OK finally got the kahunas to try it myself. Flush mounting the DVD's bezel in the stock bezel. Took me about 5 hours to get to this point, still have final filling, sanding and painting to do. Tools: dremel with cutoff disk, epoxy, spot putty filler and pad sander.

Premodified stock non-nav bezel



DVD's bezel to be flushed in with bottom trimmed to fit over the top of the A/C controls



DVD Bezel lined up for the cuts.



DVD Bezel superglued in, dang compuound curves.



First sanding with the "ears" expoxied in



Nasty gaps due to cutting a lil big and compound curves.



Remember the old school way of body working called "leading". Took some scrap plastic, lit it with a lighter and then pushed the melted plastic in to fill the gaps.



sanded after using plastic weld.



And the state it is in now waiting for the spot putty filler to dry and the backside of the DVD bezel loaded with expoy on the backside for extra strength.




Day of final sandings and filling, going to use this textured black paint that I found at the local home center. After I find some filler primer that is plastic friendly. More to come!

 

Looks good so far. "Leading", is that what it's called? I do that and I didn't even know the name, lol. I find that Plastic Weld works in this fashion the best though since it's in a gel state and it's easier to press into the gaps.
Good job on the fabrication. I can't wait to see the final product.

 

Leading is how they used to fix dents in cars before bondo came out. Source of where LeadSled came from. They would melt lead and then fill in the holes and sharp dents.

 

First coat of Rustoleum Textured Plastic Paint. Still shiny from being wet, dries matte.

 

Beautiful

 

OK DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Final coat applied with A/C & top buttons attached. #1 trick make sure that you are 10-12" away (like instructions say haha) or the finish will be shiny!!



And drumroll please!!!!!!!!!!
BEFORE & AFTER



Couple of issues, 1) textured paint is like 80 grit sandpaper (gonna be a pain to clean) 2) Ashtray area don't match (to be fixed at a later time, tired of paint ahah)

Link to the whole process

Magnum Bezel Smoothing

 

Man, that's some good work right ther...I can't quick type that to come out like my country cajun accent...oh well.

Just curious about the ashtray, I know the pic doesn't show it but what was the issue? Color matching or texture matching? Also, you do know you're probably the only one that can notice right? Lol. I find that I'm the only one that ever notices any imperfections in my work.

 

Yous mean "thems sum good werk dar" haha, Raised in MS.

The issue with the ashtray is that the pull out itself is hard plastic(not a prob), but the sides are a rubberized feel. Not sure how well the paint will stick.

Just did matched painted the shifter ex-chrome surround. Just need to look now at the chrome area where the actual shift lever zigzags. Aslo will be doing the instrument rings when I get a chance. If they have the carshow this weds, I might even do a parking lot mod" hahah

 

Lol, yeah. I couldn't quite picture it in my head, but I can hear my bro-in-law and pop-in-law from LA saying it, lol.

 

Waaaaooooo, dem be in da bayou? Whoa son, I garuntee dat be it. (part coonass here)