Nerd alert!! a slightly different kind of radio

[chakra71]

ok i know that i will probably get flamed for doing this to my EP, but it is *my* car and by god i shall have it the way i want it.... so here goes:

I recently got my Amateur Radio liscence (ham radio for short) and coming from a big radio family (father, uncle, aunt, grandfather) and being raised with it of course i got decked out in radio EQ for christmas. I've installed an antena on the front of the car (not too obnoxious) and ran the wires for the radio itself (power/coax for antena). The Radio itself has a remote faceplate that i can mount anywhere and i was wanting to mount it in the storage space below the factory radio, but i don't know how i could make it look clean (yeah yeah, a radio with mic wire coming out look clean go ahead and laugh).

how does one go about building/color matching material around the hole so it will look decent? I remember a post on here where someone was showing there dash install and the guy who did it sanded all the lines out. how does that work?

I'll post some pics tomorrow when i get a chance to show how i did the wires and antena install.

hehe ok so if you can not laugh too hard then any help would be appreciated ;)

[Brettnyt]

I wanna see the antenna! As long as you can still go in the average parkin garage without scrapin, ya shouldnt get flamed too badly ;) Good luck with your install

-Brett

[chakra71]

Pictures to enjoy...

I had to flatten the ridge here to get a flat area to mount the antenna harness.

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/mountprep.jpg

after the mount... not too bad, had to use washers to get the antenna nearly straight up or it would point forward

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/antenna2.jpg

ran the coax for the signal like this

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/antenna1.jpg

and the hood still closes like normal, no rubbing anywhere

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/antenna3.jpg

full view... the antenna really doesn't come up much more than an inch or two above the hatch, so there's no parking deck issues. and i've noticed that it makes the car look slightly lower since it does come above the hatch

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/antenna4.jpg

[chakra71]

I ran the signal coax and the power cables in thru the holes on each side of the car, there is a rubber grommet which doesn't photograph well due to my black car and black rubber. it's not hard to find. the wires went in thru the fender and then thru the grommet which comes into the car above the kick pannels on both sides, this is best pic i could get of it from inside the car

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/wirehole.jpg

power did the same thing on the driver's side and will also be used to run my amplifier eventually

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/power.jpg

and for now i have the radio itself setting in the storage here. when i get enough time and figure out just how i want it i will remote the faceplate to the dash below the factory stereo. It also lights up the same color as the dash and doesn't look too bad. I'll post pics once i get it fully installed too

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/radiotemp2.jpg

and while i'm being the nerd, here is my GPS. it just sits there for now, until i decide how i want to do a permanant install with (hopefully) the honda dvd nav system from the new accord

http://www.violentdreams.net/john/images/ep3/ham/gpstemp.jpg

[Prime Si]

not trying to jack your thread, but i too was wondering how the dash kit would be smoothed out (i think it was miamijdm's stereo install) what do you use to fill the cracks and such in? is it something like bondo or what? sorry for the stupid question. thanks in advance,

[chakra71]

absolutely. that's originally what i wanted to know.

[Jpax]

regular car bondo from shucks auto supply or any car auto place..

[EL-DOG]

That was me who posted that radio install.. I found it doing a search, for Radio Install.

Hope it helps.

[Jpax]

Originally posted by EL-DOG
That was me who posted that radio install.. I found it doing a search, for Radio Install.

Hope it helps.

what radio install......?