very strange as I've rarely seen this. the only thing I know of that works when the car is off would be the horn, parklight switch and uh.... I think thats it. theres gotta be a hot in the column, but ya gotta ask if its worth it to pull off that, you may also be able to pull from a spare power outlet in the fuse panel but I dont know if one exists heh, sorry I'm not terriblly helpful on that one.

Not a problem, where'd you run your wires through the firewall?

oh theres yet another fun thing! lol supposedly theres something in the driver side but I was unable to find it.I wound up running the wires through a large grommet up above the turbo on the passenger side by the top of the wierwall. It comes into the cabin BEHIND the a/c ducts.. I was able to push the wire in far enough taped to a pre-bent coat hanger to force the wire to curve down to the point that I could grab it in the passenger floorboard and re-route it to where it needed to go. I ran it down under the console instead of in the door jamb.

That's the grommet I use to run my Boost line through, but then I took it out hah. The only issue I have with that grommet is that it's somewhat of an eyesore when the hood's popped; its difficult to disguise the wires.

Installing my CarPC tomorrow, any suggestions or pointers for me? Greatly appreciated...

 

PS. It's gonna be about 15-20 deg's outside

Hah thanks. Unfortunately I dont have the patience to wait a few months until it gets warmer. (Upstate NY)

I am having trouble matching the paint....I will have to paint the entire bezel.

And I will do it flat black.

I am having weather related delays myself...we are expecting around 0 F meaning some -20C over the week-end.

I actually got my paint to match pretty much 100%. Ill take pics today. I also made some little innovations that some might find useful/to their liking.

I actually got my paint to match pretty much 100%. Ill take pics today. I also made some little innovations that some might find useful/to their liking.

 

What did you use?? I have been trying to find something that matches for some time now but haven't found anything. I bought some flat black and have been really close to just using that. Did you paint yours f1anatic?

 

I really haven't made any progress. We just had a baby girl last week so needless to say I've been pretty busy. I don't think I would have done much anyway with this cold weather. The propane heater I have doesn't stand a chance heating up the garage when it is single digits.

Congrats on your baby.

 

It turns out that the bezel originally had some kind of varnish applied to it...and if you attempt to put primer over, the primer will dry out with creases and wrinkles. So this shit happened like 3 times already - I spray the primer I see the wrinkles...I let it dry, I sand it down, put Bondo, sand again...this cycle took quite a bit. Espec since we're dealing with insanely low temps here in Chicago and things don't dry out quite quickly. I made my decision to use a black paint that matches the bezel of my Xenarc (remember, I kept the Xenarc bezel in there, unlike you guys who wanted just the screen itself).

 

My greatest success comes in terms of wiring my laptop. I soldered a wire to the pulse/momentary switch on the laptop. It is not for those faint of heart...soldering required mad precision since the smallest mistake could disable the laptop/computer for good. Ran a wire to the outside (I made a knot so if by mistake I try pulling it, I will not break the solder), soldered to a stereo connector ...and another stereo connector will be soldered with a longish wire to a momentary switch inside the cabin. Now really all I have to do solder the rest of the wiring system and I am good to go... but these freezing times...freeze my advance...

First, HUGE congrats on your baby girl!

 

Second, oddly I didn't have any problems with wrinkling, and I didn't even pre-sand the parts that I didn't bondo before priming (and I primed it when it was 10 degrees out). My only problem was that my 3rd coat of primer actually FROZE instead of drying. So I had to sand and do it again.

 

And, I haven't matched the texture, but I have pretty much matched the color. Oddly, my color match came from Black sandable primer. I primed it with sandable gray primer, and then "painted" it with black primer (I say "painted", because I used primer).

 

I'll have to take some pics maybe today. I got the install done, and it looks OEM. Also, I wired my IR-Receiver for the remote inside the left vent. You can't see it and now you can still use the remote!

We just had a baby girl last week so needless to say I've been pretty busy.

 

Just watching this thread.

 

Wanted to say congrats!

It turns out that the bezel originally had some kind of varnish applied to it...and if you attempt to put primer over, the primer will dry out with creases and wrinkles.

Its more of a rubbery coating. My installer removed the vents from the bezel, sanded the rubber coating off, and then sprayed primer, texture and dye with no issues. This was of course after trying to apply primer to the stock bezel surface and getting the same ill-effects as you.

Hmm....that's really weird. Unless my primer was somehow a SuperPrimer and bonds to all surfaces. I just didn't have these issues.

I got a pretty close charcoal grey colour from Pep Boys to match it. I gave up on black.

 

Now I am working my magic with the mute button (radar detector); PC remote power on button and the touchpad controller ...and making it all fit nicely on the center console.

Good luck man!

I know that some body shops when they have a hard time painting some surfaces they use dish soap to clean it first. (now if you already knew this please ignore)

It's true, dish soap is a cheap DIY version of the special "Oil and Grease Remover" that you can buy.

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/bmwpc/ < -- Take a look at this might be useful for what you guys are doing.

Funny Weasel...whatcha thinkin' ?