I know many people asked and were wondering if a 2 din deck will fit into our trucks and i put one in last summer myself and finally took some pics of the install. DSC01335.jpg this was the result. what you need to do to install one of these is take out the center dash piece and all the ***** and do dads on it you need to take a dremel to the bottom of where the radio sits and grind off about half an inch. to fill the holes where the volume ***** stick out on the sides of the oem deck i epoxied some plastic tabs that i cut to fit and reinforced them from behind with flat pieces of plastic that i epoxied about 2 inches higher than the plastic tabs. once the epoxy is set for a few hours i put bondo over the plastic pieces and sanded and repeated a few times to blend it all so you couldnt tell there was ever holes there. after the bondo i use glazing putty which fills any sanding marks and pinholes. I used colour match paint for my truck to have the bezel the same color as the exterior of the truck and did about 5 coats. i then put about 5 coats of clear on it and wet sanded to make it shiny. and the bezel was done. Now to make the deck fit in the hole behind the bezel you need to cut out the whole bottom tray where the bottom of the oem deck sat. i then use small bits of metal strapping to mount the deck into the hole, i use the strapping because you can bend it to line it up with the hole in the bezel and it gives you a bit of wiggle room to adjust the depth and height. that is what it takes to install a 2 din in a dakota, i wouldnt say it was easy to do but it wasn't that hard either, it just took a lot of patience and some ***** to take a dremel to the bezel. I do have some car audio experience and have done some custom installs way back in the day but i am far from a pro. also this is a pic of my truck because i have never posted it in here.

 

...Off topic. Is that an extang Full Tilt bed cover? I was looking for something very similar.

 

very nice! i like the color match bezel, very unique mod.....hmmmm

 

it shall be done....

 

its the extang tuff tonno, for the price difference i couldn't justify buying the fulltilt seeing as i only have it off a couple times a year. this one takes about a minute to roll up and strap down anyways.

i believe my parts guy was able to get it for me for 395 taxes in and the fulltilt was close to 600.....this is in canada also so a lot more expensive than the states.

 

that looks really good bro. I had that god awful wood grain for my bezel and was surprised how easy it was to paint and to make it look good. I kept my stock radio when I did my stereo install to leave a factory look with a bad *** sound system. The only thing that bugs me is that I get that high pitched whine from the alternator that the amps pick up when I hit the gas. I was told that if I got an after market head unit that it would go away, do you have any idea if that is true? I am still considering on getting a MyGig with nav, but I would consider a different after market unit if it could do almost the same thing. A double din would be nice, but I would settle for a pop out screen if it was a touch screen and did navigation. Any idea if someone makes one like that?

 

also sorry about how thats typed out, i put each step on a different line but i guess it messed up when it posted.

 

getting an aftermarket deck should help with the alternator whine as long as you run the RCA cables from the deck at least a couple feet away from the power wire.

running an amp and subs with a stock deck you are losing out on a lot of sound, there is not enough volts that come out of the oem deck because they were never designed for an external amplifier.

and i really havent been big into car audio for a while now but i remember clarion used to make the pop out screen decks and pioneer as well but unfortunately nowadays most manufacturers are going for the 2 din which is a pain in the *** to fit into a lot of cars.

 

man what ya'll got against woodgrain? reminds me of my parents LTD Counrty Squire station wagon, man they dont make them like that anymore....(probably for a good reason...lol)



italian you painted your woodgrain?